(C) 1997 Mark C. Gatson. All Rights Reserved.
Quake is a trademark of Id Software, Inc.
Levels are usually copyrighted by their author. Respect the copyright.

Write me at: speedemon12@juno.com
or: mark_gatson@hotmail.com
I will try to respond to everyone as quickly as possible.


Contents:
----------------
1.0- Introduction
     1.1- How I rate the levels
     1.2- The Categories
2.0- The Reviews
     2.1- Notes on Levels
3.0- Capsule Reviews
     3.1- Single Play Levels
     3.2- DM Levels
     3.3- Levels that Don't Work - NEW!!
4.0- Awards Section

***
1.0  Introduction
***

Who are you??
------------------------------
My name is Mark Gatson I am 16 years old and a sophomore at Orchard Farm
High School in St. Charles, MO.  I play home made levels all of the time so I
pretty much know what's good and what's not. I am also a very good level
builder, so expect to see some killer maps from me.

What are you doing??
---------------------
I am reviewing every level I can get my hands on so every Quake player
can know what's hot and what sucks.

***
1.1  How I rate them
***

I rate the levels in 6 different categories (see below).  These ratings will
be anywhere between 1-100% 1 being crap, 100 being awesome (duh).  Also with
each release of reviews I will give my "official" "This level kicks ass" award
for both single play and DM levels.



***
1.2  The Categories
***

---
Overall is simply the average of the different categories.

---
(1) Smooth-o-meter. This checks how smoothly the level performed on
    a P100 with 16 megs of RAM. This computer has onboard graphics, which
    perform above VESA video cards. (Quake was played in DOS)
    This is a valid premise because I have seen some REALLY poorly designed
    levels, resulting in low speed. I will be playing at vid_mode 5 to test
    this category.

---
(2) Fun. Was this level FUN to play? Did I fall asleep? Did I quit
    because there were 30 shamblers in one room? Was the level well balanced
    and varied? Was there a chance to beat the level? This rating will only be
    used in the Single Player section. In the Deathmatch section, the
    deathmatch rating will cover this category.

---
(3) Graphics and Sound. This checks to see if they chose appropriate 
    graphics for their level. It also checks if they made good use 
    of Quake's lighting and true 3D. I also check for graphics' glitches.
    I checked for appropriate ambient sounds and sound effects.

---
(4) Creativity. This checks to see if the level was very unique and
    intriguing, or if it was a dime-a-dozen. Perhaps it introduced
    some sort of new playing style or architecture.

I DO NOT CALCULATE CHALLENGE. THIS IS FOR >YOU< TO DECIDE!

5) Deathmatch Performance. Even if your level was made for single player mode
   if it has deathmatch starts it will be tested in this category. Did it suck
   for deathmatch? Was there enough ammo and health? Was there good hiding,
   camping, sniping spots?(NOTE: I will be testing it with the Zeus bot
   2.04, which results in no lag.) I have a separate section than will list
   the deathmatch levels and their ratings.

**This will only be used to calculate overall scores in the deathmatch section.
Also, if a Deathmatch level has any monsters at all in it, it will be rated
on the single player section also.**

---
Other:

(E) Number of enemies. This isn't used in calculation. Used in single player
    section only.

The levels are ranked from highest to lowest, respectively,

In the event of a tie on the overall scores, I will put the level with the
higher fun rating (for single player section), or the one with the higher
deathmatch rating (deathmatch section) in the higher rank.


***
2.0 The Reviews.
***

Single Player
--------------
                                     The Categories

Rank  Title of Level  Overall (1) (2) (3) (4) (5)    (E)    Notes   File name
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1        Pyro2         85.7%  77  89  88  89  66     28      *,!   pyro2.zip
 2        Prison        85.5%  76  86  90  90  70   52,116  *,++,!  prison.zip
 3        Prison        84.2%  78  84  86  89  66     19    *,#     prison2.zip
 4   The Pumpstation    84.0%  78  86  84  88  72     34      *,#   pumpstat.zip
 5       My Home        83.7%  78  85  85  87  78    5,21    *,++   prison.zip
 6    The Wherehouse    82.7%  83  79  83  86  80     40     BETA   em1.zip
 7      Dark Night      81.7%  76  80  86  85  65  23,34,48  *,++   darknite.zip
 8       Giant II       79.2%  73  79  82  83  60     17    *,##    giant2.zip
 9     Do or Die 12     76.5%  80  55  84  87  78     1     **,*    dod12.zip
10   DarkStone Temple   76.0%  81  58  81  84  87     1       **    darkston.zip
11        Arenaq        43.0%  31  48  53  40 N/A     40    *,--,## arenaq.zip


Deathmatch
-----------

Rank  Title of Level  Overall (1) (3) (4) (5)  Notes    File name
------------------------------------------------------------------
 1   The Broken Base    88.0%  88  89  86  89           taint1.zip
 2         DM9          86.2%  90  84  86  85           cjb_dm9.zip
 3         DD1          86.0%  91  84  86  83           dd1.zip
 4       DC-001         84.7%  90  84  80  85           dc001.zip 
 5       Vorple         84.5%  86  84  78  90           vorple.zip
 6       Oldwest        84.5%  78  84  88  88    #      oldwest.zip
 7     Deathabilia      84.5%  88  86  80  84           taint000.zip
 8      Death Row       83.5%  83  85  86  80           deathrow.zip
 9   DarkStone Temple   83.2%  81  81  84  87           darkston.zip
10      Qakula??        83.2%  80  84  89  80    *      qakula.zip
11     Gloom Falls      82.7%  85  80  83  83           gloomfal.zip
12    Slightly Blue     82.5%  84  80  80  86           blue.zip
13    Do or Die 12      82.2%  80  84  87  78    *      dod12.zip
14   Deprivation v1.0   82.0%  78  85  85  80   *,#     depriv1.zip   
15  Field of Deathmatch 81.7%  79  80  80  88    *      fielddm.zip
16    The DeathDome     81.0%  89  73  78  84           dethdome.zip

***
2.1 Notes on Levels
***

Notes:

* = This level is large or compilcated. There is some slowdown. If you
have a fast computer...get this level! 
** = This level is designed for deathmatch. 
+ = This level is a .PAK file.
++ = Level has different skill levels to choose from.
(filename.ext) = Name of file you will find at the download site.
# = There were some greyouts in the level.
## = A considerable amount of "grayouts" appeared in the level.
! = You MUST check this level's graphics out. They are REALLY GREAT!
!! = This has a cyberdemon in it.
- = you have to compile this level yourself.
-- = This level has no deathmatch starts.
C = This level comes with a QuakeC patch.
CTF = This level was designed for capture the flag.
BETA = This level is in Beta form. 
***
3.0 Capsule Reviews
*** 
    
    Using Michael Wise's idea, I will be doing small capsule reviews.
I HOPE they help you decide what levels to get. Single play levels that
receive an 84% or below do not get a capsule review. And Deathmatch levels
that receive and 85% or below do not get a capsule review.

***
3.1 Single Player Levels
***
Prison --
   
    This level was great. It's huge, with lots of monsters (116) including
Shamblers, Death Knights, Fiends, and plenty of Zombies. You might think that
with all of those monsters it would be impossible to complete. Well you're
wrong. It has plenty of health scattered around it. However, it could have
used a little more ammunition. There was also some slow down when you got in
huge fights.  This level is deffinately worth your time. Also it comes with
another level (My Home) in it.

File Name:  prison.zip
Grade:  85.5% B+  "Get this now!!"

Pyro2 - A Smash of Three --

    This was another excellent level. It was just plain fun!! It had plenty
of weapons and health in it. It had great architecture and detail
(unfortunately this caused some noticable slowdown). There is lots o' lava
in this level (be careful on that walkway) Although there isn't much strategy
to this level the great fights still kept me interested. If you want a great
medium sized level with a decent challenge to it then I advise you to grab
this one. This is deffinately a "kick ass award" contender.

File Name:  pyro2.zip
Grade:  85.7%  "Get it today!"


***
3.2 Deathmatch Levels
***

DM9 --

    This is a pretty decent level for deathmatch. It's got some neat designs
in it, and it has some creative parts in it. The main reason it's here, is it
plays very fast. It also plays very well. Weapons, health, armor, etc. are
postioned very good. If you want a fast level with good gameplay to play 2-4
plater deathmatches in then this is it.

File Name:  cjb_dm9.zip
Grade:  86.2% B+    

DD1 --

    This is another example of a level that gets a good score because of speed.
Even though it has good graphics, architecture, and deathmatch quality it's
not anything you haven't seen before. And like DM9 it is designed for 2-4
player deathmatches. All-in-all this is a good level to get if you like small
deathmatches and like to have a lot of battlegrounds.

File Name:  dd1.zip
Grade:  86.0% B+

The Broken Base --

    This level was almost perfect.  Good graphics, good weapon placement, and
it's fast too!!! The author has made levels for practically every game out
there and you can deffinately tell with this level. It was designed mainly
for 5 players or above (although less than 5 still rocks). As for good weapon
placement this level is perfect. If you want to get Quad-Damage or the Lightning
Gun you must subject yourself to major bodily damage to get it. That way other
players have a shot at killing someone with that kind of fire power. You must
get this level.

File:  taint1.zip
Grade:  88.0% B+


***
3.3 Levels that Don't Work
***

I have made this list to inform people of levels that, for some reason, will
not work.

         Title             File Name
     -------------       -------------

 1.  Cavern of Sin        cavosin.zip


***
4.0 Awards Section
***

Well here it is as promised. My Official "This Level Kicks Ass" award
Drum roll please....

   Single Play                            Deathmatch
-----------------                      ----------------

     Prison                             The Broken Base
    
By:  Swen Klemund                      By:  Cole Savage
Email:  swen.klemund@t-online.de       Email:  cole@dodgenet.com

I encourage everyone to email these two authors and congratulate them on their
job well done.

***
5.0 Where to get the levels and the reviews:
***

FTP: ftp.cdrom.com \pub\quake\levels. Choose the appropiate sub
directory to find the level(s) you want. 

WWW: Most popular Quake sites have good file areas too. You 
might want to check some of them.
     
     The latest version of these reviews may be obtained at:

FTP: ftp.cdrom.com \pub\quake\levels\reviews as MGREVxx.ZIP
                   (xx is version number)

Go check out my Quake level reviews web page at:

     http://www.aim4game.com/quake/single.htm


          

