CRACK Wippien V2.1.5 - Better Than Hamachi
Vaniria Setser
30/12/22 As the co-founder of the Claw Recluse, Zuczek certainly needs no introduction in the Claw community, though its newer members may not have had a chance to interact with him personally on the forums and multiplayer networks of old. Custom level aficionados will also be well acquainted with his excellent maps, which thus far have used every single tileset from the base game -- except one. Today, we are publishing that final Puerto Lobos level, the aptly titled Zuczek's (Not) Last Word, in its current, unfinished form.
To be clear, it is neither a triumphant comeback, nor a last goodbye. Rather, consider this a unique contest invitation for all Claw level designers: throughout 2023, complete Zuczek's work however you see fit, and at the end of next year, he will declare the winner(s) to be published here on TCR as collaborative maps. Visit our Discord server for details.
CRACK Wippien v2.1.5 - Better than hamachi
1/12/22 For Steam Deck owners, and everyone else trying to play Claw on Linux, here is the recently updated, comprehensive guide written by clawconut. It actually includes 4 different approaches (involving Bottles, Heroic Games Launcher, Lutris, and Steam) as well as covers common issues with frame rate and playback of MIDI music.
13/10/22 Despite the rather unassuming v1.1 moniker, the freshly updated version of wisztom's excellent 2019 level Nothing There brings quite the list of changes. Tricky jumps and conveyor belts have been reworked, and there are improvements to artillery sections. Last but not least, the map now features a save system that you might already know from the author's most recent and probably best level to date, Raid on the Spanish Armada.
10/10/22 September may be behind us, but the celebration of Claw's 25th anniversary is far from over. In the first video of a planned series, Pappy discusses the game with a very special guest: Kevin Lambert (aka Sylvermyst), ex-Monolith developer and game designer on Claw. Of course, being the legendary speedrunner that he is, Pappy manages to interview his guest while attempting some runs. Here is the YouTube playlist for 25th Anniversary Claw Talks.
23/09/22 RetroDeath has published an excellent review of Claw on YouTube, including what might very well be the first ever unboxing video of the game. The reviewer also provides some historical context, goes over the setup process on modern PCs, and even discusses multiplayer. Overall, it is easily worth watching, and you can do so here.
5/09/22 As of today, Claw is one quarter of a century old! On that note, here is to the original developers, community members past and present, and friends we made along the way. Cheers -- and now go play some custom levels, watch a speedrun, or just drop by our Discord server to celebrate the 25th anniversary and reminisce about the past.
21/04/22 Remember Pappy's damageless playthrough back in January? How about an even more amazing feat by RED DEVIL, who managed the same in a single, unsegmented run, without retrying levels? Oh, and did I mention it took less than 2 hours? Just watch.
In other news, the fan art gallery received a long overdue update with recent works by TaurusII, as did the Custom Levels section, where dozens of links to newly recorded videos were added, courtesy of Renganathan, Baron FQ and SugheroGame. Be sure to visit and subscribe to their channels, as they have been doing amazing work for the community.
24/03/22 Some excellent new custom levels, including Baron FQ's debut Dark Greens and Fizik Who 5, a huge Township-based map by Fizik. Somewhat against current trends, neither uses the CrazyHook mod, but certainly not to any detriment to design or playability. Both are highly recommended, so enjoy and feel free to share your feedback on Discord.
Speaking of CrazyHook, we have updated the dgVoodoo tool bundled with the mod to its latest version, which should solve occasionally reported issues with the background layer in some levels. Thanks to Foxhood for pointing out the fix.
1/02/22 The 2021 level of the year vote is over, with Renganathan's latest and greatest Invasion of Lumberjacks securing a rather convincing win. On a side note, the designer has been also very active on his YouTube channel, posting perfect score playthroughs for many classics such as UnderSeaWorld and Encounter in the Deep. Our congratulations and thanks for the exceptional contribution to the Claw community.
Things are not slowing down in 2022, as January saw two new releases: MaximTGMX's full version of Birthday, and another outside the box idea from Pejti, the multiplayer-only map Get the Coin where 2 to 9 players compete to find treasure before the opponents do.24/01/22 We have a new speedrun champion: yesterday, Simpson1225 broke Pappy's previous record by no less than 34 seconds, dethroning him for the first time in years. The entire run is available on YouTube.
6/01/22 In what might well be the single most impressive Claw achievement ever, Pappy has pulled off a damageless run of the entire game. Damageless. Claw. Playthrough. Let that sink in for a moment. Quite a way to start 2022, eh?
29/12/21 The level of the year vote is underway, and rather than on the venerable Claw Forum, it is being held on our Discord server for the first time. There is plenty to choose from, so be sure to check out all nominated levels before taking part!
1/12/21 More new custom levels: Invasion of Lumberjacks marks Renganathan's first one in over a year, and has a strong case for the best map of 2021. Mzged and Andokai Camanis (well known in Claw's speedrunning community) made their first forays into level design with Pirates' Lair and Through the Barricades, respectively. Finally, Birthday is MaximTGMX's short, birthday-themed level. CAFTA: Recon, his recent major release, was also updated with a number of bug fixes, by the way.
5/10/21 Some news in the Custom Levels section. After a 1.5-year hiatus, MaximTGMX has returned with the next installment of his CAFTA series, Recon. Meanwhile, Pejti has brought more outlandish ideas to life with the brand new map Total War and a major update to Claw Tower, now compatible with the current version of the CrazyHook mod.
5/09/21 As a celebration of Claw's 24th anniversary, Garadares has compiled an massive YouTube playlist featuring a selection of the most notable videos created by the Claw community over the years. From reviews to record-breaking speedruns and custom levels that take hours just to complete, everything is there.
25/08/21 Over the nearly 24 years Claw has been around, we have certainly seen a fair share of outlandish maps and crazy ideas. Here is a brand new one though: Pejti has just recreated Tetris in his latest custom level Bricks. Yes, you heard that right. Have fun!
13/07/21 Garadares has been kind enough to set up a brand new Twitter page for TCR, which already features a sizable collection of recent Claw art and custom level videos. He is also a moderator on the Claw subreddit, now linked here, too. Our thanks for the tireless work in trying to popularise the game and overall an outstanding contribution to the Claw community in the recent months.
27/03/21 Pejti has just wrapped up his extensive guide covering all aspects of Claw level design, from the basics of the classic WapWorld editor to the new WapMap, and especially the possibilities enabled by the CrazyHook mod: custom logics and importing external assets (plus adjusting the color palette). Available in English and Polish, the guide can be grabbed from the Downloads section.
7/03/21 Cold Flame's new level, Chaotic Catacombs, is now available for download. His second map this year already, it follows the tradition of mixing multiple base game tilesets, often in surprising ways. As for the particular combination used here, that is probably best discovered on your own, so just load the level and enjoy. The difficulty is very reasonable.
But custom maps are not all that has been going on recently: we have an active (if not very large) speedrunning community, after all. Just yesterday, Pappy's run clocked in at under 41 minutes for the first time, or 40:57.27 to be exact, despite a significant hold-up on Pirates' Cove. Is the 40 minutes barrier at hand?
1/01/21 Many of us are glad 2020 has finally come to an end, and right off the bat, we have a brand new level to celebrate. Created by Cold Flame, Port of Pain combines the Docks and Shipyards tilesets with great results. Following feedback from his previous maps, the designer also adjusted the difficulty to be more forgiving, so pay no heed to the name!
10/11/20 Renganathan has released his second CrazyHook level, Claw's Clone. True to the name, you can expect a rather interesting confrontation at some point. Although the design might appear to follow a well-worn path with the La Roca tileset, it only takes one look at the mapshot to realise that is not the case at all.
26/10/20 An update for wisztom's Raid on the Spanish Armada brings quite the list of improvements. The custom background's quality can be configured on-the-fly while playing, and it works in higher resolutions now, too. There are also some balance changes for tricky jumps, and 2 extra achievements for those looking for a challenge. Last but not least, it is now possible to continue playing from save points. To apply the patch, download the level again, overwriting existing files in your Custom folder. Achievement progress will be saved.
16/10/20 One new level, Alex Serban's debut: Commandment of Thieves, a very nice, modestly sized old-school map based on the third tileset. There are also two more updates from Cold Flame, who vastly increased the quality of level 12 tiles in Mystic Depths v2.0, and Renganathan, whose Littoral Forests of Tiger Island v2.0 received several balance changes and all-around improvements.
5/09/20 In a strange turn of events, according to an archived PC Gamer news page, and corroborated by Monolith plan files and at least one review, Claw was shipping to customers as early as September 5, rather than on September 30. Which would of course mean the anniversary is today and that we have been celebrating it on the wrong day for the past two decades or so.
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