The Bad Mood FAQ
Last updated: 29 December, 1997.
Contents
Apendix:
What is Bad Mood?
Bad Mood is the name of a program for the Atari Falcon030 (or compatible
machines) which is being written by people on the bad_mood mailing list.
It is intended to be compatible with the DOOM(tm) game made by ID Software,
but is Freeware, and currently includes the complete source code.
Why is the name Bad Mood?
Well, DOOM is a trademark of ID Software, so that name is not available.
We wanted something that sounds simular, but not to close (and still sounds
cool). MOOD is DOOM backwards, and so keeps a link with DOOM(tm), without
being a blatent rip-off (eg. Boom, Doom Emulator Engine etc.)
"Bad Mood" is also what marines are always in. :-)
What is DOOM?
This FAQ is full of references to DOOM(tm), so I ought to explain what
this is for any poor, depraved people who have not played this excelent
game.
DOOM(tm) is a game writen by ID Software in which you run around in a
first person perspective maze (ie almost 3d) shooting things from Hell.
It is incredibly fun, and is definiately recommended to anyone who has
not played it. From now on, I shall refer to DOOM(tm) as Doom, although
I acknowledge that this is a copyrighted name of ID Software. Doom 2,
Heretic and Hexen are all extended versions of the Doom engine, and are
also copyrighted names.
For more information about Doom, check the DOOM FAQ.
What is the legal position of Bad Mood?
ID Software have made their position clear about software which is based
upon Doom - Here is a quote from section 1 of the ID Software License:
"You shall not: rent, lease, sell, distribute for money or other consideration, modify,
translate, disassemble, decompile, reverse engineer, or create derivative works based
upon the Software. Notwithstanding the foregoing, you may create a map editor, modify
maps and make your own maps (collectively referenced as the "Permitted Derivative
Works") for the Software. You may not sell or distribute any Permitted Derivative Works but
you may exchange the Permitted Derivative Works at no charge amongst other
end-users. In order to commercially distribute any such map editor or data utility you must
first sign id's Data Utility License and id reserves the right to deny authorization to
commercial distribute the any such map editor or data utility. You may request a copy of
the Data Editor License from id."
This implies that it is not permitted under the Licence to produce a DOOM
compatible game, as this could be classed as a 'derivative work', which is
not allowed under this agreement. However, as none of the code is based upon
code from DOOM, it may be considered that Bad Mood is a separate work, which
simply has compatible data-files as DOOM.
We have attempted to clarify this situation by contacting ID, but have as
yet had no response. As Bad Mood is completely freeware, we hope that ID
will not enforce a license fee.
Update:
ID Software have now released the source code to Doom, which may be used
to produce freeware engines. This makes the legal position of Bad Mood much
clearer - basically, there can be no problem. For more details, check the
DOOMLIC.TXT file in the
source distribution of Doom.
What does Bad Mood do?
The current version of Bad Mood does the following:
- 16-bit true colour
- Perspected texturemapping
- Textured walls
- Textured floors
- Textured ceilings
- Textured Sky
- Transparent textures
- Depth cued lighting
- Artificial lighting
- Alpha tinting texture
- Variable x & y detail settings
- Variable viewport size up to 320x240
- Scaled player movement
- Simulated 'bobbing' movement
- Graphics cache for speed
- Improved algorithms for speed
- Works with Doom, Doom-II & Heretic IWADs.
- PWAD support
- Collision with walls
- Early version of sliding along walls
- Scaled sprites in Doom 1 WADs
- Sampled sound replay (not loaded from WAD yet)
- MIDI playback (again, not loaded from WAD yet)
What will Bad Mood (hopefully) do?
What is currently being worked on?
At this time, the following areas of code are actually being written,
or at least thought about. Some of these sections have been partially
implemented, but nothing has happened to them for some time. In fact,
in the last 4 months there have been very few changes to Bad Mood... :/
Next to each entry is given the name of the person currently coding in
this area.
| Routine | Status | Whos coding it |
| Wall collision | routines complete? | Eric Pellissier |
| sprite rendering | routines complete? | Doug Little |
| DSP rendering engine | virtually complete | Doug Little |
| Sound | in development? | Peylow of Toys |
| MIDI-playback | working? | Nicklas Larsson |
| Falcon Wad Tool | Unknown? | Dave Murphy |
| GEM-DEU (level editor) | working beta. 0.8 | Anthony Jacques |
| Menus | Abandoned? | evil/loke of DHS |
| BadC interface | In progress | Anthony Jacques/Johan Klockars |
Non code things...
| Music | Sebbe Gustin |
| Graphics | Robin Ball / Sebbe Gustin |
Sorry if I cannot spell/remember your name, or left you off! Just email
me. :-)
What is planned for the future?
This list contains parts of the program that are not being actively coded
at this time, but will hopefully be implement sometime in the future.
- Artificial Inteligence
- Network play (over MIDI?)
Also planned (or thought about) are some Falcon specific features, not
found in other versions of DOOM.
- 16-bit textures/sprites.
- 'demo' style title screens.
- Bad Mood specific IWAD file - not copyrighted to ID Software.
- Extra weapon types - Flame throwers, grenades, mines etc.
- Extensible game engine - supporting lots of game types.
- Further Bad Mood only features (e.g. animated translucent walls)
What will Bad Mood NOT do?
Here is a list of things which it is NOT planned to support.
- Network play against PC Doom.
This was originally omitted due to technical reasons, related to
the fact that the source to Doom would be required for this (eg.
the specific protocol used). However, since the source is now available,
this is no longer a problem. This could now be brought back into the
realms of possibility...
What Machines does Bad Mood work on?
The latest version of Bad Mood only works on Falcons. This is because it makes
use of both the DSP and True-colour mode. Bad Mood has been tested on
standard Falcons, as well as Falcons with the following accellerator cards:
BlowUP-FX, SpeedRES and Afterburner040.
With work, it would however be possible to create a 68k only version, with
extra display code to work on a TT, or other machines. This is not currently
being done/planned. There was talk of trying to get Amiga owners to contribute
to the effort and to produce an Amiga version. I know some Amiga coders did
consider attempting this, but as nothing has been heard about this for a while...
Older versions, which did not have texture-mapping and lighting effects did
not use the DSP, or true-colour graphics, and so did work on ST/TT's. However,
hese versions have very little resemblence to the current version of the
engine.
How fast is Bad Mood?
I dont have the current timing charts for Bad Mood... I may try and build
a new table myself...
How do I get envolved with the Bad Mood project?
There are now a couple of mailing lists for Bad Mood. To subscribe to any of
these, send an email to one of the addresses below with the word subscribe in
the subject line.
Send a mail to
bad_mood-request@rand.thn.htu.se
to subscribe to the main 'Bad Mood - talk' list. This list has many discussions,
which envlove various semi-relevent topics (such as accelerator cards, and the
effects on Bad Mood). This list can be high volume at times, so dont subscribe
if you have only a small mailbox.
bm_prog-request@rand.thn.htu.se
is the subscribe address of the programming list - this is where serious discussions
about the actual coding of the program should take place (but dont! everything
seems to go to the bad_mood list...)
bm_bin-request@rand.thn.htu.se
is the subscribe address of the binary list. This list is intended only for
people who do not have access to FTP. Large binary files of the program, and graphics
etc. are sent UUEncoded to people subscribed to this mailing list.
There are a number of other Doom clones for the ST/Falcon. These are:
- Quake....
Crack Dot Com (porting it for ID Softare) were hacked, and the source code to
Quake was stolen and uploaded to various FTP sites. An Atari programmer obtained
a copy of this source, and has made a start on porting it to the Falcon (probably
only for Falcons with Afterburner040's). Legally dodgy, but hey... to see quake
on a Falcon... 8fps on a Falcon + Afterburner040 + nemesis.
- DEE - Doom Emulator Engine. - Falcon.
This seems to be a complete implementation of Doom. However, it is VERY slow
(unplayably so) and is not available publicly. The programmers are currently
trying to sell the source code, I believe.
- French Doom. - Falcon.
I dont know what the official name of this one is, but it is being written by
a french programmer (on his own, except for the virtual memory routines) and
is now includes basic collision detection, objects, and enemies.
- Running - Falcon
This is the first of the 'second generation' of Doom clones to be complete. It
is shareware, with the first episode available for download now.
- Des Lasers et des Hommes - Falcon.
This is old, and no longer under development. It is rather slow, and has
numerous bugs. (included in this list for completeness).
- Towers 2. - Falcon
This is a sort of cross between a Doom/Wolfenstien engine and dungeon master.
Graphics look nice, but a simplistic graphics engine, and not really Doom like
fighting engine. Demo available.
- Substation - STE
This tries to be a Doom engine for the STE. However, to get it to run at a
reasonable speed, they had to dump the texture-mapping. Thus, the graphics
look auful (go into a corner, and you cannot see the meeting of the two walls!).
The sound is good though. (commercial) - A demo is available.
- KillThings - Any ST/Falcon.
This is a Doom style engine for the ST (in ST-low res). It has texture-mapped
walls, with glass objects and depth shading. Source code is now available.
- Destruction Imminent - ST (not Falcon)
This is a wolfenstien clone - t-mapped block walls, monsters etc. Complete
game (shareware). Demo is available
- Wolfenstein - ST/Falcon
Someone is said to be porting the ID sources to Atari's... haven't seen anything
of this though, so I cannot comment on speed etc.
Bad Mood related links
WWW pages...
FTP links...
DOOM related WWW links.
Below is a list of links to WWW nodes.
Doom related FTP sites.
Below are the addresses (and links to them) for a few major FTP sites which
have DOOM sections.
Technical links
Below are links to some technical reference documents which will be found invaluable
when coding a DOOM compatible program.
This FAQ has been compiled by Anthony Jacques (jacquesa@zetnet.co.uk).
For more information on Bad Mood, either join the list or mail one of the
members of the list.