"ACT" SOUND - Sound that a monster makes while it wanders around. Demons growl as they wander around, and former humans breath heavily. It is named the "act" sound because the names of these types of sound resource have "act" on the end.
ALTDEATH - A mode of multiplay. It is an enhanced version of the normal deathmatch, hence it is sometimes called Deathmatch II. Its extra rules are:
- Commiting suicide loses a frag
- All items except invisibility and invulnerability respawn
after 30 seconds
- Negative (-) frags are possible.
AMBIENT SOUNDS - One of the limits of Doom is that it is not directly possible to place "ambient" (or "background") sounds in levels. However, it is possible to do this using the ambient sound special effect. Small dummy sectors are placed alongside the level; these are actually "extensions" of actual sectors in the level, but are not physically "joined" to the level- the player cannot reach them without using the "IDCLIP" cheat. Monsters are placed in these sectors. When a gun is shot, the monsters "wake up" and start making their act sounds. By changing their act sounds, it is possible to create ambient sounds in the level.
However, this does have some disadvantages. Because it replaces the monster sounds, it is a technique only really suitable for deathmatch levels. Also, some monsters use sounds that other monsters use. As well as its own act sound, the lost soul also makes the Demon's act sound. It is therefore important to choose the right monsters for the job.
AMMO - There are many different weapons in Doom, and as a result, some use different ammo than others. The different types of ammo are given four-letter abbreviations which are used on thestatus bar. The four different types of ammo are:
- BULLETS [BULL] - for the pistol and chaingun.
- SHOTGUN SHELLS [SHEL] - for the shotgun and Super shotgun .
- ROCKETS [RCKT] - for the rocket launcher .
- ENERGY CELLS [CELL] - for the plasma rifle and BFG9000.
ANTI-GRAVITY FIELDS - It is easy to describe an anti-gravity field, but harder to actually explain how it works. Basically, anti-gravity fields let you walk on a floor that you cannot see. You "float" in mid air above the floor. This is done using sectors that "do not belong" in the place where they are. A Dummy sector is created, and then another sector is created inside this. These two sectors must be identical, and the Linedefs that join them must have no textures, or HOM occurs. The smaller sector (the one inside the dummy sector) is then moved into the location where the anti-gravity field is required, and is changed in size and shape to the neccesary size and shape. This sector is now the actual field. Changing the floor height of this sector to a point higher than the rest of the level will lift the player upwards when he/she walks over it. However, the dummy sector must be kept identical to the "field" sector and must not be deleted, or the level will get messed up.
The higher floor height does sometimes "bleed" out into the surrounding sector, causing unwanted parts of the sector to be part of the anti-gravity field, and so lift the player up. The solution to this is simple: another sector (not a dummy sector) is placed around the "field" sector. The field bleeds into this sector instead.
This is only one way of creating an anti-gravity field, and is the method that I use. However, all of the methods use the same principle of sectors that "do not belong in their place". Anti-gravity fields have many different uses, from lifting weapons off of the floor, to invisible steps.
ARACHNOTRON - Baby spider mastermind. He looks just like his Dad :). He shoots green plasma, which, other than being green, is identical to what the plasma rifle shoots.
ARCHES - Arches are a clever special effect, which are really just an optical illusion. They give the illusion of a rounded arch between two parts of the level. Two sectors have a smaller sector as a "bridge" between them. The linedefs joining each sector have the middle texture on each of their sidedefs as a transparent texture, with a rounded "arch" shape at the top. The "bridge" sector is then put at a very low light level. This gives the illusion of an arch. Simple, but effective.
ARCHVILE - Annoying skinny enemy. He uses his magical fire powers to blow you up, and runs around fraggin' fast! As if all of that wasn't bad enough, He respawns dead enemies, so you'll have to shoot yet MORE of your ammo. Attack these guys with care.
ARMOR - Stuff that helps you by stopping you from getting hurt so much. It can be gained by picking up armor vests, helmets and some other items. When you have armor, then yourhealth will not suffer as badly. It does get damaged, though. Unlike health, you start off with 0% armor and have to find it.
ARMOR HELMET - It looks kinda' like a little metal dome with a glowing green bit in the middle. They give you 1% extra armor, and let you go over your normal 100%.
ARMOR VEST - There are two types: Normal Armor and Megaarmor. Normal ones are green vests, which give you 100% armor. Megaarmor vests are blue and give you 200%.
Back to top
AUTOMAP - Your map, which you can use to find your way around the level. You can toggle between view mode and the Automap by pressing TAB. The map is empty at the beginning of each level, but will grow as you walk around the level. You can also pick up automaps of the level, which show you all of the level, including secret areas! The different coloured lines on the automap have different meanings;
Red: A wall (or possibly a secret door!)
Brown: A change in floor height.
Yellow: A change in ceiling height: yellow lines do not neccesarily indicate a door.
Grey: An area that you have not found yet.
BACKGROUND SOUNDS - See AMBIENT SOUNDS.
BACKPACK FULL OF AMMO - It's.. well.. a backpack! It contains loads of ammo, and also lets you double how much ammo you can carry, as when you pick it up, you then have two backpacks.
BARREL - A barrel containing green ooze. When you shoot them, they blow up, which can hurt :).
BARON OF HELL - Brown bodied, pink torsoed, boss monster. They launch green fireballs at you, and take at least 5 rocket hits to die. They are the episode 1 bosses(there are 2 on map 8).
BATCH FILES - Batch files are like mini "programs" that type in DOS commands for you, and have the extension "BAT". They can be run from the DOS command line by typing their name, eg. BATCH1.BAT
In Doom, Batch files are usually used as a labour-saving device, to run Doom with a predefined set of Command line parameters . The most common use is to load Doom with a PWAD. For example:
@echo off
DOOM -FILE %1.WAD
The first line of this file is purely cosmetic, turning off the display of commands. The second line runs doom with a PWAD specified on the command line. If this file had the name "WAD.BAT" (a common name), then a PWAD named "ONS.WAD" could be loaded by typing "WAD ONS", much quicker and easier to type than "DOOM -FILE ONS.WAD" by far. More advanced Batch files have more options, such as the ability to load more than one WAD. This is the most basic form.
BESERK PACK - It looks kinda' like a black medikit. When you pick one up, the screen goes red, and the fist is selected. Using the fist, you can slop your enemies. Note that the beserk is still effective, even AFTER the red has gone from the screen. You also get your health put to 100%.
BFG 9000 - Big Fraggin' Gun :). It is the most powerful of all the weapons, and launches massive balls of green plasma. It has a WIDE area effect, which makes it great for using on crowds of enemies. It is difficult to use in deathmatch, as it is so slow. It runs on Energy cells(CELL), but uses up 40 at a time. More information on the BFG is available in The BFG FAQ
BLEED - Little red puff of blood that appears when you shoot a living thing. They are the "opposite" of puffs.
BLUR ARTIFACT - Any of the various "super-power-ups". These are:
Partial Invisibility Sphere
Invulnerability Sphere
Supercharge Sphere
Megasphere (Doom II only)
BONUSES - Bonuses are things in Doom which you pick up, and gain extra power or weaponry through. I have built this "tree" of bonuses, where you can find (probably) any bonus.
- Weapons
- Ammo
- Clip
- Box of bullets
- 4 Shotgun shells
- Box of shells
- 1 Rocket
- Box of rockets
- Energy cell
- Energy cell pack
- Backpack
- Health
- Health potion
- Stimpack
- Medikit
- Berserk pack.
- Keys
- "Ordinary" keys
- Red
- Blue
- Yellow
- Skull keys
- Red
- Blue
- Yellow
- "Ordinary" keys
- Armor
- Armor helmet
- Armor Vest
- Green
- Blue
- Radiation shielding suit.
- Misc. Powerups.
- Blur artifacts
BOSS BRAIN - Massive wall on level 30 of Doom II. It is textured with a "goats-head" texture, and the idea is to shoot rockets into its' exposed brain. The ultimate boss, it shoots square boxes that turn into monsters at "spawn-spots". Note that if you reverse its' "sit" sound , you get the words "To win the game you must kill me, John Romero".
BOX OF BULLETS - A green box that contains 50 bullets(BULL) .
BOOM - Boom is TeamTNT's amusingly named Source port. Rather than adding 'gameplay' features such Looking up/down and jumping as legacy does, it focuses on 'levelmaking' features, such as water, 3d bridges and conveyor belts.
BOX OF ROCKETS - A UAC crate that contains 5 rockets(RCKT) .
BOX OF SHELLS - A box containing shotgun shells(SHEL).
BROWN - A PLAYER COLOR
BSP - Binary Space Partitioning. This is the method used by Doom to have such a fast, playable game. How BSP works is beyond the scope of this dictionary, but it requires a lot of data to be created, so that Doom can run at such a high frame rate. Using a Node builder, the raw level data is used to form the bsped level data.
BSPED LEVEL DATA - Data formed from the raw level data. This data is stored in the entries BLOCKMAP, NODES, REJECT, SEGS, and SSECTORS.
BUGS - Problems in the Doom engine. There are several well known bugs: Often there are quite simple ways of avoiding them.
BULLET(BULL) - Ammo used by the pistol and the chaingun. It is not a very powerful type of ammo, but the Zombiemen and SS Guys carry clips full of it, so it is freely available.
CACODEMON - Red, one-eyed ball that floats around. It shoots fireballs at you, which take away your health pretty damned fast. A single rocket is usually enough to take out this guy, although if you're feeling daring, a chainsaw is a good weapon to use on him.
CAMPING - Deathmatch tactic heavily frowned on by most 'match-ers. Basically, it involves sitting around near a weapon, shooting peole rather than actually going and looking for them. Camping is a sad tactic, practised by losers.
CELLS - See ENERGY CELL (CELL)
CFG FILES - See CONFIGURATIONS
CHAINGUN - A fast kind of machine gun. It is weapon number 4. It runs on bullets(BULL), which is the same ammo that the pistol uses.
CHAINSAW - Thing you use to cut down enemies with. When you get the chainsaw, it replaces the fist (except if you get a beserk pack , then you can swap between them by pressing 1). The chainsaw is particulary useful on HEAVY WEAPONS DUDE.
CHAT - Multiplayer feature! It lets you talk to the other players. To talk to all the players, press 'T' and type. To talk to an individual player, type the initial letter of their colour(ie. G,I,B or R) and type.
CHAT MACRO - System that lets you type chat messages fast :). You can specify up to 10 chat macros in SETUP.EXE. In multiplayer, if you press T,G,I,B or R, but instead of actually typing anything, hold ALT and press one of the number keys, it types the message for you!
CHEAT - Special code that helps you by eg. giving you all of the weapons. You simply type in the code. The cheat codes for Doom are;
IDBEHOLD: Gives you a power up. Type IDBEHOLD and then;
S - Gives you a berserk pack.
V - Gives you an invulnerability sphere.
I - Gives you a partial invisibility sphere.
A - Gives you a computer map.
R - Gives you a radiation shielding suit.
L - Gives you a light amplification visor.
IDCHOPPERS: Gives you the chainsaw. "Doesn't suck - GM".
IDCLEV: Does a level warp. Type IDCLEV followed by the episode and then the level number(Doom I) or the MAP number (Doom II).
IDCLIP: Turns on/off no clipping(lets you walk through walls). This only works in Doom II.
IDDT: Use this while on the map. Use it again, and you can see all of the things.
IDDQD: Turns on/off permanent invulnerability.
IDFA: Gives you all of the guns and ammo.
IDKFA: Gives you all of the guns, keys and ammo.
IDMUS: Changes the music. Type IDCLEV followed by the episode and
then the level number(Doom I) or the MAP number (Doom II) for the music.
IDSPISPOPD: Same as IDCLIP, only for Doom I.
IDMYPOS: Gives you your position in the level.
CIRCLE STRAFING - A technique that lets you walk in a circle, while always facing the centre of the circle. Basically, you bind two keys in SETUP.EXE to strafe left and right (not strafe on). You then use these keys in Doom to sidestep one way whilst turning the other way. Circle strafing is useful in death- match, as you can circle-strafe around objects, buildings or people while firing at them.
CLIP - Little grey boxes with yellow tops. Zombiemen and SS Dudes drop them. They contain 10 bullets(BULL).
COLORS - In multiplayer, different players are given different colors to make themselves different from one another and so distinguish themselves from each other. According to which number player they are in the game, they are given a particular color:
- Green
- Indigo
- Brown
- Red
COLORMAP - This is a resource in the IWAD which allows light levels. Doom uses the information in this resource to "map" the colours that would be drawn onto the screen to darker colours. It also provides for the invulnerability "white and black" effect, by mapping all of the colours to monochromatic white and black colours.
COMMAND LINE PARAMETER - A kind of 'Doom command' that is sent to Doom. Different commands do different things. To send the command, instead of just typing 'DOOM' when you run Doom, you type 'DOOM' followed by a '-' and then the command. For example, if I wanted to start Doom in developer mode, I would use the 'DEVPARM' parameter;
DOOM -DEVPARMA list of the main command line parameters follows.
-ALTDEATH Starts Multi-player Doom in Deathmatch II mode.
-CDROM Uses the DEFAULT.CFG file in C:\DOOMDATA. Also changes the little disk icon that appears in the bottom right of the screen to a CD.
-CONFIG cfg Lets you choose a custom Configuration file. Doom usually uses DEFAULT.CFG. You type the '-CONFIG' parameter, followed by the configuration filename. eg. DOOM -CONFIG MYCFG.CFG will use file MYCFG.CFG instead of DEFAULT.CFG
-DEATHMATCH Starts Multi-player Doom in Deathmatch mode.
-DEVPARM Starts Doom in developer mode. Under developer mode, you can take screen shots (F1), and a row of dots at the bottom of the screen show the frame rate.
-FAST Makes the monsters fast, like in nightmare mode.
-FILE filename Loads a PWAD into memory when Doom starts. You type the '-FILE' command followed by the PWAD filename. eg. DOOM -FILE DSTARS20.WAD loads PWAD DSTARS20.WAD
-LOADGAME x Loads from a saved game. Note that specifying this parameter starts straight into the game. You type '-LOADGAME' followed by the game number (0-5). eg. DOOM -LOADGAME 3 loads from save game 3.
-NOMONSTERS Lets you play Doom without monsters.
-PLAYDEMO file Plays a demo from a LMP file. You type '-PLAYDEMO' followed by the filename minus the '.LMP'. eg. DOOM -PLAYDEMO MYDEMO would play the demo in 'MYDEMO.LMP'.
-RECORD file Lets you record a demo LMP. You must use the '-DEVPARM' command to be able to use this command. You type '-RECORD' followed by the filename minus the '.LMP'. eg. DOOM -DEVPARM -RECORD MYDEMO will record a demo called MYDEMO.LMP
-RESPAWN Makes the monsters come back from the dead after 8 seconds, like in nightmare mode.
-SKILL x Changes the skill level. Note that using this parameter will start straight into Doom. You type the '-SKILL' parameter followed by the skill level(1-5). eg. DOOM -SKILL 3 will start the game in 'Hurt Me Plenty' skill level. Note that skill 0 starts with no things at all, except the player starts.
-TIMER x Sets a LEVEL TIMER
-TURBO x Enables TURBO MODE
-WARP x y Starts on a level other than E1M1(Doom I) or MAP01(Doom II). You type the '-WARP' command, followed by the episode, then the map(Doom I) or just the map(Doom II). Note that using this parameter will start straight into the game! eg. DOOM -WARP 3 1 warps to episode 3 map 1. DOOM2 -WARP 25 warps to level 25.
COMBAT SHOTGUN - See SUPER SHOTGUN.
COMPUTER AREA MAP - Picking this item up gives your automap information on the entire level you are in, including secrets!
CONFETTI - A Doom bug. It occurs if you put a transparency texture on a wall. The texture becomes distorted, with bits of it 'streaking' and other bits filled with multi-coloured blobs.
CONFIGURATIONS - The trouble with Doom Deathmatch is that different players use different configurations of keys, controllers etc. Doom has a system that allows multiple configurations for different configurations. Configurations are stored in files with the extension "cfg". Doom normally uses "default.cfg" to store its settings. However, other configurations can be stored in different files, eg. "sf.cfg". These can be used instead of the default configuration using the "-config" Command line parameter.
Configuration files typically store:
- Doom-environment options (volumes, screen size, anything on the options menu)
- Controller settings (keyboard settings, mouse/joystick button assignments etc.)
- Chat macros
CONTROLLERS - Controllers are the devices used to navigate through the game. Doom supports three different controllers: Keyboard, Joystick and Mouse. Doom also supports the Logitech Cyberman. Setup allows you to configure these controllers (ie. what buttons do what) and also choose what controller setup you want. These are:
- Keyboard Only
- Keyboard and Mouse
- Keyboard and Joystick
CO-OPERATIVE - A mode of multiplay. It is the opposite of deathmatch, as players are not fighting each other, but are working together to try and kill all of the monsters and exit the level.
CRUSHING CEILING - Areas where the ceiling go down and crush you. They can be very dangerous, as they squash you, but also useful, as they squash enemies too :). There are two types, fast and slow.
CYBERDEMON - Massive boss monster. He walks around on two legs and launches rockets fraggin' fast at you! If you have Doom I, warp to E2M8 to see him. In Doom II, warp to MAP32.
DEATH - Death plays a prominent part in Doom, as the game itself is about killing people. When you kill a monster, it dies and falls to the floor. The amount of ammo needed to do this varies from monster to monster. For example, only a couple of shots from the pistol are needed to kill a demon, two shotgun blasts are needed. The tougher enemies need more shots to be killed.
The monsters usually just spend the rest of the level dead on the floor. However, if Nightmare skill level is being used, the monsters will respawn after a certain amount of time. Also, Archviles have the power to ressurrect dead monsters, meaning you have to use up even more ammo to kill them again
DEATHMANAGER - Text-based program designed to remove the hassle out of starting Doom Multi-player games. It has far more options than SETUP does.
DEATHMATCH - A mode of multiplay. It is the opposite of co-operative, as players are not fighting the monsters together, but are fighting each other. There are two versions: Deathmatch and Deathmatch II. In deathmatch, players have all of the keys, and appear at deathmatch start points that are dotted around the level, rather than at their player 1/2/3/4 start points.
DEATHMATCH II - See ALTDEATH.
DEMO FILE - A demo is a recording of you playing Doom. It records all of your movements that you (or other players) make while playing a level, and records them into a demo file with a ".LMP" extension. Demo recording mode is initiated by the "-record" command line parameter and playback with the "-playdemo" command line parameter(for more information, see "COMMAND LINE PARAMETERS").
DEMON - Short, pink guys who like to eat you :). They have a hu-uge mouth which they use to eat you with (Harrala) and if they can't reach you, then they run around, growling occasionally. It is often a good idea to pick these guys off from a distance with a shotgun (or better).
DEU- DEU stands for Doom Editing Utilities. It was probably the first ever Doom level editor. However, it is not used a lot nowadays, as it is very unreliable (prone to scrambling levels without warning) and does not have anywhere near as many features as a modern level editor. It also requires a high level of understanding of how levels are actually built, so is difficult to use.
DEUTEX- DEUTEX is a program which builds WADs. It stands for DEU's texture companion, and was originally designed as an "add-on" for DEU. However, it has since gone far beyond this. DEUTEX takes a text-file which describes how a WAD will be built, and then builds it from other files which are stored according to category in sub-directories. DEUTEX is useful for building compilation WADs, as it can take other PWADs containing the individual levels and combine them (along with graphics, sounds, etc.) to form one WAD. It can also be used to reliably manipulate WADs, and has many features.
DM - This has several meanings:
- Abbreviation for DOOM.
- Abbreviation for DEATHMANAGER.
- Abbreviation for DEATHMATCH. eg. GOTHICDM
"DOESN'T SUCK - GM" - Message displayed when you type IDCHOPPERS.
DOOM - 1st person, 3D Perspective shoot-em up PC game. It is made by id software, as is its sequel, Doom II.
There are many different versions of Doom. The first version was released on the 10th of December, 1993. Since then, its many bugs have been slowly eliminated. The versions are as follows:
DOOMSDAY - 10th December marks Doomsday, the anniversary of the first launch of Doom.
DOOM 2 - The sequel to Doom. Doom 2 has 32 levels, rather than episodes and missions. These levels are of a very different design to those in Doom 1, and Doom 2 also includes extra monsters and features.
DOOM SOURCE - The source code for Doom is now avaliable on the Internet. Note that this is a linux(not DOS) version, though the source code has now been ported to DOS and is being improved by several groups of people.
DOOR - Doors are like walls, only they open :). Actually, they are more like ceilings that open. All of the doors in Doom go up, and usually close after around 6 seconds. Some doors don't close, others stay open longer, some are open and then close, some don't need you to open them, some need keys, some are fast and some slow. There are loads of different types of door in Doom, and they are all slightly different. Many just open when you go up to them and press space.
DOSDOOM - DOSDOOM is a well-known Doom source port. It provides features such as: looking up/down, screen sizes etc. It appears to have similar aims to Legacy, but currently does not have as many features.
DOUBLE BARRELLED SHOTGUN - See SUPER SHOTGUN.
DUMMY SECTOR - A dummy sector is a sector that does not actually form part of the level, but is instead used to affect certain special sector or linedef types. For example, the "pulsating" light" sector type pulsates between the sector's light level and the lowest light level of an adjacent sector. Because putting a sector with a dark light level next to the sector would probably look silly in the level, a dummy sector is used. A tiny square or triangle(etc.) is placed outside of the level, but is still part of the sector. Another small sector is joined to it, with a low light level. Therefore, the light will pulsate down to the low light level, but the sector with the low light level is not actually seen by the player.
ENDLESS CEILING - The "endless ceiling" trick (as my friends and I have named it) is a way of making a ceiling look constant, without different light levels on it. For example, a sector might have a light level of 255, and a sector inside it might have a darker light level, say, 100. You may not want the ceiling to appear darker, which is where the endless ceiling trick is used. The ceiling of the smaller sector is made really high (ie. hundreds of units above the surrounding ceiling height). However, no upper texture is given to the linedefs which join these two sectors. The surrounding(and brighter) light level bleeds over the hole in the ceiling, giving the impression of a constant light level on the ceiling, but different light levels on the floor. It is important that the ceiling height of the smaller sector is very high, otherwise its ceiling may sometimes become visible, spoiling the effect.
ENDOOM - The endoom screen is the text screen shown when you quit Doom. It is called "ENDOOM" because that is what the resource is named.
ENEMIES - See MONSTERS
ENERGY CELL(CELL) - Ammo for the BFG9000 and Plasma rifle.
EXE FILES - EXE files have the extension "EXE" and form most of the actual programs on your computer. Your Doom directory is likely to contain at least one EXE file: ie. DOOM.EXE, DOOM2.EXE (etc.) This is the actual Doom engine itself, and is what you run when you run Doom. Other EXE files are likely to be editing programs, such as NWT or DMGRAPH. A more recent Doom directory may also contain extra versions of Doom, based on a modified version of the Doom source . Batch files are sometimes used to run the EXE files indirectly, rather than make the user continually type the same options.
FACE - The face on the status bar reflects how much health you have. As you wander around the levels, the face looks around. If you are shot by enemies, he shows his pain and looks at the direction from which the shot came, useful for locating enemies. He grunts in acid and grins sometimes when you pick up weapons. As you lose more and more health, more blood appears on his face, until he is covered in it and his head is looking down.
FILES - The typical Doom directory is likely to contain several different files:
- EXE Files
- A main IWAD
- Several (possibly hundreds) of PWADs
- Configuration files
- Batch files
FIST - Your fist, and also your least powerful weapon. You always have it, unless you've accidentally slipped over and cut it off or something, or have the chainsaw. The chainsaw replaces the fist, so you can't use it unless you get the beserk pack, which lets you switch between them.
FLASH OF BLACK - See MOIRE.
FLAT - Floor or ceiling texture. Actually, every sector and every room has a floor and a ceiling texture: the 'sky' textures are just a special type of 'panning' floor/ceiling texture (although you can't have a panning texture on the floor and the ceiling). The beauty of the flats system is that you are not limited to using floor textures on the floor, ceiling textures on the ceiling. If you wanted, you could create 'upside-down' Doom, where you have simply taken the original levels and flipped the floor and ceiling textures, after fiddling with the floor and ceiling heights a bit.
FORMER HUMAN - A former human is a ZOMBIEMAN, SHOTGUN GUY or HEAVY WEAPONS DUDE.
FRAG - A Deathmatch term. The frag count (for Deathmatch II) is the number of times you have killed any other player minus the amount of times that you have commited suicide. To kill another player is called 'getting a frag' because your frag count goes up by one.
GAMMA CORRECTION - Kind of "turns up the brightness". Using gamma-correction can help you see more. There are five levels: 0-4, and can be toggled by pressing F11.
GREEN - A PLAYER COLOR
HALL OF MIRRORS - See HOM.
HEALTH - Stuff that keeps you alive. The 'health' box on the status bar shows you how much health you have. Also, the littleface on the status bar reflects your health by how much blood is on it. If the face is covered in blood and looking down, you are almost dead: it's time to find some more health! You start off with 100% health, but can lose it by being hit by shots from enemies. The amount of health you lose depends on how much Armor you have. If your health gets to 0%, then you're dead!
HEALTH POTION - These blue bottles give you 1% extra health, and let you go over your normal 100%.
HEAVY WEAPONS DUDE - Fat former humans with chrome-domed heads. They carry chainguns, and can become fraggin' annoying if they are left to keep on shooting (which they will). On the plus side, they drop chainguns when they die, which can be useful :).
HELL KNIGHT - Baron of hell's little brother. They are much less tough, but are still a formidable threat. They can be distinguished from Barons of hell because they have brown torsoes, rather than red ones.
HEY, NOT TOO ROUGH - Skill level 2
HOM - Stands for hall of mirrors. This occurs if you don't have a texture where you should have one. The area where there should be a texture is all flickery, with bits of automap, your gun and other things left behind on it.
HURT ME PLENTY - Skill level 3
ID - The makers of Doom. Pronounced literally, 'id'. id homepage
I'M TOO YOUNG TO DIE - Skill level 1
IMP - Brown humanoid that walks around with its red mouth open most of the time. He launches fireballs out of it if you are a distance from them. He tears you to shreds if you get too close. Fortunately, he is still pretty weak, and will die after a few pistol shots.
INDIGO - A PLAYER COLOR
INTERPIC - The between level screen shown in Doom II and Doom I Episode 4. It's a sort of skin texture, with lots of stretched faces and stuff. It is so named because the resource name for it is "INTERPIC".
INVISIBLE DEMON - See SPECTRE.
INVULNERABILITY SPHERE - A green floating sphere. When you pick it up, you become invincible for a short amount of time. During this time, however, your view will turn to reverse colour monochrome - your punishment for being tough! Please note that many people consider the invulnerability sphere as being unfair in deathmatch (it does not respawn).
IPXSETUP - The program to run Doom over a network. To use IPXSETUP, you must have the IPX protocol set up. You can have up to 4 players, which you choose with the command line parameter:
-NODES playersWhere players is the amount of players that you are going to have.
IWAD - Internal WAD. Everything that you see and hear in the game is stored in this massive(14meg up) file. In Doom I, it it DOOM.WAD. In Doom II, it is DOOM2.WAD. In Heretic it is HERETIC.WAD, and in Final Doom it is PLUTONIA.WAD or TNT.WAD. Using a WAD editor(eg NWT), you can extract any of the music, sound effects, wall textures, sprites, levels, and even the screen that is shown when Doom is quitted from this file.
JOYSTICK - The joystick is one of the three controllers that Doom supports. It can be enabled through SETUP. However, it is not often used by deathmatchers, as it is difficult to use when controlling games such as Doom, and does not offer the same turning speed that the Mouse offers. Nevertheless, there are still four different actions that can be assigned to mouse buttons:
- Fire
- Strafe On
- Run
- Use
KEYBOARD - The keyboard is one of the three controllers that Doom supports. It is always enabled: it cannot be disabled, even through editing the CFG file. Doom allows you to specify many different keys for use in the game. These are:
- Turn right
- Turn left
- Walk forward
- Walk backwards
- Strafe left
- Strafe right
- Strafe On (Strafes when turn keys are pressed)
- Fire
- Run
- Use
KEYS - Some doors in levels need keys for you to open them. There are three colours of key, and two types. The colours are blue, yellow and red, while the two types are standard key and skull key. Once you have the right key, you can go through the associated door(s).
LEGACY - Doom: Legacy is one of the well-known source ports, which provides features such as: Looking up/down, skins, 32-player multiplayer with a client/server engine, and a host of other features. See their web page.
LEVEL - Levels are the various maps that you go through in Doom. In Doom I, the levels are E1M1 - E3M9. In Doom II, the levels are MAP01 - MAP32. Levels are defined by having an empty 'header' resource, which is the name of the level (ExMx or MAPxx), followed by 10 resources which contain all of the level data. These resources are;
LINEDEFS - Contains all of the linedef information.
SIDEDEFS - Contains all of the sidedef information.
THINGS - Contains a list of all of the things.
SECTORS - Contains sector information.
NODES
SSECTORS
SEGSContain the BSP data.
REJECT - Contains the reject data.
BLOCKMAP - Contains the blockmap information (provides clipping and the computer area map).
LEVEL TIMER - Makes the levels end after a certain time limit. This is done through the -timer Command line switch. For example, typing DOOM -timer 5 will end each level after 5 minutes. This is useful in Deathmatch mode to time games. However, it does have disadvantages. In 32 player level compilations, for example, the secret levels are skipped. Also, the level timer information is not stored in Demo files, which can cause Demos to go out of sync.
LIFT - Lifts are floors that go down. Like doors, there are many different types of lift, some fast, some slow, some need to be activated, others are automatic. Most go down for around 3 seconds, then go back up.
LIGHT AMPLIFICATION VISOR - Goggles that let you see better. When you pick them up, you can see everything in crystal clarity.
LINEDEF - A linedef is, basically, either a wall, or a joining point between two sectors. Walls are called 'one-sided' because they have only one sidedef, and linedefs that join two sectors are called 'two sided' because they have two sidedefs. The two ends of a linedef are defined by vertices.
LINEDEF TAG - This is for tagging sectors to linedefs. See TAGGING.
LMP FILE - Technically, a .LMP is a lump file, containing a lump to be put into a WAD. In practice, however, a .LMP file is normally used to store demos recorded with the "-record" command line parameter, as LMP is the file extension given to demos by Doom.
LONG WALL ERROR - See LWE.
LOST SOUL - Skull with a fiery hairstyle. He flys around, and looks reasonably harmless, but will attack you by flying into you. The super shotgun is a good weapon to use to get rid of him. Alternatively, shoot him with a pistol and watch him drift away.
LUMP - The information contained in a RESOURCE.
LWE - Stands for Long wall error. This is a Doom bug. It is caused by having really long(ie. Bigger than 1024) walls. When you have such a wall, it and other walls in the level 'jump about'.
MANCUBUS - Fat, overweight blob. He has fireball launchers on his arms, and crys out 'ooaaa' when you shoot him. He is quite easy to get rid of, but is still quite dangerous.
MEDIKIT - White box with a cross on the side. It helps you by giving you 25% extra health.
MEDUSA - A Doom bug. If you have a multi-patch(ie. made of more than one graphic) texture for the middle texture of a two-sided linedef, your PC slows to a crawl whenever you see that linedef. It is called the 'medusa' effect because "it looks like snakes and it turns you to stone" :).
MEGASPHERE - Like the supercharge sphere, only more powerful. It is a yellow-brown colour. When you pick it up, you get 200% health and armor.
MOIRE - A Doom bug. It occurs when you have a really high wall. As you move towards or away from the wall, you get a 'flash of black' for a moment. This bug is supposedly fixed in v1.666 up.
MONSTERS - There are many different monsters in Doom, these are:
- Arachnotron (Spider demon]
- Archvile
- Baron of hell
- Cacodemon
- Cyberdemon
- Demon
- Heavy weapons dude [Chaingun Sargeant]
- Hell knight
- Imp
- Lost soul
- Mancubus
- Pain Elemental
- Revenant
- Shotgun guy (Sargeant)
- Spectre (Invisible demon
- Spider Mastermind
- Zombieman [Trooper]
MOUSE - One of the three Controllers that Doom supports. The mouse is the preferred controller for the best Deathmatchers, as it allows precision turning and also allows quicker turning than when using the keyboard alone. Most people use the keyboard and mouse combination suggested in SETUP. Mouse buttons can be assigned to any of the following actions:
- Walk forward
- Fire
- Strafe On
MOVING FLOOR - A group of sectors that are triggered by a linedef to move up and down. The result is a "moving floor", with parts of the floor higher and lower than others, constantly moving up and down.
MUS FORMAT - The MUS format is the format that the music in Doom is stored in. Because it is an irregular format, a program such as MIDI2MUS is needed to convert .MID files to .MUS files.
MULTIPLAYER SAVEGAMES - Saving your game during Multi-play is easy: simply choose "Save" from the options menu. Note that the same slot is used on every PC, so it is advisable to agree on a saveslot with the other players first.
Loading your savegame is more difficult: this is best handled using Doom's SETUP or another launch program. In SETUP, select "Load Multiplayer Savegame" from the main menu, then enter the appropriate options. You cannot load the savegame once the game has already commenced!
MULTIPLAYER - One of the revolutionary features of Doom when it was released was the fact that you could play it Multiplayer. In other words, as well as battling against monsters, you could also play with/against your friends/enemies. Multiplayer was provided through two external exe files, SERSETUP and IPXSETUP. This system also allowed third party EXE files to be used instead, such as TCP/IP EXEs to allow you to play over the internet. Internet Doom has only really taken off after the release of The Doom Source Code.
MUSIC - Every level in Doom has music associated with it. This plays if you have an Adlib/Soundblaster card or better. You can change the music being played if you hate it using the IDMUS cheat code.
The music is stored in the IWAD in the MUS format (see entry). The resource names always start D_. In Doom I, the format is simple - the resource name is D_ExMy, where x and y are the episode and mission numbers. In Doom II, the format is more complex - the resource name is anything beggining in D_ - for example, D_RUNNIN.
NAZI - See SS DUDE
NODE BUILDER - A program that makes the BSPed level data from your level data, and thus rendering the level playable. Most node builders are reasonably good, but some node builders, particulary the ones built into level editors, create bugs when you play the level. Wall textures can become garbled, floor textures can bleed and so on.
NIGHTMARE - Skill level 5
NULL MODEM - A method of linking two computers. A null modem cable is a cable that simply connects between 2 PCs' COM ports. To use this type of link up with Doom, you use SERSETUP.
ONSLAUGHT - See TEAMONSLAUGHT.
PAIN ELEMENTAL - Cacodemon's big brother. He is brown, he has a skull in his mouth, and he shoots lost souls. It REALLY IS a good idea to get rid of these guys, because the lost souls will have you as a light snack. Alternatively, leave the room, and let the lost souls have the pain elemental as a light snack.
PARTIAL INVISIBILITY - When something is 'partially invisible', the only part of it that can be seen by players and monsters is a dotted silhouette. Spectres are partially invisible, and players can become partially invisible if they pick up a partial invisibility sphere.
PARTIAL INVISIBILITY SPHERE - A red sphere with a little pulsating thing in the middle. When you pick it up, you turn partially invisible. It isn't really very useful in single player, but is more useful in deathmatch. After a while, you flash between partially invisible and visible, before finally reappearing for good. Note that many deathmatchers consider the partial invisibility sphere as unfair.
PC SPEAKER SOUND - A crappy imitation of a digitized sound. Basically, for every digitized sound in Doom, beginning in "DS", there is another resource with an almost identical name, only it begins "DP". These contain PC speaker sounds. PC speaker sounds are basically bleeps played by the internal speaker when you don't have a sound card.
PCX FILE - An image file with the extension ".PCX". Doom uses PCX files to save screenshots. To view screen shots in DOS, I suggest that you download a shareware copy of Descent II, and use PCXVIEW.EXE, which comes with it.
PISTOL - A very slow, not very powerful weapon. It is weapon number 2. You always have it when you start the game, or if you restart the level. It runs on bullets(BULL).
PLASMA - Another word which describes ENERGY CELLS [CELL] .
PLASMA RIFLE - Fast and powerful weapon. It launches purple plasma balls, which work extremely well on former humans. Because it is fast and powerful, it is more than suitable for deathmatch. It runs on Energy cells(CELL).
PLAYER - The player in Doom is who you control, (or who other players control in multiplayer). There are many different factors which different players will hold:
PLAYPAL - This is a resource in the IWAD. It contains 14 palettes that Doom uses. When the screen goes a certain colour, like when you are hurt, or when you get a radiation suit, Doom changes the screen palette to one of the ones in this resource.
PUFF - Little puffs appear when you shoot walls or barrels. They are the opposite of bleeds.
PWAD - Patch WAD. It is basically exactly the same as the IWAD, except that instead of containing entries for every graphic, level, and sound in the game, it only contains entries for certain things that are wanted to be changed. The PWAD system works by telling Doom to use bits of the PWAD instead of bits of the IWAD. eg. If a PWAD contained an entry called 'DSRLAUNC', then when the rocket launcher was fired, Doom would play the sound under that entry in the PWAD, rather than the one in the IWAD.
QUICKSAVE - Quick-saving is an ingenious system that lets you save your game quickly, without even selecting a slot! Basically, you press F6, and Doom asks you to select a slot like you normally would when choosing "save game". Then, whenever you press F6 again, it simply saves over that slot. If you press F9, you can also "quickload".
RADIATION SHIELDING SUIT - A special suit that protects you from acid. When you get one, the screen goes green.
RAW LEVEL DATA - The data formed by the level editor. This is stored in the entries LINEDEFS, SECTORS, SIDEDEFS, THINGS and VERTEXES.
RED - A PLAYER COLOR
REJECT - This is a resource contained in every level. It tells monsters when they can see and shoot other monsters and players.
REQUIEM - See TEAMREQUIEM.
RESOURCE - A kind of 'Doom file' inside a WAD file. For more information, see WAD.
RESPAWN - A Deathmatch term. Respawning is when an item or monster reappears after it has been killed or picked up. Items can be made to respawn after 30 seconds by using ALTDEATH mode. Monsters can be made to respawn after 8 seconds by setting the '-RESPAWN' parameter.
RESPONSE FILE - File containing a list of command line parameters. Response files are useful, becuase Doom can only handle something like 10 command line parameters, and if you don't have DOSKEY installed, you will probably get fraggin' pissed off with having to type in the parameters over and over again. To make a response file, you simply make a text file with a seperate command line parameter on each line. eg.
-FILE DSTARS20.WAD
-SKILL 5
-FAST
-RESPAWN
You then save the file with any name(eg. RESPONSE.TXT) and
instead of typing; DOOM -FILE DSTARS20.WAD -SKILL 5 -FAST -RESPAWNYou simply type;
DOOM @RESPONSE.TXTor DOOM @ followed by the filename. Note that you can also use response files with IPXSETUP and SERSETUP, as multiplayer will probably be where you find them most useful.
REVENANT - Tall, skeleton-like enemy. He launches guided missiles from his shoulder-mounted rocket launchers, and punches you really hard if you get too close. Beware of them!
ROCKET LAUNCHER - A fast, powerful weapon. It is weapon number 5. It launches rockets, which slop former humans and other players. Because it is fast and powerful, it is great for deathmatch. Be careful, though. If you shoot it into a nearby wall, it will hurt! It runs on rockets (RCKT).
ROCKETS(RCKT) - Ammo used by the Rocket launcher.
SAVEGAMES - Both Doom and Doom II are very big games, the kind you're unlikely to finish in one afternoon. Therefore, you can choose to save your game. Choosing a slot from the "save game" menu will save your game to that slot. Later on, you can return to your game straight away, just by choosing "load game" from the main menu. Voila! Your game is re-loaded!
Savegames are stored in one of 6 files in the Doom directory which have the extension "DSG" (Doom Save Game). See also: Multiplayer savegames and Quicksaves
SARGEANT - See SHOTGUN GUY.
SCREEN SHOT - Taking a 'photo' of the screen and saving it to a file on disk. to get a screen shot, start Doom with the '-devparm' parameter, then press F1 to take a picture. The file is saved with a .PCX extension, ie. DOOM00.PCX, DOOM01.PCX etc. Note that gamma- correction does not transfer to the .PCX file.
SCREEN SIZE - It is possible in Doom to change the size of the view window through which you play Doom. Pressing + increases the screen size while pressing - decreases the screen size. The top two screen sizes are both "full screen", though one shows the status bar and the other does not. Screen sizes smaller than this have the extra space filled in with a floor texture.
Setting the screen size is useful for a couple of reasons. Smaller screen sizes run faster, and so are preferable on slow computers. However, playing on the largest screen size(full screen, without status bar) allows a player to actually see more than in the next screen size down (full screen, with status bar). Therefore, this is often preferred by some players.
SECTOR - Basically, a sector is anywhere that you can walk. All sectors are polygons, although some have holes cut out of the middle. Sectors are defined by having several sidedefs with the same sector- reference. Sectors are vital to Doom, because they let you define floor and ceiling heights and textures, give light levels to rooms, and create effects such as pulsating lights and acid.
SECTOR TAG - This is for tagging linedefs to sectors. See TAGGING.
SERSETUP - The program that comes with Doom that you use to play over a serial link. A serial link is a modem or null modem connection. If you're calling, then type SERSETUP -DIAL, followed by the phone number. eg. SERSETUP -DIAL 0500,567,328 will call 0500 567 328. If you are being called, you need to set up in 'wait for call' mode. Just type SERSETUP -ANSWER. If you're connecting via null modem, just type SERSETUP. You will also need to specify your COM port. This is another special command line parameter. You type SERSETUP -COMx, where x is the number of *your* COM port. eg. To use COM3:SERSETUP -COM3.
SETTINGS See CONFIGURATIONS
SETUP - The program that allows you to configure Doom's more advanced settings, such as Sound Card and Controller settings. In later versions, you can specify an alternate .CFG file to default.cfg, by typing at the command line eg:
SETUP -config sf.cfgObviously, replacing sf.cfg with whatever you want.
SHELLS - See SHOTGUN SHELLS(SHEL)
SHOTGUN - A reasonably fast, reasonably powerful weapon. It is weapon number 3. It is good for using close up on humans and imps, but is of little use against tougher enemies. It has to be reloaded after each shot, but is still quite fast. It runs on Shotgun shells(SHEL). It is fairly easy to get hold of one, shotgun guys carry them. A more powerful version is available in Doom 2 in the form of the Super shotgun
SHOTGUN GUY - Bald human in black clothing. He carrys a shotgun, shoots it, and drops it when he dies.
SHOTGUN SHELL(SHEL] - Ammo for the shotguns.
SIDEDEF - A sidedef is the side of a linedef. Linedefs can have up to 2 sidedefs (a line has two sides, d'ohh!). Sidedefs let you choose wall textures, and sidedefs are collected together by their sector references to form a sector.
SKINS - Skins allow individual people in multiplayer. This cannot be done in the original version of Doom. However, the new Doom Legacy source port allows skins support, so you can load in your own skins in Multiplayer and look however you want to!
"SIT" SOUND - No, this is not the noise that the monsters make when they all sit down and have a cup of tea! It is the sound that the monsters make when they see you and start to walk around(eg. The mancubus goes kind of "Rrrrupp" while the former humans go "Er-oh"). It is so named because all these sounds have the three letters SIT put on the end of the resource names in the IWAD.
SKILL LEVELS - The skill levels determine how difficult Doom is. There are five different skill levels in Doom:
- I'm too young to die
- Hey, Not too rough
- Hurt me plenty
- Ultra-Violence
- Nightmare!
The skill levels work by removing certain monsters at easier levels, and replacing (with harder monsters) or adding monsters in more difficult ones. Skill levels can also be used on weaponry and power-ups, making them only appear at certain skill levels!
SLOP - What is left after a player or monster is killed with a Rocket launcher, BFG, Beserk pack, occasionaly a plasma rifle, or is telefragged. The thing being slopped explodes, and what is left resembles a red cocoon shaped object.
SOUL SPHERE - Stupid name for SUPERCHARGE.
SOUND - A sound you hear in Doom. They are all digitised in Doom, at a 11025 sampling rate. All sound resources have "DS" at the beginning, the remaining 6 letters making a feeble attempt to describe the sound. There are loads of sounds, from gunshots to the "tink" or phone sound when you are called in multiplayer.
Note: There are also PC SPEAKER SOUNDS.
SOURCE CODE - See DOOM SOURCE.
SPECIAL EFFECTS - Many of the top level makers use special effects in their levels, which show their advanced knowledge of level editing. Special effects usually make use of Bugs or limits of the Doom engine to enhance levels. The main special effects are:
- Ambient sounds
- Anti-gravity fields
- Arches
- The use of Dummy sectors
- "Endless ceiling" trick
- Transparent doors
- Water with depth
SPIDER MASTERMIND - Massive brain with 8 legs. It has a massive face and a chaingun which it just will not stop firing! This is the last boss on Doom I, but you can see him in Doom II in a few places.
STIMPACK - Small medikit. It gives you 10% more health.
SPISPOPD - SPISPOPD was something which developed on the Internet newsgroups whilst they were waiting for Doom to be released. It stands for Smashing Pumpkins Into Small Piles Of Putrid Debris. The basic thought was, if id gave their next 3D game a less interesting name (ie. "Smashing Pumpkins Into Small Piles Of Putrid Debris"), then there might not be so much hype about it!
SS DUDE - The S.S. Dudes are actually out of Wolfenstein, Doom's predecessor. They are Nazis in blue clothes who shoot chainguns at you. They can be found in Doom 2's secret Wolfenstein levels (MAP31 and MAP32). When you kill them, they drop clips.
STATUS BAR - The status bar, as its name suggests, shows your player's status. It is normally grey and appears at the bottom of the screen (unless the Screen size is at maximum) It shows,
- Your Health
- The amount of Ammo left for the weapon you are currently using
- Which weapons you currently hold (in single-player)
- The amount of frags you have (in multi-player).
- Your face
- How much armor you have.
- Which keys you have.
- The amount of each type of ammo you have, in a compact form.
STRAFE RUNNING - A technique which allows you to run faster. By strafing in one direction whilst walking forward, you can actually travel faster than is usually possible by running.
SUPERCHARGE - Blue sphere with a face in it. It gives you 100% EXTRA health.
SUPER SHOTGUN - A more powerful version of the shotgun. It is double barrelled, which makes it twice as powerful, but it also uses up twice the ammo. It is VERY slow to reload, but is still great for use in deathmatch. In single player, you can use it to take down crowds of humans and imps :). It is also weapon number 3, but you can switch between it and the standard shotgun by pressing 3 again. It runs on Shotgun shells(SHEL).
TAGGING - This is when a linedef is 'linked' to a sector. When a linedef is linked in this way, it is said to be 'tagged' to the sector. To tag a linedef to a sector, you must give the linedef a sector tag number (any, as long as you are not already using that number for another process). You then give the sector that you want to tag the linedef to a linedef tag of the same number.
Tagging is vital to Doom, as nearly all of the linedef types require it. Tagging allows you to tell Doom which part of the level you want to start a crushing ceiling in, or where you want the player to be teleported to, for example.
TEAMONSLAUGHT - Small WAD making team. Onslaught homepage
TEAMREQUIEM - WAD making ream. They are best known for the advanced WAD techniques found in their single-player compilation, Requiem.
TEAMTNT - Large WAD making team. They are most famous for making the levels for Final Doom. They have also made several other single-player and deathmatch compilations. TeamTNT homepage
TELEFRAG - To gain a frag by teleporting over someone. The person previously on the teleport spot is turned into slop, whilst the person who teleported over them survives and gains a frag.
TELEPORTER - Teleporters instantly transport a player from one part of the level to another. A green flash is seen around the player being teleported.
The technical details are: the player crosses a teleport linedef, which is tagged to the destination sector. The player reappears in the destination sector on a teleport spot. If there is no teleport spot, they do not teleport.
TELEPORT SPOT - The exit to a teleporter. After being teleported, the player being teleported arrives on this spot. It is defined in level building by a thing.
TEXTURE - Which type of texture? There are FLATS and WALL TEXTURES.
THING - A thing is any object, or.. thing in the game. This includes player starts, bonuses and weapons, enemies, obstacles, and any other object. Things are stored in the THINGS resource in every level.
TITLEPIC - The title screen shown when you start Doom. It is so named because the resource containing it is named "TITLEPIC".
TNT - See TEAMTNT.
TRANSPARENT DOORS - It is not normally possible to create doors in Doom which have transparent parts. Putting the upper texture of a linedef as a texture with transparent parts results in the Confetti bug. However, it is possible to create a transparent door. Each side of the door is a sector with a floor height slightly below the surrounding floor(the door sector remains at the normal height). The doors are given no upper texture. Normally, this would result in HOM, but the surrounding lower sectors mean that the door is simply invisible and totally transparent. To add a texture to the door, the door linedefs are given a middle(not upper!) texture. This can be a transparent texture, as it is a middle texture, and is then offset upwards to cover the door. Voila!
TROOPER - Another name for ZOMBIEMAN.
TURBO MODE - Turbo mode allows you to change the speed of your player. By using the -turbo Command line , you can increase or decrease the speed of your player. For example, typing at the command line, DOOM2 -turbo 200 will run doom with your player at 200% of his normal speed (twice normal). Other players will be notified of your speed increase if you use this option. You can also decrease your speed, eg. DOOM -turbo 50 will change the speed of your marine to 50%(1/2) normal. The lowest speed you can go is 20%, while the highest is 400%.
ULTRA-VIOLENCE - Skill level 4
VERTEX - Basically, a vertex is the end point of a linedef. They exist as points on the map, which join various linedefs together, and denote the end points. The information for the vertices is stored in the level data in the VERTEXES resource (this is spelt wrong, the correct plural of vertex is vertices).
VERSION - See DOOM
WAD - Doom levels, sound patches etc usually come in the form of WADs. They are called WADs because of their file extension - .WAD . There are two types of WAD - One is the IWAD type(Internal WAD) which is your DOOM.WAD, DOOM2.WAD, HERETIC.WAD, PLUTONIA.WAD, TNT.WAD or whatever the big (14meg or bigger) WAD was called that came with your copy of Doom. Others are PWADs(Patch WAD), which are much smaller, and contain extra graphics, sounds, levels etc.
Inside every WAD is a list of entries, or resources, similar to a list of files on a hard disk. In fact, it is similar to a list of files in more than one way. The resources can be a maximum of 8 letters long, just like the FAT system. These 'files' inside the WAD can contain sounds, wall textures, levels, graphics and sprites, music, -even the screen that appears when you quit Doom is in there!
WAD.BAT - See BATCH FILES
WALL RUNNING - A technique which allows you to run faster. It is possible because of a bug in the Doom engine. If you strafe run next to a wall, you can achieve extremely high speeds.
WALL TEXTURE - The picture on a wall. There are three types of wall texture: upper, lower and middle(normal). Middle textures are used on walls, or alternatively, it can be used on a two sided linedef and given one of the 'transparency' textures, so that you can see a texture on the linedef. Lower textures are the gaps between a change in floor height, for example, the gap between two stairs. Upper textures are similar, being the gaps between a change in ceiling height.
WATER - Through clever exploitation of Doom's limits and Bugs, it is possible in Doom to create water with depth. It works under the same principle of the Anti-gravity field, but in reverse. Instead of making things float above the floor, you make things float below the floor. The eye-level of the player is lower than normal, closer to the floor texture, giving the illusion that the player is immersed in water. However, there is a problem with this: if the player dies while in the water, their eye-level sinks beneath the floor, and so the result is HOM.
WEAPON - Thing that you use to attack monsters or other players with. You get 8 weapons in Doom, and 9 in Doom II, but you can only use one at a time :(. You switch between the weapons by pressing the number keys on the keyboard. These are the weapons, followed by their associated number keys;
- Fist or
Chainsaw (replaces fist unless you get the beserk pack, then you can press 1 to switch between them).
- Pistol
- Shotgun
Super shotgun (Doom II only)
- Chaingun
- Rocket launcher
- Plasma rifle
- BFG9000
- Chainsaw (again)
ZOMBIEMAN - Human with green hair. He is the weakest of all enemies, and carries a mere pistol with which to defend himself. An easy target, he drops clips of ammo when he dies.
  |