E3M7: Strahov Stadium

Time to limber up and brush off your best moves, because today is the special Spartakiad you have been waiting for—today you may find your Revenge. Let the games begin!

# Walkthrough

The train from Praha-Bubny drops the Player near **Strahov Stadium**, where he finds himself wandering through a locker room. To your delight there are some Clean Briefs directly ahead of you next to a chair, along with a Wifebeater in the next room. Clean clothes are their own reward.

Proceed up the stairs to the broadcast booth overlooking the stadium, where you will find refreshments in the form of a Submachine Gun and a Bottle of Wine. You will also pass a dead Kejdovec on the landing, and another in the booth. How strange! Someone is killing Kejdovecs and it is not the Player.

Break open the vent and descend the staircase behind it, where you will find some Sewer Rats skulking about in the ventilation shaft. Break open the vent at the other end to find yourself in a large storage room. Here you will find a dead Hazmat Suit, which lies opposite an upside down sign that reads **For Socialism — For Peace** (**Za Socialismus — Za Mír**), next to some Bullets.

The open doorway leads to the gate outside the stadium, where you will find some handy Shells and Clips. There are also three squad cars belonging to the **VB** which only adds to strange atmosphere. Of course! They must be here to investigate the dead Kejdovecs and Hazmat Suit. Or... perhaps they are looking here to find the Player? Time to move along!

Continue up the stairs to another landing where you will find a Medkit near the Aluminum Key door. Beyond this is another flight of stairs, which opens onto the stadium field at the top. What a spectacular view! And look — someone has filled the stands with all the ammunition and weapons the Player could want, plus a Calvaria of Čáslav! What a lucky day!

The top row of the stands on either side has two buttons that are just waiting to be pressed, but it is no matter because the Player is wearing his button pressing gloves, and he is not afraid to use them. Run through the seats and press all four. Lo and behold, a large wrapped holiday package rises from the middle of the field. What could it be?

As you approach, the package bursts open and you find that this one is no friendly present: it is Igor, an ugly bi-pedal attack robot that looks like a cross between a Star Wars **TIE fighter** and **ED-209** from Robocop. However, when the Player attempts to put down this monstrosity, things do not go as planned. Igor does not appear to take damage, and he is absorbing all your precious ammo like a sponge.

The Player may determine that the stadium basement is a better place to be. However, the entryway leading back to the landing is blocked by a bollard, and Igor is right behind you! Catastrophe is averted when it becomes apparent that Igor is no master of the stairs. He trips and lands on his back. Unable to stand, he lies prone, just waiting for the Player to put him out of his misery.

The death of Igor produces the Aluminum Key and lowers the bollard so the Player can access the Aluminum Key door. The store room behind the door reveals more goodies in the form of Shells, Bullets, Clips, and Grenades. There is also the corpse of a Goat lying next to the Common Key.

The Common Key door is located back on the stadium field, and behind it is a switch puzzle. Yet before you can try to solve it, the Supreme Commander-in-chief bursts out from behind it riding a Bear. Together, this pair chases the Player around the field and into the stands until they have taken so much damage that Supreme Commander-in-chief falls off the Bear.

But they are not dead yet — no, you have to keep shooting the Bear until he dies, then deal with Supreme Commander-in-chief who is has been showing off his Spartakiad prowess. As if this were not enough, once Supreme Commander-in-chief's health drops below 50%, he separates into three versions of himself. Then, just as he reaches zero health, a giant Pterodactyl swoops in to rescue him, and suddenly you are back where you started from.

Now the Player is fighting an aerial enemy like it is The Degustation all over again, and like Gusta the Pterodactyl is dropping enemies onto the field in the form of pooped holiday present boxes. What could be better? By concentrating fire on Supreme Commander-in-chief and making wise use of the Calvaria of Čáslav, the Player is able to bring this fight to an honorable conclusion.

But this is not over yet, there is still one thing left to be done. Standing over Supreme Commander-in-chief's bleeding corpse, the Player enters his mouth and slides down the esophagus to his stomach. Here there is a Pathologist who is guarding Supreme Commander-in-chief's most delicate asset — the grinding clockwork that powers his dark forces.

Shoot the machinery until it falls apart leaving only the **Astronomical Clock Components** in the waste behind. Then on the other side of the room the plyoric valve opens to reveal a passage. Enter the opening and drop down to a corridor at the end of which is a toilet. Here there is little choice as to what to do. Standing proudly on the seat, the Player smiles and makes the ultimate sacrifice for the homeland.

**Previous:** E3M6: Bubny

**Next:** E3M8: Epilogue

# Secrets

We regret to inform you that the secrets originally intended to appear in this level were invited by the **Veřejná bezpečnost** to assist them with certain inquiries, and they are therefore unavailable to appear at this time.

# Lore

* The Great Strahov Stadium is a stadium in the Strahov district of Prague, Czech Republic. It was built for displays of synchronized gymnastics on a massive scale, with a field three times as long as and three times as wide as the standard Association football pitch. Its capacity of 250,000 spectators (56,000 seated) made it larger than any current or former sports stadium, and the second largest sports venue ever. As of 2019 the stadium is no longer in use for competitive sports events; it is a training centre for Sparta Prague with eight football pitches, and used to host pop and rock concerts.

* A variation on a common party slogan.

* Igorek is a 13 foot tall, 4.5 ton golden robot created by Kalashnikov, which debuted at the Army-2018 Forum in Moscow. According to Kalashnikov, the goal is to use the anthropomorphic complex is to solve engineering and combat tasks. The operator in the cabin controls two claws, which are designed to be able to hold weapons. Despite Kalashnikov's intent of charting a new battlefield technology, its robot has been mocked for its clunky and old-fashioned appearance.

* **Public Security** (**Veřejná bezpečnost**) or VB in Czechoslovakia was the regular police force of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic (ČSSR), created in 1945 as a branch of the National Security Corps (Sbor národní bezpečnosti). It was divided into sections including **Public Order and Traffic VB**, **Criminal Investigations**, and **Infrastructure Security**, each with regional, district, city and local detachments of the force. The VB were permitted to demand from any citizen an identification booklet (**občanský průkaz**). This booklet contained a photograph and information such as name, current address and place of employment As carrying an **občanský průkaz** was mandatory; a person could be detained for simply not having one in their possession. Being unemployed in the ČSSR was risky, as one could be charged with "living on avails of the society". VB vehicles were originally blue with a white line along the side. Later vehicles had panels painted orange and white in a similar pattern to American 'black and whites', which the pattern's designer admitted after the fall of the regime was his inspiration. The full name **Veřejná bezpečnost** was used with the blue design while later vehicles had only the letters **VB** written on the white doors. VB uniforms were also originally dark blue until the end of 1960s, when they changed to a khaki color described officially as "nettle green", with rank insignia on red epaulettes, which did not follow Soviet patterns, except for junior officers. The VB was dissolved on 15 June 1991.

VB at the opening of the subway at Náměstí Republiky, 2 November 1985Prague, Náměstí Republik, VB assisting with the opening of metro line B.VB officers during Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia

* The Spartakiads in Czechoslovakia (Spartakiáda)were mass gymnastics events, designed to celebrate the Red Army's liberation of Czechoslovakia in 1945. The name refers to the 1921 Prague Spartakiad organised by the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. They were organised by the Communist government as a replacement of the similar Sokol gatherings, which were disapproved by the regime and discontinued after World War II. The Spartakiads took place at the Strahov Stadium, the largest stadium ever built and the venue of the last pre-war Sokol gathering. The first Spartakiad took place in 1955, and was subsequently held every five years. Men and women of all ages practiced their exercising routines for the event. Appearance was originally mandatory for students and servicemen of the armed forces and police. During the Normalization years, it became more voluntary. The Spartakiad scheduled for 1970 was canceled in the wake of the Prague Spring and the beginning of normalization. Preparations for the Spartakiad scheduled for 1990 were interrupted by the Velvet Revolution, but the event still took place, although on a much smaller scale than the previous ones. The Spartakiads were attended by large numbers of people; for example, at the 1960 Spartakiad about 750,000 gymnasts from the whole country took part and over 2,000,000 spectators witnessed the event.

# Trivia

* Flushing the Player down the toilet at the end of **Strahov Stadium** is a direct reference to the game **Dusk**. In the third episode, **The Nameless City**, the Player may a toilet hidden in the first secret. Flushing oneself is the trigger to entering the secret level **The Ratacombs**.