Some random easter egg

[eezstreet]

So I'm pretty sure a lot of you who played Jedi Knight 2 were a little bit curious about the map "Imperial Labs: Raven Software". In addition to being the only FFA map in the game available for Duel under Create-A-Server, it was also placed last in the list, and therefore required scrolling the map list to see. It wouldn't surprise me if a lot of people didn't actually see the map in the list because of this. It's the only stock Duel map in the game that has a weapon other than the Blaster and Bowcaster available (although those are both present in this map too) and it's the only one with holdable items.

 

So what's the deal with this map, and why does it feel so out of place?

 

It turns out there's a lot more to this story than just a random bonus map that got thrown in. Our story begins in 1994. Doom - the video game that is - has taken the world by storm, and everyone wants a little slice of the pie. It became a system-seller for DOS. It has the unique honor of selling more copies than Microsoft sold of Windows, and it was also partially responsible for the death of the Amiga platform.

 

Raven Software, then a modest company with a few games under its belt and a previous collaboration with id Software in their ShadowCaster game, which ran on the Wolfenstein 3D engine, proposed to John Romero of id to work on a new game. This game later became Heretic. The evil monsters from another dimension were still present, but this time with a high fantasy setting to work with. It proved successful enough of a game to warrant a sequel: Heretic: Shadows of the Serpent Rider.

 

Of course, this is pretty well known information if you played any video games at all on the PC during the '90s. What you probably didn't know is that Heretic had a few secret levels of its own. Three of these levels, built for multiplayer deathmatch, encompassed a sixth episode and could only be accessable by a console command. One of these levels - E6M1 - was known as Raven's Lair, ostensibly named as such because it was based on the layout of Raven Software's offices.

 

 

 

 

 

So, it's become somewhat of a gag to include the Raven Software offices. It didn't appear in Hexen, the sequel to Heretic, but it later made appearances in Star Trek: Elite Force, Soldier of Fortune, Soldier of Fortune 2, and Jedi Knight 2, where it made its last appearance.

 

Here's the map in Soldier of Fortune 2.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NMWzKF3jHQ

[Omicron]

In the gamecube version of outcast it's also the last map you unlock (after defeating Desann).

[Xycaleth]

That's pretty cool. I always thought it looked like an office

[Archangel35757]

that's awesome.

[Darth Martyr]

Doom was actually released on December 10th, 1993.  Does your story begin at the release of Doom or when Raven was making Doom Clones?

[eezstreet]

Doom was actually released on December 10th, 1993. Does your story begin at the release of Doom or when Raven was making Doom Clones?

It begins when Raven released Heretic.

[Darth Martyr]

It begins when Raven released Heretic.

 

Gotcha.

[Clan FJA]

So I'm pretty sure a lot of you who played Jedi Knight 2 were a little bit curious about the map "Imperial Labs: Raven Software".

Have you a video showing this map ? (for those who did not have JKII)

[Smoo]

that map on Soldier of Fortune II is so fun

[Beans]

I love easter eggs haha they just make games that much better

[Silverfang]

I knew it was in Soldier of Fortune II, but I had no idea it was included in so many other Raven games