TomTom Doom Engine

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ENCORE 0.20 The TomTom Render Engine |

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"Now that you've done the Spectrum Emulator,
what could you possibly do for an encore?"
Actual screenshot of ENCORE 0.20 - download below.

| Downloading and installing

ENCORE requires at least 1.3 megabytes of free memory to run.
1. Download ENCORE 0.20 by clicking here:
encore02.zip (45k).
2. In the /SYSTEM directory of your Series 5, create a directory /SYSTEM/APPS/ENCORE. You may have to make your SYSTEM directory visible first using the "Preferences" option of your Series 5 system screen.
3. Use PKUNZIP to extract the four files from ENCORE.ZIP and copy them into this directory (e.g. using PsiWin).
4. Create a GAME.WAD (see below) and also copy it to the ENCORE directory.
After this, you will have an ENCORE icon in your "extras" bar.
The application offers a HELP option which provides further instructions.

| Playing Doom levels

ENCORE 0.20 running level 2 of shareware doom

We have developed a DOS application called MAKEGAME.EXE which allows you to play any DOOM level on ENCORE 0.20. You can download it here:
makegame.zip (22k).
It works as follows:

- On your PC, run MAKEGAME in the directory of your shareware or commercial version of DOOM to build a new GAME.WAD
- copy this GAME.WAD to your Series 5 "ENCORE" directory (replacing the previous one).
- play

Not too complex, we think. If you haven't got DOOM, check the links at the bottom of this page.
If for some reason you can not make your own GAME.WAD (e.g. because you do not have a PC), we've provided a demo file you can download by clicking here:
gamewad.zip (215k).

| Known problems

You may appreciate that ENCORE is a complex application. We've tried to make it playable, but there is still some way to go. The weapons work, the monsters are smart and aggressive, the doors will open. Rendering works fine, up to and including the animated textures (such as the boiling lava fields). There are still some limitations, though:

- Picking things up. We haven't yet figured out how to allow that without seriously slowing down the game. Makes it rather challenging, not being able to restore your health on the way. We did restrict your weapons to a reasonable level (well, maybe we were a bit too generous).
- Operating switches. Ditto, so some secret places can not be reached. The end-level switch works, though - just touch it or shoot it.
- Rendering the sky. The mountains and sky don't move along when you look up or down. Ugly. We're looking into it.
- Live color control. You still have to exit and restart for your brightness/contrast changes to take effect.
- Speed. Our rendering core can do a slice of a textured non-transparent wall at three RISC instructions per pixel. We've reached the limit.(*)
  We did add a "quality" menu option which allows you to reduce the level of detail and make the game faster (for example, we can make whole areas of soft gray floor pixels at the astonishing rate of eight pixels per ONE assembly instruction - long live 32-bit RISC technology!).
  (*) We are NOT nerds. We program in C++. We just... check the resulting assembly code to see how well we're doing from time to time. Okay?

| Technical Details

Languages | Requirements | Distribution | Suitable for

The application runs in English

The application requires
90k to install (excluding WAD files) and at least 1.3Mb of free memory to run.

Available by free download
(see above)

Psion Series 5,
Psion Series 5mx,
Ericsson MC218,
Psion Series 7,
Psion netBook,
Geofox One

| Feedback

Please note that we have put this application into the public domain "as is".
Although we welcome your feedback and comments at support@tomtom.com,
we hope you will understand that we may not have the time
to answer all your mails or react to all your requests.

| Release history

Beta 0.20 | 24 October 1997 | MAKEGAME version. Allows you to install any level using MAKEGAME. Offers many cheat options, supports weapons and monsters, keeps track of player health, ammo, and kills. Running now works. Many quality options to increase playing speed. Known bugs: can't pick up things, can't operate switches.
Beta 0.10 | 1 October 1997 | Initial release. Known bugs: color options only become completely active after you have restarted the application. Shading has been disabled (looks bad on an LCD screen). Running (using the SHIFT key) has not yet been implemented.

| Final Notes

This application adapts the wonderful "DUMB" code by
Josh Parsons, Chris Laurel and many others.
The "Dumb" home page is at http://samba.anu.edu.au/dumb/
ENCORE is meant to run the "WAD" files of games like DOOM
which were created by ID software.
They put many levels in the public domain, confident that people will
buy the complete game to play the rest (and how right they are!)
Shareware DOOM can be downloaded at the ID DOOM archive.
The source code of ENCORE will be put in the public domain,
but please bear with us while we finish it first.

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