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              <p><font color="#0000FF"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0000CC">volume 
                1, issue 36</font></b></font></p>
              <p><font color="#0000FF"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0000CC"> 
                </font></b></font></p>
              <p>  <p><font face="Courier New, Courier, mono"><b><font color="#339900" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Today 
                in loonygames:</font></b></font></p>

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              <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><a href="http://www.raven-games.com">Raven-Games.com</a>: 
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      <td width="62%" height="936" align="left" valign="top"> 
        <p align="center"><font size="+3" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0022A8">Inside 
          Raven Software:<br>
          <font size="+1">the definitive history</font> </font></p>
        <p align="RIGHT"><font color="#804000"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">By 
          Jason &quot;<a href="mailto:jason@loonygames.com">loonyboi</a>&quot; 
          Bergman</font></b></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">While <b>Heretic</b> used 
          the <b>Doom</b> engine, it distinguished itself by adding the ability 
          to fly and using a fantasy theme instead of <b>Doom's</b> "hell on earth" 
          schtick. These features would be greatly expanded upon with the "sequel," 
          <b>Hexen</b>. If <b>Heretic II</b> was the sequel to <b>Heretic</b>…where 
          does <b>Hexen</b> fit into this? You may recall that GT marketed <b>Hexen</b> 
          under the name, "the sequel to <b>Heretic</b>." Raffel explained the 
          name game, "<b>Heretic </b>was successful, but they thought, 'maybe 
          we need another name.' So we had a hell of a time coming up with a name 
          for it. It was 'Apocrypha' for a while…to the marketing people that 
          didn't seem to roll off the tongue."</font></p>
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              <div align="center"><a href="hexen.php"><img src="images/hexen_sml.jpg" width="128" height="80" border="1"></a></div>

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              <div align="center"><i><font size="-1"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Hexen 
                </font></b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">just ruled.</font></font></i></div>
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        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Hexen</b> added some remarkable 
          features to the <b>Doom</b> engine: in addition to the ability to fly 
          that was carried over from <b>Heretic</b> (and <b>CyClones</b> before 
          it), <b>Hexen</b> featured scripted sequences, some of which were remarkably 
          elaborate: leaves blew, walls opened before your eyes, and whole rooms 
          moved about. <b>Hexen</b> also debuted a "hub based" level layout. In 
          this structure, levels are "grouped" together, and you can freely walk 
          back and forth between them. This was one of the features <b>Hexen</b> 
          became best known for, but in fact it wasn't even working until late 
          in the game's development. Michael Raymond-Judy explained, "the hubs 
          weren't working until about six weeks before we shipped the product. 
          We had all the maps built, we just didn't have any of the connectivity…you 
          couldn't actually travel back and forth between them."</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">While work was proceeding 
          on <b>Hexen's</b> development, the second team at Raven started work 
          on what was going to be the sequel to <b>CyClones</b>. Instead of rehashing 
          the <b>CyClones</b> engine (remember, <b>Doom</b> had been released 
          at this point!) they wrote a new engine, again by Carl Stika, this time 
          allowing designers to use slopes, bridges, buildings with multiple floors, 
          and a number of other enhancements. The game outgrew its <b>CyClones 
          </b>roots, and <b>Necrodome </b>was born. But <b>Necrodome</b> was an 
          ambitious concept: it placed the gamer in the driver's seat of a battle 
          machine, where they could control both the movement of the vehicle, 
          and the turret as well. Like <b>Battlezone</b> after it, when your ship 
          was destroyed, you could continue on foot. But despite this, the game 
          wasn't quite what the designers had hoped it would be. Brian Raffel 
          explained, "I think the concept was really good. But there were some 
          things that weren't executed the way I wanted them done, and ultimately, 
          technology was the problem."</font></p>
        <p> <font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Necrodome</b> was also 
          supposed to be Raven's initial foray into the world of console games. 
          Raven hired a PlayStation programmer (John Scott) for this very purpose. 
          Scott, an experienced console code monkey tried his best and even managed 
          to squeeze a demo out of the code (PC conversions to the PlayStation 
          platform can be a major problem…in many cases engines are completely 
          rewritten from scratch). Unfortunately all that work would ultimately 
          go unused. Undaunted, Scott is still with the company. He worked on 
          <b>Heretic II</b>, and is currently hard at work on <b>Soldier of Fortune</b>.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">With <b>Necrodome</b> and 
          <b>Hexen</b> out the door, Raven decided it was time to expand yet again. 
          Work began on not one, not two, but <i>three</i> simultaneous games: 
          <b>Take No Prisoners </b>(<b>TNP</b>), for Broderbund subsidiary Red 
          Orb, <b>Mageslayer</b> for GT Interactive, and the inevitable <b>Hexen 
          II</b> for Activision. While <b>Hexen II </b>logically used id's next 
          first person engine (<b>Quake 1</b> at this time) Raven decided to try 
          creating another original engine. The engine was the <b>Vampire Engine</b>, 
          and it was used in both <b>TNP</b> and <b>Mageslayer</b>. The engine 
          was remarkably versatile: it allowed for both the directly top-down 
          view of <b>Mageslayer</b> (a sort of <b>Gauntlet</b> clone) and the 
          three-quarter view used by <b>Take No Prisoners</b>.</font></p>
        <p align="RIGHT">&nbsp; </p>
        <p align="RIGHT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><i>(<a href="index4.php">Continued 
          on next page</a>)</i></font></p>
        <p align="RIGHT">&nbsp;</p>
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      <p><i><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-2"><b>Credits:</b> 
        Illustration &copy; 1999 Rowan Crawford. This article is &copy; 1999 Jason 
        Bergman. All other content is &copy; 1999 <a target="_self" href="http://www.loonyboi.com">loonyboi 
        productions</a>. Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited, so 
        don't try it...or we'll peck your eyes out. </font></i></p>
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