Gloom(CD32) / Gloom Deluxe (Amiga)
 


Release year
Gloom ( for Amiga / CD32 ) in 1995
Gloom Deluxe ( for Amiga ) in 1996
Coder
Mark Sibly (Code itself has been Public Domain from May 2017)
Black Magic Software
( New zealand )
Graphician
Hans Butler , Kurt Butler and Laki Schuster (Gfx assets are not PD.)
Musician
Kevan Stannard (Music & sfx assets are not PD.)
Additional c2p routine
Peter McGavin ( Archive URL. It's not PD. Original c2p routine Mark coded is PD now.)
Differences between "Gloom" and "Gloom Deluxe":
  "Gloom Deluxe" has c2p routine selection, sprite of gun and new textures for roof & floor of Episode 1 maps.
  The biggest advantage is that we can play the game at 1x1 resolution.
  Title screen is also slightly different from classic "Gloom". Maps themselves are quite the same.
Now the game archives are got permitted to distribute for free by Mark Sibly, the author of this game.

Advantages that "Doom" doesn't have
Excellent AI as enemies of FPS game in middle 1990s at least.
 Remember "Doom". All enemies just came closer to players, didn't they?
 See "Marine", "Phantom" and "Ghoul" type enemies of "Gloom". They don't always come closer to players.
 We can't know their next actions. Their next actions are decided at random.

More tactics must need.
 Maps of "Gloom" consist of 17 regular "events" per 1 level at most.
 When player come across a line of each "event",
 immediately each event would happen. (e.g. Enemies would appear.)
 Imagine that new enemies appear behind where you have already passed.
 You have to practice and learn where dangerous spots are.
 In addition, map editor allows other 5 special "events" per 1 level at most.
 Those special event would be repeated permanently.
 They are usually used for teleporters, however,
 map designer can also use them for "Respawning Enemies",
 which would make the game much tougher than "Nightmare" mode of "Doom".
  Figure 1:
   Once you step over this event line, enemies (#1~3) would appear.
   After that, nothing would happen after you step over this event line again.
  Figure 2:
   Once you step over this event line, you will teleport to the point #4
   and enemies (#5~7) appear.
   Then if you step over this event line again,
   you will teleport to the point #4 ,and enemies (#5~7) appear again.


"Minimum specs" doesn't require Fast RAM.
 We can play the game on plain CD32 console.
 You know it is too expensive to expand RAM for CD32, don't you?
 Of course we know other titles which doesn't require RAM expansion as minimum specs.
 Those titles, for example, "Citadel" and "Testament" are more sluggish than "Gloom".
 We can use "akiko_1" for c2p routine that Peter McGavin wrote.
 Surely "akiko_1" might show MC68040's performance only when we expand CD32's RAM, however,
 obviously the game would become faster even if we don't expand CD32's RAM.

Simple style which doesn't allow us to select weapons.
 I know many people think that it is one of shortcomings of "Gloom".
 Remember "Doom" and other titles. You could select weapons properly. It meant that you had to use stronger weapon against tougher enemies.
 But how are you going to make excuses for your failures after you were killed in a specific level of "Doom" ?
 I guess you can say "I couldn't find enough weapons, so I failed." , and so on.
 People in general aren't willing to acknowledge their faults resulted from their poor controls.
 Ultimately, as FPS games, it matters whether player can avoid and hit. If you failed that, it meant your controls were poor.
 There is no excuse you can make for such failures. But tough battles should be such style.
 For example, imagine "Who is the hardest boss ever". It is somewhat similar to "who is the strongest boxer?"
 In the championship match, one player has a special weapon that the other doesn't have? Never!
 They probably can show the high-quality fight, however, what they would do actually would be simple.
 Needless to say, they would be going to punch the opponent and avoid the opponent's punches.
 A large audiences always goes crazy at such a simple thing! So "simple" is not bad thing.

Both 2P co-op mode & combat mode are available.
 We could come across very few titles which have both co-op mode and combat mode in that era. (e.g."Bloodshot")
 In addition, "Gloom" allows another specific sprite-file for even the 2nd player after a game-designer edited specific variable of program file.
 Even "Doom" & "Duke Nukem 3D" didn't allow that, though. (e.g. "Marine vs. Marine" , "Duke vs.Duke" )

 
Scenes


Maps
Here is "Gloom Maps Quick Viewer" powered by nittamituaki.
If you are stuck, you can see those map. It would help you.
If you've already completed all levels, you can also see them to kill time!  ; )

How to make the game fast (...even if it becomes slightly faster)
Select "akiko_1" as c2p routine at the set up menu. Except for it, I can suggest following 3 methods.
Please make sure that you should edit your own diskettes. Don't edit original diskettes (commercial version).
You can also edit archive version from websites which have been got permissions from Mark Sibly.

1. Remove unnecessary files from "sfxs" drawer of Disk 1 temporally. See this description.
    You can also copy "loadwb" to "c" drawer of Disk 1. Then you boot Disk 1 with no startup-sequence,
    and you can move sfxs files.

2. Edit misc/script of Disk 2. Remember that the program copy only latest picture file to RAM temporally except for "title" & "gloom".
    In other words, the program would remove a previous temp file from RAM immediately when it loads a new temp file.
    Even if this "a new temp file" doesn't exist actually, the game would not crash. See this description.
    Here are my script and "gloomgame" file. You can replace them. ( They must be in Disk 2. )

3. Edit 2 objs file (objs/player and objs/terra). You can cut out their 33th~40th patterns
    because they don't become "Pain state" the moment they are shot. See this description.
    Here are 2 objs files edited. You can replace them. ("Player" must be copied to "objs" drawer of Disk 1,
    "terra" must be copied to "objs" drawer of Disk 2.

Characters
Here is information about all enemies of original Gloom and its Total Conversions.
However, this page shows only titles which has NOT edited variables related to difficulty.
Any titles except them, are shown at their specific pages. (e.g. Ultimate Maze)





Players

Name
Player 1 / Player 2
HP
25
Type
Player
Travel Speed
13
Interval of attacks: Min
--
Melee Damage
1
Pain state
No
Interval of attacks: Max
--
Projectile Damage
1 or 2 or 3 or 5

Enemies

Name
Cultist Warrior
HP
5
Type
Marine
Travel Speed
6
Interval of attacks: Min
16
Melee Damage
1
Pain state
Yes
Interval of attacks: Max
32
Projectile Damage
1

Name
Aggro Skinhead
HP
10
Type
Baldy
Travel Speed
4
Interval of attacks: Min
8
Melee Damage
2
Pain state
Yes
Interval of attacks: Max
16
Projectile Damage
--

Name
Terran Construction Droid
HP
35
Type
Terra
Travel Speed
2
Interval of attacks: Min
32
Melee Damage
1
Pain state
No
Interval of attacks: Max
48
Projectile Damage
3

Name
Lizard
HP
10
Type
Lizard
Travel Speed
6
Interval of attacks: Min
8
Melee Damage
2
Pain state
Yes
Interval of attacks: Max
8
Projectile Damage
--

Name
Undead servants of Gloom
HP
5
Type
Ghoul
Travel Speed
8
Interval of attacks: Min
32
Melee Damage
0
Pain state
No
Interval of attacks: Max
48
Projectile Damage
3

Name
Phantom
HP
10
Type
Phantom
Travel Speed
10
Interval of attacks: Min
8
Melee Damage
0
Pain state
Yes
Interval of attacks: Max
16
Projectile Damage
3

Name
Troll
HP
18
Type
Troll
Travel Speed
6
Interval of attacks: Min
8
Melee Damage
3
Pain state
Yes
Interval of attacks: Max
8
Projectile Damage
--

Name
Metaphisix
HP
35
Type
Deathhead
Travel Speed
12
Interval of attacks: Min
--
Melee Damage
3
Pain state
No
Interval of attacks: Max
--
Projectile Damage
--

Name
Demon
HP
25
Type
Demon
Travel Speed
7
Interval of attacks: Min
32
Melee Damage
0
Pain state
Yes
Interval of attacks: Max
32
Projectile Damage
1 ~ 3
Boss Enemy

Name
Dragon
HP
250
Type
Dragon
Travel Speed
12
Interval of attacks: Min
16
Melee Damage
10
Pain state
No
Interval of attacks: Max
32
Projectile Damage
3

Black Magic Software is responsible for each variable about enemies as described above.
Sprites by Black Magic Software.


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