TNT: Evilution


 * "TNT" redirects here. For the modding collaborative, see TeamTNT.

TNT: Evilution, released on May 31, 1996, forms one half of Final Doom, a commercial product which consists of two 32-level IWADs (the other being The Plutonia Experiment), similar to Doom II. The "TNT" in the title stands for "The New Technology" and is also the name of the mapping team who created Evilution.

TNT: Evilution was completed in November 1995, and was to have been released for free. However, a publishing deal was brokered by John Romero, resulting in the commercial release of Final Doom by id Software. As of 2024, it is still on sale. 

The commercialization of TNT: Evilution caused a certain amount of controversy amongst the Doom community, and Evilution is consequently one of Doomworld's "Top 10 Infamous WADs", albeit not for reasons of gameplay or level design. Evilution has a much more technical feel with levels that are akin to real buildings, versus Plutonia, whose floor design tends more toward a natural landscape feel.

Story
In TNT: Evilution the UAC once again are intent on developing and experimenting with dimensional gateway technology. They set up a base on Io, one of the moons of Jupiter, with a solid detachment of space marines for protection. The marines do their job well: when the first experimental gateway is opened they annihilate the forces of Hell. Anything that came through the gateway was immediately destroyed by the marines, and so research on the gateways continued.

Later, the yearly supply ship came earlier than expected, and looks strange and unusually large on the radar. The personnel of the base go out to behold the terrible truth: it is a spaceship from Hell, built of steel, stone, flesh, bone and corruption. The ship's enormous gates open to unleash a rain of demons on the base. Quickly, the whole base is overrun, and everyone is slain or zombified.

The Doomguy, now in command of the marine deployment, has been away on a walk, and has thus escaped death or zombification. After being attacked by an imp he rushes back to the base, where he sees the demonic spaceship still hovering above it and realizes what has happened. Then he swears that he will seek vengeance for his slain troops, and sets out to kill as many evil creatures as possible.

In the end, the marine defeats the Demon-Spitter, and the game describes ''Something rumbles in the distance. A blue light begins to glow inside the ruined skull of the Demon-Spitter''.

Levels
As in Doom II, the levels can be divided up into three sets, defined by the skies and separated by a textual intermission in addition to the standard intermission screen; as well as two secret levels. Additional textual interludes appear before level 7, before each secret level, and at the conclusion of the game. The designers of each map were unveiled by Ty Halderman in a post at the Doomworld forums in 2004, showing that several level designs were shared between multiple authors. 

The Steam version of Final Doom does not play several demos of TNT: Evilution which were earlier recorded. The reason is that the DOOM2.EXE of Final Doom was updated. If you get a synchronization lost, you can try to play it using Doom II instead of Final Doom. You will need to copy the TNT.WAD into the DOOM II folder, and add the "-file TNT.WAD" command line parameter (without quotes). It was checked on all desynced UV max and several UV speed demos from Compet-n.

TNT: Evilution has a mostly techbase ambience similar to the first episode of the original Doom with sporadic hellish features, transitioning to a fully hellish ambience on Level 25. Consequently, it's arguable that the narration screen which runs after the player beats Level 20 (describing the Doomguy reentering Hell) should appear after Level 24 instead, but it is prevented from doing so by the limitations of its Doom II-based WAD file. Even the names of the levels, which likewise transition from techbase to hellish between Levels 24 and 25, appear to support this idea.

MAP01 to MAP06; experimental labs levels:


 * Level 1: System Control
 * Level 2: Human BBQ
 * Level 3: Power Control
 * Level 4: Wormhole
 * Level 5: Hanger
 * Level 6: Open Season

MAP07 to MAP11; military base levels:


 * Level 7: Prison
 * Level 8: Metal
 * Level 9: Stronghold
 * Level 10: Redemption
 * Level 11: Storage Facility

MAP12 to MAP20; nighttime levels:


 * Level 12: Crater
 * Level 13: Nukage Processing
 * Level 14: Steel Works
 * Level 15: Dead Zone (Exit to secret level)
 * Level 16: Deepest Reaches
 * Level 17: Processing Area
 * Level 18: Mill
 * Level 19: Shipping/Respawning
 * Level 20: Central Processing

MAP21 to MAP30; hellish levels:


 * Level 21: Administration Center
 * Level 22: Habitat
 * Level 23: Lunar Mining Project
 * Level 24: Quarry
 * Level 25: Baron's Den
 * Level 26: Ballistyx
 * Level 27: Mount Pain
 * Level 28: Heck
 * Level 29: River Styx
 * Level 30: Last Call

MAP31</tt> and MAP32</tt>; secret levels:


 * Level 31: Pharaoh (Exit to super secret level)
 * Level 32: Caribbean

Current records
The Compet-n episode records for TNT are:


 * 1) Uncompleted as of the most recent Compet-n database update.

File specifications
TNT:Evilution is contained in an IWAD file named TNT.WAD. Its most common version is 18195736</tt> bytes in size and contains 3101 entries. It has the following hashes: