MeenTC: I.M. Meen in GZDoom (v0.9)

[MundyC]

“Doom Junior... Good and good for you.”
- Electronic Entertainment Magazine

MeenTC is a standalone IWAD for GZDoom that recreates the gameplay of I.M. Meen, an edutainment FPS from 1995 by the infamous Russian-American game studio Animation Magic.

All 36 levels from the original have been remade; every enemy, boss, item, and decoration is here. However, some things have been tweaked to make it a more enjoyable experience than the original. Various pieces of cut content have also been added back into the game, as well as some brand-new secret levels for the bravest bookworms out there.

Screenshots

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Download: Here! (v0.9)
NOTE: I advise using GZDoom v4.8.1 due to recent FMV cutscene developments.
In addition, this TC uses the Raven inventory system for items and secondary fire for melee weapon handedness, so be wary of that.

Changelog

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Version 0.9 "The (Kinda, Sorta) Cutscene Update" - July 1st, 2022

• FMV cutscenes added for the intro and two of the final level's cutscenes.
• Added support for two-player co-op.
• New third-person sprites added for Scott and Katie.
• Improved, more accurate system for the Magic Key.
• Impassable decorations are now marked on the automap with a plus.
• Various audiovisual and gameplay improvements.

Version 0.8.5 - November 25th, 2020

• Certain graphics now have proper widescreen support (title screen, magic melee weapons, etc.)
• Tweaked decoration brightmaps and added all-new ones for items, enemies, and bosses.
• Converted audio to high-quality OGG files to reduce filesize.
• All-new LOADING and ENDOOM lumps have been added.
• Cutscene subtitles now change color depending on who's talking.

Version 0.8 - May 3rd, 2020

• Added Levels 19 to 36 (Catacombs 3 to Library 4), completing the game.
• Added the last two secret levels (Levels 39 and 40).
• Added dynamic lights for walls, decorations, items, and so on.
• Added brightmaps for walls and decorations.
• Split the highest difficulty into two separate ones - PL4 and PL5.
• Added Meen's player defeat and Level 36 taunts.
• Added the battle music, but only for boss battles.

Version 0.4 - February 10th, 2020

• Added Levels 10 to 18 (Sewer 2 to Catacombs 2).
• Added the first two secret levels (Levels 37 and 38).
• Fixed several map errors and inaccuracies.
• Added some cut content back into the game.
• Meen's timed level taunts have been added.

Version 0.2 - January 7th, 2020

• Initial release. Contains the first nine levels (Tower 1 to Sewer 1).

Questions

Do I need the Doom/Doom II WAD to play this?
Nope. As long as you have GZDoom, you can select it in the game file menu and play it without any issues. If you don't have any other IWADs, MeenTC will automatically boot up.

Can I play this TC with my favorite gameplay mod?
You can try, but I wouldn't recommend it unless you really want your Doomguy/character to rely on magic wands and melee weapons for 99% of the game.

Are the cutscenes present?
Mostly! The intro and two final level cutscenes play in full, but the rest of them only have their audio play in-game. Once GZDoom adds support for cutscenes that play in the middle of a level, this will change.

How about the scroll editing screens?
Sadly, no. I could try to hack something together with the Strife dialogue system, but it would take an ungodly amount of time and be very unwieldy.

How do I get Gnorris to go away?
Punch him in the face. No, seriously, it'll make him disappear.

What difficulty should I play on?
I advise Play Level 3, as it's the hardest level from the original game. If you're curious, PL4 replaces certain monsters with their next tier (so the Tower spiders now have two HP, Dungeon spiders have three, and so on), while PL5 is basically PL4 with fast monsters.

Is this TC tied to the recent CD-i Zelda fan remakes?
While I did help in the development of both games, MeenTC was a completely separate project from the CD-i remakes, with (basically) no ties to it.

Are you going to make a TC for Chill Manor?
Probably not. There isn't a proper graphics ripping program for Chill Manor like there is for Meen, so I can only rip sprites/textures without any transparency. I tried to get some of the transparent graphics through editing game screenshots, but it took way too long and are inaccurate in one way or another. Who knows, maybe it'll happen in the future?

Something broke! Can you fix it, please?
I'll see what I can do, but I don't think there are any bugs in the TC that require a brand new patch.

Credits

• Me: Created pretty much everything in the TC.
• The Unhappy Orchestra: Made the I.M. Meen theme MIDI that plays in the main menu.
• Animation Magic and Simon & Schuster: Made the original game.

[Rachael]

This is amazing, and quite impressive, especially for a first post. Good job.

I haven't ever played this game before, or even heard of it, but from playing the TC it looks interesting.

[Valken]

Can we coop play this? I've been getting the family into living room casual doom... One day we will move up to family PB night!

[MundyC]

This is amazing, and quite impressive, especially for a first post. Good job.

I haven't ever played this game before, or even heard of it, but from playing the TC it looks interesting.

Thank you!

Can we coop play this? I've been getting the family into living room casual doom... One day we will move up to family PB night!

Unfortunately, no. I didn't put co-op support in mainly because there are no third-person sprites for Scott/Katie, so you wouldn't be able to see the other player.

I'll think about doing something with co-op whenever I get around to v0.9.

[spoone]

I'm too lazy to figure it out, what content was cut from the 0.8 version that is in this one. I did notice the punching seemed smoother in this one compared to the last version. Stupid question also, is it possible for Doom to do the grammatical error like in the original game? I'm not expecting you to do a full on remake i'm just asking.

Edit: Oops I didn't see the spoiler section or the scroll editing part either. My fault.

[spoone]

This is amazing, and quite impressive, especially for a first post. Good job.

I haven't ever played this game before, or even heard of it, but from playing the TC it looks interesting.

From someone who actually owns the original on cd, this is pretty faithful the only thing missing is every time before you'd rescue a kid you'd have to fix a grammatical error in a story. I think you actually could turn that feature off, but I always found it fun and there's a whole intro cutscene explaining who Meen is in song style. The intro is hilariously bad, but I guess for the time it worked.

[Wiw]

It's pretty neat! All that's missing is the cutscenes and the puzzles. They can probably be worked in somehow, right?

[MundyC]

It's pretty neat! All that's missing is the cutscenes and the puzzles. They can probably be worked in somehow, right?

Thanks. If I knew more about ZScript, I would definitely try to include at least one of them.

I actually tried to put the intro cutscene's graphics in through a TITLEMAP. It worked, but it took like 15 seconds to load all the frames and massively desynced the audio, so I had to scrap it.

[Wiw]

I suppose what you could do is have it load the frames first before playing the music.

[Zenon]

Looks real nice so far.
My only complaint is the hud. As long as I have items, I can't see the status bar face to have an idea of how much health I have.
I guess now we have a reason to get the I.M. Meen OPL Bank

[MundyC]

Looks real nice so far.
My only complaint is the hud. As long as I have items, I can't see the status bar face to have an idea of how much health I have.
I guess now we have a reason to get the I.M. Meen OPL Bank

Good point. When I get around to working on v0.9, I'll shift the inventory menu up so that it won't cover the status bar.

[Wiw]

I suppose one other idea is to put the scrolls in a Strife dialogue tree. By that same token, you could probably put part of the cutscenes as the portrait. Would that be okay?

[RedGhost]

Hi all, just played through the MeenTC and loved it! MundyC - great job on this! Loved the new stuff too, although it was weird to see vertical gameplay in I.M. Meen. Keep up the good work!

[Captain J]

I certainly had a blast playing this special TC. It's very faithful and yet new to the original I.M. MEEN!

[MundyC]

Version 0.9 of MeenTC (lovingly nicknamed "The (Kinda, Sorta) Cutscene Update") has been released! This update contains a small handful of FMV cutscenes, co-op support, accuracy improvements, and other small goodies.

The full changelog can be seen below. Please note that you'll need to acquire the latest GZDoom update, v4.8.1, to properly play this MeenTC update.

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• Added proper cutscene videos for the intro theme and two of the Meen cutscenes in the final level. (This is why the newest version of GZDoom is required!)
  Please note that the rest of their cutscenes are still in their audio-only format. If and when GZDoom updates its cutscene system to allow FMVs to play during a level, I assure you that there will be a follow-up update containing videos for EVERY cutscene.
• Support for two-player local co-op has been added! Play the I.M. Meen TC with your best bud!
• Gnorris' "The boss is getting suspicious!" cutscene will now play after respawning in co-op. This means that every cutscene is accounted for!
• On a related note, Scott and Katie have brand new, custom-made (read: hacked together) third-person sprites.
• Completely reworked the Magic Key system; it'll teleport the key into the last opened cell/where the level's boss died, just like the original game. No more voodoo doll conveyer belts!
• Replaced the main menu music with an I.M. Meen theme MIDI (courtesy of The Unhappy Orchestra)
• Added unique intermission graphics and music for the latter three secret levels.
• Added a unique "death" cutscene for the fourth secret level.
• Added a brand new bigfont, based off the one used in the original I.M. Meen. Surprisingly, it was Times New Roman!
• Impassable decorations will now show up on the automap as plus signs, just like the original game.
• The destructable wall textures now have much larger Xs, making them easier to tell apart from regular walls.
• Changed the par times - they now reflect how long it takes to 100% the level.
• Using an Invisi-Fruit will make enemies disperse and try to find you until the powerup wears off.
• Gnorris' initial speech on Level 1 can be prematurely ended by exiting your cell.
• Fixed the item menu displaying over the status bar.
• Minor tweaks and fixes.