"Halls of Stonehenge" help/mini manual 

Greetings!  Thanks for downloading Halls of Stonehenge!  Well, there's an online manual for HOS already, but in case you don't have the net (how'd you get this game anyway then??) or don't feel like undertaking the enormous task of visiting the HOS website, here's a little bit of a mini-guide for the game, with some exclusive commentary as well.  Enjoy! By the way, if you simply didn't know there was an online manual, it can be found (at the time this document was written anyway) at: http://www.angelfire.com/droid/majikmonkee/home.html


Known Problems:

HOS was designed to be as "glitch free" as possible.  Of course, nobody is perfect, and neither is any program I know of, so here's the known problems with HOS.

DISPLAY ISSUES - For some annoying reason, when you hit the "F8" key to quick save your game, occasionally the screen will resize itself. When this happens, simply hit "F5" and set it to a size you want and resume; or try going into the Advanced Management menu in the Control Panel and toggle off the "Menu Backgrounds" permenantly to avoid it happening again. The problem won't repeat itself most of the time until you exit and start a new game.

FRAMERATE ISSUES - HOS has textured ceilings and floors, and if you are using a very old system and experiencing slowdown, this might be part of the problem. If you're having troubles getting HOS to run at a decent frame rate (eg. choppy movement), and still want to experience the rest that the game has to offer, try disabling the floor and ceiling textures option from inside the Advanced Management Menu.

ELEVATOR SCREEN ISSUES - If, for some reason, you have very low main memory (around 256k on the intro screen) you can still play the game; but if you try to pull an ack and run through the entire game without saving (haha), you may experience a few minor graphical errors on the elevator screen on the upper levels. If this happends, it will not affect the game's playability; but a quick fix is just to save your game and restart.

SOUND ISSUES - If your sound card isn't 100% Sound Blaster compatible, you may experience the Fat Zombies may yell "Join Us!" at random times when they're not even around. This bug mainly starts at levels 5, 6, and 13. The default setting in the Advanced Memory Menu is that all "wall sounds" are off, but if you turn them back on... press Ignore Wall Sounds again and it will ask you if you want to remove the Zombie sounds as well.

OTHER ISSUES - I don't know of any other problems currently. If your PC does not want to run HOS, check out some of the troubleshooting tips on the web for running Wolfenstein 3D in general. I don't really want to get into all of that here. Wolfenstein doesn't seem to like Windows, so try running it in DOS mode if you are not already.

If you discover any other issues or glitches, let me know, and I'll add them to future versions of this document.



Story: 

I'm NOT going to re-write the story here.  This is actually the shortened version for anyone who looked at the online version and wilted at it's sheer size.  Okay...BJ was on vacation in England when an old man named Professor Von Reinstein found him chilling out in a pub.  The professor had been working on research at the Stonehenge monument in England when it was overtaken by an evil gunslinger/archeologist named Draven.  Draven led a band of crazy Nazi fanatics into the previously undiscovered catacombs beneath Stonehenge, where he reawakened an ancient evil being from another dimension named Sarron.  Now, the Nazis are preparing to overtake the world with an army of supernatural monsters, while bringing Sarron helpless victims to boost his power and allow him to form a body to enter our world.  Naturally, BJ is the only one who can stop this catastrophe from happening.  And so, after a nasty dream, BJ calls the professor, gets a shotgun, finds a pitchfork, and he's off to Stonehenge to take on Draven and destroy Sarron's evil minions.



Controls: 

The controls are whatever you want them to be (don't you know that by now?).  There are a couple of features in HOS though that you won't find in other Wolf3D games (most of the time).

"F11" key - Ooops!  Where'd my gun go?  Relax...it's the "holster weapon" feature.  This is so if your weapon is so damn big that it blocks your view, you can make it "disappear" so you're free to look around.  To bring it back, just press F11 again, or press the fire button.  Pressing fire once will bring the gun back, so you'll have to press it again to get a shot off.

"X" key - Having trouble aiming accurately with a voodoo doll?  Have no fear!  Simply press the "x" key, and a handy dandy crosshair will appear in the middle of the screen, allowing you to aim with pinpoint accuracy.  If it starts to get annoying, don't worry.  Pressing "x" again will make it go away.



Difficulty Settings:

There are four of these (does that surprise you?).  They are pretty close to the same as in the original SOD, though the difficult settings in HOS are a little more difficult than usual.  They are:

Leave the lights on! - For wimps (or children, who probably shouldn't play HOS anyway)...you could stroll through the game whistling a merry tune and running about with wreckless abandon on this difficulty setting.  Well...not really, but it won't be much of a challenge.

Was that a spider? - A little tougher than "Leave the lights on!", but winning the game on this difficulty is still nothing to brag about.  For the most part, you won't be too overwhelmed on this setting, but the carnage and monster mayhem won't satisfy those seeking a serious challenge.

Let's do it! - Now you're talking!  The monsters really start to pour it on, and death and dismenberment is much more common (for you).  It's time to start peeking around corners before you go running into action, or you might wind up seeing red...and being dead...

No fear! - This is for true tough guys.  If you like playing chicken on the highway, taking scalding hot showers, and chewing gravel instead of gum, this is the difficulty for you!  Of course, if you're just a lunatic who enjoys punishing himself, you'll enjoy this one too.  Insanely hard at times.



Enemies: 

There are lots of enemies in HOS, none of which appear in the original Spear of Destiny.  The good news though is that if you know what enemy each HOS creature is based on from the original game, you should be prepared for the challenges you'll face.

Axe Zombie - A rotten corpse with an axe.  My favorite enemy to frag in the original Blood, so it had to make an appearance in HOS.  Although they come back to life in Blood, they don't in HOS because that would be a pain to program.  They replace the dog because that's the only enemy in SOD that doesn't have some sort of long range attack normally.

Nazi Fanatic - The same as the boring brown uniformed Nazis from SOD.  Also the most common enemy you'll face in both HOS and the original Blood.  HOS only has one variety, though, and they are always packing the same weapon.  These jerks are easy to kill, especially with the souped up shotgun (or artifact weapons if you're a sadist).

Fat Zombie - These putrid menaces are based on the bloated butchers from Blood, and are similarly tough to kill.  Beneath that fat, rotten exterior, though, they are really SOD SS at heart, and should be treated as such.  Even though they just carry around a cleaver, they can attack you from a distance.  Yeah, I know you can't see a projectile, but quit griping!  In Blood, they could puke AND throw cleavers at you, so be thankful for small favors!

Hound of Hades - Tapping into my vast creative stores, I cleverly renamed these beasts "Hounds of Hades" instead of their original Blood name, "hell hound" (see what I did there?).  They zig-zag around and move pretty fast, much like the officers from SOD...which doesn't seem too strange when you realize that that's what they've replaced.  You don't see a fire ball actually come at you when they attack, but once again, that would have been a pain to program.

Gargoyle - These guys were a huge pain in the ass in Blood, and it seems fitting that the same can be said of them in HOS.  The advantage you have here is that they can't fly up out of your view and drop down behind you, so they settle instead for ripping you to shreds in record time.  These guys replace the mutants from SOD, in case you couldn't guess.  The fact that you can't hear them when they see you will probably lead you to about a billion untimely deaths.

Reaper - This is basically the ghost from SOD given a face lift. Originally, I'd planned to use it throughout the regular levels as well as the final stage, but during testing I became so frustrated with their constant interference that I scrapped that idea. In Blood, these damn things hide in closets and other places you don't expect and pop out at you screeching so loud you wet yourself.  Also, you can't attack them unless they are attacking you.  Not so here. Just shoot em' and they vanish for a few seconds before coming back to annoy you to death.

Webstor - Webstor is actually the second boss in Blood, Shial, and is based on the second boss in SOD, Barnacle Wilhelm (how confusing is that?).  Shial attacked you by dropping tons of little spiders and trying to bite you.  It was fun to kill her with the flaming hairspray can.  Webstor shoots skull shaped web projectiles from it's butt, and you don't get hairspray to fight back with.  No matter, though.  You'll find Webstor(s) pretty easy to kill if you can find something to hide behind.

Death Breath - There is no "death breath" in Blood.  He's actually taken from the "gill beasts" in Blood, which are common enemies in the later episodes.  I thought it would be dumb to use Cheough, the gargoyle boss from Blood, though, because he would have looked just like a normal gargoyle, only gray.  Thus, Death Breath was born.  He replaces Ubbermutant, so naturally you won't hear him when he sees you.  Funnier still is that you can't see his attack approaching...when he starts flapping his jaws at you, you'll take damage...that's from his breath.  I know they haven't invented interactive smell technology for the PC yet, but take my word for it...it's that bad.  If I told you what he ate for lunch, you'd probably be too frightened to play the game to start with (hint: he lives in a underground sewer network.  You figure the rest out.).

Cerberus - Cerberus is pretty much the same in HOS as he is in Blood, minus one big difference.  You had to kill both his heads in Blood, whereas you just kill both heads at the same time in HOS.  He belches (I love that word) fireballs at you, and even if you don't get hit by them, you still take damage when he starts gnashing his jaws.  He replaces Death Knight, so you know he'll be one tough bastard.  It helps if you can find an obstacle that you can shoot through that his fireballs can't pass through.  Oops!  Have I said too much?

Draven - Draven replaces Trans Gross from SOD, but he's the last (regular) boss rather than the first like Trans.  He's not super tough, and just attacks with standard chainguns.  He's only human, after all (albeit an enormously built rather ugly one), so he won't be as difficult as Cerberus or as fast as Death Breath.  Still, if you're not careful, he'll fill you full of holes and whiz on your grave.  Draven is based on a hybrid of Death Knight from SOD and Caleb, the hero from Blood.  The original Draven was nothing but Caleb's body from Blood, but it looked too wimpy to be a boss...maybe as a regular enemy it would have been alright.  But anyhow, thus we have the Draven you'll find in the actual game.

Sarron - Well, damn...I don't want to give away what Sarron looks like, but if you are a Blood fan, you'll recognize him.  The character I used was WAYYYYY bigger than 64x64...in fact, I had to shrink him to about 20% of his original size, and he was still way too big.  Thus, I had to edit his arms and chop him in half, and eventually succeeded in mashing him into the required size for SOD.  Despite the brutal process involved in getting him into HOS, he's retained enough of his vigor and fighting spirit to be as challenging as the Angel of Death, but a whole lot tougher too.  When you beat him, the game ends, but you already knew that, right?



Weapons: 

BJ has six different weapons available in HOS.  Two you begin with, the rest you'll have to find our pry out of the cold, dead fingers of your enemies.

Pitchfork - Just a rusty, crappy pitchfork BJ finds lying around outside of Stonehenge.  It's just like the knife, only it's been improved to be more powerful.  You WILL need to use it at times in the game.  Otherwise, you'll spend all your hard earned ammo knocking down rows of rotten axe zombies.  It can also be used to take out Nazi fanatics without too much trouble, and put up hay in the summer.  Based on Caleb's standard weapon in Blood.

Shotgun - It's actually more powerful than the pistol you have in the original SOD, but slightly harder to aim.  It's pretty worthless at really long range, but then, so are most of your other guns.  It uses the universal ammo drums to replenish your bullets.  Based on the shotgun from Blood.

Tommy Gun - This is the primary automatic weapon of both Blood and HOS.  It does some cool things in Blood, but in HOS, it's pretty much just a machine gun...point and shoot! Works good for taking on lots of enemies.  Okay for bosses, and adds to the challenge, but if you just want to get the job done, see below...

Riot Gun - The same as a chaingun in the original Wolf3D games. Good for mowing down rampaging hordes.  It's a big ammo waster, but...blah, blah, blah...why go over this again?  If you've played Wolf3D, you know about the chaingun.  Big gun.  Does lots of damage quickly.  Wastes bullets.  Nuff said.  BTW, if you're interested, the Riot Gun design is based on the Tesla Cannon from Blood, but where the Tesla Cannon fires cool glowing balls of electricity, the Riot Gun just spews bursts of flame *yawn*. 

Voodoo Doll - You might not remember this weapon...or anything like it...from SOD.  That's cause there is no 5th weapon in the original, but there is in HOS.  Er...it's hard to describe this weapon...it functions sort of like the pistol, with single-shot capabilities, but does a heck of a lot more damage.  It's amazing if a standard robe toting punk survives an attack from this.  You won't find much in the game, though.  It's based on (duh) the Voodoo Doll from Blood.  On Blood, if you killed a foe with the doll, they usually died in some extra gruesome way, but not so with HOS.  So what, though?  What are you, some kind of psycho?

Magic Staff - BJ's no magician, but that doesn't mean he doesn't know how to handle a rotten head on a stick!  This weapon is the hardest of all to aim (maybe because of bad design on my part, but I like to think not), but the results are worth it!  It will blow most pukes away with one hit, and puts on an impressive light show in the process!  These are rarely ever seen in the game either, though.  The Magic Staff is based on the Life Leach from Blood, only the Life Leach posesses far more awesome powers (are you sick of me saying that yet?).


Treasure:

I don't really feel like talking too much about the treasure.  It's the same idea as with all other Wolfenstein games, and is covered in depth on the site. In a nutshell, here are the treasure types, and what each is worth:

magic potion - 100 points

crystal ball - 500 points

spirit essence - 1000 points

prisoner - 5000 points

Prisoners are always hidden, so you'll have to work to find them. Often, though, they are visible from other areas in the level, so you can see me, but you can't reach em'.  Frustrating, isn't it?


Health and Ammo:

Another section I don't want to waste words on. Sorry, but this is the boring part, quoting numbers and values, etc.  Here are the basic pickups and what you get from them, though:

ammo drum - 8 bullets for a fresh one, 4 from a dead enemy

ammo crate - 25 bullets per crate

skull and fire key - opens doors...what else?

mushroom - +5 health

health potion - +10 health

health kit - +25 health

artifact of life - extra life and full health


Levels:

Check out the website if you want names and descriptions of the levels.  As of now, I'm not going to release walkthroughs or help for the levels in HOS.  First off, I didn't create most of the levels, so I'm not the expert on navigating them...I usually wind up looking like ground beef by the time I'm done with them, just like you.  Second of all, where's the fun in having some tell you how to beat a level?  So what's the purpose of this section entitled "levels" then?  Well, to explain a couple of things to you you won't find in the online manual.

Some folks may think that the type or progression of levels doesn't make sense.  Well, it does if you realize what I'm trying to achieve.  Think of the catacombs of Stonehenge as a giant, underground castle, a castle with the usual stuff like guard houses, libraries, prisons, etc.  There are also some places that don't make sense in the catacombs as well, though.  This is because the Stonehenge catacombs are an evil entity themself, and are designed mainly to confuse and kill you.  With that in mind, expect to see the unexpected.  When you make it to the final areas, you will realize that sanity isn't part of the Stonehenge design, and your main concern is self preservation.  The main goal with the level concepts was to create a wide variety of environments to explore, and some may not seem to go together, but for the purpose of this game, they do.  If you don't like it, play another TC...or just play Blood...I don't care...


Tips:

Hmmm...okay...my hand just reached out and wrote a heading called "Tips", so I guess that means I want to impart some kind of helpful survival wisdom to those of you playing HOS.  I'm not sure what kind of "help" I can give that isn't universal to all Wolf games, but here goes anyway.

Tip #1  USE THE PITCHFORK - I know it's been said, but it must be stressed.  Especially on higher difficulties.  You WILL encounter swarms of fast moving axe zombies, sometimes more than you can afford to shoot.  I know it's creepy, but wait for them to get right up in your face, then start pokin'.  Here's another useful tip...when you face an onrush of the undead, try to get your back to a wall, or better yet, stand in a doorway.  This way, they'll all be coming at you from one angle.  If you fight a horde of axe zombies out in the open, they'll run circles around you and whittle away your life.  You'd be surprised how quickly they can kill you.

Tip #2  THE KEY'S NOT LOST, YOU ARE - We of the HOS team don't like hidden keys.  This is a detestable practice, and should be banned from the earth.  That having been said, the first key in the very first level is hidden!  That's because those clever Nazi fanatics believe in tight security, but it's not tight enough.  The key can be seen, just not immediately reached.  Have no fear, though.  A nearby, obvious pushwall is the answer to this problem.  After this, no key necessary to progression is hidden.  If you can't find a key, you're either not looking hard enough, or it's a hidden key, and the door you want to open isn't necessary to progression of the level.

Tip #3  LOOK FOR THE SECRETS - I know...it sounds as obvious as saying "kill the enemies" or "push on doors to open them", but it's easy to get caught up in the action of HOS, and forget that there are life saving secrets to be found.  Some areas are nigh impossible to survive (without taking a severe beating) unless you find hidden stashes of ammo and health.  Certain special weapons can only be found by locating secrets, and the ever popular "secret levels" await discovery by truly industrious adventurers.

Tip #4  PROGRESS CAUTIOUSLY - This may look like another big "duh", but it actually isn't really.  A lot of levels in the original Wolf3D and SOD could be "sped through", and completed in very short amounts of time.  HOS is designed to be just the opposite of that.  Strategically placed enemies and traps will destroy you in an instant if you go rushing about without staking out the territory first.  Even a seasoned player familiar with the levels will have trouble advancing without killing most or all of the enemies.  The reward is knowing that you survived some hard @$$ levels, even if it takes you a while to do it.

Tip #5  SAVE SPECIAL WEAPONS - The aforementioned "artifact weapons", the voodoo doll and magic staff, are very powerful, but can only be stored in limited quantities.  There is no "ammo" to pick up for these weapons, and you must find the weapon again to replenish your stock of them.  Both of these weapons pack a helluva' punch, and can be useful in boss encounters (hint, hint).  Of course, you probably won't have much or any of these weapons if you don't abide by tip #3.

Tip #6  WHAT YOU DON'T SEE CAN'T HURT YOU - Well, this isn't true of ALL things, but when it comes to some of the traps in HOS, there's a trick to avoiding serious injury.  If you are navigating a narrow passage with traps on only one side of you, try to face away from the traps as you pass by them.  They seem to damage you more often when you are looking at them than they do when you are not.  They can still hurt you when you don't see them too, though, so don't be careless.  If you are passing through a passage with traps immediately on either side of you, try to face forward, and move veeeeerrrrryy carefully.

Tip #7  TAKE COVER - This may very well be the biggest "everyone knows that" tip on the list, but it's helpful in HOS because many of the boss encounters take place in areas with objects that you can't walk through, but you can shoot through.  This is even more valuable when you battle enemies that fire projectiles at you, since the projectile will hit and explode on such objects if you are behind them, leaving you to deal with only the sporatic regular "shots" from these enemies.  Remember this when you face powerful bosses...it might save your life.  And of course, only an idiot would face a horde of the undead standard minions out in the open...

Tip #8  DON'T GIVE UP - Okay...I realize that a lot of the levels in HOS are hard, some insanely so, but they can all be won with enough effort and persistance.  If at first you don't succeed, try again...and again...and again.  Whether you're big on saving your game usually or not, you will definitely need to in HOS.  It's not for the faint of heart, and I've been playing these levels since they were first submitted to me, and still haven't mastered them.  Of course, I'm also not the foremost Wolfer, so that might be saying something.

Tip #9  DON'T PLAY WITH THE LIGHTS OFF - Otherwise, you might wet yourself.  Okay, maybe not literally, but HOS can be pretty darn scary sometimes.  Most of the scare comes from enemies popping out of nowhere, but a lot of work has gone into creating a "creepy" environment, which results from graphics, music, and level design.  Actually, it's too bad if you don't get a little scared playing HOS...we can ALL use a good scare every now and then...

Tip #10  HAVE FUN - Okay...I know it's BEYOND cheesy for me to put this in my tips section, but I digress.  If you don't enjoy yourself while you're playing HOS, it's work, not fun, and that's not how it's supposed to be.  We just hope you have at least HALF as much fun playing HOS as we did making it...


Well, that's about it!  Why waste time reading this when you could be playing HOS?  Or, if you've already beaten the game, and are really bored and stumbled across this, there are other TC's to be played out there!  Or, if you printed this out and are reading it on the toilet, I'll quit bugging you...nobody likes to be bothered in the bathroom.  But when you're out of the can and back at your computer, if you've got something to say about HOS, email me at:

mmerrill@centene.com

I welcome all comments, both good and bad.  Of course, I'll print out the bad ones and use them to line my bird cage, while framing the good ones and hanging them over my mantle.  If you liked HOS, and want to check out some of my other upcoming projects (or hated HOS and want to give me one last chance to redeem myself), look for the following in the near future:

"Countdown to Chaos"
"Operation: Hundscheisse"
"Hundscheisse 2: The Sequel"
"Hund 3: The Final Frontier"
"The Punisher"
project: real wolfenstein (name not decided yet, but coming soon)

Anyhow, that's all from me for now!  I think I'm going to go play some Wolfendoom by AReyeP...I still haven't found half the secrets in the game yet, and life is not complete until I've done so (no, I will not use Flo Edit to look at the maps).  Later!


HOS KREDITS:

BIG fat thanks to the following people who have made HOS a reality.  Without the help of these people, HOS would probably suck, and I'd still be only 30% done with it.


Concept: Majik Monkee

Graphics: AReyeP (title), Majik Monkee, original graphics from Blood by GT Interactive and Wolfenstein 3D by ID Software

Sound: Adam Biser (music), Majik Monkee, original sounds and scores from Blood by GT Interactive

Coding: BrotherTank, MCS, some anonymous exe hacker. ;)

Level Design: ack, Majik Monkee, Raistlin

Testing: John Merrill, Brian Lowe, Arielus, Chris Chokan, ack

Special thanks to everyone for all their hard work and contributions, and to the Diehard Wolfers community for some valuable (and otherwise) feedback.


~Majik Monkee~