blood source release campaign > about

ABOUT THIS SITE
messy

BROWSER, RESOLUTION AND SOUND
messy

This site was created for Internet Explorer 4.0 or better. It will "work" with Netscape, but due to Netscape's stubborn attitude towards cascading style sheets, some things, like the menu, will look a little awkward. Sorry, but that is not going to change.

You should set your screen resolution to at least 1024x768 and your colour depth to at least 16bit. Also advisable is using the FULLSCREEN function. (press F11 to toggle fullscreen in IE)

This site has midi music from the Blood soundtrack for ambience. If you don't like it, click your STOP button and it will cease. For best audio quality, a sound card equipped with "wave table synthesis" is recommended. It will sound like an old Nintendo game otherwise :) If you like the midi's there is a .zip file of the complete set in the Downloads section.

I am proud to say that this site has been validated as CSS by the World Wide Web Consortium.

SO... WHY? WHAT IS THIS CAMPAIGN?
messy

This campaign is designed to get the Blood source code released publicly. Why? See below. Why do we need a campaign for it, you ask? Wouldn't that be a logical step for a popular first-person-shooter that's not the 'it' thing anymore?
You'd think so, wouldn't you... but that's not the case. See, the thing is there has been alot of confusion over who owned the source code. We now know that it is owned by Infogrames Inc., but it took a long time and alot of effort to get this solved. See this timeline for the developments in Blood's history.

January 2nd 1994 - the BUILD engine is created by Ken Silverman. Actually, the development started years before that, but this is approximately when BUILD became close to what we know it as now. For a detailed history of the BUILD engine's development, Ken has laid it all out for you at his site: click here.

1995 (approx) - QStudios begins development of BLOOD, which would be the only horror game of its kind for years to come. BLOOD was to be published by GT Interactive Software.

January 22nd 1997 - Monolith Productions acquires QStudios - and Blood of course, with GTI still holding publishing rights. ( press release available )

March 7th 1997 - Shortly after the retail version shipped to stores, the Blood shareware version 1.0 is released at www.blood.com ( press release available )

April 2nd 1997 - Monolith get Type O Negative video for Blood retail version. ( press release available )

April 8th 1997 - One month after the internet shareware version is released, downloads have climbed to over 350000, with BLOOD consistently No.1 in all the Top Downloads lists. ( press release available )

August 21st 1997 - the first official expansion pack, The Plasma Pak, is released.

July 1999 - I upload the first incarnation of "Frightfan's Blood Source Code Release Campaign". What a catchy title.

So what use is this source code to the general Blood fan community?
None, really. But to those of us who know some programming, or perhaps do it professionally, it would mean that Blood could be improved from its current state.

Currently, Blood has problems with many peoples' system configurations. For some it's the most common problem, incompatibility with their sound card, for others the game won't run at all, or they can't connect to their friend's computer for a 1-on-1 Bloodbath. But fixing Blood's shortcomings are just the beginning. Improvements to graphics, menus, options and more would be possible with release of this source code. And that's not all:

How do bots sound? What about Team Fortress for Blood, or CTF with monsters-vs-chosen? What about new weapons and enemies? With the source code, these and many other "mods" will be not only possible, but likely, given the popularity of this game and the devotion of it's fans, many of whom are likely very competent "modders".

So what do we need to "mod" the hell out of Blood?
According to Matt Saettler, Project Manager and Coder on Blood, we need this:

the Blood specific code from GT (Monolith designed the game, GT owns it.)

the BUILD object (.OBJ) code from Ken Silverman.
DONE- WE GOT THE FULL SOURCE !!

permission from 3D Realms/Apogee for some of their utility libraries (sound), used in both Blood and Duke Nukem 3D.
DONE

Watcom C 4.2 to compile the Blood code, once we get it.
Watcom C is now "abandonware" - ie: it's like, gone, daddio. The new plan is to convert it all to Microsoft Visual C++ first and then work with it.