2 replies to this topic

[BigJim]

Yeah!!

Today I was rummaging through some old hardware & among the gear I found an old HDD with all my old 2004-2005 maps & modding projects.
This is all stuff I did for UT2004 (best FPS evar), a mix of multiplayer maps, SP campaigns & messing about.

I also found the pass to my old photobucket account where all my WiP beta images were stored. Result!
I thought all this stuff was lost, and imo it's a real shame that none of this stuff will ever get played again given the amount of time it took me to do the coding, mapping, skinning, music, sounds etc..

Looking back, it seems very shonky by current standards but I had a whale of a time putting them together, so I thought I'd at least share some of the pics with you guys.



VCTF Koopa Valley




Small & spammy vehicle-CTF map. Done mainly as a proof of concept to see if I could use sprites in a 3d engine, but for some reason people really liked playing on it. ?
Textures ripped from Mario 3 (nes) and Mario World (snes).
No extra coding required, simple stuff.







The giant Bullet-Bills were simple sub-classed missile projectiles with a new mesh, skin & coding, and would kill you instantly, Mario style.











Use of Weapons




Semi-size 7-level single player campaign designed to plug into OSMT (old skool monster tools), a mod by Super Ape form the old UP forums. This was made for a mapping comp, I came 3rd.

Based on the original Unreal (set in the same universe), using the same baddies & style of play, but with extensive use of cut-scenes, rather than the old Text-Reader device that the original Unreal used, and obviously a different storyline.




(go vortex rikers!)



Timberwolf used as a backdrop for the final level, built in BSP (not a static mesh built in a 3d modelling app, but BSP (binary space partition), the same "stuff" your old Quake-1 maps were built out of)








Micro Machines Mod



This was just a bit of fun really.. Take the vehicles from stock UT.
Re-code them and re-skin them, then force the camera to a fixed top-down view, and set up some simple rules to make a race-mode. Funtimes!












The maps are built in 3d, but the races are played strictly top-down, like the first micro machines.
Included custom-coded vehicles & weapon pick-ups, the normal stuff for a non-serious racing game.











Use of Weapons 2

Sequel to UoE still set in the Unreal universe, meant to be bigger & better, but unfortunately I never got the chance to finish this.
Used voice-dubbed cut-scenes to put the story across rather than the subtitles of UoE 1.
(Subtitles still used, but in this case to explain the missions, dialogue was recorded by friends)

Fewer, but much larger levels.
This level was designed quite heavily as a homage to GTA SA and Vice City, so we've got a mix of that San-Andreas gangsta style, and I also "borrowed" the idea of a massive open map for this level where you had to complete certain missions in order to progress.

This level's baddies were the Junk-Yardies, rasta Skaarj who lived in a junkyard & gangsta Krall (rollin wit the Krallaz 'yo! who hung out in basketball courts & free-styled with each other when they weren't killing you).



Junk-Yardies, Rasta Skaarj



The Krallaz, a homeboy Krall-gang.








The level-boss for this map was the Queen of Pangiers, a simple reskinned stock model from UT.
The player had to infiltrate the Dude Ranch, a nightclub where *she* was causing havok for the world you had to save.














The Queen of Pangiers.



I loved putting the club together, but my favourite mission to write was where you had to break-in to the Junkyard, and steal the Queen's personal ride which was being fixed-up by the Yardies.

Once youhad a cool car, you were admitted to a Fast & the Furious style meeting where you had to destroy the Krallaz' souped-up sportscars in order to spark a gang-war so you could infiltrate the Dude Ranch.












I've discovered loads more that I'd forgotten I've even built, a WH40k themed map, several smaller VCTF projects, and tonnes of coding projects like custom weapons, baddies, etc.. for other people to use in their own projects, unfortunately the game is pretty much dead now so they'll never see the light of day again. /aw, sad face!



Anyone else go any old mod-projects for other games they'd like to share?
I'd love to see them, & given the pretty tech-savvy nature of BT/MW fans I'd be surprised if I'm the only ex-mapper kicking around the forums..

Edited by BigJim, 02 July 2012 - 03:17 PM.

[A6PackofToucans]

Man, that's all really wild. The only shame is that you didn't put this stuff out there 7 years ago for others to enjoy. LOL, I know my buddy would have gone nuts with the Koopa Alley.

Looks great, all of it. And there's still a lot of retrogamers with old machines that would probably still play or try the games out with your mods.

[BigJim]

Cheers mate - I did, it all used to be up on Filefront, & at any given time I probably had 10x or 20x betas of various projects for feedback & review purposes, it just so happened that my PC went down during the making of UoW2, my replacement machine couldn't even run the game, let alone run the Ed, Photoshop, Goldwave, etc.. all at the same time so I kinda dropped out of the mapping scene..

I was pretty active in the UT community at the time, the old INA boards (infogrames north america), UP (unreal playground), etc..
Back then Epic Games used to be very, very active in supporting the modding community (remember the yearly MSU competition?), but still, I could never hold a candle to some of the really good mappers like Angel Mapper, Hourences, etc.. who could blow you away armed with nothing but Quake-2 technology & sheer imagination & artistry - I was a hack at best compared to those guys & girls.



Still, it was lovely to find all this old stuff the other day, it really took me back & I couldn't resist sharing some of the old beta-pics that for some reason still exist in my old photobucket account (all the pics above had been uploaded years ago & the account forgotten! )