Blood/Revisional Differences

This is a sub-page of Blood.

Information was taken from the PATCH.TXT readme for v1.11, dated September 23, 1997.

Version 1.0x

v1.00

The original release.

v1.01

Fixed a number of bugs:

• Co-op players no longer get out of sync when attacked by spiders and during earthquakes.
• A problem with loading and saving games has been fixed. Some operations that had been started would not finish after the game was reloaded. For example, ending the level.
• A crash that could be caused by just having save files, due to incorrect menu code for initializing the saved game menu.
• If alternate fire was used with the Voodoo Doll, the weapon couldn't be reselected again until picking up another one.
• A couple of level fixes including secrets that counted each time you 'found' them and fixes related to items respawning (either not or always).
• Help screens corrected for correct key configurations.
• Cerberus being too easy to kill with the Tesla cannon.
• 'Show Weapons' option not getting saved when you exited the game.
• Sometimes a monster would show the 'electrocution' effect when it hadn't been damaged by the Tesla cannon.
• Saved games are now much smaller.
• There were two Red team flags on E2M1 and only one Blue team flag.
• Players are now warned of possible game crashes when starting up Blood without having enough memory.

Monolith mentions some video cards (in the readme.txt) have bad VESA drivers and crash when Blood uses higher-resolution video modes, and advised looking up specific cards that have these problems. For this reason, the in-game video mode switching function of the F8 key was removed until the VESA issues could be resolved.

v1.02

• Online services have been optimized and integrated into the single Blood application, obsoleting the need for enablers for people's devices.
• Support for Spacetec was added.
• Users who have installed the v1.01 tools (mapedit, artedit, etc.), will have them patched to 1.02.
• CD-Audio tracks will now repeat during a level, which will cause a slight delay when the track is restarted. This can be avoided by using the -nocd parameter to Blood and controlling the playback of the CD-Audio through another program.
• Map names are now displayed in map mode.
• More things are cached when a level starts. This makes the level load appear longer, but the action should be faster in the game (assuming you have enough memory). All the audio is still not being pre-cached (because they're all so BIG), so you will still have some 'hitches' while it is loaded the first time.
• The large status bar correctly shows the version number.
• Fixed a problem in Capture-the-Flag play where if the player with the flag, say, jumped off the train (and dropped the flag), the flag would never come back where somebody could get it. It now respawns after some time if nobody goes and gets it.
• You'd sometimes see yourself (a ghost) when you jumped through stacks.
• Mirrors were broken when loading a saved game. This would give the "Hall of Mirrors" effect.

Monolith Productions states videos still do not play in DOS, and pointed out having problems synchronizing the Smacker video playback and the sound drivers they were using.

Version 1.1x

v1.10

Fixed a number of bugs:

• A "level looping" bug which was related to demos and internally incorrectly setting the options you had chosen with the default options (e1m1). This caused the "next" level to always be E1M2. A workaround for v1.02 was to delete the demos (*.dem).
• Some problems with killing many things at once.
• If a CD was not in the CD Drive when the game tried to play videos from the CD, an "Abort, Retry, Fail" showed up. The game now checks with the CD functions to verify a disc is installed before trying to play them.
• Moved the user map option from the setup to the New Game menu. This works on all online services and is much faster because it happens after all players are in the game.
• Holstering the spray can weapon did not work.
• Video modes can now be changed from a menu in the game.
• Demos from older versions are ignored on playback.
• Saved games from older versions are ignored.
• Cutscenes now play in DOS!
• Gargoyles would sometimes fly higher and higher, and ignore the player.
• If you cheat, the game keeps track over saved games.
• Beastvision key was disabled.
• A problem with Alt-TABing in Windows and slowdowns. The responsiveness has been improved when you return.
• Problems with starting some levels. This was particularly noticed on e1m3 on some systems.
• When one player quit, sometimes other players would crash.
• Rats (and other monsters) would scream like humans when exploded.
• "Map follow mode" didn't work.
• Sometimes running out of ammo would auto-switch you to the napalm cannon.
• Electrocution death of monster was sometimes caused by shotgun.
• Tesla Cannon's alternate fire mode worked when ammo was too low, which also applied to the Voodoo Doll and Tommy Gun with insufficient ammo.
• Spray can would continue burning underwater.
• Added loading screens on network, loading/saving games, and level start.
• Added "restarting CD" screen when CD track is looping.
• Added ending credits to episodes; ending an episode re-starts the game at the intro movies.
• CD Audio restarts when saved game is loaded.
• Only player #1 could damage opponents by jumping on their heads.
• Memory reporting improved to give better totals about how much memory was allocated. Maximum memory allocated is set to 36MB.
• Saving then game was possible when dead.
• There was an E2M5 secret with no exit.
• You could get "Grip of Fear" (unable to release) with TNT or spray can when jumping into water.
• E2M2's lamp sprite was not positioned on the ceiling as it should be.
• Added 'reset Keys to defaults' on configurations menu.
• MS-DOS MODE: Thunder SFX looped incorrectly during the Monolith splash screen.
• E1M1 clicking noise at 2nd secret (TNT) in Caleb's tomb.

v1.11

• Quicksave bug is fixed. This bug incorrectly wrote saved game file.
• Blood now closes save/demo files correctly so externally loaded files (i.e. demos) run correctly.
• User maps can now be paused. User maps display correct loading screen (not "LOADING DEMO").
• Autorun and mouse aim status are now saved.
• Co-op frag bar was missing, and killer monsters now counts for a frag in Co-op.
• Crystal Ball view was wrong.
• Tchernobog was made stronger.