In honour of BLOOD’s 18th anniversary which went gold on April 25th 1997, I am proud to present a tribute to my favourite game of all time, the undisputed, unrivalled cult classic, a true visionary of game design perfected across every level. A simple yet gripping story, an iconic protagonist, a unique theme based entirely on horror, outstanding and nostalgic level design, a memorable soundtrack, an original arsenal, fiendishly smart and dynamic A.I and the most visceral challenge and gameplay in a first person shooter yet to be matched to this day. This is the first official release of the BLOOD Shareware – Version 0.99A, it was compiled on March 5th 1997 and contains the entire first episode - The Way of All Flesh. What’s strange is the launcher states that this is a beta version and may not be distributed freely, which is an obvious mistake by Monolith owing to their rushed development cycle due to time and budget constraints. It contains a total of 5 demos, but the fifth which is named (blood8.dem) in the directory is actually a copy of (blood1.dem) perhaps they wanted to include a fifth demo but the engine can only allow up to a maximum of 4 demos in loop. The following demos are shown: • E1M8 – The House of Horrors • E1M3 – Phantom Express • E1M5 – Hallowed Grounds • E1M1 – Cradle to Grave Interesting how the first demo and thus the first in-game footage you see ever is in fact the secret level of Episode 1, the player makes a good attempt at disposing the opposition although the dynamite handling with the first Gargoyle is poor and the overall strategy employed is negligent and risky, bonus points for a cool death. The second demo is interesting enough deliberately committing suicide by hurling himself out of the first carriage window to show off the map’s obvious highlight being the power of the build engine at rendering an actual moving train, you get to see Caleb’s corpse slide to the end of the track but with the illusion that he’s moving past the train, as far as showing gameplay is concerned it’s terrible. The third demo shows off some nifty dynamite usage against the opening zombies then makes a mess of dealing with the first Cultists. The fourth demo is clearly the most polished and interesting run, it’s strategic with good aiming and thought employed, showing off a good portion of the level and the cool scripted explosion of the upper floor's wall. Notable differences in this version include: • There is only the option to play online with the TEN – Total Entertainment Network gaming service although support for BLOOD online was eventually extended to the following: DWANGO, Rtime, Heat, Kali, Mplayer and TEN. • No loading screen • The track CBLOOD4 (Heard on E1M4 and E1M8) is different, with a noticeable lack of instruments and different percussion, perhaps it is gradually being developed • The zippo lighter has no sound effect when opening • There is no red dynamite bar on the minimal HUD to judge and estimate how far to toss the dynamite • Weapon bobbing and swaying is more prominent • Cultists have different pitched voices; other enemies sometimes mimic Cultist screams when dying • E1M3 doesn’t have a track in the retail version but in the shareware it uses UNHOLY (Unholy Voices), and it sounds different again lacking instruments with different percussion? • E1M1 uses CBLOOD2 (Heard on E2M1, E2M7 and E4M4) instead of UNHOLY (Unholy Voices), and it sounds different again lacking instruments with different percussion? • The sliding tombstone sound effect is different • Notice when a Cultist explodes from a flare or dynamite the animation changes to a Fanatic as you spot the disintegrating black robes, interesting mistake/anomaly • The burnt Cultist also drops two Life Essences, this is known as the ‘duplicate item glitch’ where if an enemy falls on itself when it dies but doesn’t hit the ground immediately theirs a chance it can drop two items The BLOOD Shareware – Version 0.99A can be downloaded from the following: https://archive.bloodline.eu/shareware/blood_sw_0.99a.rar http://files.deathmask.net/shareware/blood_sw_0.99a.exe http://www.dukertcm.com/knowledge-base/downloads-rtcm/blood-shareware/blood0.99sw.exe

• published: 25 Apr 2015
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