Do you speak English? Is German, Hungarian or Dutch your native language? Do you want this site to be multilingual? Send me an e-mail now!
Welcome to the Claw Recluse, the largest fansite on the internet for Monolith Productions' classic PC game Claw. This site -- originally started as a hobby in 2004 -- now contains a forum, over three hundred custom levels, downloads, links, game info, and lots more. Thank you for visiting our site!
The site is available in 9 languages: Polish, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Czech, Russian, Romanian and Arabic!
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!
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 downlaod 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.
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.
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.
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.
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:
All the links referring to specific files on the main page has been fixed. People have been emailing me about this for some time now. Thanks for your patience.
The custom level page (or pages, as is now the case) is fully complete. I've split it up into three pages and the level packs are now online.
The community page now has some stuff on it, the Claw Fanclub and some archives of the site I found.
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.
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