downloaded it, played it a bit... looks and feels suitably quakey. Kind of a surreal experience. I got a bit motion sick because I didn't (or maybe couldn't?) get the mouse controls/movement to feel right. That's probably just my inexperience with eduke. 

that's mostly the duke engine. the y movement of the mouse isn't (or least, it doesn't feel) 1:1 like in full 3d games like quake.

also, the fiend is fucking hard... a single one almost killed me the first time. 

i haven't tried this one yet, but i have to second that mouse behaviour in eduke is strange. one can get used to it, but it's weird. i played blood again recently (got into some nostalgic mood once again) and blood + dosbox had the same effect on me. luckily, i've eventualy found some hack/patch that modifies the mouse movement. 

unfortunately I've lost my copy but Blood was one of the best games from that period 

I've been wanting to get the Blood Plasma Pack or whatever it is from GoG. But all these new damn games keep coming out :( 

I loved Blood a lot too.

"Mmmmmm - fresh victims for the ever-growing army of the undead....." 

Blood was very creative but jesus it's core mechanics were dodgy. Enemies with good aim, instant reactions and instant hit attacks. Nearly every attack took shitloads of damage, and really not much enemy variety. Plus those disembodied hands that insta-killed you...
Also reached some of the most dizzying heights when it came to confusing levels :(

Weapons were hilarious though, as was some of the styling :p 

i mean, i love some of these old games, but they had really poor mechanics in those days.
like descent with the instant reaction, no-miss, hitscan machinegun robots. they were guaranteed to hit their first shot, so no matter how awesome you were, you would always loose the one portion of hp. 

you right - they are dangerous, but if you aren't almost dead already when they squeeze your throat then you usualy have time to press use key, shake it of and kill it.
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too bad the source code for blood is gone... i'd love to play blood via some nice modern engine like eduke. i hate those "shimmering" non-accelerated pixels. there is one guy who is creating blood remake in eduke - i wish him luck with that project and hope he will be able to finish it one day. 

I just have a massive nostalgic feeling about Blood. It was one of the first real FPS's I ever played. It was back when I had barely learned to strafe, I was using the arrow keys to move and Ctrl for fire etc. The game felt really atmospheric at the time, and the music was awesome. The gameplay for me at the time seemed like the best thing ever. Some of the really wacky levels, with the carnival theme were totally great. I had yet to play Quake at that time, but I wasn't far from getting onto that pony....... 

I have ever heard Quake described as 'a pony.' And I like it. I agree completely re blood, thought it was SO fucking badass at the time - was blood 2 any good? 

Also at the time I enjoyed Blood 2, but it was a different style from the first Blood. I tried to play it recently and there was a massive problem with the mouselook stuttering uncontrolably and BSODs.

Interesting that Blood 2 slowly morphed into FEAR. I can still see the similarity in the styles. 

Replaying Blood, Kingpin, Duke 3D and a bunch of other shooters is a good reminder to appreciate just how smooth Quake (and Doom) are in gameplay terms. Very few of it's enemies feel cheap or shoddy and this gives you a lot of space to use them.

Blood 2 I tried to get hold of but couldn't :( 

Hexen is still one my favorite games and hasn't been mentioned. I must have played that game 2x for each character. Even with different characters it didn't feel cheap. 

i should give hexen another spin... but it's the kind of game that, to me, really characterized the 90s: getting lost with no idea where to go next.

but maybe i just suck. 

You can always try FAQs. I didn't think it was nearly as frustrating as Hexen 2, which sucked balls, which I shouldn't really say as it may upset some of my employers, but it's true.

At least with Hexen, you can check your map and see where you haven't gone yet. 

Hexen is still one my favorite games and hasn't been mentioned. I must have played that game 2x for each character. Even with different characters it didn't feel cheap.

Those shitty shield motherfuckers who do the same animation for going into blocking as they do for quickly firing a projectile at you. And were also the same sprite as ones without a projectile at all.
They were soddin annoying. Also they got used EVERYWHERE.

Actually I really like Hexen, though I know I shouldn't. 

Definitely serve a purpose. They basically stop you from rushing into each and every room. And they're NOT insta hit, just very fast ;-) 

well, granted i am rusty at descent, but i found the only way i could get the first hit in is if i catch one with it's back to me.
every other time, it would fire the moment i came around a corner.
i stopped playing once i got to level 5? 6? i think, when they show up because they were just that frustrating and switched to descent 2.
basically what was happening was i'd be slowly worn down because i'd fight maybe 8 or 9 and each one would consistently be able to take about 10-20 hp off me and for some reason, there's no shield powerups. so it was this really slow death, one hit at a time. 

they do that :-) I don't think it's a gameplay flaw though, although you have a point that it is very hard to avoid them. iirc they scream before they fire, so that should set you in panic mode ;-) 

If you're pining for a new Blood engine, keep an eye on http://xlengine.com/?page_id=24 

did blood come out around the same time duke3d did?

the artwork (if it's the originals) looks really good. 

http://m210.ucoz.ru/
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xlengine - watching closely for o a long time :-) 

Nah Blood came out a little before Quake 2 

no wonder i never played it. must have missed it when everything was going full 3d. :(