Post by billybobjoe997 on Sept 12, 2014 16:14:59 GMT -5
Hello and welcome to Catechumen Forums! Please note that the advertisements on this forum do not benefit me at all. Freeforums.net has placed them there in order to support them since this forum is free, and I cannot remove them. The reason I chose Freeforums is because I am not sure how much this forum will be used. If we manage to get a bit of a community here, I will not hesitate to purchase a domain and have a 'legitimate' forum, but until then I do not see any reason to spend money on webhosting and a domain.
What is Catechumen?
Catechumen is a little-known first person shooter game that was released in 2000 and sold no more than 80,000 copies. It circulated around Christian bookstores as a non-violent alternative to games like Doom or Quake. Needless to say, the game received little mainstream press attention. The attention it did get was mostly from Christian and conservative organizations. The reviews for this game were mostly positive, but secular reviewers were more critical. A quite humorous review written by Johnny Liu of Game Revolution highlights the game's more problematic aspects that often make no sense.
For example, your weapon is a sword that shoots laser beams. Your character and enemies also move extremely fast. The game also provides no explanation of what a 'catechumen' is or does other than a short dictionary definition at the end of the game in the credits sequence. Perhaps the most humorous part of the game occurs when you 'kill' a Roman soldier. Roman soldiers can not be killed - at least in the physical sense. Rather, after shooting them with enough laser bolts from your sword, they get down on their knees and pray, while the Hallelujah chorus triumphantly blasts in the background. These aspects of the game have made it the brunt of numerous jokes in Youtube video playthroughs.
These playthroughs receive a fairly substantial amount of views, considering the age and obscurity of the game. Most of the videos have a few thousand views, showing continuing interest in the game 14 years after its release. The game received a fairly large amount of attention after the game Speed Runner PEACHES_ beat the game in a mere 37 minutes. This video received 18,000 views.
Why did you make start Catechumen Forums?
Some background is necessary for you to fully understand why I created this forum. The first time I played Catechumen was sometime in 2001. I was the prime demographic the game seemed to be designed for. I was 13 years old and I hungered for a first person shooter video game. My mother refused to let me play violent first person shooters like Doom, Quake, or Half-life. She did allow me to purchase Catechumen though, since the back cover of the jewel case made it clear that the game had little to no violence. At the time, the game didn't seem bad. The graphics were actually decent in 2000, and, being 13 years old, I never thought of how silly the game truly was. It quickly became one of my favorite games. I still remember the triumphant feeling I got after beating the game on 'impossible' difficulty. I felt as if God himself was performing the Hallelujah chorus just for me as I filled the final boss - Satan - with hundreds of laser beams until he exploded into a cloud of red demonic sparkles.
When I discovered Call of Duty in 2003, I almost instantly forgot about Catechumen. I smuggled the game in to my house and played it when my parents were away. Catechumen remained on a shelf, and eventually was buried in a cardboard box of old CDs along with old gems like Lemmings and Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing. I never even had a stray thought about Catechumen until 2013 when I stumbled upon a Youtube playthrough/commentary of the game by Youtuber Gibba Gobba. I was overwhelmed with feelings of nostalgia as I watched the playthrough and I laughed really hard as I watched the video and realized how ridiculous the game was.
I looked up the game on Google and I could not find anything about it other than the few video playthroughs of it on Youtube and a few old text interviews with Ralph Bagley. I took it upon myself to write a Wikipedia page about it which (thankfully) stayed up without getting deleted. The game had a website, but it was deleted when developer's company N-Lightning disbanded in 2007. I created this forum as a centralized place for Catechumen with information about the game and a place where people can talk about the game. I've also wanted to create mods for Catechumen for a long time. I'm working on ways to reverse-engineer the game so that I can make the game moddable. I am in talks with Ralph Bagley about releasing the source code and SDK for Catechumen.
What is Catechumen?
Catechumen is a little-known first person shooter game that was released in 2000 and sold no more than 80,000 copies. It circulated around Christian bookstores as a non-violent alternative to games like Doom or Quake. Needless to say, the game received little mainstream press attention. The attention it did get was mostly from Christian and conservative organizations. The reviews for this game were mostly positive, but secular reviewers were more critical. A quite humorous review written by Johnny Liu of Game Revolution highlights the game's more problematic aspects that often make no sense.
For example, your weapon is a sword that shoots laser beams. Your character and enemies also move extremely fast. The game also provides no explanation of what a 'catechumen' is or does other than a short dictionary definition at the end of the game in the credits sequence. Perhaps the most humorous part of the game occurs when you 'kill' a Roman soldier. Roman soldiers can not be killed - at least in the physical sense. Rather, after shooting them with enough laser bolts from your sword, they get down on their knees and pray, while the Hallelujah chorus triumphantly blasts in the background. These aspects of the game have made it the brunt of numerous jokes in Youtube video playthroughs.
These playthroughs receive a fairly substantial amount of views, considering the age and obscurity of the game. Most of the videos have a few thousand views, showing continuing interest in the game 14 years after its release. The game received a fairly large amount of attention after the game Speed Runner PEACHES_ beat the game in a mere 37 minutes. This video received 18,000 views.
Why did you make start Catechumen Forums?
Some background is necessary for you to fully understand why I created this forum. The first time I played Catechumen was sometime in 2001. I was the prime demographic the game seemed to be designed for. I was 13 years old and I hungered for a first person shooter video game. My mother refused to let me play violent first person shooters like Doom, Quake, or Half-life. She did allow me to purchase Catechumen though, since the back cover of the jewel case made it clear that the game had little to no violence. At the time, the game didn't seem bad. The graphics were actually decent in 2000, and, being 13 years old, I never thought of how silly the game truly was. It quickly became one of my favorite games. I still remember the triumphant feeling I got after beating the game on 'impossible' difficulty. I felt as if God himself was performing the Hallelujah chorus just for me as I filled the final boss - Satan - with hundreds of laser beams until he exploded into a cloud of red demonic sparkles.
When I discovered Call of Duty in 2003, I almost instantly forgot about Catechumen. I smuggled the game in to my house and played it when my parents were away. Catechumen remained on a shelf, and eventually was buried in a cardboard box of old CDs along with old gems like Lemmings and Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing. I never even had a stray thought about Catechumen until 2013 when I stumbled upon a Youtube playthrough/commentary of the game by Youtuber Gibba Gobba. I was overwhelmed with feelings of nostalgia as I watched the playthrough and I laughed really hard as I watched the video and realized how ridiculous the game was.
I looked up the game on Google and I could not find anything about it other than the few video playthroughs of it on Youtube and a few old text interviews with Ralph Bagley. I took it upon myself to write a Wikipedia page about it which (thankfully) stayed up without getting deleted. The game had a website, but it was deleted when developer's company N-Lightning disbanded in 2007. I created this forum as a centralized place for Catechumen with information about the game and a place where people can talk about the game. I've also wanted to create mods for Catechumen for a long time. I'm working on ways to reverse-engineer the game so that I can make the game moddable. I am in talks with Ralph Bagley about releasing the source code and SDK for Catechumen.
