As the Balkan Powder Keg is on the verge of bursting, the 8 Eyes of Calamity are seized by the Dukes of Hell, who have turned their home nations into living nightmares. Hellish swinemen run amok in the hills of Spain. Hyena men and fire demons are razing the African jungle. A mechanical army spreads across Germany like an iron plague. Vampires and ghouls are devouring Arabia. Italy has become a pit of perverse decadence and wanton murder.
Due to the brewing war in Europe, the College of Arms can’t afford to launch full scale attacks on eight different countries. The only hope to defeat the Dukes of Hell and prevent hell on earth is to utilize stealth, secrecy, and a lone agent with occult powers and a talking raven.
8 Eyes is a Hexen mod for Gzdoom, and a horror/dark fantasy remake of the NES “classic” of the same name. Access 8 unique realms from a single hub map, navigate atmospheric nightmare realms, solve vexing puzzles, and wield an arsenal of melee weapons, firearms, magic artifacts, and grenades against the most nightmarish monsters ever seen in a Doom engine game.
You choose which order to defeat each map, and which order you collect your weapons. Do you start with the easier maps and work your way up? or slog through the harder maps with nothing but your sword and raven, to access the most powerful weapons from the get-go?
Welcome to the Arkista’s Ring series, turning Heretic and Hexen into a sci-fi & sorcery epic with a pulp fiction vibe and a pretty elf with a smart mouth. Each mod comes with a readme file with a detailed breakdown of the story, characters, weapons, items, and lore to help immerse the player in the setting. If Heretic and Hexen feel too stale or tedious, you’ll find this series gives them both a shot in the arm!
This series began as a reboot of the fantasy-oriented NES game of the same name, reinvented into a pulp sci-fi fantasy in the style of Edgar Rice Burroughs and Andre Norton with a hardboiled edge.
Click the link below to download the series in a single convenient package!
Read on to learn the details of each mod, listed in order of release!
For Heretic
Requires GZdoom & Heretic
A hillbilly space elf named Christine is arrested for collaborating with a despotic Shogun who is conquering the galaxy. After having a bomb installed in her skull, Christine is given a chance at redemption by braving a treacherous planet in search of a powerful artifact.
Arkista’s Ring is a nonlinear sci-fi fantasy adventure where you choose your path through the game. Doors open via single-use keys, and some paths to the end are easier than others. Wield a vast array of sci-fi weaponry and fantastical artifacts against the strangest creatures in the galaxy.
A follow-up that turns any Heretic mapset into a space n’ sorcery adventure with ray guns, undead space dwarves, killer robots, and evil winged babes.
Optimum Security visits Jarro, planet of the dwarves, to rid their ore-rich moon of an infestation of ancestral ghosts and rogue robots, which turns out to be the doings of a cult of winged lunatics, led by a former underworld chum of Chrissy.
Other mapsets beside the original Heretic maps essentially detail further adventures on Jarro after the events of DDD.
Requires GZDoom & Heretic
ALSO INCLUDES REVISED VERSIONS OF THE FULL MOD FOR USE WITH
MASTERS OF CHAOS
&
FAITHLESS TRILOGY
(Run the revised mods instead of DDD when playing MoC or Faithless.)
REQUIRES GZDOOM AND HEXEN
A follow-up that turns any Hexen mapset into a hardboiled sci-fantasy epic with new classes, weapons, monsters, textures, sounds, hud, you name it. Unlike Hexen where you have to assemble the pieces of your superweapon before you can even use it, MoM has you collect upgrades for your main weapon to make it more powerful the further you go, so you get an instant benefit rather than having to wait until late in the game. You also can find Arkista’s Ring to power your starting weapon for the duration of the hub.
When they chase black marketeer Schloss the Red to the technophile planet Ydos, Optimum’s leaders Durrante and Chrissy run afoul of an A.I. called Medusa, which acts as the planet’s BIOS and the deity of the brainwashed inhabitants. Chrissy and Durrante team up with Schloss in order to kill the false god and escape the dying world before they become the latest members of Medusa’s mindless flock.
Mapsets other than Hexen’s base maps basically chronicle the trio’s further attempts to escape Ydos.
Also includes music compatibility for Vicerus, Kaiser 28, & Cyrgoth Manor!
I’ve been waxing nostalgic for old video game magazines. Back before the internet, kids, we used to have to rely on monthly magazines for our video game information and reviews. And yeah, the pro reviewers were just as full of shit back then as they are today…except we didn’t have any Zoey Quinns to reinvent bullying, extortion, and self-indulgence.
I dug out my last remaining mags and decided to scan anything that caught my interest. Below is a collection of various odds and ends: interesting articles, weird celebrity guest appearances, funny ads, and tons and tons of original art for you to make avatars with. Have fun!
Mike's Toybox 