Adventure, heh...

Excitement, heh. A Jedi craves not these things.

Well what about fame? Probably not. But then again I'm not an aspiring Jedi.

A long, long time ago in room not so far away, I remember finally finishing the download of Wolfenstein on to my friends computer. We fired it up and were just amazed at what lay before us. The first First Person Shooter kept us playing for hours on end. It wasnt long until I found a few utility programs that would allow the computer savvy to change the game - anything from the sprites to complete maps. I gave the end boss a pair of spiffy Terminator style sunglasses, pixeled in the shattering of the dogs' skulls as their heads blew apart, and of course, altered the map layouts. Yes, Megos the mapper was born.

Jump ahead to Doom and Doom II. Mapping there was a bit more complicated, but do able. With the help of friends we turned out all sorts of maps - especially when a local BBS came to light where we could make deathmatch maps and actually play them with numerous people. At somepoint I even made my first TC (Total Conversion) which amounted to a Predator adaptation. Nothing terribly fancy, change in graphics, sounds, splash screen, etc and of course custom levels. It wasn't terribly good either, but thankfully back then, all ameature stuff basically sucked (Although Aliens TC for Doom II was really, really good).

Then Half Life rolled in, and I toyed with creating some maps for Team Fortress Classic. My first map done that actually compiled and uploaded (and I even found some people trying it out) was called Subwar. Two opposing submarines lay in the water and players would wage war. At the time of its creation I thought it was amazing. It sucked :) Bad r_speeds, bad game flow, it looked ugly, etc. I made another one inspired by Escher's drawings and that was pretty horrid too.

Soon I found this nifty little game called Counter Strike. It was completely unheard of, as it was in its first release. I was quite impressed with how fun and simple it was, and knew it would be big (too bad there wasn't stock to be bought in it). My first real map attempt was an aircraft carrier. Again, I thought it was amazing - in reality, it blew chunks. But then again, most people were still learning.

I should probably time compress things now. A partial map originally inteded for Counter Strike was adopted and completed by a game called Frontline Force and still is argueably the best balanced map out there for the game. The map was modeled loosely after the fort here in St. Augustine Florida, Castillo De San Marcos. Although thanks to limitations on the HL engine - and my own skill - it never turned out just how I wanted it. But it was a good start (and was finished well to my liking). I remember compiling the inside of the first wall and thinking how spiffy it looked to add in sunset rays and how it looked against a row of cannons. Another map would be taken by them (this time completed by me) and took place in the Cheyenne Mountain complex. It still looks pretty spiffy IMHO considering the aged engine it plays on. Sadly - and truthfully - it is a bit disorienting for new players as a few hallways do look a like.

Anyway, on to the fame. A mod called Natural Selection was released some time ago. The first time I spied it (before release) I knew instantly this game was right up my alley. Aliens fighting Marines in a futuristic setting with epic battles, true strategy and an already fantastic dev team? What more could I want? Quickly I started forumlating ideas and turned out my first true gem, ns_nancy. Set on a space freighter, the influence in design from the movies Alien and Aliens was very apparent. It also boasted the best ventilation system ever. Not a requirement to know the layout, but if you knew it or used it, alien players could set up some fantastic attacks and of course, always kept the marine tension high. This little baby put me in the spotlight as a bit of a mapper celebrity it would seem. Maybe not so much by name, but certainly my reference.

A second map was then created, again heavily influenced architecture by the movie Aliens, although was now set in a colony. I would have really liked to see it be played, and seen it immortalized as "official" since visually it was much more impressive and immersive. Although a little harddrive disaster destroyed the source files and I had no back up. Well I did, but it was a very aged back up, which meant 90% of the map was lost.

As I could not bear to redo all that work, I simply started on the third and final map I would submit to NS. Originally designed for the classic gameplay, I ended up chopping off nearly half of the map to get it in line for the new game mode: combat. As such, co_kestrel was born (or metamorphized). I've always really liked the visuals on kestrel - some areas bother me here and there as not finished, or could be better, but overall it felt right. It felt like a battle on a carrier (are we noticed a theme that I like ship maps yet?)

In between all of this scattered about I dabbled in maps for various UT2k mods - mostly just personal fun - and some commerical dealings. Some experiments in gameplay or design here and there for other mods: some worked, some failed horribly (even though I always thought they were fun) Now however it seems that the call back to map something serious has been issued and it couldn't have come at a more aprapos time as I've sort of been bitten by the desire to create a new map for "something"

There is something very satistfing about creating an area, be it room, ship, world, environment, etc and walking around in it, admiring just how good it looks just before you squeeze off a few rounds in whatever weapon you are carrying. And of course, its always nice to hear the compliments as people run around it for the first time (or the hundreth time). So it looks like I just may be a D celebrity again out in the FPS world in a bit.