Catacomb 3-D

There should be a demo version available.

Gremlinar and Nemisis were an npc and pc from A John Carmack Dungeons and Dragons campaign he ran for years.
Grelminar was a dick lich that lived on an island out in the middle of the ocean and like to do magical experiments.
Nemisis was a dwarven fighter who gained special abilities via a pair of magical swords combined with being dipped in gods blood by Grelminar as part of an experiment. The gods blood made him lose all the pigment to his skin.
This was the campaign John Romero blew up when he traded (stole from other pcs) a demon tome that let them invade and kill off most of the verse in exchange for his magical dai katana.
In the end Nemisis unfucked Romeros treachery but it basically ended the campaign.

Pathetic that so many of the games on here have price tags now

Yeah it is getting hard to find any old game downloads anymore, all the abandonware sites are plastered with "Buy on GOG, Buy on GOG!" Screw that, I'm not paying for 30 year old games, wtf. In a sane world they would be public domain by now.

I never thought id see the day when someone would have to pay for a game this old in 2018. Thanks Nintendo!

I think the boss was "Grelminar" originally as a reference to the villain from Dark Designs which John Carmack also worked on. Not sure exactly why they changed it in later versions besides it making sense that "Nemesis" would be the bad guy and not the guy you were rescuing, which they probably had him be as a joke.

Am I the only one to notice that in this version of the game, the boss at the end is called Grelminar and you're actually rescuing someone called Nemesis whereas, in the three following games, Nemesis seems to be the culprit (who looks exactly like this Grelminar dude in this game).

Once you defeat the final boss in Catacomb 3-D, you blast your way through a wall behind the throne and find someone inside a glass tube or something; upon "picking him up" he greets you by saying his name was Nemesis and asking you whether you got a towel...

The final map even has the title "Grelminar's Lair".

This is very confusing... ;)

Review
-Overview
The middle child between Carmack's other ray-casting shooters, Hovertank 3-D and Wolfenstein 3-D, Catacomb 3-D is the first true FPS game by every definition. It's a marvel that this game was distributed free as part of a gaming magazine subscription.

-Weapons (2/5)
Weapons? We don't need no stinking weapons... Not when you can launch magic missiles from your hand just as fast as you can mash the clicker. The charge up attack is useless, as spamming the basic energy blast provides more net firepower. Lightning bolts are more of a convenience for when your finger gets tired from constantly spamming energy blasts, and the nukes are almost useless as they fire in every direction, of which only one can you actually see. There are way too many health potions.

-Enemies (3/5)
*Orcs: 3HP, not a threat at all. Let em watch your kids, they'll never catch em.
*Trolls: 10HP, Not as tough as they look, but don't let them group up against you.
*The Bat: 1HP, Barely present in the game, and not dangerous unless you turn a bad corner right into a crowd of them.
*Mage: 5HP, These guys shoot back and move constantly. Another rarely seen enemy.
*Red Demon: 50HP, Appearing in the final levels of the game, these enemies are bullet sponges. To makes things worse, they are usually in groups. You'll burn through all of your saved up lightning potions, and then put your index finger in a cast from clicking 50 times for each kill.
*Nemesis: ??HP, A good boss fight to be had.

-Level Design (3/5)
A departure from Wolfenstein's tight narrow corridors, Catacomb is more-a-less a series of boxed rooms and wide halls. Catacomb always provides plenty of space for multiple enemies to advance on you at once. Four key types can result in a little bit of Easter egg hunting and back tracking. Secrets are easy to miss unless you are determined enough to fire at every wall you see. Some of these secrets reveal short cut portals if your wanting to skip ahead through the game. The game progresses linearly until you reach a hub, in where you are tasked with searching each of the 4 subsections for one of the games many hidden portals to advance onward.

-Controls (4/5)
Controls are customizable and simple. An autofire option would have saved me some physical pain, but it makes sense that one was not included, as there is no ammunition limit.

-Music (1/5)
There is one track that plays during game-play. It's a short loop composed by Robert Prince, and it was also present in some levels of Commander Keen Episode 4.

-Graphics (3/5)
3-D raycasting and texture mapping blew most other games of the time out of the water. All of the sprites and textures are cartoonish and pleasant to look at. The protagonist inexplicably has what looks like a flat top mullet... I'm willing to bet he was wearing Zubaz too. The environment is sparse of defining features, but there is a text line that tells you what kind of location you are in, so some imagination is required.

-Bugs
None.

Total Score: (3/5)
Difficulty: Low (Even on Hard)
Frustration: Rare (Don't get lost in the labyrinth level)
Worth Beating: Yes
Replay Value: Yes

-Tips
*Don't skip ahead too many levels when you should be stock piling thunder bolts and potions for the demon levels.
*Don't just shoot your way around every corner because you might accidentally destroy items.
*After you have picked up the items, THEN go shooting around every corner just in case there are secrets.
*Wait for the enemies to come to you. Rushing into a room can get you surrounded.
*Save your health potions until your on the brink of death, to avoid over consumption.
*Save your thunderbolts for the Demon levels.
*Don't get lost in the labyrinth level.

i remember going to Babbages and buying this for 2.95 it was actually what got me started playing fps. the modern shooters now focus on open areas and massive arsenals. my friends and I miss the day of actually of a maze with surprise encounters popping up.

source code download:
https://archive.org/details/Catacomb3-D_source

Oh, Wolfenstein-3d is that you?