Eternal Shell v2.0 The shell is a utility for playing Eternal. You can use the command line or DOOM95 to play Eternal also, but the shell provides some nice features for the single player. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Some common things to do with the shell: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Starting the Shell Simply change to the directory you installed into and type ETERNAL. All previous settings are restored each time you enter the shell. Do NOT type ESHELL, or attempt to run the shell from another directory with a path on the command line. Starting Eternal at the beginning (F1) To start Eternal from the beginning, on the title screen, press F1 to select the Episode window, then Enter, and Eternal DOOM will start. Watch the demos, press F1 to see the credits, use the menus to set up and start the first level, Level 1, Genesis. Starting Eternal at a particular level (F2) To start an Eternal level other than the first, press F2 to activate the Levels window, then use the keypad keys to select the level you wish to play. The window scrolls. After selecting the level, press Enter, you will be at the beginning of the selected level with a pistol and 50 bullets - the standard kit. All levels can be played this way if you're good, but are much easier played in sequence as an episode. If you've played Eternal I and want to start at the beginning of Eternal II, you can use this feature. Select level 14 and begin play. You can start with 13 but it primarily removes ammo from those playing it as an episode. To start at Eternal III there are two separate branches, one at 15, exiting to 31, and the other at level 27, 28, 29, and 30. Starting Eternal from a save game (F3); To start from where you last left off in Eternal, make sure you save before exiting DOOM. The save game is stored for later use. All saves made appear in the Saves window. Enter the Saves window with the F3 key, use the up and down keys to select a save by the name you gave it in the game. The saves are always listed with most recent at the top, and the oldest at the bottom. Since the most recent is usually the one you want, the saves window highlights this game each time you enter the window. Simply press Enter to start the save game. To delete a save game, or the save games for a level, or all Eternal saves, or just ALL saves, enter the Saves window and highlight one of the saves to delete. Press DEL and select the delete operation you wish from the menu. The Skills window reflects the save game settings when the Saves window is active, and the Levels window indicates which level it was made from. Setting Skill level for play (F4) First note that the shell's skill setting only applies when you play a level, or record a demo. When you start as an episode with F1, you can't avoid the game's skill menu, so it determines. When you load a save or play a demo its recorded skill is used. Just press F4, use up and down to select the desired skill and change to the next window you wish to use with the appropriate function key Fn, when done. Too Young to Die - definitely recommended for newbies double ammo, slow monsters Not Too Rough - A lot harder than TYTD, but same monsters and inventory. Each ammo pack is only half TYTD's. Hurt Me Plenty - Usually more badder monsters, and less inventory and health. DOOM's default skill level. Ultraviolence - If you think you're good (or bad, depending on your age), then this skill is for you. It's not like DOOM II on UV, this is HARD! Nightmare - Not a useful skill for Eternal but supported for maniacs. The monsters come back to life after 8 secs. Who needs that? . Use the -fast option for the same really nasty monsters without them coming back to life. Note - when CyberSweeper is started from the shell, the skill level selected here determines how hard the game will be. TYTD - 8 cybers, NTR - 12 Cybers, HMP - 14 cybers UV - 16 cybers, NM - 18 cybers. CyberSweeper is also automatically randomized when starting from the shell. Setting Level options (F5) The level options are those, like skill, that are only applicable to level starts and demo recordings. They don't matter when starting the episode or loading a save, or playing back a demo. Press F5, select any option with up and down, toggle its on/off status with spacebar or Enter. Note that the last three options are exclusive - only one may be picked at a time. devparm - When selected the F1 key can be used to make screenshots of a level. If not F1 produces the credits screen. nomonsters - All monsters disappear. Can make certain levels unplayable if they are used with 666 tags etc. If you're a REAL cautious type - good for scouting trips. respawn - Makes the monsters come back to life after 8 secs like Nightmare. Not a useful Eternal option, mainly a DM option, not recommended. fast - This one is fun, if you're REAL, REAL good. Gives the monsters lightning reflexes and deadly aim, like Nightmare, but without the respawning. Setting General options (F6) The general options affect all DOOM sessions. They all enable and disable input/output devices for the game. Press F6 to activate the window, use up and down to select the option, press Enter or spacebar to toggle its on/off status. nojoy - Not as bad as it sounds. Just turns off a joystick in case your game port is noisy or something. nomouse - I guess this is for people who use mice that wander on their own. It disables mouse input. nosound - Turns off sound (music and effects) while playing DOOM. nomusic - Turns off music nosfx - Turns off sound effects (doors, monsters...) Starting an Eternal demo (F7) To start an Eternal demo, press F2, select the level the demo is for, then press F7 to activate the Demos window. Use the up and down keys to select the demo, then press Enter to start it playing. To delete a demo game, or the demo games for a level, or all Eternal demos, or just ALL demos, enter the Demos window and highlight one of the demos to delete. Press DEL and select the delete operation you wish from the menu. The Skills and Level Options windows reflect the selected demo's settings at record time when the Demos window is active. Recording an Eternal play session (F8) To record a demo of yourself playing Eternal, first press F2 and select the level you wish to play. Insure the Skill and Level options are what you wish to play with, and then press F8 to enter the Record window. Edit the name line with BS (backspace) to give the session about to be recorded a name. Don't enter the ".LMP", just an 8 character or smaller name. Then (if you want) use down arrow to edit the line below to specify how many thousands of bytes to allow for use by the demo. 128 is the amount DOOM uses by default, 1024 is the shell's default. 128 is 15-20 min worth, not nearly enough for most Eternal levels. When playing DOOM avoid saving, as these saves will be recorded and may wipe out REAL saves when the demo is played back. Pauses are unaesthetic but not harmful. To stop the demo, press Q, it doesn't end automatically on level exit, or death. To collect the demos from the various level directories for distribution you can use the following trick: PKZIP -Pr MYLMPS.ZIP DATA\*.LMP When issued from the Eternal directory, a zip containing all the LMPs in the installation is formed. You can unzip it without -d to put them all in one directory, or WITH -d to put them back in subdirectories like the ones they came from. A single demo, MYDEMO.LMP, say, can then be recovered with PKUNZIP MYLMPS.ZIP MYDEMO.LMP Setting the Turbo cheat (F10) You can speed up your player, by entering a number from 1-255 in the turbo window after pressing F9. The larger the number the faster you can move. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Miscellaneous Shell Functions ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Use the Script Item of the Install menu with a blank command to shell out to DOS from the Eternal shell. Type EXIT to return. Alt-W replays the initial welcome sound Alt-E displays the ENDOOM for viewing Alt-A displays statistics about the current level Alt-V displays a map of the current level (this is cheating). Alt-S runs SETUP.EXE to configure the underlying DOOM II installation Alt-D runs DM v1.5 if you place it in the Eternal directory first Alt-G customizes end graphics after making level/title changes (MODIFY=1 reqd.) There are also some ETERNAL.INI variables that can be useful [OPTIONS] MODIFY=0 ; set to non-zero to enable title and end graphic changes EXPERT=0 ; set to non-zero to suppress some confirmation prompts QUIET=0 ; set to non-zero to disable initial welcome sound FULLVIEW=0 ; set to non-zero to bring map viewer up full screen initially SAVER=5 ; set to mins of inactivity til screen blanked. 0 disables. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Using the menu to control your Eternal installation ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The shell's main menu at the top of screen provides means to reconfigure or revise the installation, and help for using it. The menu is activated with Alt-F for the file menu, Alt-I for the install menu, or Alt-H for the help menu. File menu is used to change the way the Eternal files are setup and used. Version - Converts all demos in the installation to a new DOOM version. Intended to be used after upgrading the underlying DOOM installation to a different revision. MakeIwad - Suggest you ONLY use this if your system has 8M RAM or less and you use EMM386. You'll probably have to then, or use a boot disk without EMM386. It uses a bit more disk, and must rename ETERNAL.WAD to DOOM2.WAD (in the ETERNAL directory!) to avoid loading both DOOM2 and ETERNAL at run time. Be sure to have PLENTY (50MB+ usable) disk space available before starting this option. DO NOT install Eternal in the DOOM II directory if it is your intention to exercise this option! Once you have exercised it, the option disappears from the menu. The only way back is reinstallation from the files in BACKUP (hopefully). Update - If you Install a wad containing textures over your Skies Eternal wad, the sky add-on wads stop working. This option updates their texture set so that they work again. Exit - File menus always have an exit command, so this one does too , but ESC is a much easier way. The Install menu is used to add revisions, new levels, saves, demos, skies, or other things to the Eternal installation. You must not use any files but those provided by Team Eternal for these purposes, or you risk corrupting your installation. To use the Wad or Skies options that start with "Install ..." mucho disk space (50MB) is required. You should be warned if it is not available, but don't assume. The Install items are: Wad - The most basic kind of update, all resources within the wad are merged into the installation. Demos - Installs the demos specified (or all demos in the directory specified) into the Eternal directories. A blank path specifies all demos in the Eternal dir. Their internal version number is converted to match the installation's. They will appear in the Demos window when the level they were shot with is selected in the Levels window. Saves - Installs the savegames specified (or all saves in the directory specified) into the Eternal SAVES directory. A blank path specifies all saves in the Eternal directory. Skies - Used to control which of three skies is used in the Eternal installation. Use Installed - Uses whichever sky was last installed by adding no sky wads on the command line. Install Blue - Replaces the sky texture in Eternal with the standard Eternal dark blue sky. Install Twilight - Replaces the sky texture in Eternal with an orange twilight sky based on Ultimate DOOM's. Install Starry - Replaces the sky texture in Eternal with a black starry sky. Use Blue - When a level is run from the shell an additional sky wad is added to change skies to blue. Use Twilight - When a level is run from the shell an additional sky wad is added to change skies to twilight. Use Starry - When a level is run from the shell an additional sky wad is added to change skies to starry. Clocked - When a level is run from the shell an additional sky wad is added to change skies to the one corresponding to time of day. The Help menu simply views some text files like this one in the Eternal directory. Eternal - views the ETERNAL.TXT readme file Shell - views this help file within the shell ShellKey - brief summary of keys used in shell General - some general help for Eternal ED-Music - music playlist for Eternal DOOM II Contact - a list of where to get support You can add any text file to the list by adding a line to the [HELP] section of ETERNAL.INI. Simply follow the format shown there for the six standard help files. Paths are allowed. I like to keep DMSPEC16.TXT, and ETERNAL.INI handy that way, for example, with: [HELP] HELP00=Eternal,ETERNAL.TXT ... HELP06=DmSpec,F:\WU\TXT\DMSPEC16.TXT HELP07=Ini,ETERNAL.INI ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Using Add-on wads with Eternal ---------------------------------------------------------------------- If you have a custom sound or graphic wad you want loaded with all Eternal levels, or a particular Eternal level, it's possible. Any wad found in the DATA subdir is loaded with every DOOM start from the shell, those found in the level directories DATA\ETERNAL.nn, for Mapnn, will be loaded with that particular level. This may prevent play if the wad contains textures, a level, sprites, or flats, in which case it should be removed. Textures and patches CAN be added or replace Eternal textures, if the wad has its PNAMES and TEXTURE1 resources properly extended to the entire Eternal III texture set. Levels CAN be replaced if they restrict themselves to the Eternal III resources, and ones added (properly!) by themselves. This sort of modification is harmless you can always just move or delete the wads if they cause a problem. If you do replace levels you can title them by adding MODIFY=1 under [OPTIONS] in the ETERNAL.INI and using the F9 window. This also enables Alt-G to generate a wad ENDGFX.WAD that can installed thru Alt-I to incorporate the changes in the inter-level signs and graphics. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- thanx! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Development of the shell would not have been possible without the help of the following people, who were instrumental in debugging it and suggesting how it should really work. Rich ¯Weeds¯ Nagel Dia Westerteicher Stan Gula Dave Brachman Lee Killough Peter Zahner However all remaining bugs and design flaws are mine, please send complaints or comments to Jim Flynn at (jflynn@pacbell.net). (Yes, I KNOW the mouse doesn't work :)). ---End of file---