Told you I'd do it

[Disclaimer: it was revealed that the author has abandoned these ports and will not fix them, since the mods in question can be run on their own using an ECWolf feature. This makes it even more important that you *do not play these ports*; get the original mods instead and run them under DOS, ECWolf or SDL.]

Being somewhat busy with porting mods from one platform to another, it was inevitable for me to become interested in other (unrelated) ports as well. There's been quite a number over the years, mostly from DOS to SDL (many by Andy), to DOS4GW (OMJ) or ECWolf (mostly Astrocreep). I want to look at the latter and examine two classic mods by B.J. Rowan ported to ECWolf. Renovation is just a mapset and Conflict in the Fatherland throws some minor VSWAP changes on top of that, so technically there's not much to do and you would think a job as simple as that cannot be messed up. Well, nothing is impossible, nothing is unreachable. Let's find out why.

Right away we find something concerning: while documentation included in the .pk3 file contains a few lines about Renovation, the readme itself actually comes from Conflict in the Fatherland. Upon launching the game we also get some unclear messages: while BJ Rowan is mentioned in the text and in a small font on another screen, Astro's name is plastered around in a way that could mislead some people into thinking he made the game. Especially seeing how the in-game readme is nothing but a small biography of his.

In terms of gameplay itself, we can see some audio-visual changes as compared to the original game. First, the port forces a sprite fix mod on the player, want it or not. Second, in-game music is often changed. This is immediately apparent e.g. on E1M9, where the usual march is replaced by menu music.

However, the main issue with this port is of a different nature. You see, Renovation utilizes a fairly clever trick that lets the mapper relocate the secret elevator to map 8, without changing the code, under certain circumstances. Put both normal and secret elevators on map 8 (here E4M8). Hide the normal elevator. In a normal playthrough, the player will find the secret elevator first and be taken to map 10, where a game-ending boss awaits. If they search around and find the normal elevator, they will be brought to map 9 instead, which is now de facto the secret map. Map 9 should end with a normal elevator in this scenario, since flipping the elevator switch on map 9 brings you to map 10. In this way, Renovation makes E4M9 the optional, secret map.

The above should also work on ECWolf, HOWEVER, Astrocreep's port actually switches E4M9 and E4M10 around, meaning you now have to find the hidden elevator to reach the boss and finish the episode. If you take the non-hidden elevator, you're taken to E4M10, and finishing E4M10... takes you back to E4M4. You're stuck on an infinite loop unless you find the hidden elevator on E4M8. Useful if you can overflow the score or if you're an asylum inmate.

All this could have been avoided by not messing up the map order.

Now that we're done with Renovation, let's take a brief look at Conflict in the Fatherland. First, some of my earlier concerns also apply here. Astrocreep's name is featured rather prominently in a confusing manner (though this is a bigger problem in other ports, say, oh, ASTROstein). The readme is for the correct mod at least, although certain bits have been cut out for some reason. You also again have no choice but to play with the sprite fix mod. While ceiling colors seem to be retained, music is again changed.

Concerning sprites, you will also notice that the SS sprite is wrong: it's actually the Totengraeber one with SS armband. The rationale for this change is never given, as far as I can tell.

More concerning is the fact that the red ceiling light sprite, while present in .pk3, does not seem to be actually used. This means there will be bones lying around instead of light fixtures all over the place. Bones do not give much light, so this kind of ruins immersion.

And there is more missing stuff too. CitF provides a special elevator texture for secret maps and replaces the purple/blood wall with more elevator textures, but Astrocreep does not acknowledge that and the graphics gone in this release, leaving the player to witness rather ugly "holes" in elevator walls. Perhaps more importantly, the new versions of red brick and multicolor brick walls are also gone, changing the appearance of many rooms rather significantly. Makes one wonder if the port was playtested to any extent beyond the first room of E1M1.

All in all a rather shoddy effort, these ports make too many mistakes for such a low workload and are in dire need of fixing. Play at your own risk.