Looking through the Dropbox album now. Really glad you did this! DM maps and their history have been a little ignored compared to SP maps, over the past few years.

Would you say this doc is ready for public viewing? It's not like there's a horde of old Quake players waiting to descend on it, but it would be neat to mention it on some other forums. 

... I'm wondering what I should do about linking to the files. I'm temped to just take my folder with all 406 maps in it, zip the thing up, and provide a download link. That way someone could download the entire archive if they wanted. I provided links on the main page to two current repositories where 90% of the maps can be found, but I'm loathe to start trying to track down links to all these, which may or may not work down the road.

Thoughts on how to provide access to the maps? Can I just zip it all up? Break it into a few packages? Provide cleaned up packages? A lot of maps need to be distributed intact (per their authors readme's), but unzipping 406 is a mess. I'd rather sort the mess out for someone else?

Any insight or guidance would be great. 

i wonder if it can be hosted in such a way that the "quake injector" could download them. 

I would think that a zipped-up folder of all the maps is fine as long as it preserves readme files.

I don't know if there are people who have strong opinions against that, but (for example) there's been a package of hundreds of maps + waypoints for Frikbots that has been distributed around publically for years now, and I've similarly compiled & been hosting a package of all the maps supported by the Frogbots in nQuake or Trinca's progs. I've never run across any criticism of that sort of repackaging. 

Yes, and the NetQuake server lists on QuakeOne likewise have downloads for large map packs running on servers.

I think will get two packs pulled together, one for the 169 maps I'm running on 13 Acres of Hell DM server (169 = 13 x 13). Then I'll do a full package of all the maps. What fun! 

I don't think anyone except super nerds worry about repacking maps, especially for distributing DM maps, as long as the .txt is there. Pretty sure Terrafusion used to do that with it's weekly map rotations on it's server, just put the maps into a single zip to distribute. 

The QW people used to distribute everything without text files. It changed a bit after I ranted and ranted. Servers let users autodownload bsp files anyways. Everything is kinda terrible. Your approach seems great :)

Might be nice to lowercase all filenames before zipping, that way it will work for Linux and Mac too. 

I don't remember if I linked this last time I saw it. Thought it couldn't hurt to link again.

https://github.com/ThomasHabets/qpov 

Alright - I compiled all 406 maps currently in the database into a zip file with all the readme files along for the ride. A dozen or so maps don't have readmes ... so whatevers.

Here's the link:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bx2KSr0TXJqJTTZ5VWRBZ2M3RVk

It's also linked from the main tab on the prominence database do-hicky. 

spam. 

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-QVhOomUESWs/VP1K8AESMeI/AAAAAAAAXoY/w30PjB-AlZs/s1600/P3020016.JPG 

 

I stumbled across the complete works of H.P. Lovecraft in Barnes & Noble a few weeks ago and decided it's about time I check him out. I was concerned that the Lovecraftian stuff I absorbed from pop culture would ruin the mystery of it all, that turns out to not be the case.

I really appreciate the scope of most if his stories and the ease in which events taking place across vasts amounts of time and space are conveyed. I'm not very well read and the only thing I can really compare it to is Paradise Lost and the Divine Comedy, both of which are awesome. I also like the pulpy format which keeps it from getting tiring after a while.

I started off with shorter stories like Pickman's Model, Cool Air, In The Vault, The Temple, The Nameless City, and of course, The Call of Cthulhu. Of these, I found The Temple to be particularly compelling. I feel that it could easily be adapted to film and be really sweet. The Nameless City screamed Quake, or really just video games in general. It was interesting to see that Quake's aesthetic really only has bits of Lovecraft influence instead of a full-on copy. Quake is basically medieval fantasy with a dash of Lovecraft.

Not sure where I'm going with this, perhaps just to say that if you haven't read Lovecraft already it may be worth your time to pick it up. The atmosphere and aesthetic leave quite a bit of room for interpretation and could inspire some pretty cool landscapes and playspaces. I see the irony in suggesting Lovecraft on a Quake forum, but I think Quake only tapped into a small facet and that there is much more that could be expanded upon.