Rise of the Triad
Encyclopedia
Rise of the Triad: Dark War (abbreviated as ROTT) is a first-person shooter
video game that was first released on February 17, 1995 and developed by Apogee Software (now known as 3D Realms
). The members of the development team involved referred to themselves as "The Developers of Incredible Power". The player can choose one of five different characters to play as, each bearing unique attributes such as height, speed, and endurance.
to investigate deadly cult
activity taking place in an ancient monastery. Their boat, the only way back, is destroyed by patrols, and the team soon learns that the cult plans to systematically destroy nearby Los Angeles
. The operatives, now unable to return whence they came, are then left to fight their way into the monastery
on the island, and eventually put a stop to the cult's activities.
Rise of the Triad was initially, during its early stages of development, meant to serve as the sequel to Wolfenstein 3D
, titled Wolfenstein 3D II: Rise of the Triad. The presence of the MP40 sub machinegun and the outfits worn by the enemies allude to Nazi Germany
and imply the original aforementioned intent for the development of ROTT.
successfully. Occasionally special tactics and simple problem-solving skills are required to reach seemingly unreachable locations. Although most maps are fairly linear, there are some maps that were intentionally designed to avoid that, which have multiple exits.
but is very quick and accurate. Taradino Cassatt is the only character available in the shareware
version of the game and has average statistics: good health, good speed, good accuracy.
There are numerous different types of enemies in the game that have different strengths and capabilities. Certain enemies can perform particular actions. Enemies sometimes beg for their life if the player has delivered enough damage to them. If they are left alive while pleading for their lives, they would fake their death but get back up and start attacking once again after a brief duration of time. Some enemies dodge the player's attacks, while others lie in the ground to ambush the player. Other enemies can shoot nets to restrain the player, or steal and use weapons from the player.
There are four different "bosses", which are tough enemies that the player has to defeat at the end of each episode. The bosses are General Darian, Sebastian Krist, NME (Nasty Metallic Enforcer), and El Oscuro, who is the head of the Triad-cult.
All enemies are digitized actors, mostly played by Apogee employees and their friends and family.
On random occasions, there may be an especially gratuitous amount of gibs (flying pieces of characters or enemies) produced when an enemy is killed, presenting the player with the Ludicrous Gibs! message. The amount of gibs produced every time an actor meets an explosion can be controlled through the options menu, which allows the player to set the graphics to various levels of goriness, from completely bloodless to extreme. Gibs would eventually and similarly appear in 3D Realms' next first-person shooter, Duke Nukem 3D
. Gore and gibs also play an important role in later Build games such as Shadow Warrior
and especially Blood. The gib-term itself was later popularized by Quake
.
There are several powerups in the game, that give different abilities to the player. Only one of the powerups can be active at once, and their effects last for a limited time. An example of a powerup is the God Mode, which makes the player invincible plus gives them an attack that homes in on and disintegrates enemies instantly, and the Mercury Mode, which enables the player to fly.
A major element of gameplay found in Rise of the Triad is the many hazards that the player can encounter in the environment. There are many different hazards that vary in the amount of damage that they may inflict on actors in the game and in how they do so. Hazards serve as obstacles and render the gameplay more challenging. An example of hazards in the game are "spinblades," which are stacks of gyrating blocks to which large blades are attached. These cause any players or enemies to lose health rapidly when in contact with them. Enemies are susceptible to traps as well, as they will walk into flamejets and spinblades.
There are also "jump pads" in the game, that catapult a player in the air, following some physics. If the player just stepped into it, it would propel him straight up, while by running up to it the player can make long jumps. Jump pads are often required for getting past certain obstacles or reaching a ledge to retrieve a key, etc. They can also be used for collecting powerups and bonuses; the latter is often arranged in an arc such that the player can collect all of them if the jump is timed right.
The game has numerous objects that can be destroyed. Most of them are ornaments or plants that have no actual role, but in some cases they block a secret door. Also, if light poles and firepots are shot, they will dim the area. Lastly, there are "walls" of glass that can be shattered by shooting or running through them.
The game features many different bonuses that are received for various achievements whenever a level is completed, such as picking up all the missile weapons in a level (one of the Republican bonuses), using all the healing items (Bleeder Bonus), or ending a level with only the last shred of health (Skin Of Your Teeth Bonus; gives the player full health to start the next level).
These modes include a standard deathmatch
mode, and the similar "Score Mode", which assigns different points depending on the weapon and way that a kill was done. There are other multiplayer modes that consist of collecting or destroying as many triad symbols as possible. There are a few "tag" multiplayer modes, similar to the children's game
, where a player must tag another player or moving symbols. There is also a "Hunter" mode, in which a "prey" player with no weapons has to be hunted by the rest, and a capture the flag
mode, which is probably the first first-person shooter incarnation of CTF.
There are many options that can be set for a multiplayer game, allowing a level of customization similar to many later games. These include player attributes, and whether or not things like health, missile weapons or traps are spawned in levels.
. The original full title of the game was "Rise of the Triad: Wolfenstein 3D Part II". It was to use the same game engine code as Wolfenstein 3D, and have new levels, art, and characters. As the game was getting into deeper development, project leader Scott Miller was contacted by John Carmack
informing Miller that the Wolfenstein expansion pack project had been canceled. Miller suspected that this was because id Software
didn't want to draw the spotlight away from their upcoming game, Doom.
According to the Apogee website the original storyline was the following:
More info can be found about the original game here.
engine. The level design is chiefly characterized by 90 degree walls and unvarying floor and ceiling heights in individual maps, limitations that are the sole vestiges of the original Wolfenstein 3D engine. However, ROTT's engine was still the first to pioneer myriad features which would be found in many later games, such as panoramic skies, simulated dynamic lighting, fog, bullet holes, breakable glass walls, level-over-level environments (made possible by "gravitational anomaly disks"; suspended objects that collectively form stairs, floors, etc.), and more.
, the lead designer. Other members of DIP were: William Scarboro, Jim Dose, Mark Dochtermann, Steve Hornback, Chuck Jones, and Susan Singer. Rise of the Triad was the only game released by DIP. A second game that was planned, Prey, never took off, and the name and parts of the original design were recycled for the more recent game by Human Head Studios
. The team was eventually disbanded.
Some of the members worked on the bestseller first-person shooter Duke Nukem 3D
. Others started their own companies, or left the computer games business. William Scarboro died of an asthma attack in August 2002.
Most of the alternate guards had to be cut due to technical limitations at the time. Originally the game was going to load both sets of guards into memory, then determine randomly which to place at each appropriate point. This had the side effect of making memory requirements much higher than normal for the time, so in order to conserve performance, the alternate versions of the enemies were removed. Stills of the alternate enemies can be seen during the credits, as "Actors who were Cut from the Game". Joe Siegler of 3D Realms currently is in possession of the VHS tapes which contain the original recording sessions of those characters.
Other cuts survived, like the ROTT Reject Level Pack (stages that were cut), some artwork (some can be found on the CD), and several other resources.
, with the first episode released for free. The shareware episode, which contains ten original levels, is titled Rise of the Triad: The HUNT Begins. This version has some limitations, including the ability to play only as Taradino Cassatt, and the availability of only four of the multiplayer modes. There was also a "Deluxe Edition" of the shareware version, marketed in retail by LaserSoft, which contains 3 extra levels, and 3 extra multiplayer levels that are not available on any other version.
There were several versions of the full or paid game, which included three new episodes. The Disk and CD versions both contain 32 game levels for the three new episodes, with the CD version containing more multiplayer levels. There was also a Site License version, which contained several multiplayer levels, and allowed the game to be played in multiplayer mode in up to 11 different computers in a single network, without each requiring a different copy of the game.
). Additionally, the final level of the pack causes the game to crash intentionally, showing the sense of humor of the developers.
There was an official retail add-on level pack released by Apogee for ROTT entitled Extreme Rise of the Triad also released in 1995. The add-on was produced by only two developers from the original team, Tom Hall
& Joe Siegler. Generally the maps produced in this add-on were considerably harder than the original game's maps due to tricks that Tom & Joe had learned in the editor since the release of the original. The Extreme ROTT CD also had several other goodies on it. There were some user made level editors, a random level generator from Apogee, maps, sound files, etc. It didn't sell very well, and had rather short shelf life. However, after the game came off retail shelves, most of these materials were rendered unavailable. The levels ended up being released as freeware on September 1, 2000. The remaining materials on the Extreme ROTT CD were released as freeware online as part of a "ROTT Goodies Pack" on February 15, 2005.
There were a few other level packs released from Apogee. One was the 'Lasersoft Deluxe Shareware Maps'. They were identical to the released shareware packs, except that a shareware company back then named Lasersoft paid Apogee to design 6 exclusive levels for their shareware release of the game. After this company went out of business, Apogee released these levels in October 1999.
Another was a level called 'Wolf3D', which was done by Joe as an exercise to see if he could replicate the level geography from Wolfenstein 3D
in Rise of the Triad. As ROTT uses the same basic game engine, Joe theorized that it should be possible to do this. The Wolf3D level for ROTT copied the complete level geography from Episode 1 Level 1 of Wolfenstein 3D, down to the exact placement of characters, doors, secret areas, and artwork. Some of the adjoining levels to this were added, but not completely.
The final release from Tom and Joe was the 'Ohio RTC' pack. This is a four level multiplayer pack which was designed for a group in Ohio that was holding a game tournament called 'BloodFest 96'. It took place in February 1996. After the tournament was over, the pack was released online for everyone.
The final level to be released by anyone from the original team was one level done by Joe Siegler entitled 'You & Spray'. Spray was an internal nickname given to the NME boss character by the developers. This was done by Joe as a gag in 1998, mostly as a personal exercise to see if he could remember how to still use the level editor. Joe has said that he initially didn't plan on releasing that, but after mentioning its existence online, he was cajoled into releasing it in November 2000.
All of the levels in this section can be downloaded at the ROTT page on the Apogee website.
to Rise of the Triad was released under the GNU General Public License
on 20 December 2002. Fans of the game ported it to Linux
, Mac OS
, Xbox
, Dreamcast, PlayStation Portable
and Nintendo DS
(homebrew) and 32-bit versions of Microsoft Windows
. This has led to the game being included in the Fedora
software repository, which downloads the free source port
engine used as well as a free installer which downloads the shareware version's data.
hat or an American flag. In addition, stylized Christmas music will play during game play on Christmas.
An item in the form of a floating digitized image of the head of Scott Miller
, who was the president of Apogee when the game was developed and released, is located in a secret area. (This is sometimes known as "Scott's Mystical Head" due to the audio clip that plays when it is picked up.) When it is picked up, the player is rewarded with 2,764,331 points; the numbers are the digits of Apogee's past phone number, which was 1-800-276-4331.
If the parameter "dopefish" is added to the executable, a sample of burping is heard and Scott's Mystical Head is seen spinning in circles on the screen. The names of the levels change to somehow pertain to Dopefish
and on one level, "Eight Ways to Hell", there is a secret area where a series of walls spells out "Dopefish Lives!" in the Commander Keen
language, Standard Galactic Alphabet. Also, the graphics data for episode 2 boss Sebastian Krist includes an unused animation frame that shows him holding a Dopefish plushie.
ROTT uses a pushwall system similar to that of Wolfenstein 3D
, whereby a pushed wall would move until it hit a restricting object (either a stop flag or another wall). If a pushwall exits the boundaries of the level, the game quits with the error message "PushWall Attempting to escape off the edge of the map". During testing, someone encountered this error and joked, saying "I'm free!" which led to a drawing of a pushwall flying joyfully into space. The drawing and error message ended up in the final version of the game, and can be seen through the level select cheat in the secret level "This causes an error."
First-person shooter
First-person shooter is a video game genre that centers the gameplay on gun and projectile weapon-based combat through first-person perspective; i.e., the player experiences the action through the eyes of a protagonist. Generally speaking, the first-person shooter shares common traits with other...
video game that was first released on February 17, 1995 and developed by Apogee Software (now known as 3D Realms
3D Realms
3D Realms is a current video game publisher and former video game developer based in Garland, Texas, United States, established in 1987...
). The members of the development team involved referred to themselves as "The Developers of Incredible Power". The player can choose one of five different characters to play as, each bearing unique attributes such as height, speed, and endurance.
Story
A team of special operatives, known as the H.U.N.T. (High-risk United Nations Task-force), is sent to San Nicolas IslandSan Nicolas Island
San Nicolas Island is the most remote of California's Channel Islands. It is part of Ventura County. The 14,562 acre island is currently controlled by the United States Navy and is used as a weapons testing and training facility, served by Naval Outlying Field San Nicolas Island...
to investigate deadly cult
Cult
The word cult in current popular usage usually refers to a group whose beliefs or practices are considered abnormal or bizarre. The word originally denoted a system of ritual practices...
activity taking place in an ancient monastery. Their boat, the only way back, is destroyed by patrols, and the team soon learns that the cult plans to systematically destroy nearby Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
. The operatives, now unable to return whence they came, are then left to fight their way into the monastery
Monastery
Monastery denotes the building, or complex of buildings, that houses a room reserved for prayer as well as the domestic quarters and workplace of monastics, whether monks or nuns, and whether living in community or alone .Monasteries may vary greatly in size – a small dwelling accommodating only...
on the island, and eventually put a stop to the cult's activities.
Rise of the Triad was initially, during its early stages of development, meant to serve as the sequel to Wolfenstein 3D
Wolfenstein 3D
Wolfenstein 3D is a video game that is generally regarded by critics and gaming journalists as having both popularized the first-person shooter genre on the PC and created the basic archetype upon which all subsequent games of the same genre would be built. It was created by id Software and...
, titled Wolfenstein 3D II: Rise of the Triad. The presence of the MP40 sub machinegun and the outfits worn by the enemies allude to Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
and imply the original aforementioned intent for the development of ROTT.
Gameplay
Overall, the gameplay is straightforward and often linear, like that of other games developed during the same period of time (such as Doom). The objective is to kill as many enemies as possible along with the bosses, and to collect keys in order to complete levelsLevel (video gaming)
A level, map, area, or world in a video game is the total space available to the player during the course of completing a discrete objective...
successfully. Occasionally special tactics and simple problem-solving skills are required to reach seemingly unreachable locations. Although most maps are fairly linear, there are some maps that were intentionally designed to avoid that, which have multiple exits.
Characters and enemies
The player can choose between several characters: Taradino Cassatt, Thi Barrett, Lorelei Ni, Doug Wendt, and Ian Paul Freeley. Each character bears unique characteristics; for instance, Doug Wendt moves rather slowly yet can sustain a particularly large amount of damage, while Lorelei Ni has fewer hit pointsHealth (gaming)
Health is a game mechanic used in role-playing, computer and video games to give value to characters, enemies, NPCs, and related objects. This value can either be numerical, semi-numerical as in hit/health points, or arbitrary as in a life bar....
but is very quick and accurate. Taradino Cassatt is the only character available in the shareware
Shareware
The term shareware is a proprietary software that is provided to users without payment on a trial basis and is often limited by any combination of functionality, availability, or convenience. Shareware is often offered as a download from an Internet website or as a compact disc included with a...
version of the game and has average statistics: good health, good speed, good accuracy.
There are numerous different types of enemies in the game that have different strengths and capabilities. Certain enemies can perform particular actions. Enemies sometimes beg for their life if the player has delivered enough damage to them. If they are left alive while pleading for their lives, they would fake their death but get back up and start attacking once again after a brief duration of time. Some enemies dodge the player's attacks, while others lie in the ground to ambush the player. Other enemies can shoot nets to restrain the player, or steal and use weapons from the player.
There are four different "bosses", which are tough enemies that the player has to defeat at the end of each episode. The bosses are General Darian, Sebastian Krist, NME (Nasty Metallic Enforcer), and El Oscuro, who is the head of the Triad-cult.
All enemies are digitized actors, mostly played by Apogee employees and their friends and family.
On random occasions, there may be an especially gratuitous amount of gibs (flying pieces of characters or enemies) produced when an enemy is killed, presenting the player with the Ludicrous Gibs! message. The amount of gibs produced every time an actor meets an explosion can be controlled through the options menu, which allows the player to set the graphics to various levels of goriness, from completely bloodless to extreme. Gibs would eventually and similarly appear in 3D Realms' next first-person shooter, Duke Nukem 3D
Duke Nukem 3D
Duke Nukem 3D is a first-person shooter computer game developed by 3D Realms and published by GT Interactive Software. The full version was released for the PC . It is a sequel to the platform games Duke Nukem and Duke Nukem II published by Apogee...
. Gore and gibs also play an important role in later Build games such as Shadow Warrior
Shadow Warrior
Shadow Warrior, often known by its initials SW, is a first-person shooter computer game developed by 3D Realms and released on May 13, 1997 by GT Interactive. Shadow Warrior was developed using Ken Silverman's Build engine and improved on 3D Realms' previous Build engine game, Duke Nukem 3D...
and especially Blood. The gib-term itself was later popularized by Quake
Quake series
The Quake series is a line of first-person shooter video games produced by id Software.-Overview:The Quake series is somewhat unusual in that its focus changes frequently; the story of Quake II has nothing to do with Quake, and Quake III Arena has little to do with either of its predecessors...
.
Items
There are a total of eleven weapons in the game, divided into three groups: the bullet weapons, the missile weapons, and the magic weapons. Bullet weapons have infinite ammo. Missile weapons have limited ammo that varies. The missile weapons constitute the bulk of the entire available arsenal in the game, and are usually powerful enough to attack groups of several enemies. Magic weapons, like missile weapons, hold varying limited ammo, depending on the weapon. Players can carry a total of four different arms at once: all three bullet weapons and either a missile or a magic weapon, a realistic limitation to the player's burden.There are several powerups in the game, that give different abilities to the player. Only one of the powerups can be active at once, and their effects last for a limited time. An example of a powerup is the God Mode, which makes the player invincible plus gives them an attack that homes in on and disintegrates enemies instantly, and the Mercury Mode, which enables the player to fly.
Environment
There are several ways to interact with the environment in the game, including elevators and pushable walls.A major element of gameplay found in Rise of the Triad is the many hazards that the player can encounter in the environment. There are many different hazards that vary in the amount of damage that they may inflict on actors in the game and in how they do so. Hazards serve as obstacles and render the gameplay more challenging. An example of hazards in the game are "spinblades," which are stacks of gyrating blocks to which large blades are attached. These cause any players or enemies to lose health rapidly when in contact with them. Enemies are susceptible to traps as well, as they will walk into flamejets and spinblades.
There are also "jump pads" in the game, that catapult a player in the air, following some physics. If the player just stepped into it, it would propel him straight up, while by running up to it the player can make long jumps. Jump pads are often required for getting past certain obstacles or reaching a ledge to retrieve a key, etc. They can also be used for collecting powerups and bonuses; the latter is often arranged in an arc such that the player can collect all of them if the jump is timed right.
The game has numerous objects that can be destroyed. Most of them are ornaments or plants that have no actual role, but in some cases they block a secret door. Also, if light poles and firepots are shot, they will dim the area. Lastly, there are "walls" of glass that can be shattered by shooting or running through them.
The game features many different bonuses that are received for various achievements whenever a level is completed, such as picking up all the missile weapons in a level (one of the Republican bonuses), using all the healing items (Bleeder Bonus), or ending a level with only the last shred of health (Skin Of Your Teeth Bonus; gives the player full health to start the next level).
Multiplayer
The multiplayer mode (called COMM-BAT in the game) is notable for the time the game was released, allowing up to eleven players simultaneously. Each could have separate uniform colors, but in team mode, teams were defined by uniform color. There are nine multiplayer modes, some of which do not necessarily involve players shooting each other.These modes include a standard deathmatch
Deathmatch (gaming)
Deathmatch or Player vs All is a widely-used gameplay mode integrated into many shooter and real-time strategy computer games...
mode, and the similar "Score Mode", which assigns different points depending on the weapon and way that a kill was done. There are other multiplayer modes that consist of collecting or destroying as many triad symbols as possible. There are a few "tag" multiplayer modes, similar to the children's game
Tag (game)
Tag is a playground game played worldwide that involves one or more players chasing other players in an attempt to tag or touch them, usually with their fingers. There are many variations...
, where a player must tag another player or moving symbols. There is also a "Hunter" mode, in which a "prey" player with no weapons has to be hunted by the rest, and a capture the flag
Capture the flag
Capture the Flag is a traditional outdoor sport generally played by children, where two teams each have a flag and the objective is to capture the other team's flag, located at the team's "base," and bring it safely back to their own base...
mode, which is probably the first first-person shooter incarnation of CTF.
There are many options that can be set for a multiplayer game, allowing a level of customization similar to many later games. These include player attributes, and whether or not things like health, missile weapons or traps are spawned in levels.
Original concept
Rise of the Triad began its life as nothing more than an expansion pack for Wolfenstein 3DWolfenstein 3D
Wolfenstein 3D is a video game that is generally regarded by critics and gaming journalists as having both popularized the first-person shooter genre on the PC and created the basic archetype upon which all subsequent games of the same genre would be built. It was created by id Software and...
. The original full title of the game was "Rise of the Triad: Wolfenstein 3D Part II". It was to use the same game engine code as Wolfenstein 3D, and have new levels, art, and characters. As the game was getting into deeper development, project leader Scott Miller was contacted by John Carmack
John Carmack
John D. Carmack II is an American game programmer and the co-founder of id Software. Carmack was the lead programmer of the id computer games Commander Keen, Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Quake, Rage and their sequels....
informing Miller that the Wolfenstein expansion pack project had been canceled. Miller suspected that this was because id Software
Id Software
Id Software is an American video game development company with its headquarters in Richardson, Texas. The company was founded in 1991 by four members of the computer company Softdisk: programmers John Carmack and John Romero, game designer Tom Hall, and artist Adrian Carmack...
didn't want to draw the spotlight away from their upcoming game, Doom.
According to the Apogee website the original storyline was the following:
After the fall of Hitler, the true powers behind him have drawn into seclusion, planning their next strategy for world domination. Three large corporations guided Hitler as a puppet, and now plan the subjugation of the planet to their organization, the Triad. Their new plan: having developed nuclear weapons and new V-3 rockets to carry them, they plan to get a stranglehold on the world with the threat of ArmageddonArmageddonArmageddon is, according to the Bible, the site of a battle during the end times, variously interpreted as either a literal or symbolic location...
.
More info can be found about the original game here.
Engine
The engine is an enhanced variant of the Wolfenstein 3DWolfenstein 3D
Wolfenstein 3D is a video game that is generally regarded by critics and gaming journalists as having both popularized the first-person shooter genre on the PC and created the basic archetype upon which all subsequent games of the same genre would be built. It was created by id Software and...
engine. The level design is chiefly characterized by 90 degree walls and unvarying floor and ceiling heights in individual maps, limitations that are the sole vestiges of the original Wolfenstein 3D engine. However, ROTT's engine was still the first to pioneer myriad features which would be found in many later games, such as panoramic skies, simulated dynamic lighting, fog, bullet holes, breakable glass walls, level-over-level environments (made possible by "gravitational anomaly disks"; suspended objects that collectively form stairs, floors, etc.), and more.
Developers of Incredible Power
The Developers of Incredible Power (DIP) is the team behind Rise of the Triad. The team's name was created by Tom HallTom Hall
Tom A. Hall is a game designer born in Wisconsin. He attended the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he received a B.S. in Computer Science. In 1987, he worked at Softdisk Inc., where he was both a programmer and the editor of Softdisk, a software bundle delivered monthly...
, the lead designer. Other members of DIP were: William Scarboro, Jim Dose, Mark Dochtermann, Steve Hornback, Chuck Jones, and Susan Singer. Rise of the Triad was the only game released by DIP. A second game that was planned, Prey, never took off, and the name and parts of the original design were recycled for the more recent game by Human Head Studios
Human Head Studios
Human Head Studios is a computer game development company located in Madison, Wisconsin.It was founded in October 1997 by a group of six developers formerly from Raven Software: Chris Rhinehart, Paul MacArthur, Shane Gurno, Ben Gokey, James Sumwalt, and Ted Halsted—later joined by game producer Tim...
. The team was eventually disbanded.
Some of the members worked on the bestseller first-person shooter Duke Nukem 3D
Duke Nukem 3D
Duke Nukem 3D is a first-person shooter computer game developed by 3D Realms and published by GT Interactive Software. The full version was released for the PC . It is a sequel to the platform games Duke Nukem and Duke Nukem II published by Apogee...
. Others started their own companies, or left the computer games business. William Scarboro died of an asthma attack in August 2002.
Cut elements
Several planned elements were cut from the game. One well-known example included female versions of certain enemies, like Low Guards, Strike Force soldiers, and the Overpatrol. Most of the voices for the female guards are on the registered CD version as a bonus.Most of the alternate guards had to be cut due to technical limitations at the time. Originally the game was going to load both sets of guards into memory, then determine randomly which to place at each appropriate point. This had the side effect of making memory requirements much higher than normal for the time, so in order to conserve performance, the alternate versions of the enemies were removed. Stills of the alternate enemies can be seen during the credits, as "Actors who were Cut from the Game". Joe Siegler of 3D Realms currently is in possession of the VHS tapes which contain the original recording sessions of those characters.
Other cuts survived, like the ROTT Reject Level Pack (stages that were cut), some artwork (some can be found on the CD), and several other resources.
Game releases
As most Apogee games, the game was distributed as sharewareShareware
The term shareware is a proprietary software that is provided to users without payment on a trial basis and is often limited by any combination of functionality, availability, or convenience. Shareware is often offered as a download from an Internet website or as a compact disc included with a...
, with the first episode released for free. The shareware episode, which contains ten original levels, is titled Rise of the Triad: The HUNT Begins. This version has some limitations, including the ability to play only as Taradino Cassatt, and the availability of only four of the multiplayer modes. There was also a "Deluxe Edition" of the shareware version, marketed in retail by LaserSoft, which contains 3 extra levels, and 3 extra multiplayer levels that are not available on any other version.
There were several versions of the full or paid game, which included three new episodes. The Disk and CD versions both contain 32 game levels for the three new episodes, with the CD version containing more multiplayer levels. There was also a Site License version, which contained several multiplayer levels, and allowed the game to be played in multiplayer mode in up to 11 different computers in a single network, without each requiring a different copy of the game.
Other releases
On July 25, 1995, Apogee released a 'Reject Level Pack' as freeware online. During production of the game, many levels were rejected for one reason or another. This pack was a collection of multiplayer maps deemed unsuitable for the original release. Some of these were serious attempts at levels (one even attempted to recreate a popular deathmatch level (1-5) from the videogame Doom), and some were not (like one where you played inside the popular videogame character DopefishDopefish
The Dopefish is a fictional fish that originated in the fourth Commander Keen video game, Secret of the Oracle, released in 1991. The character has since evolved into a PC game industry in-joke, making appearances in games from Apogee's 1994 Wacky Wheels as well as titles as recent as the 2006 SiN...
). Additionally, the final level of the pack causes the game to crash intentionally, showing the sense of humor of the developers.
There was an official retail add-on level pack released by Apogee for ROTT entitled Extreme Rise of the Triad also released in 1995. The add-on was produced by only two developers from the original team, Tom Hall
Tom Hall
Tom A. Hall is a game designer born in Wisconsin. He attended the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he received a B.S. in Computer Science. In 1987, he worked at Softdisk Inc., where he was both a programmer and the editor of Softdisk, a software bundle delivered monthly...
& Joe Siegler. Generally the maps produced in this add-on were considerably harder than the original game's maps due to tricks that Tom & Joe had learned in the editor since the release of the original. The Extreme ROTT CD also had several other goodies on it. There were some user made level editors, a random level generator from Apogee, maps, sound files, etc. It didn't sell very well, and had rather short shelf life. However, after the game came off retail shelves, most of these materials were rendered unavailable. The levels ended up being released as freeware on September 1, 2000. The remaining materials on the Extreme ROTT CD were released as freeware online as part of a "ROTT Goodies Pack" on February 15, 2005.
There were a few other level packs released from Apogee. One was the 'Lasersoft Deluxe Shareware Maps'. They were identical to the released shareware packs, except that a shareware company back then named Lasersoft paid Apogee to design 6 exclusive levels for their shareware release of the game. After this company went out of business, Apogee released these levels in October 1999.
Another was a level called 'Wolf3D', which was done by Joe as an exercise to see if he could replicate the level geography from Wolfenstein 3D
Wolfenstein 3D
Wolfenstein 3D is a video game that is generally regarded by critics and gaming journalists as having both popularized the first-person shooter genre on the PC and created the basic archetype upon which all subsequent games of the same genre would be built. It was created by id Software and...
in Rise of the Triad. As ROTT uses the same basic game engine, Joe theorized that it should be possible to do this. The Wolf3D level for ROTT copied the complete level geography from Episode 1 Level 1 of Wolfenstein 3D, down to the exact placement of characters, doors, secret areas, and artwork. Some of the adjoining levels to this were added, but not completely.
The final release from Tom and Joe was the 'Ohio RTC' pack. This is a four level multiplayer pack which was designed for a group in Ohio that was holding a game tournament called 'BloodFest 96'. It took place in February 1996. After the tournament was over, the pack was released online for everyone.
The final level to be released by anyone from the original team was one level done by Joe Siegler entitled 'You & Spray'. Spray was an internal nickname given to the NME boss character by the developers. This was done by Joe as a gag in 1998, mostly as a personal exercise to see if he could remember how to still use the level editor. Joe has said that he initially didn't plan on releasing that, but after mentioning its existence online, he was cajoled into releasing it in November 2000.
All of the levels in this section can be downloaded at the ROTT page on the Apogee website.
Source code
The source codeSource code
In computer science, source code is text written using the format and syntax of the programming language that it is being written in. Such a language is specially designed to facilitate the work of computer programmers, who specify the actions to be performed by a computer mostly by writing source...
to Rise of the Triad was released under the GNU General Public License
GNU General Public License
The GNU General Public License is the most widely used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU Project....
on 20 December 2002. Fans of the game ported it to Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
, Mac OS
Mac OS
Mac OS is a series of graphical user interface-based operating systems developed by Apple Inc. for their Macintosh line of computer systems. The Macintosh user experience is credited with popularizing the graphical user interface...
, Xbox
Xbox
The Xbox is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Microsoft. It was released on November 15, 2001 in North America, February 22, 2002 in Japan, and March 14, 2002 in Australia and Europe and is the predecessor to the Xbox 360. It was Microsoft's first foray into the gaming console...
, Dreamcast, PlayStation Portable
PlayStation Portable
The is a handheld game console manufactured and marketed by Sony Corporation Development of the console was announced during E3 2003, and it was unveiled on , 2004, at a Sony press conference before E3 2004...
and Nintendo DS
Nintendo DS
The is a portable game console produced by Nintendo, first released on November 21, 2004. A distinctive feature of the system is the presence of two separate LCD screens, the lower of which is a touchscreen, encompassed within a clamshell design, similar to the Game Boy Advance SP...
(homebrew) and 32-bit versions of Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
. This has led to the game being included in the Fedora
Fedora (operating system)
Fedora is a RPM-based, general purpose collection of software, including an operating system based on the Linux kernel, developed by the community-supported Fedora Project and sponsored by Red Hat...
software repository, which downloads the free source port
Source port
A source port is a software project based on the source code of a computer game's engine that allows the game to be played on operating systems or computing platforms with which the game was not originally compatible. Source ports are created by fans after the original developer hands over the...
engine used as well as a free installer which downloads the shareware version's data.
Easter eggs
The game has an easter egg related to various holidays. When the system time is set to certain dates, the image of the HUNT Team in the main menu will show one of the characters wearing or holding a holiday-themed item, such as a SantaSanta Claus
Santa Claus is a folklore figure in various cultures who distributes gifts to children, normally on Christmas Eve. Each name is a variation of Saint Nicholas, but refers to Santa Claus...
hat or an American flag. In addition, stylized Christmas music will play during game play on Christmas.
An item in the form of a floating digitized image of the head of Scott Miller
Scott Miller
Scott Miller may refer to:*Scott Miller *Scott Miller *Scott Miller *Scott Miller , rock singer, former member of Game Theory, lead singer of The Loud Family...
, who was the president of Apogee when the game was developed and released, is located in a secret area. (This is sometimes known as "Scott's Mystical Head" due to the audio clip that plays when it is picked up.) When it is picked up, the player is rewarded with 2,764,331 points; the numbers are the digits of Apogee's past phone number, which was 1-800-276-4331.
If the parameter "dopefish" is added to the executable, a sample of burping is heard and Scott's Mystical Head is seen spinning in circles on the screen. The names of the levels change to somehow pertain to Dopefish
Dopefish
The Dopefish is a fictional fish that originated in the fourth Commander Keen video game, Secret of the Oracle, released in 1991. The character has since evolved into a PC game industry in-joke, making appearances in games from Apogee's 1994 Wacky Wheels as well as titles as recent as the 2006 SiN...
and on one level, "Eight Ways to Hell", there is a secret area where a series of walls spells out "Dopefish Lives!" in the Commander Keen
Commander Keen
Commander Keen is a series of video games developed by id Software in the early 1990s. The series focuses on the adventures of Billy Blaze, an 8-year old boy who travels through space and assumes the identity "Commander Keen". The series was successful at replicating the side-scrolling action of...
language, Standard Galactic Alphabet. Also, the graphics data for episode 2 boss Sebastian Krist includes an unused animation frame that shows him holding a Dopefish plushie.
ROTT uses a pushwall system similar to that of Wolfenstein 3D
Wolfenstein 3D
Wolfenstein 3D is a video game that is generally regarded by critics and gaming journalists as having both popularized the first-person shooter genre on the PC and created the basic archetype upon which all subsequent games of the same genre would be built. It was created by id Software and...
, whereby a pushed wall would move until it hit a restricting object (either a stop flag or another wall). If a pushwall exits the boundaries of the level, the game quits with the error message "PushWall Attempting to escape off the edge of the map". During testing, someone encountered this error and joked, saying "I'm free!" which led to a drawing of a pushwall flying joyfully into space. The drawing and error message ended up in the final version of the game, and can be seen through the level select cheat in the secret level "This causes an error."