About This File
Inspired by JP LeBreton's discussion with John Romero at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rV6HlBa88js&feature=youtu.be&t=80 and Blackmantis' research at https://www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/85756-found-doom-sky-source-files/, in 2017, we traveled to Yangshuo County, China to try and find the cave from which Tom Atwood photographed "Yangshuo Cavern" sometime in the late 80s or early 90s. Also known as MAJEST3.TIF, this image was distributed by Aris Entertainment in 1991 and 1992 via royalty free CD-ROMs like "MediaClips Majestic Places" and "The Best of MediaClips," an example of which can be downloaded at https://archive.org/details/The_Best_of_MediaClips_2.0.1_Aris_Entertainment_1994. After finding its way into the offices of id Software during the development of DOOM, Atwood's photograph of the Karst Mountains became Phobos, the skybox for the shareware episode of the game, "Knee Deep in the Dead."
Not Moon Hill or Butterfly Spring or Dragon Water Cave, asking for the location of "Yangshuo Cavern" is the equivalent of asking for the location of "California Hill" when searching for the Bliss Screen. Beyond the immensity of the mountain range and vagary of Atwood's original title, in many ways Yangshuo County exemplifies the larger process of historical erasure and cultural amnesia in China. Villages alongside the Li River are undergoing rapid development; every cave we entered was full of concrete, colored lights, and consumed Monkey Kings; and even local cavers and climbers were stumped...is it even possible to find "Yangshuo Cavern" in 2017?
The history of Yangshuo is not only occluded when it comes to DOOM, but also in relation to China more broadly. Even though the 20 RMB note features a shan shui-esque rendering of the region's famous mountains, hills, and caverns along the Li River, Yangshuo is not an ancient site of art and culture. In fact, landscape painters only made their way to the Karst Mountains en masse as refugees during the Second Sino-Japanese War between 1937 and 1945. Whether remediated as an ancient site of national pride or as the backdrop for the shareware episode of DOOM, in many ways Yangshou may as well be Mars.
In this short, single map .WAD, photographs we took while floating down the Li River replace the skybox and sprites of DOOM while Aris Entertainment's original musical accompaniment, MAJEST3.WAV, replaces the music. This is the first of a series of levels we are designing as an essay/megawad about the technologies, histories, and cultures of play around DOOM in China.
Not Moon Hill or Butterfly Spring or Dragon Water Cave, asking for the location of "Yangshuo Cavern" is the equivalent of asking for the location of "California Hill" when searching for the Bliss Screen. Beyond the immensity of the mountain range and vagary of Atwood's original title, in many ways Yangshuo County exemplifies the larger process of historical erasure and cultural amnesia in China. Villages alongside the Li River are undergoing rapid development; every cave we entered was full of concrete, colored lights, and consumed Monkey Kings; and even local cavers and climbers were stumped...is it even possible to find "Yangshuo Cavern" in 2017?
The history of Yangshuo is not only occluded when it comes to DOOM, but also in relation to China more broadly. Even though the 20 RMB note features a shan shui-esque rendering of the region's famous mountains, hills, and caverns along the Li River, Yangshuo is not an ancient site of art and culture. In fact, landscape painters only made their way to the Karst Mountains en masse as refugees during the Second Sino-Japanese War between 1937 and 1945. Whether remediated as an ancient site of national pride or as the backdrop for the shareware episode of DOOM, in many ways Yangshou may as well be Mars.
In this short, single map .WAD, photographs we took while floating down the Li River replace the skybox and sprites of DOOM while Aris Entertainment's original musical accompaniment, MAJEST3.WAV, replaces the music. This is the first of a series of levels we are designing as an essay/megawad about the technologies, histories, and cultures of play around DOOM in China.
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