T.K. Wade -- Author: July 2025

Monday, July 21, 2025

Fairy Tale Spotlight: MAP33 - Betray [Video Game Review]

My last blog dealt with a really awful secret map from the "Doom 3 Collector's Edition" (2005) version of Classic Doom. This blog is the same thing but for Doom II. It had an extra secret map (a third one) known as "MAP33 - Betray"... and it's set in a sewer! Why?! Oh wait, the name of the map is "Betray." Now it makes sense.

But is the map any good? Well, kind of.

"Betray" does have some structure to it, but I think the idea of it was to be somewhat maddening. Right off the bat, nearly the entire map has you walking around in nukage, but none of it hurts you. That is already off-putting. The map is also full of teleporters and switches. I mean... a lot. It might be a record even.

Mostly what you end up doing is going into a room, flip a switch, walk onto a teleporter which takes you to another room with a switch, and this happens over and over again in different areas of the map. Intermixed with this layout, there are a lot of high level enemies here such as Mancubi, Revenants, and even Arch-viles. Also a few Nazi SS soldiers? That's random. Remember this is technically the second level in the game if you find it!

Happily the map does include a lot of nice weaponry. No BFG9000, but pretty much everything else. It will help with those high-level demons. But the whole concept of the map is meant to confuse and misdirect you in a way that is honestly a little annoying.

"MAP33 - Betray" does actually have a better design than "Sewers" did, and there were genuine moments where I was having fun. But much of the map design baffled me. I'd say its better but not necessarily great. I would, however, recommend a playthrough, though, just to see how you feel about it. You can download it as a standalone mission in the excellent "Doom + Doom II Remaster" by NightDive Studios.

This blog was written on April 21, 2025.

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Wednesday, July 16, 2025

Fairy Tale Spotlight: E1M10 - Sewers [Video Game Review]

I hate to say it but I was not playing the Doom games when they first came out. Although I had a PC, I did not know much about the games, and I was not particularly looking for them. Honestly, my first real PC game love was "Dark Forces 2: Jedi Knight." I played the hell out of that game and was not really interested in crappy-looking games like Doom.

I did not get into Doom until way later in 2005 when it was released in the "Doom 3 Collectors Edition." When I heard that the original games were going to be included with Doom 3, I was there. That was just such a great deal! This was my very first experience with classic Doom, and I quickly learned to love it, despite it looking very antiquated compared to the games I was playing at the time, including Doom 3 of course.

But something very weird happened when I began playing the first mission called "E1M1 - Hangar." In that mission, there is a secret where you can go outside in two different ways. There is an outdoor area and a tunnel area. This is normal in all versions of this first mission. But when I was playing this, I was bumping against the walls of the tunnel. The mission suddenly ended, and I was sent to a secret mission called "E1M10 - Sewers." I did not know this at the time, but this mission was only in this particular re-release of classic Doom. In my ignorance of the series, I thought this was normal and was confused when I never could get this mission to activate in later versions.

The original Doom episodes traditionally only have 9 missions, the 9th one being the secret mission. That means that this version of Doom actually had two secret missions, something that only Doom II was known for. How cool is that?

Well, it's not.

"Sewers" may go down as one of the more un-fun Doom maps I have ever played. You may have heard that there is a sort of dislike for Sewer themed levels because of their very drab appearance. A lot of dark greens and browns. But this map is just so unfocused in its design.

There are a lot of corridors that don't really go anywhere. The monster count is also quite high for a map that takes place right after the first one. Your gun selection is extremely limited, and ammo pickups are... okay... but not great. I got lost frequently in this map and had to consult the automap so much that I was practically playing on it. It's just a big, huge mess with very little structure. It honestly feels like baby's first doom map, like if a really young kid is trying to make his first map but doesn't yet know how to make it good.

The only real interesting thing about it was that it includes Cacodemons and Lost Souls in an episode where they are not supposed to exist yet. There are also a couple of Barons of Hell there as well, which were supposed to be the final boss of the episode, but I guess you can fight them here with no rocket launcher. Not fun.

To make matters even stranger, when you finish the mission, it takes you back to "E1M1 - Hangar!" What the heck?! So you have to play the first mission over again, and technically, you could go back and replay Sewers if you were a masochist or something. Really not good.

If you wanted to play this weird anomaly on its own, you can download it as a stand alone mission in the excellent "Doom + Doom II Remaster" released by NightDive Studios, but I don't really recommend it unless you are really curious about seeing an obscure official Doom map. Episode 1 never needed this addition, and it sure is telling that it was never included in any future releases since then. Rest in peace, stupid Sewers map.

This blog was written on April 21, 2025.

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Monday, July 14, 2025

Fairy Tale Spotlight: The Flowering of the Strange Orchid [Short Story Review]

[I spoil the entire story.]

"The Flowering of the Strange Orchid" is a short horror story written by H. G. Wells. It was published in 1894. This is not a well-known story of his, but there was a particular reason I wanted to read it.

The story follows a man named Winter Wedderburn (I hate his name) who collects orchids of different varieties. He lives with his female cousin, who is also his housekeeper. These are the primary players in this short tale. One day, Winter wakes up and has a strange feeling like something unusual or special will happen to him. This feeling comes more from leading a rather boring life.

He goes out and purchases a number of orchids, but one of them is very strange. This particular orchid seems to have been found next to a corpse, which really puts off his housekeeper. She does not want to have anything to do with it.

Winter then spends some time taking care of it. It begins to grow some leaves which the housekeeper thinks looks a little like human fingers, but Winter assumes it's all in her mind. He continued to spend time in his hothouse, tending to it.

One day, the aroma coming from the plant makes him pass out. His housekeeper checks up on him, and sees him laying on the floor of the hothouse, with the orchid reaching its tendrils down to him. He is bleeding from several places. In an attempt to help him, the scent produced from the plant almost causes her to pass out as well, but she proves smart and breaks the windows of the hothouse to air it out.

She smashes the orchid, pulls the tendrils away from Winter, and rescues him just in time to get a doctor. At first, it looks like Winter won't make it because of the loss of blood, but he does actually survive. At this point, the story suddenly ends with absolutely no explanation about what Winter went through (which bothered me a bit).

I'll be honest: the story is somewhat interesting, but it's lack of explanation hit me as mildly frustrating. Obviously, though, this strange orchid fed on human blood, and that was the point. So why did I read this weird story? Well, apparently, it is widely believed that this obscure story by H. G. Wells was the chief inspiration for two films called "Little Shop of Horrors." I'm not even joking. Most people don't even know that those movies were based on anything but a script.

Of course, those movies were far removed from what H. G. Wells came up with... and they are objectively better. That said, I don't actually recommend this short story, but I do recommend you see either of those films, especially the one from 1986. I just feel the movie's inspiration was just too underwritten to be of any real notability other than it's connection to what it ultimately inspired.

This blog was written on April 16, 2025.

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Wednesday, July 9, 2025

Fairy Tale Spotlight: The Great Race [Book Review]

"The Great Race" is a novel written by Marvin H. Albert. It was published in 1965. This book is a novelization of the motion picture directed by Blake Edwards of the same name released in the same year. It was a common practice at the time for a book to be released alongside the movie as a means to further promote the film. But in order to do this, the book had to be written while the movie was in production, leading the author to only have the original script as a source. This often caused a lot of these books to be different than the movie it was based on as the film deviated from the original script.

"The Great Race" is about a automobile race from New York to Paris happening at the turn of the twentieth century. The two main contestants were a dashing and brave paragon of a man named The Great Leslie, and his opponent and chief antagonist was the vile and dastardly Professor Fate. This is a story of good versus evil in the very raw sense of the terms. Leslie was perfectly good and Fate was perfectly evil. Leslie had to win by being the better racer, but Fate had to win by being sneaky and cheating whenever he could, and as far as anyone cared in the story, that was perfectly okay. May the best man win in whatever way he choses!

Despite the story being about an automobile race, the story is more of an adventure that keeps changing in style as they pass through different parts of the world. One part was clearly pitched as a western with a crazy saloon fight, and later on it turns into a political intrigue story where an evil baron is attempting to usurp the throne of his prince. Crazy stuff, but it all leads to a very full and fun story.

There is also a major plot point having to do with the women's suffrage movement happening at the time. A woman named Maggie is trying to prove to the world that she can be a reporter and cover the race. She, at first, claimed that she could enter the even win the race, but that fell apart real fast when she picked a steamer as her vehicle of choice. The male/female dynamic between Leslie and her are well done. A lot of the story has to do with him trying to prove that men are better than woman in some areas, where she believes that a woman can be equal if not better than any man. It's a debate that runs all the way to the end of the book, and I liked how it concludes.

My favorite character is easily Professor Fate. Yes, he is evil, but he is also quite clumsy. He has a loyal henchman named Max who always helps him with his gadgets and evil schemes. He was well represented in this book. It's hard to see Max as played by anybody other than Peter Falk, even in how it was written. The two were always fighting each other, since evil always turns on itself, but they stayed the course of villainy all the way to the end. I loved it.

As I mentioned earlier, this book is based on the original script, and it shows. If you have seen the movie then this book is still worth reading. There was completely changed scenes and some new ones that can only be found in the book. Some scenes that felt cut short in the film keep going in the book, and that was really cool to finally see what the original plan was. This sort of film novelization is exactly what I am looking for when I set myself to read them.

I do recommend reading "The Great Race," and I should also say that the movie is worth your time too. It's one of my most favorite films ever made, and I really think it's the villains that keeps me coming back. That said, this book is now considered obscure. For some reason, all the novelizations of the Blake Edwards movies are now considered "collectable" status. That means they are all very experience to buy. I was lucky to have a friend who wanted to give it to me as a gift. Great read!

This blog was written on April 14, 2025.

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Monday, July 7, 2025

Fairy Tale Spotlight: Mutant Alley - Daedalus [Book Review]

[This review contains no spoilers, but it is a review of an erotic piece of literature. You may not want to read about that, and, if so, feel free to skip this one.]

"Mutant Alley - Daedalus" is an erotic science fiction book by Rex T. Loveshaft. Yeah, I know the name's made up, but he gets points for cleverness. It is the sequel to his previous story "Mutant Alley - Ares," which I have already reviewed. Although the term "sequel" might not be appropriate in this case, since this one appears to take place along the same timeline as the first.

The story here is more of a detective story. It mostly revolves around a raptor hybrid named Daedalus and a female detective named Josephine Baker. They get involved with some bad people, and the fact that the hybrids have little to no rights just complicates matters. That said, it is interesting to see this world from more of a detective's perspective.

Daedalus certainly differs a lot from Ares the T-Rex, giving the story a new perspective. He is, for one, a narcissist. He absolutely loves himself and greatly dislikes being mistreated. Detective Baker is actually former military and once had very strong feelings for a raptor hybrid in her unit. But Daedalus comes across as much too toxic for her... at first anyways.

Like in the first book, the writing is superb. It's not only cleverly written, but there is a lot of humor mixed into it as well. I get the feeling that this author really likes polyamorous relationships, which is a romantic relationship with three or more people. It's pretty kinky; there's no denying that.

This particular story had a very 90's police drama feel to it, and I really liked that. I know it still takes place in the future, but I couldn't help but feel that I was watching a movie from that period. It was really cool.

I also think the ending was a bit more satisfying this time around. Instead of just wrapping up the overarching plot too quickly, the author chooses to focus much more on the characters relationships, which I liked. This is a good story that never loses it's focus even while partaking in some very kinky scenarios. I do recommend it. And by the way, Daedalus steals the show. I loved him.

This blog was written on April 12, 2025.

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Wednesday, July 2, 2025

Fairy Tale Spotlight: Chex Quest 3 [Video Game Review]

"Chex Quest 3: Invasion!" is a video game developed by Chris Jacobi who was the director and lead artist of Digital Café. It was released in 2008. Despite being the third game in the series, "Chex Quest 3" is really just an indie title. It was made for the fans of the original two games who always wanted a third game.

I couldn't really find a story for this one. From the looks of it, the Flemoids attack the home base, forcing you to fight them off. This was an all-out attack too. They send a lot of enemies after you, and many of them are new and much harder to kill. I found this game to be pretty challenging at times.

I liked the maps overall. There were decent indoor and outdoor settings that were diverse in there design. I spent most of my time managing my ammo, because there were seriously a lot of enemies coming at me. This one felt more like Doom, even though it was still non-violent.

There were still only five maps. I guess at this point the idea was to just keep the five-map tradition going. But if you think on it, the whole trilogy is fifteen maps total. That's a nice big game to play if you did it all at once. I liked it. I am also really happy the final game was a decent challenge. The first two can feel a little like baby's first Doom game.

I do recommend "Chex Quest 3." I know I didn't have much to say about it, and I think it just feels like more of the same... which is a good thing. I love the whole idea that a game released in a cereal box managed to get such a huge cult following. That's so cool. I mean... Chex really had nothing to do with the third one... and yet it still feels like it's trying to get me to eat more Chex. Talk about dedication!

If you want to play it, you can download it from the mod browser in the excellent Doom+Doom II Remaster from NightDive Studios.

This blog was written on April 7, 2025.

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