

              ___   ___   _   _  ___  _  _   ___  _  _  ___  ___
             / __| / _ \ | | | || __|| \| | / __|| || || __||   \
             \__ \| (_) || |_| || _| |    || (__ | __ || _| | |) |
             |___/ \__\_\ \___/ |___||_|\_| \___||_||_||___||___/

                                     ,~~,
                         ______     / .  \     ____
                        / # ## \___/   . |____/ ###\
                       (  . # .  ##\.___/. ###   #  )
                        \  #  _____.________#_ .  #/
                         \_#_/ .    .   o  #  \___#
                             \_.._o____.___o__/  ####

            ___ __   __ ___   ___  ___  _   _  ___  ___   ___  ___
           /   \\ \ / //   \ / __|/   \| | | |/ __|/   \ / __|| __|
           | ' | \   / | ' || (__ | ' || |_| |\__ \| ' || (_ || _|
           |_|_|  \_/  |_|_| \___||_|_| \___/ |___/|_|_| \___||___|

                                  Bite 2.5c
                              Released July 2025


===============================================================================
  ⁂ BACKGROUND ⁂
===============================================================================

  It's 5 A.M., cloudy and threatening to rain as you drive down the desert
  highway, your ancient, beloved truck's engine furious about how long it's
  been driven. You aren't looking forward to going back to work after a time
  away from the big city, but this might just give you an excuse to put it
  off.

  And then with a final wail and muffled thud, it gives up, and streaks of
  flame flash through the gaps in the hood. You didn't know it was even
  possible for an engine to fail like that. Extended vacation it is, then.
  You debate how long of a walk it might be to find the nearest payphone so
  you don't get fired, as your truck slowly rolls to a stop.

  ... In front of a large structure. Hm. Maybe they have a phone?

  You climb out of the truck, but pause. There's a tingle in the air, and
  you feel like you're being watched. If the corps taught you anything, it
  was to never, ever, ignore that feeling...

  At the edge of perception, you swear you hear a distant, howling scream.
  You can smell cooked meat and ozone. Something's not right.

  You turn back and take your sidearm and a few magazines out of the
  glovebox. Just in case.


===============================================================================
  ⁂ A MESSAGE FROM THE AUTHOR ⁂
===============================================================================

  Hi!

  Squenched Avacausage is a quest through the strange and unsettling world
  of SquenchCon International Food-Similar Products Ltd. and its many (evil)
  subsidiaries.

  Its levels involve a variety of combat situations, often in close quarters,
  with extensive use of Boom features, odd architecture, and setpieces (some
  may say "gimmicks") in the name of trying to create something different,
  funny, weird, light-heartedly dark(?), and other descriptors. You will be
  taken to such exciting locales as an evil office building, a train, too many
  factories, the bottom of the ocean, Heck itself, and even a landfill...

  I would describe the UV difficulty as ranging from "moderate" to "evil". I
  kind of built it at just a little bit above my own skill ceiling, such as it
  is. This version now has difficulty scaling, finally! So I hope that helps
  more people enjoy it.

  Work has been going on-and-off since the end of 2021, with the first WIP
  release posted not long after on Dec 1, and continuing in various stages
  ever since. After the "proper" Bite 1 release in 2024, I have tried to make
  each update more of a polished expansion/continuation.

  Levels have been organized into loose chapters of 3 maps each, separated in
  turn by an intermission with non-combat gameplay, with MAP01 falling outside
  that pattern as a larger-scale opener. This current release thus covers
  chapters 1 to 4, along with MAP01 and secret levels MAP31+32.


  == SOURCE PORT COMPATIBILITY ==

  For best results this wad requires a port that supports UMAPINFO, as well
  as widescreen graphics for the menu, intermission, etc. Most of my testing
  was done using DSDA-Doom as a baseline.

  I strongly encourage you to set your preferred source port to its
  equivalent of "complevel 9", "boom", or similar compatibility options for
  the closest experience to the intended one. Jumping/crouching WILL break
  everything, so please don't! I mean, I can't stop you, but you have been
  warned!!!

  Extra features on some ports may cause issues, like projectile-blocking
  scenery, vertical aiming, etc, but I have tried to be mindful of this where
  possible. As of this writing, there are a number of issues with running this
  in the official Doom + Doom II port due to subtle engine differences, so
  proceed with caution there as well - it is likely not finishable.

  Multiplayer of any kind is out of the question, there are too many sequences
  to break. Again, I can't stop you but, again, you have been warned. again.

  Dehacked patches are in use, partly for cosmetic purposes, but also for key
  gameplay tweaks that you will discover through the course of playing. As a
  result, gameplay mods are very likely to interfere so... well you get it
  by now.


===============================================================================
  ⁂ ASSET CREDITS & THANKS ⁂
===============================================================================

  Big explosion sound built out of:
  https://freesound.org/people/cydon/sounds/268555/ (CC BY-NC 4.0)
  https://freesound.org/people/BOAAY/sounds/520720/ (CC 0)

  Sounds for [redacted] and plasma rifle firing from Doom 3

  Graveyard voice made with DECTalk (via https://github.com/dectalk/dectalk)

  Other sounds from freesound as well, CC0 as far as I can recall (will expand
  on this if I find out otherwise), also the FilmCow SFX library mixed in too
  https://filmcow.itch.io/filmcow-sfx

  Textures sourced from a variety of locations, from my own photos, friends'
  photos, a handful from textures.com (before they removed their free tier),
  assorted public domain texture packs I've found over the years, a few edits
  of Doom2 textures, scratch-made ones, and probably stuff I have forgotten

  Thanks Scuba Steve for springing some widescreen menu graphics and UMAPINFO
  on me

  Extra thanks especially to Sarabi for being my #1 source of feedback,
  testing, and collecting the million or so versions of the wad I have sent
  so far


  == SOUNDTRACK ==

  MAP01..........Lee Jackson - Milling Around
  MAP02..........James Paddock - Mysteries of Egypt
  MAP03..........Tristan Clark - Broken Mirror (TNT MIDI pack)
  MAP04..........James Paddock - Potioneer
  MAP05..........James Paddock - Insurgence (Harmony MIDI pack)
  MAP06..........[same as 02]
  MAP07..........James Paddock - Samurai Pizaccato (DukeDC MIDI pack)
  MAP08..........James Paddock - Fluid Motion
  MAP09..........Lippeth - Path of the Pale Horse (Ultimate Doom MIDI pack)
  MAP10..........[same as 02]
  MAP11..........James Paddock - Running out of Steam (Harmony MIDI pack)
  MAP12..........Jeremy Doyle - Return of the Troubles (TNT MIDI pack)
  MAP13..........Bucket - Plurry (Plutonia MIDI pack)
  MAP14..........[same as 02...?]
  MAP15..........James Paddock - Freighthoppers (Revolution MIDI pack)
  MAP16..........Myrgharok - The Eternal Emptiness (Ultimate Doom MIDI pack)
  MAP17..........WatchDaToast - wanderin.mid (Rise of the Wool Ball)
  MAP31..........James Paddock - Unknown Data (DukeDC MIDI pack)
  MAP32..........Varis Alpha - Wretched Abyss (Rebirth MIDI pack)
  MAIN MENU......nova++ - Squenu
  INTERMISSION...James Paddock - It's Friday (edit)
  TEXT SCREEN....Dwars - Ride Closed Due to Gibs (edit)

  ("edit" means I have trimmed the length and/or replaced some instruments
  for flavor)


===============================================================================
  ⁂ AND FINALLY... ⁂
===============================================================================

  Made with love & benzaldehyde by nova++, aka novasilisko, or just nova
  https://novaplusplus.itch.io/squenched-avacausage

  This project is released under the terms of the Creative Commons BY-NC-ND
  license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

  Redistribution is permitted under the condition that this readme file be
  included in unaltered form along with the mapset itself.
