The Dark Mod

J

Jarret W. Buse

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The Dark Mod

The Dark Mod is a game for Linux, Mac OS X and Windows. The Dark Mod started as a Thief alternative for the Doom 3 engine, but became a stand-alone game. The game is a free game and can be found at http://www.fidcal.com/darkuser/tdm_update_linux.zip. There are tutorial missions and many missions can be downloaded from the website at http://www.thedarkmod.com/missions/. There is a built in Mission downloader which can be used as well.

To install the game, do the following:

  1. Create a folder darkmod in your home directory.
  2. Download the Linux version of the TDM Updater at (http://www.fidcal.com/darkuser/tdm_update_linux.zip) and extract it to your darkmod folder (see below for alternate download locations)
  3. Make tdm_update.linux executable: chmod +x tdm_update.linux. On some Linux distros, you can right-click the file and choose Properties. Select checkbox to make the file executable.
  4. Run the updater, it will connect to our mirrors and download the packages for you. The download may take a while.When done, there should be about 78 files using 2.8 GB of space. There should also be a file called thedarkmod.x86 which shows the download is completed.
  5. Start The Dark Mod using the thedarkmod.x86 binary in your darkmod folder. Make sure the file is executable.
Once the game is started, you should see the main menu as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1.jpg

FIGURE 1

There are some important things to note about the Main Menu. On the left side of the screen are animorphic pictures of characters. Select the “Settings” option to see the menu as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2.jpg

FIGURE 2

Here you can change the Audio settings for the game.

The settings options are:

  • Audio
  • Video
  • Gameplay
  • Controls

These screens can be seen in Figures 3, 4 and 5.

Figure 3.jpg

FIGURE 3
Figure 4.jpg

FIGURE 4
Figure 5.jpg

FIGURE 5

In Figure 3, you can see that you have the choice to change the Screen Resolution as well as set whether the game is Full Screen or in a Windowed mode. Another nice option is shown in Figure 5, if you select “General” as shown in Figure 6. Here, you can see that there is an option to take screenshots with the F12 button (default setting). When a screenshot is taken it is saved to the screenshots folder in you game directory (~/darkmod).

Figure 6.jpg

FIGURE 6

Keep in mind the basic default controls for the game:

  • Forward – Up Arrow/W
  • Backward – Down Arrow/S
  • Strafe Left – A
  • Strafe Right – D
  • Run – Shift
  • Creep – CTRL
  • Turn Right – Right Arrow
  • Turn Left – Left Arrow
  • Lean Right - Q
  • Lean Left - E
  • Lean Forward – F
  • Frob/Interact – Mouse 2
  • Attack – Mouse 1
  • Parry/Manipulate – Mouse 3/Z
  • Crouch – X
  • Jump/Mantle – SPACE
  • Mantle – C
  • Use Item – ENTER/U
  • Drop Inventory Item – R
  • Next Inventory Item - [
  • Previous Inventory Item - ]
  • Next Inventory Group - -
  • Previous Inventory Group - =
  • Cycle Maps – M
  • Cycle Lockpicks – P
  • Cycle Keys – K
  • Cycle Readables – I
  • Put Away Weapons
    • Blackjack – 1
    • Shotsword – 2
    • Broadhead – 3
    • Water Arrow – 4
    • Fire Arrow – 5
    • Rope Arrow – 6
    • Gas Arrow – 7
    • Noisemaker – 8
    • Moss Arrow – 9
    • Vine Arrow – 0
    • Next Weapon – Wheel Down
    • Previous Weapon – Wheel Up
  • Objectives – O
  • Quick Save – F4
  • Quick Load – F9
  • Screen Shot – F12
  • Toggle Lantern – L
  • Show Compass – V
  • Toggle Spyglass – G

When you choose “New Mission” from the Main Menu, you see two missions listed. These missions are available, but not installed. You can select one and then select “Install”. The “Training Mission” is a great place to start to become used to controls and play of the game. You can also select to “Download Missions” which allows you to choose from more available missions. The available missions need to be downloaded from the Internet or you can manually download them from http://www.thedarkmod.com/missions/.

The main control of movement is the mouse. With the mouse you can look around. Use the keyboard to walk and move around the game area.

Again, I cannot reiterate enough to play the “Training Mission”. Each room you go into helps you practice some technique. One technique may be picking up items. The mission is very helpful to learn movements and keyboard keys.

The game is well done and very dark and gothic in nature. I have been playing it on my Symple PC which has a Pentium 4 CPU. It plays well, some sounds are a little off from the video action, but it isn't too bad.

For anyone who likes a single player game, The Dark Mod is a definite game to try. Look over the many different missions to find one which may appeal more to your preferred taste.
 

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Cool man, gonna try it on school vacation !
 

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