Your best recollections

I just had an interesting idea for a wad wherein several different authors each recreate a map or multiple maps from either Doom or Doom II completely from memory. So each author would play the original maps, give themselves a few days to forget minor details, and then try to recreate said maps entirely from memory.

I'm sure a wad filled with multiple versions of basically the same levels has serious limits in terms of fun factor but I generally just think it would be a neat experiment to see how different doomers' memories differ on the layout, textures, details, scales and so forth of different maps.

Has anything been done like this before?

Yup! Back in 2009 a bunch of Doomworld people did e1m1 from memory.

http://www.doomworld.com/idgames/?file=levels/doom/d-f/e1m1mem.zip

Neato! Thanks for the link.

Sounds like quite the fun experiment. If this ends up happening in the form of a community project, I'm definitely in.

This is the original project thread from 2009:

http://www.doomworld.com/vb/wads-mods/46540-maps-from-memory/

It might be interesting to make it happen again. But please, no elaborate or long maps. IMO, it should take a reasonably little time and effort to recreate them, otherwise it wouldn't be a worth fun.

Another question is whether it should be allowed to intentionally upgrade gameplay and visuals of the original map. The former project didn't officially allow it, but some people like Time Of Death chose to disregard it anyway. :)

For me the problem with such experiments is that it's not particularly fun to put much effort into them. Of course I could theoretically spend 5 hours perfecting each room until every linedef feels right. But I'll probably lose interest after one or two revisions and just move on to the next area. So if I make such a map, the result won't necessarily demonstrate how well I remember the original level, but rather how meticulous and boring I am.

good idea!

I think there should be a Doom remix project, where mappers make their own versions of the original maps.

Breezeep said:

I think there should be a Doom remix project, where mappers make their own versions of the original maps.

Half of all mapping projects ever made already use this idea: Directly tributing idSoftware's maps to a greater or lesser extent. The ones that do so "to a greater extent" are no rarity at all.