I am a huge fan of the first Blood game, and luckily I’m not alone and there is a whole Blood community that wants to see this game remade and continued.

Recently Jace Hall who was the founder of Monolith Productions Inc, the company who developed Blood – posted on The Postmortem forums his wishes for a modern enhancements port of Blood which will be available on GNU/Linux for free.

Take note that this is not intended to be a remake but a modernized port to suite the modern OS’s and hardware.

The compiled list of things discussed includes :

Port Necessities (Maintenance & Convenience)

two executables of focus: Blood (the game) and MapEdit

no modification of the original maps, art, sounds, music, or gameplay

incorporate an updated BUILD Engine from the EDuke32 project this will immediately add cross-platform, stability, and video advancements multiplatform support (Linux, Mac OS X…) increased screen resolutions (up to 3072×2304) (optional) OpenGL rendering support widescreen support “highres” content support vsync uncapped framerate improvements to the map editor closed-source compatible license (but only for the engine; game and Mapster32 are GPL) This would actually need to be done or else a lot of time would be wasted re-porting the BUILD Engine from DOS.

cross-platform support (start with Windows and GNU/Linux; Mac and all other ports follow easily)

improved control setup and mouse input

fix demo recording, which has always been broken in BloodBath, and in SP cannot complete levels

replace outdated UPX network code with functionally equivalent or superior modern code

fix MapEdit bugs such as inaccurate mouse pointing

remove/increase level design limits, such as floor/ceiling mirrors causing hall of mirrors and maximum sector, wall and sprite limits (previously 1024, 8192, 4096)

add support for using CD audio without a physical CD (via FLAC and OGG files)

ensure proper support for the Bink/Smacker movies

port the original Blood command-line tools as well

All of the above should be made first priority before the below is attempted.

Port Enhancements

easier launching of user maps, mods, and TCs (RATM, Bloody Pulp Fiction, Deathwish, etc.)

add support for additively-loaded zip files and user folders in addition to RFF

add options to fix original gameplay bugs (warps, eternal fire, panel glitches, stone gargoyle, etc.) but it must be customizable like ZDoom’s compatibility options

Multiplayer: client/server protocol, mid-game joining, map/kick/ban voting, “pure” flag, spectating

Multiplayer: more configuration options option to have timelimit in multiplayer mode option to force players to respawn after a set time in multiplayer mode (very important with the timelimit) option to have team specific spawning points in team games in multiplayer mode support for more multiplayer spawn points per map option to force ‘show opponents weapon’ off in multiplayer mode, chosen by the player that starts the map

Multiplayer: keep text chat record, visible in an overlay window when T is pressed

per-player configuration of auto aim: complete enable/disable and options to tone it down (though cap it at original strength to keep it fair)

support for additional episodes in the main game (ie. the ability to load user created episodes / maps within the game)

status bar shrinking at higher resolutions

“modern” small HUD option, like EDuke32’s

bloody footprints (after stepping in a blood pool, footprint decals for 3-5 steps)

Dreams

Multiplayer: additional game modes capture the flag monster rush / horde / endurance king of the hill 1v1 duel

Multiplayer: voice chat

Multiplayer: target hit confirmation, visual and audible

Multiplayer: server lobby

Multiplayer: leaderboards: frag tracking, map time records, # of secrets found, hit/miss accuracy

Multiplayer: tournaments

Multiplayer: multi-skin support, optional clan skins

Lua support for modders

surround sound

achievement system

patches and updates for years to come!

Stuff We Don’t Want

“PunkBuster” or similar buggy and problematic anti-cheat

anything having to do with ZBlood

changing the original game (by default)

a remake, either in whole or in part

I personally can’t wait for this game to be ported to the modern OS’s , you can join the discussion and help bring this project to life.

Thanks to Curly Brace for letting us know about those wonderful news !