I've released another update: CatacombGL 0.5.1
This release contains various bug fixes as well as a couple of small features.

From the menu it is now possible to instantly reset all settings to the defaults of the source port. There's another option to reset all settings to a vanilla look & feel, which sort of resembles the original DOS games. I say "sort of", since it isn't anywhere near the chocolate-like accuracy of Reflection Keen.

I also added the "demo" slideshow for the Catacomb Abyss shareware. It offers a preview of the full Catacomb Adventure series. Its original goal was to interest players into buying the full trilogy.
There is a "Hints & Solutions" slideshow for those that have the Catacomb Adventure trilogy from GOG.

Always nice to see another update appear. Thanks a lot for this. :)

You're welcome!

I still got plenty of features, suggestions and ideas on the backlog, so more updates can be expected in the future:
https://github.com/ArnoAnsems/CatacombGL/issues

I'm rather short on spare time, so it will likely take years just to implement part of that backlog. But I enjoy working on it, so it's time well spent.
If you have anything to add to the list, just let me know.

Edit: I had to release CatacombGL version 0.5.2 to quick-fix an issue in the Save Menu.

I have been meaning to get into this series and it's really encouraging that there are people like you who keep these classics alive, thank you. I was too young to play this when it came out but I'd love to give it a try now that I'm older.

However I have a few questions that I was hoping to get answers to and it's pretty hard since there's no youtube videos of either refkeen or catacombgl.

Besides these two, are there any other source ports that the community feels are any good? I just want to know which is the most faithful to the originals in all aspects and which has the most modern graphical and control improvements.

Ideally I am looking for a version that has a lot of QoL features and some graphics upgrades but no or optional gameplay changes.

When you say Refkeen has more chocolate-like accuracy, do you mean it's just more faithful to the original DOS games in terms of just graphics or also gameplay (such as how the monsters act or the interactive environment objects behave?

Also, what do people think of Refkeen in general and what do you feel it does better or differently than CatacombGL?

And finally are there any changes between the original abyss/armageddon/apocalypse and the rereleases (curse/terror)? I am trying to find out which versions to play and I couldn't find a complete or, well, any version difference list anywhere.

Thank you.

Thanks for your interest in the Catacomb games and their source ports!

RefKeen and CatacombGL are indeed the only two source ports that are fully functional and still actively maintained. There have been other attempts in the past (for example: WinWolf3D), but those projects never managed to get beyond the prototyping phase.

RefKeen is very faithful to the original DOS games, in every aspect. It even takes care that visual glitches and other bugs are accurately reproduced. CatacombGL on the other hand, has the original software renderer replaced with hardware accelerated rendering. Consequently, there are some visual differences. With respect to gameplay, CatacombGL applies the original bounding boxes, speeds, health points, navigation patterns, etc to the objects in the game. However, it uses interpolation in order to support higher framerates. So also in that area it is not 100% the same as DOS.

There are several major features that RefKeen supports, but which are absent in CatacombGL:
- support for Linux and Android
- support for game controllers
- compatibility with DOS save games
- support for older versions of the games

The folllowing features are present in CatacombGL, but absent in RefKeen:
- configurable mouse and keyboard controls (WASD and such)
- rendering at either 320x200 or the native desktop resolution
- uncapped framerate
- optional depth shading (makes areas in the distance appear darker)
- automap

Regarding the changes between different versions of the games, I honestly have no idea. CatacombGL only supports the latest versions that are included with the GOG Catacombs Pack or the Catacomb Abyss shareware v1.13. RefKeen has support for several older versions of the games as well, so your best bet would be to contact the author of RefKeen (NY00123) for more information on the differences.

I hope that helped.

Thank you for the information, that was very informative! I think I'll be trying out CatacombGL since the depth shading sounds pretty cool.

Is there freelook / free aim with the mouse? And does CatacombGL support any sort of scalers such as xBRZ for instance? Also, am I right in assuming that the Catacomb engine is a proto Wolfenstein engine?

Regarding the version differences I think I may have found some information, although I doubt it's exhaustive.

It looks like the 4 FPS Catacombs had their regular release and then the last two were re-released with name changes.

http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/catacombs-3d/

"Although Softdisk had developed Catacomb 3-D as a trilogy starting with Abyss only the first title was released through shareware. The next two games in the trilogy, Armageddon and Apocalypse were only available by ordering them directly through Softdisk (by way of their Gamer’s Edge label)...."

"Shortly after the initial release, Froggman re-released the games [Armageddon] under the title Curse of the Catacombs and Apo. Froggman was a short-lived budget line of games and a subsidiary of Expert Software. Froggman routinely took Softdisk releases and gave them alternate names and new intro screens for the retail market (Shadow Knights became Budo: The Art of Ninja Combat, Rescue Rover 2 became Dognapped!). Although the Froggman label folded quickly thereafter, Expert Software earns a footnote for publishing a series of Sega Saturn games for the PC platform (Daytona USA, Panzer Dragoon, Virtua Cop and others). Expert Software was bought out by Activision in 1999.

"Froggman once again re-released The Catacomb Apocalypse under the new title Terror of the Catacombs, and once again put a new intro screen and copyright section up but changed little else. For some inexplicable reason, the Froggman version retains the youthful avatar from the first two games in the trilogy, but keeps the new ring that the wizard is now sporting. Otherwise, it is faithful to the original Apocalypse release."

I have not yet seen the intros but it looks like you can tell if the version is the original or the Froggman version if you look at the HUD, bottom left square, instead of the name of the game and the copyright, there's a picture of a frog with sunglasses.

https://www.myabandonware.com/media/screenshots/t/terror-of-the-catacombs-4a7/terror-of-the-catacombs_19.png

It looks like GOG uses the original versions which I think is the right call. Those changes sound pretty silly.

Double-post. Please ignore.

Yes, CatacombGL supports freelook with the mouse. Scalers such as xBRZ are not supported.

The Catacomb engine is indeed a proto Wolfenstein 3D engine. There are many similarities in for example the map file format and in the way in-game objects function. There are also differences: Catacomb has EGA graphics with a polygon-based 3D renderer, while Wolf3D has VGA graphics with a raycasting 3D renderer.

Correct, GOG does not use those weird Froggman re-releases.
What I do know is that the Catacombs Pack contains "Catacomb 3-D: The Descent", which is not the very first release of Catacomb 3D. Initially that game was released as "Catacomb 3-D: A new dimension". One obvious difference is that in "A new dimension", the boss is called "Grelminar" and the friend that needs to be rescued is called "Nemesis". They reversed that in "The Descent".

It sort of feels like mouselook has some sort of mouse acceleration going on, is this the case or am I just imagining things? I'd like to turn it off, the left and right mouse aiming isn't as snappy and precise as I'd like it to be. The closest thing I can liken it to is mouse acceleration which is in general a bad idea for FPS games.

Also, I finished Catacomb Descent today. Was pretty funny, although it looks like you finish it faster before visiting all locations, that was a bit weird. Regardless it was pretty fun, if rather fast. I think some of it has to do with having an automap, it would've probably taken me much more time without it, but honestly it's great and I love it. I especially love how it shows you everything and even the exact state of each enemy, down to the sprite at that moment haha.

Do you know how many items you can stack after the icons go to their max?

Running through Abyss now, does it have no music?

Also I'd like to offer a small suggestion if possible, it would be great if there was a monster counter like other source ports have, such as those for Doom, to appease the completionists. Maybe also a breakable wall counter like the secret counters of said ports :D

The intention is that the mouse look works with linear speed: the amount of pixels travelled by the mouse across the screen is translated in a linear fashion to the amount of degrees that the player rotates. Apparently in practice it doesn't work like that for everyone. I've seen more reports of unintuitive mouse behavior. I really need to dive into this deeper. Thanks for reporting this!

The automap can be a driver for faster gameplay, but there's more. CatacombGL allows you to slide along walls in Catacomb 3D: The Descent. In the original DOS version, you would get stuck when running into walls. Also, using mouse+strafe to round corners works much faster compared to taking corners with the keyboard. Good to know that you enjoyed it, despite the differences.

The DOS version of Catacomb 3D does not restrict the amount of items you can stack, so the only limit would be the maximum size of a 16-bit integer: 32767. CatacombGL behaves the same. In Catacomb Abyss, the amount of items you can stack is limited to 99.

The DOS version of Catacomb Abyss didn't have any music.

I like your suggestion for a monster/secret counter. I'll add it to the todo list. Thanks!

CatacombGL 0.5.3 is released.

In this release I've added a monster/secret counter to the automap, as yasagani suggested.

I also implemented a visualization of the CRT overscan border. The border will now flash red when the player gets hurt. It flashes yellow when an item gets destroyed. It will flash white in Catacomb Apocalypse when approaching a fake wall.

-One suggestion for the next version could be a zoom feature in the automap. and an option to show it barebones, I mean, not textured.

-I also noticed that at least Catacomb Abyss does suffer from changing colors in the roof texture, then it changes to some kind of uncomfortable flashing. I happens in both borderless or fullscreen

-Option for properly rounded compass in he first game like in the original DOS version when you run it not aspect corrected.
Now in the port, when running in 16:9, the compass is shown oval like in an aspect corrected 4:3 in DOS

Greetings

Thank you for your detailed feedback!

I can imagine that you might think that the flashing of the ceiling in Catacomb Abyss looks like a rendering glitch. However, the same happens in the original DOS version. The original developers intentionally added this to the game to make it look like lightning.

I've added your other two suggestions to my to-do list at Github: https://github.com/ArnoAnsems/CatacombGL/issues
I can't promise that it will be implemented anytime soon, but at least I can keep track of it.

Thanks again!

Thanks for the response and for taking in account my commentaries. Indeed. I had in mind the option for a barebones zoomable automap like in the ECWolf Port, simple an comfortable. Anyways I also love the optional isometric automap in your port. Just a bit zoomed in for my tastes.

Indeed the flashing thing was an original feature. Annoying but legit. Thanks for the explanation. Greetings

I just got this today and it is great that someone made a source port of this! However I am very confused is to how to install any of this. Can you detail a step by step process as to how to do this on Windows? Thanks! :)