pmHexen, pmDoom, pmHeretic configuration


pmHexen, pmDoom, pmHeretic

pmHexen, pmDoom, pmHeretic

Sometime ago I’ve tested all official Doom/Hexen/Heretic WAD’s with Patrice Mandin pmDoom 0.55, pmHexen 0.55 and pmHeretic 0.55. There are several things that you should know before playing these ports on your Atari machine.

The tested WAD modules were as follow:

Something about current WAD loading behaviours

  1. When launching ttp executable without any parameter, pmDoom is mainly affected because in most cases you will have several various WAD’s in one folder, only the first WAD file found in directory is loaded (e.g. if all Doom WAD’s from above are present in directory, then only DOOM2.WAD is added as first, the others are ignored).
    Workaround: Rename extensions of all WAD’s to *.WA_ and leaving only one file with WAD extension that will be recognized (I’ve loaded TNT.WAD, DOOM.WAD, PLUTONIA.WAD in this way). You could also make several folders for example DOOM, TNT, etc. with one WAD file and doom.ttp executable in given folder.

  2. ‘-file nameofwad.wad’ switch doesn’t work That’s because this option was made for loading external WAD files which are loaded beside the base one.
    If addon is standalone (and for example you will type in ‘-file TNT.WAD’), two WAD’s will be added simultanously and the engine will complain that the files were modified and ‘do you want buy a original copy’ message is displayed in the console. In this case original first WAD from directory will be loaded with TNT.WAD added as an external module.
    After that nothing happens (it seems that that there is a bug, because the message in the console tells you to press [enter], but it doesn’t work as expected and you can type in various things in it. Soon after application crashes.
    With use of this option you can play (this is the only way) Hexen:Deathkings of the Dark Citadel (the only prerequisite is that you have to have HEXEN.WAD and HEXDD.WAD in the same directory along with hexen.ttp. After that launching hexen.ttp and typing in ‘-file HEXDD.WAD’ will start Deathkings of the Dark Citadel add-on).

  3. Default keymapping Will not work at all out of the box. The problem is that keys are matched to ASCII characters directly and not the keyboard scan codes (as it should be). Many ASCII code keys from original DOS game aren’t mapped at all on Atari keyboard. The result is one – game is completely unplayable.

    The second issue is that ASCII values for keys are also dependant on keyboard settings under TOS (e.g with US keyboard setting typing ‘y’ will result in ASCII CODE 121(0x79), but on german keyboard it will be turned to ‘z’, ASCII CODE: 122 (0x7C) ). As you can see mapping keystrokes to ASCII values is really bad thing.
    Workaround: Make your own configuration file. Or try those below. Just copy them to the $HOME directory or in the folder with the executable under TOS.

Full keymapping information

Hexen/Heretic keymappings [valid with german keyboard layout and configuration file from package listed above]

Movement
R – forward
F – backward
T – turn right
E – turn left
D – strafe left
G – strafe right
J – jump

View controls
A – look up
Y – look down
X – center view

k – fly up
m – fly down

U – operate/open doors
SPACEBAR – attack

Inventory controls
1..4 – switch between weapons
B,V – inventory left,right
Return – use current item/item drop

Other
Q – suicide
TAB – automap view

Mouse controls
LMB – attack
RMB – forward
double click RMB – operate/open doors

Jagpad B controls
Button A – attack
Button B – strafe
Button C – operate/open doors
Pause – jump

Options
F1 – View help
F2 – Save game
F3 – Load game
F4 – Game setings
F5 – Toggle low/high detail
F6 – Quicksave
F7 – End game
F8 – Messages on/off
F9 – Quickload
F10 – Quit game
HELP – gamma correction switch

Doom keymappings (valid for all Doom version) [valid with german keyboard layout and configuration file from package listed above]

Keyboard
arrow keys – movement
control – fire
left shift – speed
alt – strafe
space bar – use
1..8 – weapons
HELP – toggle gamma
tab – map

Jagpad B controls
Button A – fire
Button B – strafe
Button C – use
numpad 3 – speed

[Additional remarks]: In pmHeretic and pmHexen jagpad doesn’t work in main menu, but works ingame normally. In pmHexen (I haven’t checked pmHeretic because extra buttons weren’t needed) there is a bug that prevents assigning all the keypad buttons, assigning jump to OPTION button exposed a bug (character jumps constantly), so I remapped jump to jagpad PAUSE button. In general it’s pity that some keys cannot be configured to jagpad numpad (which would be more convenient).
I’ve tried to configure everything with Jagpad A, but in this case Button B strafe triggered additionally fire event (it can be bug or problem some kind of clash in configuraion file).