Which maps from the original IWADS were good/bad for deathmatch?

Which maps from the original IWADS (Ultimate Doom, Doom II, Evilution, Plutonia, etc) were either great or terrible for deathmatch games? E1M1 from Ultimate Doom or MAP07 from Doom II is pretty much a given, but which ones did you think played either great or terrible for deathmatches?

E1M8 Phobos Anomoly was HORRIBLE for deathmatch. Player 2's spawn points is in the baron sector, and there aren't any extra weapons in there for desth match. Consequently, player one will destroy you because he or she gets the shotgun and chaingun from their start point.

Entryway is classic. It is The Duel Map. The most iconic.

Deathmatch in all of Doom's Episode 1 maps is also kind of classic, even though differently.

scifista42 said:

Entryway is classic. It is The Duel Map. The most iconic.

Deathmatch in all of Doom's Episode 1 maps is also kind of classic, even though differently.

The Living End for duels, Downtown being a close second. 'Nuff said.

Prominently E1 levels, MAP01 and MAP07 are the only IWAD -maps played on DM.
I tried a 1v1 on E3M8 once and it sucked.

MAP01 and 07 are considered classics, although play on 07 is rare these days from my understanding, with people often preferring to play the modified version in Dwango5. E1M1 isn't all that great for DM, but it is by far superior to the other maps in the episode. MAP03 has been touted as another decent map. TNT map01 is one I don't see mentioned often anymore, It's surprising that Tom Mustaine doesn't get more kudos for making a decent MAP01-alike but I guess that has something to do with how derivative his style is, heh.

I'd say none of the IWAD maps outside of MAP01 hold up these days. General rule of thumb is that they suck for DM with very few notable exceptions. They can be plenty of fun in other modes like Last Man Standing though, where the extended games of cat and mouse are more exciting due to the high stakes of having limited respawmns than the drag it becomes in DM.

e2m7 was the neighborhood favorite back in Ye Olde LAN days, however I've never convinced anyone to play it in the tcp/ip era.

It's definitely a different kind of gameplay, navigating the giant maze-like map for long periods of tense buildup, followed by a lightning bolt of adrenaline at finally encountering your opponent. It's something more akin to, say, Spy vs. Spy on the NES, where it's this long drawn out game of cat and mouse.

I think MAP02 has my favorite layout for DM of the iwads, but I don't really like its weapon placement. I've been spoiled by modern maps that spawn you on/very close to decent weapons.

Marcaek said:

MAP01 and 07 are considered classics, although play on 07 is rare these days from my understanding, with people often preferring to play the modified version in Dwango5.

Are you sure you don't mean the modified MAP01?

MAP11 of doom2 is great to play DM on, but the invulnerability sphere secret is spoiling it.

ETTiNGRiNDER said:

Are you sure you don't mean the modified MAP01?

I don't. AFAIK the only modified version which "caught on" was the one in ZDDL. I hear a lot of people gripe about the changes in it though. The original MAP01 still sees plenty of play.

Motherfucker. I recalled a fun DM session a while back on (what I thought was) an IWAD map and was sitting here trying to remember what map it was. Turns out I was thinking of E5M8. x:

Enjoy the unfortunate plug, I guess. D:

Back in 1994-95 it didn't really matter much to me, all maps were good for DM. Played mostly in the first episodes of Doom (not "ultimate") and Doom II and didn't have any problems. I'd still play them today if I did DM. They're all-around good maps. I guess the bigger ones work better if you got more than 2 players (we were usually 3-4).

Oh, and although I never played them for real, the GBA Doom converted maps you can find on /idgames look pretty nice too...
http://www.doomworld.com/idgames/index.php?file=levels/doom2/deathmatch/g-i/gbadm.zip

hex11 said:

I'd still play them today if I did DM.

You'd probably be the only one.

What happens on Internet servers doesn't concern me though. All my Doom DM experience was with friends over modem or LAN (at home or at school in between class). In that kind of more personal environment, nobody really cares about wad ratings and other shit, it's more about hanging out together. At least that's my experience... Even back then we played lame wads (as in "haha wtf is this, man?") and had fun.

In Ultimate Doom, E1M1 is solid because a lot more interconnectivity opens up. In shareware it really sucks balls, and I never see the Ult version online oddly enough.

Pretty much what Marcaek said though, we got a few good IWAD edits from Dwango5/Dwango6, and those are still played, but other than map01 you never see them online. Unless you have about 8 players, it's very difficult to find your opponent in such a large space. Come to think of it, it's like the battle mode in Mario Kart 8.

I've made a modified E1M1-E1M9 that's much better for deathmatch, but for obvious reasons I've never released it publicly.

hex11 said:

What happens on Internet servers doesn't concern me though. All my Doom DM experience was with friends over modem or LAN (at home or at school in between class). In that kind of more personal environment, nobody really cares about wad ratings and other shit, it's more about hanging out together. At least that's my experience... Even back then we played lame wads (as in "haha wtf is this, man?") and had fun.

Yeah, that is definitely fun to do. Me and some fiends once had a splitscreen Doom Legacy deathmatch in the terrible dwango6 maps with dragonball Z doom.. It was actually fun and funny as hell!

Doom 2 map05 was really popular on Xbox Live back when Doom 2 launched on it and had some activity. I never thought of map05 as a contender for deathmatch prior to that time frame but it is now probably my favorite map to deathmatch on in doom 2.

I'm not to familiar with Final Doom deathmatch, but pretty much all of the maps in doom 1 are awesome. I agree that e1m8 isn't very good though.

Well, many people say that map01 is the best but I was always confused by the fact that it is linear map with 2 dead ends. It just didn't flow to me. Then other day I sawed dwango5 remake and it was awesome but a little to complicated. And then when Romero released map sources he gaves us really fun map01 with circular path lying through plasma lift to start point. I played it with frend and it was awesome. Yeah it need polishing but I think if someone will made map01 with just a connection between start and lift than it will be the best map01 ever