Frantic Passages is a mod for registered Wolfenstein, made by Thomas Weiling with coding changes by AlumiuN. It was released on December 4, 2018.
Genesis[]
For much of 2016, 2017 and 2018 Thomas greatly decreased his modding output, preferring mainly to either play mods or act as a stand-in for Andy Nonymous in terms of archiving and maintaining the historical side of Wolfenstein 3D modding. All the while, numerous ideas lay on the table, such as map sets for many different kinds of mods he had recently taken a liking to, including WolfenDOOM, DeathTrigger, End of Destiny and the ever prevalent Totengraeber and The Final Solution. In the summer of 2016 Havoc and Thomas were also reconnecting over the shared interest in a Wolf Overkill reboot which never came into fruition.
Coming into the modding scene in mid-2004 after having discovered Chokage and having bonded with Michael Collin sometime shortly after that, Thomas always envisioned a humorous, laid-back approach to modding, though keeping the mapping side of things professional and aesthetically pleasing rather than entirely experimental. However, these ideas were often lost as he often aligned himself more with serious mods such as Totengraeber, Schabbs 2000 and Chemical Warfare rather than Chokage, Castle Hasselhoff and Bar Room Blitz.
In late 2016 Thomas released a graphics pack which featured a handful of sprites and numerous textures that took the increasing meme culture and Internet humor ideas and put them in a Wolfenstein 3D setting. Featuring hipster douchebag SS guards, smoking dogs, Barnacle Wilhelm as a male pattern baldness advocate and numerous other things, these textures were merely featured as backdrops in what appeared to be a straightforward classic-themed mod. Tons of band logos and album covers were also featured, displaying an array of musical influences, some of which had only been recently discovered by Thomas in his absent years.
The first maps were attempted and finished in December 2016. The remaining maps were made over the next two years in a slow, natural tempo. For example, level 12 had been started in the spring of 2018 and was only finished off five months later; a far cry from Thomas' standard pace of pumping out numerous maps often in one day. By the end of 2018 the mod had been readied with help from AlumiuN (coding) and doomjedi (graphics) and the mod more or less kick-started a new era of modding for Thomas who would use humor and unorthodox design ideas more carefree and naturally than before.
Description[]
The mod features 17 levels and plays in an EXE based on registered Wolfenstein. Many new graphics are featured; as mentioned above, most of these were meant as vague commentary on social media, laissez-faire Nazism and meme culture in addition to references to several musical acts from various genres.
Legacy[]
The mod would be used as a springboard for all future AlumiuN/Thomas collaborations, and a number of its graphics resurfaced in KowTow and Crude 2.
External links[]
- Download Frantic Passages at The Wolfenstein 3D Vault
- Download Frantic Passages (SDL) - self-released (Hosted at Dropbox)
- Download at MediaFire
- Thread at DieHard Wolfers