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 ContentsArchived news (2023)24/12/23 Merry Christmas! We have a perfect custom level to celebrate, too: Fjordsson's Christmas Eve Adventure replaces the level 7 tileset with a winter version and adds a number of festive decorations. We have also brought the complete level pack up to date. Meanwhile, the slightly redesigned Downloads section more prominently features essential resources like the CrazyHook mod (now including cnc-ddraw, developed by FunkyFr3sh). 3/12/23 Another new level from Andokai Camanis, Underground is notably the first one in over five years to be based on Undersea Caves (which remains the least popular tileset). Moreover, TSxD released the Autumn v1.2 update, addressing some performance issues. 21/10/23 New levels: Jailbreak by Andokai Camanis, a well-designed, medium-sized one based on the La Roca tileset, and Toxic Night, part seven of MaximTGMX's long-running Claw's Adventure for the Amulet (CAFTA) series. Note that the latter is hosted off-site due to the size of custom assets used in the map (about 125 MB). 17/09/23 An update for TSxD's and Pejti's Arcana is now available. Version 1.1 replaces the old WAV music with new MIDI tracks (including one for the boss fight), bringing the package down to a much more manageable size. Furthermore, there are some new anti-cheat measures for the hardcore difficulty, one more artifact powerup, plus minor bug fixes. 8/09/23 The speedrun leaderboards were updated. Congratulations to BorisHR, who was on a roll this summer and now holds the top spot on all 14 levels in the 100% category. 5/09/23 Twenty-six years ago this week, Monolith officially announced Claw's release. Right on time, here is an awesome La Roca theme cover, courtesy of Nestalgica. 21/08/23 After a successful beta test, Arcana is now available, brought to you by TSxD with a contribution from Pejti. The level is brimming with surprises and innovations in visuals, design, and mechanics alike. Selectable difficulty and resolution, multiple brand new magical powerups, unique secret areas and unexpected ways to access them, an original boss fight that could easily be part of the original game... it's all there. It even includes the save/load system previously featured in wisztom's recent (and excellent) maps. Have fun! 8/08/23 The flurry of new levels continues with two huge maps: The Thousand Towers by Leprichaun and Fortress Assault by BorisHR. Although both mainly use the Battlements tileset, the latter mixes things up with plenty of surprises that are best left for the player to discover. The former, a classic level that works without the CrazyHook mod, is no less worth playing, and absolutely phenomenal for its designer's debut. Be prepared for a challenge! 24/07/23 Not for the first time, we are celebrating July 24th's anniversaries of some of the most famous custom levels -- naturally, with amazing new releases! First up, we have an entry for Zuczek's contest from Renganathan: Mazy Mansions. Second, TSxD's follow-up to Autumn is nearly finished, and while Arcana will not be officially released today, you can participate in a beta test on Discord right now. Finally, much to everyone's surprise, there is also Renganathan's old, previously unpublished map called In the Castle, recently found in the designer's archives and thoroughly revamped. Still not enough? Make sure you have checked other recent custom levels: Cannonballin', Cultist Island, and especially John Smith's Adventurer, one of the most challenging ones out there, and a unique throwback to notorious late 2000s classics like Escape and Assassin. 25/02/23 TSxD's next map is out now! Autumn is an absolute top-tier release, putting a seasonal spin on elements combined from several tilesets, naturally using appropriate color palettes and custom music. Be on the lookout for several really unique warps that are very much worth checking out. Enjoy, and feel free to share your impressions on Discord. 1/02/23 The 2022 level of the year winners are Mountain Fortress, originally started by Proximity and finished by Renganathan, and Fizik's eponymous Fizik Who 5, sharing the #1 spot with one third of the votes each. Pejti's Get the Coin completes the podium with a very respectable 20%. Congratulations to the designers! As always, we are looking forward to another year of custom levels, and there is in fact already one new map in 2023, namely Spider-Claw by Henrique Lorenzi. 3/01/23 Happy new year! Until the end of January, you can cast your votes for the best custom level of 2022 on Discord. Naturally, be sure to check out all nominated maps first, which should be quicker than usual with only five contenders this time around. So, without further ado, head to everyone's favorite section on TCR, and have fun! Archived news (2022)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. 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. 05/11/22 A long-awaited milestone in Claw speedruns was reached today: Simpson1225 became the first to complete the game in under 40 minutes, or 39:41.94 to be exact. Congratulations! 31/10/22 Actually, make it two new maps with Seasons in the Abyss, also created by Andokai Camanis. Meanwhile, Pappy hosted Zax37 in a new episode of 25th Anniversary Claw Talks, discussing the CrazyHook mod and ClawJS, among others. Enjoy! 23/10/22 Finally, a new map in the Custom Levels section: Old Town is the second one by Andokai Camanis. Based on the seldom considered Puerto Lobos tileset, in many ways it is a throwback to the old days of Claw level design, worth playing in 1997 and 2022 alike. 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. 13/02/22 Simpson1225 improved his own recent speedrun record by another 12 seconds today. Coincidentally, the 40 minutes mark is now also about 12 seconds away. 8/02/22 Proximity's last level to date, Mountain Fortress, remained unfinished for more than a decade, but now received a full release thanks to a collaboration with Renganathan. 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. Meanwhile, AndokaiCamanis had another successful attempt at a 100% treasure speedrun, and significantly reduced his time to just over 4 hours. Watch it here. 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? Archived news (2021)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! 13/08/21 One new map by TSxD: the medium-sized, tileset 4-based Murky Valley, his first new level in 5 years (not counting revisions). Speaking of which, Cold Flame recently updated Castle of War to v2.0, with some difficulty adjustments among other changes. 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. Speaking of which, you can help the community grow by liking/retweeting Claw as the choice of speedrunner AndrewG's next game to tackle. 30/05/21 We have the first successful Claw speedrun in the 100% category, completed last night by AndokaiCamanis in nearly six hours. The complete footage (sans Twitch chat, unfortunately) can be watched here. Congratulations! 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. 18/03/21 A surprise from TSxD, who just released Night Wood v2.0, updating his 2010 custom level based on the Dark Woods tileset. Can you believe over 10 years have passed? 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. 1/02/21 The 2020 level of the year poll is over: 44% of votes, and the first place, go to Raid on the Spanish Armada. With 22%, Quest of the Prisoner is the runner-up, while CAFTA: Chemical Valley, Littoral Forests of Tiger Island and Mystic Depths v2.0 are in a dead heat for the third place, at 11% each. Congratulations to the designers, and may 2021 bring even better levels! 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! Meanwhile, the 2020 level of the year vote is underway on our forum, and will remain open until the end of January. Be sure to take another look at all nominated levels. Archived news (2020)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. 2/11/20 Pappy has outdone himself yet again, setting the speedrun record at 41:24.87, and only missing out on a sub-41 time due to bad luck. A highlight reel of his attempts in the recent months (500 tries!) has been put together by Achranai and is well worth a look. 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. Anyhow, we might as well start observing Claw's actual birthday with Cold Flame's remake of Wild Harbor, completely rebuilt from the ground up, to the point even the base level was changed from 9 to 13. In short, everything is reimagined, and for the better. 2/09/20 After a fairly quiet August, September started with a bang as Fizik released the third biggest custom level of all time, Quest of the Prisoner (coincidentally, as of today, the entire top three are made in Russia). It is a huge map that combines the well-known tileset from La Roca with many custom assets, including new music that perfectly fits the mood. As opposed to some notoriously difficult giant levels, like Assassin or Bloodbath, it was intended to be much more approachable, and mostly linear. All in all, we might have another serious level of the year contender. Check it out in the Custom Levels section. 24/08/20 The complete level pack has been updated, and likewise, the download for Claw with the CrazyHook mod now includes recent releases. Note that for the sake of keeping the files reasonably small (and promoting good level design practices), maps whose total assets size exceeds 10 MB after compression are excluded from any level packs. This means you will have to download the later levels in MaximTGMX's CAFTA series separately. 12/08/20 Some updates in the Links section (YouTube channels in particular), and new speed run records for level 5 and 7, set by Simpson1225 and Pappy, respectively. 31/07/20 The speed run standings were updated with multiple recent individual level records from BorisHR, Pappy and Simpson1225. We also saw two new custom levels in as many days: Party in Cliffs by Captain Kitty and Caves of Illusions by Renganathan. 29/07/20 New level from BorisHR: Earthy Grove, a classic, very long map based on the third tileset that makes for an excellent debut. The author, known in the Claw community already as an accomplished speedrunner, also provided a full playthrough on YouTube, which is sure to come in handy as the level is simply overflowing with treasure and secrets. 28/07/20 With more excellent Claw fan art than ever before, the relevant section has finally been updated. You can now browse a gallery of recent works from Haruka-Tavares and TaurusII. If you have some awesome Claw art of your own (and are fine with it being hosted on-site), be sure to let us know! 27/07/20 Sorry about the three-day downtime, which came at a really inconvenient time (see below). Thankfully, TCR is now up and running again, meaning you can download and enjoy wisztom's and Renganathan's excellent new levels. 24/07/20 It's July 24th, which means the anniversaries of some of the most notable Claw custom levels ever: The Treason of Katherine, High Noon, Prison Break, Grand Maze, and, last but not least, Wreckage, which is a decade old today. What better way to celebrate the occasion than with a brand new map worthy of the old classics? Enter wisztom with his latest and greatest opus: Raid on the Spanish Armada. It's time to sail into the sunset! Speaking of (instant?) classics, just take a look at this amazing poster TaurusII created for Wreckage's 10th anniversary. 19/07/20 Renganathan has released his first CrazyHook custom level, and it's a huge one. Littoral Forests of Tiger Island combines the titular tileset with that from Dark Woods, adding some creatively used assets from other levels. With catnips, warps and secret areas nearly everywhere, there is plenty to explore, and the author's YouTube walkthrough is there to help if you ever feel lost. 25/06/20 Pappy broke the 42 minutes barrier in style, with his new Claw speed run record sitting at 41:43. However far-fetched a sub-40 run might seem, I certainly would not bet against the man accomplishing just that, and sooner rather than later! Meanwhile, on the custom levels front, we have two new releases from Renganathan. He has also been steadily uploading playthroughs of his previous maps, see above. 4/05/20 Individual level records in the Speed Runs section received an overdue update. 26/04/20 More new levels, including Toxic Waste by SugheroGame and no less than 4 by Renganathan, of which Tropical Docks at Morning appears most interesting. Bucking the trend, none take advantage of the CrazyHook mod, but certainly not to any detriment. 23/04/20 Several custom levels have been released in the past few weeks, most notably Cold Flame's Mystic Depths and the next part of MaximTGMX's long-running CAFTA series, Chemical Valley. Meanwhile, Pappy has been tirelessly chipping away at his speedrun world record. With an improved route in level 7, it now stands at an incredible 42:17. 16/02/20 With Pappy's amazing 42:59 run today, a new Claw speedrun record was set and another barrier was broken. Congratulations! 1/02/20 Congratulations to boss-96 and Nameless, whose State of Siege won the 2019 level of the year poll by a large margin, amassing 61% of votes. The runners-up, with 11% each, were XCVZXC's Floating Islands of Wealth and Pejti's Xmas with Claw. In a very strong lineup, Thieves' Trail, Fizik Who 13 and Tropical Tunnels also received votes. 24/01/20 While about a week remains to vote for the best custom level of 2019, the first one in 2020 is out now: Cold Flame's Castle at War, a well-designed, classic style map that takes advantage of the CrazyHook mod to seamlessly combine tilesets 2 and 9. 3/01/20 Have a great 2020, everyone! The 2019 level of the year poll has been up for a few days now. There was a late addition in the form of State of Siege by boss-96 and Nameless, the first map since 2016 for either of them. A self-made tileset, new (fully voiced and animated) enemies, and a plethora of other custom assets make it a major milestone in Claw level design. But the competition is particularly strong this time around, so head to the Custom Levels section, check out all nominated maps and decide for yourself! Archived news (2019)17/12/19 Right in time for the upcoming level of the year vote, Pejti (who in 2019 mostly dabbled in experimental maps like Claw Tower) has released Xmas with Claw. Featuring a conversion of one of Jazz Jackrabbit 2's excellent winter tilesets and custom music that fits the mood, the level certainly lives up to its name and looks like a strong contender. On a side note, those who have been around long enough to remember Contention, the Jazz Jackrabbit 2 level by Steven Wakeman from 2003 (for which he converted the La Roca tileset), will probably smile at how things have come a full circle, except we are doing it the other way around now. 21/10/19 Tropical Tunnels by Cold Flame, initially planned for a 2020 release, is available earlier than expected. The level combines the Footpath and Tiger Island tilesets, as well as some elements from others, such as stalactites. The final boss fight, especially, is quite the sight to behold. Be sure to check it out, consulting the author's playthrough, if the need arises. Enjoy, and feel free to leave feedback, either via a YouTube comment or by joining the discussion on our Discord server. 31/08/19 It took MaximTGMX several months to deliver his new level, Katherine's Trap. It's out today, it's based on the Dark Woods tileset, and, of the CAFTA series, it has by far the most custom assets yet (check the attached file for detailed description). There is also a full playthrough available on YouTube, courtesy of the author himself. Have fun! 19/06/19 More new maps have been released over the last two months. First up, Pejti's Claw Tower fairly successfully recreated the gameplay of early 2000s platformer Icy Tower. Cold Flame continued his impressive streak with Valley of Caverns, a very interesting blend of tilesets and quite possibly his best one yet. Finally, wisztom returned after years of hiatus, first with an update of Stronghold and now a brand new level based on the Docks tileset, the curiously titled Nothing There. All of these require the CrazyHook update, but there is also Fizik Who 9, the lone classic map among the bunch, yet certainly no less interesting. 21/04/19 Several new levels, including Rural Alleys of Death and Darkest Pirates' Lair by Cold Flame, Floating Islands of Wealth by XCVZXC and, last but not least, the newest installment in MaximTGMX's CAFTA series, The Haunted Forest. The CrazyHook fan update is required for all but one of these new maps, so be sure to install it beforehand. Complete playthroughs are also available and linked to in our Custom Levels section, so if you feel lost, get stuck, or maybe just want to admire their design, feel free to take a look! 1/02/19 The 2018 level of the year vote is now over, with Teo phil's Deathtrap District claiming first place. Nowy Dzien, by Pejti, was the runner-up, while Wild Harbor, recently updated to version 2.0 by Cold Flame, rounded up the top three. Congratulations all round! 29/01/19 Seven years to the day since her first level, Szyszul released the second. Based on the Battlements tileset, The Trail of Geckos: Escape is very much worth checking out. Expect a well-designed, classic map with a lot of focus on secret areas. 27/01/19 MaximTGMX's new level is finished. Red Wall continues the CAFTA series, once again with a few twists, where the previous part left off. After Le Rauxe's gem is claimed, Claw can actually use its power: press F5 when you hear the magic powerup sound effect to do that. The map uses the CrazyHook mod extensively, with two distinct music tracks, graphics imported from other tilesets, and custom object logics, among others. A full playthrough, courtesy of the designer himself, can be watched on YouTube. 17/01/19 We have the first custom level of 2019, Thieves' Trail by SugheroGame. Have fun, and be on lookout for more new maps in the coming weeks. 11/01/19 It took a while to finish, but TaurusII's new drawing of her favorite character in Claw is nothing short of amazing. Red Tail has never looked better, even in the author's previous works, which can also be browsed in the Fan Art section. 5/01/19 Pappy has further improved on his speedrun world record yesterday, going below the 46 minute mark for the first time. For more information on speed runs, visit the relevant section on our site, which has also been updated accordingly. 2/01/19 While the vote for the best map of 2018 is well under way, Pejti's new trailer makes it abundantly clear that there will be plenty of custom levels to choose from this year as well. Land of Carrots should be particularly interesting to all Jazz Jackrabbit 2 (and co-op) fans out there. Archived news (2018)28/12/18 The 2018 edition of the custom level of the year vote is up and running, and you can head to the Claw Forum to cast yours. Before participating though, take your time and check all thirteen nominated maps, the most we have had in a long time. 5/12/18 The next drawing in TaurusII's art noveau series, depicting Omar, has been added to her gallery in the Fan Art section. There is also one new custom level, and, last but not least, SugheroGame has recorded a playthrough of Hellzone, his most recent, incredibly challenging map. 21/11/18 The flurry of new maps continues with Hellzone, SugheroGame's huge level based on the Temple tileset. While it is rather difficult (and perhaps expectedly so, given the title), a separate, easier version has been included for those not interested in such a tough challenge. 15/11/18 Two new levels by Cold Flame: Midnight Fight, a v1.4-enhanced map taking place on the Battlements at night (and featuring a custom bossfight, among others), and Deadly Trip, a classic level based on the Cliffs tileset. Both are very much worth checking out, and can of course be found in the Custom Levels section. 8/11/18 TaurusII has recorded a complete playthrough of Randy's 2012 magnum opus, Stargate to Paradise. The score would have been perfect, too, but for a lone, seemingly unobtainable goldbar. As you can see, there is more to her than incredible Claw fan art! 2/11/18 Another episode of Szyszul's series, covering all custom maps chronologically, is now available on her YouTube channel. She has been livestreaming various levels too, both classic and very recent, so consider following her on Twitch as well. 28/10/18 The Speed Runs section has been updated, with new rules, leaderboards and much more. Thanks to the whole Claw speedrunning community, but especially Pappy and Phatzo, who formulated the new rules. Be sure to visit their Discord server as well, especially if you are new to speed runs in general, or have any questions before submitting your results. Of course, everyone is more than welcome to do just that, either through there, on our own Discord, the Claw Forum, or even directly via email. Meanwhile, the legacy leaderboards from Grey Cat's Claw Speed Runs Contest have been preserved for posterity and can be browsed here. 25/10/18 Deathtrap District, Teo phil's first custom level since Wreckage was released over eight years ago, is here! Though not quite as long as its predecessor, it is more than comparable with the author's earlier levels, like The Treason of Katherine, in terms of both size and style. Have fun, and be on lookout for some Twitch streams very soon. Szyszul's release day Twitch stream can be watched here, while a complete playthrough of the map can is now available on her YouTube channel. 24/10/18 The second level in MaximTGMX's CAFTA series, The Dark Prison, is ready for download. Based on the familiar La Roca tileset but taking advantage of the v1.4 CrazyHook update, this particular prison break has a supernatural twist to it, with curses, evil spirits and a few jump scares in a haunted basement. The goal is to help Claw escape while also saving his friend Karl in the process. Enjoy, if you dare! 19/10/18 Artur's winter map, having been talked up by the author for much of the past 7 years and enjoying something of a cult classic status by now (or vaporware, depending on who you ask in the Polish community) is indeed real. Although technically considered a work in progress (hence the v0.4 moniker and 'incomplete' flag), the level is now playable from start to finish. Expect Christmas trees, lots of lights, snow, ice, and a boss fight that is quite unlike anything you have ever seen in Claw. There is also a perfect score playthrough on YouTube, courtesy of the creator himself. 30/09/18 To mark the 21st anniversary of Claw's release, we now have a new server and domain! The Claw Recluse will now be available at captainclaw.net, although the previous address kapitanpazur.piasta.pl should work fine for the foreseeable future as we have set up a redirect. 14/09/18 Pejti has released his second level, Pre2Claw, with the name referencing 1994 platformer Prehistorik 2. This is the first time a custom tileset has been used in a Claw map, in this case, a conversion from the aforementioned game, including the respective graphics for treasure, powerups, and even a new animated enemy. As in the author's previous map, Nowy Dzien, numerous advanced custom logics are used throughout. 13/09/18 The newly published 1.4.4.3 game update fixes the 'error loading module lfs' problem that plenty of you struggled with. Enjoy! 10/09/18 MaximTGMX's next level is now available. Starting off his new Claw's Adventure for the Amulet series, or CAFTA for short, Meeting with Red Tail is a v1.4 map based on the Tiger Island tileset, with a lot of focus on narrative involving Red Tail's betrayal. Enjoy, and make sure you have the CrazyHook update installed as it is required to play the level. 21/08/18 Szyszul -- who manages our forum and Discord server, among others -- marked the 16th anniversary of Teo phil's first custom level, Treasure Island, by picking it for the initial episode of her new series on YouTube, in which she will attempt to go through all user-made maps chronologically. There are no English subtitles yet, but I am told they are coming soon. Speaking of custom levels, the eponymous section received a long overdue update, with Nightmare, The Nest of Pirates and 12+14 finally available for download. And, last but not least, you should take a look at Pejti's new trailer to see what he has been up to following that remarkable debut level ;) 16/07/18 As of this day 14 years ago, the Claw Recluse was officially up and running, its first news item appearing on the Polish version managed by Zuczek. Now, a few hundred custom levels later, we are still here, in no small part thanks to each and every one of you who have visited our site and been a part of the Claw community. Once again, thank you. 26/05/18 Not content with further improving his record in the recent weeks, Pappy has also been working on a series of Claw speed run tutorials, the first of which, covering basic movement, is now available on his YouTube channel. For those into music rather than than video game speedruns, Pejti's piano tutorial might be of more interest. It covers the soundtracks for all 14 levels of Claw, as well as the boss fight and special powerup themes. 3/05/18 Pappy has set quite an incredible Claw speed run record, going below the 48 minute mark for the first time. On that note, we have added several related links to the relevant section, including Pappy's YouTube and Twitch channels, the Speedrun.com Claw community and its Discord server. Meanwhile, despite the lack news on the custom levels front in the past few months, two have in fact been released, so be sure to check them out. Forest of Hidden Treasures, created by RatusGlobal, is especially well-designed. Additionally, Pejti has updated his Claw v1.4 map Nowy Dzien, adding a unique background mechanic and fixing a bug where the player could get permanently stuck after dying towards the end of the level. 15/04/18 Another CrazyHook update was released, including fixed configuration of dgVoodoo, bringing level 11 trick back to game, adding possibility to make screenshots from lua logics, and some smaller fixes. 10/02/18 New Claw version - CrazyHook 1.4.4.1 should solve the often reported problem considering antiviruses. Previous version, to not scare off any users, was deleted from download section. Furthermore, there are some plans for further development of CrazyHook project. You can send us your ideas on our discord channel. 9/02/18: Congratulations to SugheroGame and DiVyAmXxX, whose respective maps, Gattabuia and Pastureland, shared the top honors in our 2017 level of the year poll, each receiving 27% of the votes. 8/02/18: Although, strictly speaking, the new possibilities brought by the v1.4 update have already been utilized in a few maps, Pejti's Nowy Dzien is the first to take a holistic approach in doing so. The level, whose name stands for 'a new day' in Polish, seamlessly combines the two undersea tilesets of the base game, featuring custom music and even, wait for it, a brand new loading screen on top of that. All in all, it's one of those maps no Claw fan can reasonably ignore. Don't forget to update your game to version 1.4 first! 31/01/18: 2018 has seen its first custom level, namely Run of the Tiger. Designed by Fjordsson, it is primarily a racing map, based on the level 14 tileset and somewhat inspired by existing ones such as Cross Country and Siege Cat. Meanwhile, the vote for the best level of 2017 is still open on the Claw Forum, alongside its belated counterparts for the past few years. You can still participate this week, and for the better part of the next, until February 8th. Archived news (2017)7/11/17: The newly added custom level, notably based on the seldom used 9th tileset, Blackbeard's Cove is now featured on SugheroGame's YouTube channel, with a quite impressive, perfect score playthrough. 10/10/17: Due to frequent questions, we have added a new version of the game to the Downloads section. It is a self-extracting archive with increased level of compression (we managed to reduce the size to just 37MB!). It contains the game in its latest version, 1.4.3, as well as tools that help run Claw on Windows 7, 8, 8.1 and 10: DirectX Windower and Fullscreen [F11]. For installation instructions, please refer to the claw-instructions.jpg file, which is included in the archive. Last but not least, following multiple requests from our Polish fans, it is possible to perform the dynamite trick in v1.4.3 again. 30/09/17: On the day of Claw's 20th anniversary, we would like to thank everyone who has been a part of its community over these two decades. Avid players and level designers alike. Veterans of several forums, gone but never forgotten. Those who stayed around for years and those who just came by to ask how to defeat Aquatis. You are too numerous to mention by name, but you know who you are. Feel like waxing nostalgic? Claw Forum is always open, so stop by! 17/07/17: FrozenMoose has remade the first level of Super Mario in Claw. While there is a short intro that depletes health and supplies to match Mario's starting conditions, the map, naturally named Super Claw, is a pretty accurate tile-by-tile replica other than that. 8/07/17: The second map in quick succession, and third overall, from DiVyAmXxX is now available. A throwback to the old days in a way, Golden Gate is pretty much the epitome of a classic custom level: modestly sized, yet thoughtfully designed. As always, head to the Custom Levels section to download it. 23/06/17: Another new level, and one that supports Claw v1.4, aka CrazyHook, too. It's called Pastureland, created by DiVyAmXxX and based on the Township tileset. As is the case with all CrazyHook-compliant maps, remember to get the update before playing. 26/05/17: Designed by FrozenMoose, Azure Prison (11+1) is the third custom level of 2017. Although the name follows the pattern set by Nameless' levels, it goes well beyond merely recreating La Roca using the Caverns tileset. Play it now to find out what exactly is new and different! 14/04/17: The past months may have been rather quiet as far as custom levels go, but SugheroGame is now back with his second map, Gattabuia. It's also only the second one this year. Hopefully there will be more to show for Claw's 20th birthday come September. 2/02/17: The first custom level of 2017 is here, and it's Niagara Falls by SugheroGame. Courtesy of the author (who happens to run an excellent YouTube channel with several Claw videos, by the way), we also added the game's Italian edition disc and covers to the Fan Haven section. 5/01/17: A small update on the 2016 level of the year contenders: courtesy of General Red, you can now watch a playthrough of 13+3 in addition to previously listed maps. 3/01/17: Happy 2017, everyone: the year of Claw's 20th anniversary, among others. As usual, you can cast your vote for the best map of the past year on the Claw Forum, while the complete level pack has been brought up to speed to include recent releases. If you're not quite familiar with the maps in contention and simply can't play the game for whatever reason, you can still watch playthroughs of some of the top levels of 2016 such as Creep Diving, Bloodbath and Climber, or check the map shot from Just Keep Calm. Archived news (2016)25/11/16: Over on YouTube, General Red, Strategist has been building up his Claw playlist, including a playthrough of the base game, Monolith-supplied sample custom levels, and now actual user-made maps. What really makes it worth checking out, though, is the audio commentary, a rarity for Claw videos elsewhere. Well, unless you speak Russian. At any rate, more custom levels should follow soon, if not on a strict schedule. 30/09/16: Another year, another anniversary. On this day in 1997, Claw was originally released in the United States. Can you believe it's been 19 years? 16/08/16: Coming mere days after its author's previous map, Just Keep Calm bears the distinction of being the first level that takes advantage of the v1.4 update's new features. Perhaps even more notably, it also follows in DzjeeAr's and Zuczek's footsteps: the map's layout is actually a giant lettering of the designer's nickname. Remember to download and install the latest version of the Claw v1.4 update first as it is a requirement to play. Other than that, there are three more levels, with Trap Trails, created by the very prolific John Smith and based on the Dark Woods tileset, highest rated among them. We also have a rare Shipyards feature from Baronvontarkin, and a heavily redesigned Tiger Island in a map making debut by Gabriel. 24/07/16: It's the tenth anniversary of The Treason of Katherine, a custom level that no Claw Recluse regular needs an introduction to. In what has become a tradition of sorts, further levels were released on its subsequent anniversaries, with High Noon, Prison Break, Grand Maze and Wreckage among them. Today, it's been kept alive thanks to Kacper, aka Tylko spokojnie xd, with Castle in the Clouds, his first new map in nearly six years, being now available. Have fun! 8/07/16: Continuing the theme from two of his previous maps, 1+14 and 8+9, Nameless has now recreated level 4 using the level 2 tileset. It's called, wait for it, 4+2, and can be found in the Custom Levels section. I bet you didn't see that one coming either. 2/07/16: It's been well over a decade since the English version of this site was founded, and almost exactly ten years that it's had its current layout. Now, the man responsible for both, who I'm sure needs no introduction, Grey Cat has put his brand new, eight-core PC to good use, recording and commenting a speed run of a certain soon-to-be-20-years-old side-scroller game. It clocks in at a very respectable time of around 55 minutes too. Be sure to watch and leave comments, especially if you were around in the old days :) 17/05/16: Following several rather quiet weeks, we now have three new levels. Be sure to check John Smith's unique take on The Cliffs in his two maps, as well as Deathhammer's Nightshade Forests, based on the awesome (and criminally underused, I might add) Dark Woods tileset. 13/03/16: Bloodbath, by far the biggest custom level out there, is now available in v2.1 following some bug fixes. To mark the occasion, a full playthrough was recorded by the creator himself, boss-96. The video clocks in at nearly two hours, and can be watched on YouTube, with the link also provided in our Custom Levels section, alongside the updated level itself. 12/02/16: The final release of Claw's 1.4 'CrazyHook' update, version 1.4.3, is available. We're now offering a full version of the game, including the aforementioned update, plus DirectX Windower (which is all but required on modern Windows versions), in a single RAR archive here on the Claw Recluse. Download it here. The file is just over 40 MB in size. Basically, it is the definitive edition of Claw, and one you should download going forward. 7/02/16: While we are barely into the second month of 2016, it has already brought us quite the windfall of custom levels, certainly the biggest in a long time. The new map one definitely can't afford to miss as a Claw fan is Creep Diving, brought to you by Nameless. The level features a very unique take on the Caverns tileset, including a complex custom background, an ingenious starting sequence, and plenty of water, notably used outside of the usual context, in which Nathaniel J. Claw apparently can't swim ;) 30/01/16: More new levels, including a brand new one from boss-96, as well as a revision of his already massive 2014 map Bloodbath. To put it in perspective, at 400 KB it is now larger than the first ten levels of the base game, from La Roca through Cliffs, combined. Or, if you prefer, about as big as the next two largest custom levels put together. To address common questions about poor performance of Claw under Windows 10, Zuczek has created a short video guide to running the game in windowed mode. If you can't get it to launch at all, don't forget to download this patch and overwrite your executable. Archived news (2015)31/10/15: Somewhat belatedly, several missing custom levels from 2015 have been added where they belong. Shouts out to the Russian Claw community over at VK. Archived news (2014)24/07/14: The WapMap editor, Claw v1.4 'CrazyHook' beta update and DirectX Windower have all been added to the Download section. Meanwhile, Comodo Unite's VPN functionality appears to have been discontinued, which means another solution is required for playing Claw online. Wippien is the community's program of choice now, and our Multiplayer section has been updated accordingly. 4/05/14: The first new level in what seems like ages, Abandoned Mine by Syndro, has been released. At over 200 KB, it's nothing short of gigantic, it boasts a record number of objects used, and it was well worth the wait. Check it out! Archived news (2013)29/10/13: Fixed dead links to the DVD torrent across the site. It remains very much alive after seven and a half years, having outlived the tracker it was originally uploaded to, as well as several torrent indexing sites. This game just refuses to die, doesn't it? 15/10/13: The Claw 1.4 'CrazyHook' public beta has been updated to fix a problem with launching the game that occurred on some configurations, primarily under Windows XP. 30/09/13: As Claw Forum regulars are no doubt already aware, Zax37 and Kubus_PL have been working on an unofficial 1.4 update for Claw. Starting today, a public beta version of CrazyHook -- a rather apt name, by the way -- is available for download. The extent of changes it brings is as revolutionary as it ever gets with Claw, comparable maybe only to the WapWorld editor being released for the first time -- which seems like a lifetime ago, and in fact is for many Claw fans. I doubt any further recommendation is necessary, but here are the new features of the 1.4 update anyway: support for custom object logics written in the Lua programming language, external resources (images, sounds, logics) for custom levels, command line arguments, plus some bug fixes and even new cheat codes. The documentation is only available in Polish so far, but do not hesitate to ask any questions you might have on the forum. 3/02/13: The Multiplayer section was updated to reflect our switch from Hamachi (which only allows five people per network in the free version now) to Comodo Unite. If you want to join in on the fun, download Comodo for free and join the 'captain claw' network (the password is 'claw'). Archived news (2012)25/12/12: Merry Christmas! A significant update for kijanek6's WapMap has been released, bringing the alternative Claw level editor to version 0.2 RC2. Download it here. The final 0.2 release, which will add features still missing in the release candidate, should also be available soon. Regardless, at this point WapMap is already a fully functional WapWorld replacement, and more. Give it a try, especially if you happen to be a veteran of the latter. 30/09/12: Claw turns 15 today. As good occasion as any to launch the game once again and play through a few levels for old times' sake. 21/08/12: Today marks the 10th anniversary of Teo phil's first custom level, the one and only Treasure Island. Feel free to leave nostalgic comments on the gameplay video ;) 15/03/12: Randy's long-awaited custom level, Stargate to Paradise, is finally done. His first new map since UnderSeaWorld was released back in 2000, it's just one of those levels that no Claw fan can afford to miss. Be sure to check author's notes included in the zip file for more on the idea and inspiration for the level, as well as some gameplay information. There's been more new maps since the last site update, all of which are now available for download. Have fun! Archived news (2011)23/12/11: In a Christmas windfall of custom levels, several months worth of maps have been added to the Custom Levels section. Be sure to check out Stronghold and 8+9. This also marks a significant milestone as our site now hosts over 400 levels. Throughout the section, we have also linked to several YouTube videos, the majority of which are Grey Cat's excellent level playthroughs, including Dark Paths, The Wind Tunnels, River Race and Cross Country. In other news, SupSuper has created a custom installer for Claw, which can automatically copy in-game music and movies to your HDD (very handy if you plan to use a crack), apply the registry fix required for Windows XP and later, but most importantly, unlike the archaic default installer, it works on modern, 64-bit operating systems. Download it here. 30/09/11: Today marks the 14th anniversary of Claw's US release date. How time flies... 20/09/11: It took a while for Steven to come up with his next interview, but it's finally here and it was worth the wait. Character artist Matt Hayhurst talks about his involvement in the project -- which was actually his first professional job -- and sheds some light on Claw 2, the elusive sequel that never was. Matt has also agreed to share some of the production materials with us, including preliminary sketches for the sequel. On that note, head over to the rectructured Fan Haven section to take a look. 14/04/11: Steven's second interview, in which he and Donald Wallace discuss the details of the production process of the in-game cutscenes, is now available. Click here to read. 10/04/11: There's a new video of kijanek6's upcoming WapMap level editor available on YouTube. To support its development, visit the project's blog and click the ad once a day. You can also check it out yourself. Get the public beta with auto-update feature! In the meantime, Randy has been sifting through his old backups and has found four pieces of Freya's fan art, as well as Mahesh's screenshot depicting his bounce count record, among others. If you happen to have some cool Claw stuff that otherwise was lost over the years, let us know. 8/04/11: The walkthrough for Randy's UnderSeaWorld level, written by Rich Kleinhenz, has been found. The download link has now been updated to include it. Get it here. 7/04/11: The Links section has been updated to include Facebook pages for Claw, as well as major fansites of the past, which you can attempt to view using the Internet Archive. 6/04/11: Between Grey Cat's Claw Museum and Steven's upcoming interviews, it looks like the community is having a family reunion of sorts. Randy Stroot, one of the most respected old-timers, shares his Claw story with us today. For those who don't know, Randy was there back in the early days, when Monolith employees regularly posted on the forums and many of the now-ubiquitous tricks, glitches and hidden areas were still largely undiscovered. Read the story here. (It should also be available on the Claw Museum soon.) 1/04/11: Thanks to Steven Applebaum, we actually got in touch with some of the people who worked on Claw. He is currently in the process of conducting and transcribing several interviews, the first of which is available today. In what turned out to be a 45-minute phone chat, Steven and Ryan Hoss talk to Ed Anderson about the in-game cutscenes, artwork and animation, among others. Click here to read, it's well worth it! Stay tuned for more interviews, coming your way this month! 8/03/11: Three new custom levels, plus some more minor updates in Game Help. 6/03/11: A few updates to the site. Dead links to Rich's walkthroughs in the Game Help section are now fixed, while in Images there are links to new Claw fan art, plus even more box shots and CD covers in various languages. By the way, if you cannot (or will not) use torrents for whatever reason, you can now get the DVD version of Claw via a direct HTTP download as well. The file is being hosted on Dropbox, which offers download speeds good enough to get it in about an hour, provided that your own connection can handle that, of course. Since it is much larger than anything you typically download this way (1,30 GB), it is recommended to use third-party software that supports resuming downloads when something goes wrong. Also, you can visit a Claw page on Facebook here or there. However, note that neither of those two is maintained by the authors of this site. 24/02/11: Guess what... more new levels. There's even one designed specifically with a speed run competition in mind. Check them out. Archived news (2010)16/12/10: Several new levels, plus an update to the Complete Level Pack, which now contains exactly 362 user-created maps. 16/10/10: Three new custom levels. In other news, Zuczek's YouTube channel is now nearing one million views, of which over 80% comes from Claw-related videos. 30/09/10: Exactly thirteen years ago, on September 30th, 1997, Claw was first released to the public. It has been a long time, and the anniversary certainly brings back memories of the old days. Speaking of which, if you used to post on the forums at some point, were an active member of the community, or simply got struck with nostalgic feelings, be sure to leave a comment at Grey Cat's Claw Museum. 1/09/10: Click here to watch the ultimate Claw dynamite trick compilation. 24/08/10: If you are unable to launch the Claw CD rip under Windows Vista or Windows 7 for some reason, head over to the Downloads page and grab a fixed .exe file. Thanks to Artur for this workaround, by the way. Oh, and if somehow you have not played Wreckage yet, get it now.
16/07/10: The Claw Recluse turns six years old today. Happy birthday :) In other news, a really interesting custom level is in the works and will be available for download on July 24th. Go watch the preview on YouTube. 6/04/10: Now that Gunner's Claw Forum has -- regrettably -- come to an end, check out our #captain.claw IRC channel at QuakeNet. If you feel like chatting with other Claw fans around the world, that's the place to go. See you there! Don't have a dedicated IRC client? Connect through Web IRC using your browser instead. 4/04/10: Happy Easter. 13/02/10: We now have a brand new Technical Support section! 30/01/10: Yesterday we uploaded the Romanian version of our site. We hope it will be helpful for Romanian players, who visit our site very often. There is also an offer for Arabic translation, so perhaps The Claw Recluse will be available in 9 languages in the near future. 1/01/10: Happy New Year to all the Claw fans around the world! Archived news (2009)23/11/09: As a follow-up to the Portugese version, Italian edition of the Claw Recluse is now available. There are more to come, so stay tuned. In other news, we have had a few new custom levels recently, Exile and Murky Dunes -- by Proximity and Zuczek, respectively -- being the most noteworthy. 20/08/09: A condensed version of the site, featuring only the most important information on Claw plus some basic downloads, is now available in Portugese. Go check it out if that is your native language. 1/08/09: Nimbian has released Claw Ultimate Pack, which is based on Teo phil's custom DVD version. Besides all the extras that were already there, it includes, among others, a new launcher menu that works under 64-bit editions of Vista and Windows 7, as well as an up-to-date level pack. The .VOB movies have been ripped and encoded as much smaller .AVI files so as to fit the game on a CD. If you're interested, get it via BitTorrent here. 2/07/09: Edd Brown created yet another level, this time quite a unique one. It's based on the 10th tileset and got our recomendation, so enjoy :) What's more, with well over 20000 hits last month, we have set a new record. Thank you very much for visiting The Claw Recluse! 9/06/09: Four new maps have been added to the huge custom levels collection. Three were created by Edd Brown and the fourth one was made by Piotrek, a Polish forum user. 6/06/09: In a small update to the Images section, we have added several images related to the development of Claw, including screenshots from the alpha and beta versions of the game. 19/05/09: The Images section has been updated - finally some screenshots from the game have been added. What's more, we've created a new hamachi network - we hope there are some players that still want to play Claw with others. The name and the password can be found in the Multiplayer section. And finally - Zuczek uploaded yesterday a video showing how to download the RIP version of Claw, install it and play (using cheats, downloading and loading custom levels etc.), click here to watch this! 15/02/09: A long overdue update, particularly to the Custom Levels section. Everything is now up to date with the Polish version of the website. Archived news (2008)19/07/08: We've added a few custom levels built by boss-96. Unfortunately, Gunner's Claw Forum appears to be dead. 07/06/08: A new, interactive video of Claw is available here. Have fun! :) 06/05/08: Two new custom levels, both based on La Roca. 18/04/08: Another five new custom levels. 2/02/08: Once again new custom levels, and each of them is well worth a look. First's level is based on the seldom used Shipyards tileset, which makes it even more interesting. 3/01/08: Three new custom levels, each of them being a cooperative project. Archived news (2007)24/12/07: We wish you Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Our present for you is the best level based on The Shipyards so far. Its name is Broadsides and it wass created by Proximity. Enjoy. 22/12/07: The contest page has been updated. Thanks to boss-96 for sending his latest results. Apart from that, Edd Brown has created yet another custom level. 8/12/07: New custom levels by Edd Brown (very big, based on level 10), Brainy (based on level 1), Ogier11 (based on level 2) and an updated version of Wood Castle by DzikenS. 1/12/07: The English version of the Claw Recluse has been moved to Zuczek's server and will be managed by Zuczek and Teo phil from now on. Various parts of the site are now up to date, including the Custom Levels section and the Speed Runs contest results. Missing images and broken download links have also been fixed. 20/6/07: After a lot of thought, I've decided to put the Claw Recluse on indefinite hold. It will remain open, but will no longer be updated. Who knows, I might change my mind. But until then go to the Polish version of the site for up-to-date custom levels and other things. A lot of things have caused me to make this decision. My personal life, my waning interest in the game, and the fact that there are very few english Claw fans left. 90% of the game's fans come from Poland these days, so it's kind of pointless to continue updating this site when there's a great Polish one maintained by zuczek and Teo phil already. I will still post in Gunner's Claw Forum and answer email. But unless I change my mind, this site is over. 10/5/07: A quick call to all Claw fans. If you are not part of the Claw Fanclub and would like to be, send me an email with your name, and optionally your email address and country, and I'll add you to the page. 9/5/07: New levels and a FAQ section. I also put the CD rip of the game on the download page since it's not very big. We'll see how we go for bandwidth. 24/4/07: For some reason I can't upload files. I'll do a full update when I can. The site turned two years old a while ago. 15/3/07: four new custom levels. 4/3/07: a few new custom levels, and the Spanish section of the site has been updated by Raziel. Yeah, I know I'm not doing much with this site any more. 26/2/07: I've added some information on the mobile phone version of Claw on the community page. 8/2/07: new custom levels. 31/1/07: Lots of stuff is happening in the Claw community at the moment. A tileset converter has been found, a RealArcade version of the game has surfaced, and we've even discovered that someone has made a mobile phone version of Claw. I'll start putting all this stuff online as soon as I can, but it might not be for a while. I was halfway through making some major revisions to the custom level page, then I got heavily involved in designing a custom campaign for Age of Empires II (which I will enter in a contest), then I started designing a webpage for a friend. That's basically where my priorities are at the moment. If you're looking for something to entertain yourself in the mean while, go watch the Claw intro movie on Youtube. 12/1/07: Cross Country has been updated to include curse powerups. And don't press the panic button yet, but I suspect that the No-CD crack may not work on Windows Vista. Are there any Vista users who can confirm this? Help? 6/1/07: The Multiplayer page now has images. 3/1/07: I've uploaded Joe Robb's excellent guide for getting the game to work on Windows XP. Claw will work on XP without any problems in most cases, but if it doesn't refer to the guide. Archived news (2006)28/12/06: Some new custom levels. 24/11/06: Four new pieces of art have ben uploaded, one of them an early beta screenshot and the other three sketches that appear to be from Monolith's artists. 19/11/06: A new custom level based on level 14 has been uploaded, Palace of Zin. DzjeeAr designed most of it, and I finished it off when he lost interest. If you are perceptive, you'll notice it is based on his old Lavapit level. And if you're doubly perceptive, you'll notice it was my inspiration for Dark Paths. 13/11/06: Gunner's Claw Forum has had its first anniversary. Feel free to post a message in the celebration thread. 29/10/06: Things have been pretty quiet in the Claw community. I've brought the neglected Speed Runs and Fanclub up to date, and restructured the Links page somewhat. By the way, my logs have been telling me that 150 people have downloaded my Cross Country level so far. This is unusual, none of my previous levels have been this popular. But has anyone found all the treasure in the tree maze part of the level? :) 16/10/06: The site now has a multiplayer page. (Thanks to Teo phil for the translation). 29/9/06: Technical note: if you own the CD version of Claw and would like to be able to play the cutscenes outside the game, then you can use the freeware program FMV-Extractor to open the Claw.fec file and export the cutscenes as .smk files. These files can then be played using the Smacker Video Player. (Thanks to saulob for the information) 29/9/06: I'm on a roll here. Less than one week after my last custom level's release I've completed another, based on level 3. It is short and easy as I designed it with speed running in mind. Download Cross Country. 23/9/06: The bandwidth problem has been resolved. Additionally, the following changes have been made to the site:
16/9/06: I'm having very serious problems with bandwidth, so for the time being all of the large downloads (+20MB) have been removed. I'll see what I can do once I get things sorted out. I still have my old http://ben.ourimbah.com/claw account available, so that's where they'll probably go. Sorry guys, but this site is getting a lot of visitors and my bandwidth can't keep up when large numbers of people try to download 100MB files. So if you were wondering what happened to the full version, the MP3 pack. and the sound pack, now you know. In other news, Raziel's spanish version of the site is online. You can find it here. Also, I've uploaded a new level, Dog Women by khidhr (I suspect this is one of mrpoog's or Topdogg's many aliases). It isn't that good and I can't complete it, but it's worth a look anyway. 9/9/06: Teo phil has made an interesting discovery in relation to levels 7, 8, and 9. 1/9/06: two new levels have been uploaded. 31/8/06: I haven't had much time but I've made some more changes to the site. The links on the image page now work (well, the ones I have control over, anyway) and some more stuff has been put on the download page. 19/8/06: The new layout is finally online. There is one new page (Game Help) that will in future be expanded to have the old FAQ on it. The Speed Runs and Other pages are still being worked on, and none of the level packs have been added yet. Other than taht, the site is fully fuctional. 21/7/06: Three new levels. Crystal Caves by Zuczek, Hidden Prison by XeRo9009, and a short level by the webmaster's sister (yes, I did give her a bit of help). Does anyone think I should split the Custom Levels page into two sections? It's getting just a bit too long... 19/7/06: Some new Q&A's have been added to the FAQ page. I will also be making a news announcement about a level editing FAQ in the near future. 15/7/06: Ignore everything you see on the Stats page, for some reason it isn't working. 11/7/06: Two new links, and I've removed two dead ones. At a later date I might rearrange the links in order of quality/activity. At the moment they're mostly in the order I put them on the page. 7/7/06: I've just been informed that my humble site has won an award. The Netscape Open Directory has determined that my site (along with Gunner's Forum) deserves a Cool Site award. I have received a lizard as a prize, which I will hereby put on my page.
Like most web awards, it means absolutely nothing. But still, it's nice that someone not related to Claw has noticed my site. Thanks to SparkBoy for the heads-up. 5/7/06: seven new levels have been uploaded (my latest amongst them), and Martin and Artur now have level packs. Sparkboy and Alienz_9ks have created a Claw Help File which provides a lot of basic information. In other news...oh wait, there isn't any. 25/06/06: I decided the Miscellenous page wasn't really worth keeping so I removed it. You can still access it by going to http://claw.ben-ts.net/misc.html, but it will no longer be updated and is no longer present on the main page. I have added two more pages to replace it: Images and Statistics. 24/06/06: something funny; I tried viewing this site from a computer that was being filtered by ContentWatch and was blocked from viewing it. It tells me my site is "pornographic" and "excessively violent". Oh dearie me. Anyway, I've archived all my news in case you were wondering. Expect more violent pornography tomorrow. :D 21/06/06 added a "Records" section to the contest page. The author of the Easter level is Kennie, not Johnny. Sorry about that. 26/04/06 zuczek has provided some polish box covers: Front -- Back -- CD, and VN's brother has made a short custom level which I've uploaded: check it out. 17/04/06 happy easter. 13/04/06 come on guys, where are all the custom levels? A few months ago they almost seemed to be designing themselves, but the last one I remember playing was Death Path. Does anyone at all except me still design? :p I changed some stuff on the Contest page, fixing some stupid formatting and adding hints for players new to this sort of thing. Keep contributing. 11/04/06 I've merged with zuczek's site. He is now using my layout and we've borrowed a bit of content from each other as well. Each part of the site (English/Polish) will still be updated separately, and is hosted separately as well. No Claw news whatsoever. 28/03/06 quite a few noteworthy things, actually. First, some bad news. Home of the Underdogs is down, and has been for a few weeks now. HOTU was the first site to upload a cracked version of Claw, thus giving hundreds of people (including myself) the opportunity to play the game. The Claw community (and indeed classic gaming everywhere) owes a huge debt to them. HOTU founder Sarinee has been quoted as saying that there have been some credit card difficulties, and the domain has been suspended. Hopefully they'll be back. I've finished an updated version of Blackout. It fixes a number of bugs, is a lot less frustrating, and contains a few new areas. It doesn't change anything big, so if you've already played the level there's no need to rush to download it. And I've got some more levels on the way. :) Because we all care, Monolith Productions has a new site layout, as well as new descriptions for all of their games. It's rather funny what they've written about Claw. An excerpt: "Uncover hidden treasure, navigate tricky terrain, and engage in armed combat" and "use blazing pistols, mystical magic, and other projectiles." WTF? :S And there are now three new links and one new forum on the Links page. The Belated Claw Fansite is now one year old. ^_^ 7/03/06 woohoo from Russia owns two boxed versions of Claw, one licensed and one pirated, and has scanned them for our viewing convenience. He is also willing to trade both of these one US version of Claw, complete with its original box. If you're willing to trade, you can reach him through the thread on Topdogg's forum (link section). Also, if anyone has box scans of the US or Polish versions of the game, please email them to me. The boxed version of Claw is as rare as dinosaur eggs. =S 1/03/06 Teo phil has released a DVD version of Claw and the torrent can be downloaded here. In addition to the actual game, the DVD version contains the following:
Also, the contest page is fully complete. Get playing. 17/02/06 my apologies about the long overdue update. There are three very big pieces of news:
8/1/06 13 new levels, and two new sites. 3/1/06 it's now the Year of the Dog (in 2009 it will be the Year of the Rat, and in 2011 it will be the Year of the Tiger). All the old news has been archived, and as a result the main page is...somewhat empty. Topdogg's site and forum have been added to the links page Archived news (2005)29/12/05 new challenge: level 3. 28/12/05: The speed runs for level 1 have run their course; with six people entering, one of which was disqualified. We ended up with times I didn't think were possible. They are:
So there you have it, La Roca can be completed in less than one minute twenty seconds. Congratz to Teo phil for making us all look like crappy players. 27/12/05: Merry Christmas to all Claw players. The Fun Stuff page has been updated. 21/12/05: Huggerland by aavishkar patel and Lost in the Forest (Part I) by Jeremy have been posted on the custom levels page. The links section has also undergone an overhaul, with a new section devoted to forums. 17/12/05: I'm running a contest at Gunner's forum: how fast can you complete level 1? So far the record is Teo phil's 1:29. For more information, check the thread. I hope to see more people participate. :) 12/12/05: I added three new levels and fixed the broken link to the Claw crack. 10/12/05: Okaaay, so the site has changed address. I've added a redirect script to the old one so it automatically takes you here instead, but that's just temporary. In a few days everything on ben.ourimbah.com/claw/ will be gone forever. In other news, I've put together an sound pack that can be downloaded here. It's like the one available from the official site but much more complete. It has every single sound in the game, and I mean it. From the music, to the dialogue, heck; to the sound Claw's footsteps make. It's all inside the pack. It's a ~30 megabyte download, you have been warned. 5/12/05: Seven new levels. 25/11/05: The site now has a FAQ section, and I've linked to Gunner's forum. I suggest everyone who is sick of all the spam and crap on the official forum go there. Gunner's forum is fully moderated, but we badly need more activity. And I haven't given up level editing either. Muahaha! 14/11/05: Jeremy's site is now on the links page. 12/11/05: Treasurer's taken the time to make modifications to my River Race level, and has added a boss at the end. I suggest you download it even if you have already, it improves the level enormously. Topdogg's No-CD crack is now online as well, it enables you to play version 1.2 or version 1.3 of the game without that "Please Insert CD" message. 11/11/05: one new link, and the new version of Treasurer's level. 10/11/05: "if you stick your finger into a glass of sulfuric acid, you will discover that the glass has no bottom" -- mouth 7/11/05: it seems the Claw forum is down (as are all of Monolith's sites), so until then post at Gunner's Forum. [edit] Nevermind, it's back up again. 5/11/05: I've started uploading level packs on my site, so that people can download lots of levels by the same author at once. So far Edd Brown, Freya, me, Randy, DzjeeAr, Claw Junior, zuczek, Finn, Meezo and Teo phil have their own level packs. I've also uploaded Teo phil's complete level pack. You know, the one with 151 levels on it. Oh yeah, and if you could play River Race it would be appreciated. 27/10/05: one new level: Secret Base by Meezo. It's was made January 1998, so it's a real oldie. If you've got some time, you might also want to read the unofficial Claw story, which I've uploaded on the Fun Stuff page. I'm going away for a week. Try not to murder each other while I'm gone. 23/10/05: another big update. I moved Links and Downloads on to their own pages, added a new page and four new downloads, and replaced my counter because it sucked arse. I haven't had time to play Claw at all lately, and I've got a half-finished level rotting on a floppy disk somewhere. I'll have to get back into it soon. 18/10/05: three new levels. Docks at Night, Le Raux's Fort, and Escape. 17/10/05: two months since my last update, but since my computer has been fixed they should now be much more frequent. I've added zuczek's STAT4U utility to the site, plus Gunner's site, and I'll work on adding new levels tomorrow. 14/8/05: added a custom levels page, made some small changes to the layout of the page, and added one new link. ALTHOUGH THIS SITE HAS EXISTED SINCE MARCH 2005, IT IS ONLY SINCE HERE THAT I STARTED RECORDING THE CHANGES MADE TO IT © 2004-2024 Grey Cat, Zuczek and Teo phil. Site best viewed in 800x600 using Internet Explorer or Firefox. |
