The /newstuff Chronicles #45

Eight new WAD files have sprung up in the past week, and they're all brought together here in our weekly edition of the new things uploaded to CDROM.COM.

• Narthex by Richard Jaspars - One deathmatch map for Doom 2. This one looks pleasant enough. A brick and metal map with some elevation variance. A star-filled sky texture, and a pleasant amount of detail. Some nice detail, including curved walls and well-aligned textures. Your typical shiny deathmatch map.
  
• Just Monsters by De Zeurkous - A single-player map for Doom 2, and a rather small one at that. It has some basic shapes, not much detail, and a lot of monsters. Not very playable.
  
• Macvilewhore's Cool Super Imp Patch by James Wood - A very simple modification this time. Imps are now a healthy glowing green. Included with the WAD is a BEX patch that turns dead lost souls into these green imps. Enhanced DOOM port required.
  
• Octagon Of Death by Diluted - Another very simple WAD for Doom 2. It seems to be the theme this week. One deathmatch map, with a metal, brick, and skylight theme. A bit of grass thrown in there as well. Weapons placed in a reasonably orderly fashion. Not all that much in terms of detail, and it's not very big, but at least it doesn't look like garbage. A decent MIDI music replacement is included as well.
  
• Lock And Load by Pilottobombadier - An interesting modification this time. No new maps, just new weapons and monsters. Well, not exactly new. 22 weapons replacing most of what you'll find in Doom 2 (except the fist). Graphics are taken from various sources, such as N64 Goldeneye, and Duke Nukem 3D. There are a few modified game graphics, and sound replacements for almost all the weapons. Every monster in Doom 2 is replaced as well, with new graphics and sounds. Requires EDGE.
  
• Thee Amber Series by Matthew Dixon - Nine maps for Doom 2, running from Map06 to Map10, and then from Map27 to Map30. However, Map06 is the only one you need concern yourself with, as the other maps seem to be small, useless scribbles. Map06 is an interestingly different deathmatch map. It has very redundant hallways which all lead in 90° directions, but it is quite large for a map of such style. The goal of this map seems to be to confuse players more than anything else, and that may not be such a bad thing after all. Lots of detail as well. Enhanced DOOM port recommended.
  
• PathWays by Josef Griffiths - One map for Ultimate DOOM, running on E1M6. It seems primarily intended for deathmatch, although it's fully playable in single-player mode. Not much of a map, however. A few simple rooms connected to each other through narrow hallways. No detail whatsoever. It has a half-decent MIDI music replacement, however.
  
• The Deathmatch Tunnels by Josef Griffiths - Another very simple deathmatch map for both DOOM and Doom 2, running on E1M2 and Map02. This one is a little larger and more complex than the previous map. It has at least a smidgen of height variation, and most of the textures seem aligned adequately, even though they're all the same. Not sure who would play deathmatch in this map, though.

The amber06 text file explicity says it works and was tested with doom2.exe. Matt doesn't need you telling everyone the extra "secrets" either.

Ermmm, tough marbles.

I release most of my test wads. I am working on a new lvl that isn't a test. If u want a beta mail me at zeurkous@crosswinds.net

De Zeurkous
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Friggin' Machines!

"A big of grass thrown in there as well."

Could somebody please explain to me what this phrase is supposed to mean? It makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. Just kidding, I know it's supposed to be "bit" instead of "big", I just like to harass people about their typos. Is there anything that really stands out this week? From the descriptions, it sounds like they go from mediocre to bad. Oh well, maybe next week...

wicked.

And people said the Surge(2) maps were small...

paranoi6 was pretty good. Very clean looking, easy to remember. BFG is too easy to get however.

Where?

http://www.3ddownloads.com/?file_id=97088

The formula for The Deathmatch Tunnels is 4 to 6 players that can use all the guns except the plasma gun and the BFG9K well, on a time limit of 8 minutes with a frag limit of 25.
Since I've never actually tried that, maybe someone here would, and post some feedback about how it went, just so I can make sure that my wad doesn't completely suck and it's not just taking up space in the CDRom.Com FTP DooM section.
And when is the POTD going to be updated? It's been there for aaages.

--Josef Griffiths (Scragadelic)

This part caught my eye:

Not all that much in terms of detail, and it's not very big, but at least it doesn't look like garbage.

Ouch. Wake up on the wrong side of the bed or something?