Blast from the past.

It's been awhile, but continuing my desire to highlight maps from the past that may not have gotten the kudos they deserved, I chose a good one today.

This particular map (Powerbase by Michael "Prower/Kcobain" Reid) is a keeper. This map, while 20 years old, will throw a good challenge at you while showing off what could be done with those antique editors. I seriously doubt that anyone who plays this after checking out my review will be disappointed.

http://doomwadstation.net/doom_reviews/1997/powerbase/

If anybody knows if this guy is still in the community - give him a high five!

Any thoughts on the review? Right on? Too easy on the author? Not hard enough? Gameplay and design?

I'd say you were spot on.

19 minutes ago, mrthejoshmon said:

I'd say you were spot on.

:-)

 Prower is still around, I saw him comment within the last couple of years but otherwise he's been uninvolved I think

 Just a question on that paragraph about playing on a Dos machine -- could you really not edit config files and add Novert to set up modern shooter-styled controls?

1 hour ago, Cipher said:

 Just a question on that paragraph about playing on a Dos machine -- could you really not edit config files and add Novert to set up modern shooter-styled controls?

Could I? If I wanted to change the way the game was played originally, I could have just played it with Zdoom or something. The whole point is to play it as it was when it came out. I suppose, if I come across one from that era that was created with Boom in mind, I might use that. But I wanted to keep it the way it was meant to be played - personal choice.

1 hour ago, Brad_tilf said:

Could I? If I wanted to change the way the game was played originally, I could have just played it with Zdoom or something. The whole point is to play it as it was when it came out. I suppose, if I come across one from that era that was created with Boom in mind, I might use that. But I wanted to keep it the way it was meant to be played - personal choice.

That's totally fair. I was just wondering if it was genuinely impossible for reasons I wasn't clear on, or if you simply weren't doing it for fidelity to the way that was most common to play at the time.

That's coming from someone who plays all the iwads on DOSBox, thought I do edit the configs and add novert to change the controls within '90s possibility (if not probability or popularity).

My post wasn't meant to be accusatory; I get where you're coming from. I was just genuinely unclear, since it read like changing controls in a DOS environment was impossible.

It was perfectly possible to set up WASD and stuff in vanilla in the DOS days. But I don't think many people bothered. Certainly semi-pro people played around with alternative bindings though.

7 hours ago, Jon said:

It was perfectly possible to set up WASD and stuff in vanilla in the DOS days. But I don't think many people bothered. Certainly semi-pro people played around with alternative bindings though.

Ya, I'm certainly no pro but I do seem to remember that. I'll have to look into it

Found this thread during my semi-annual namesearch.

Really amazed and happy you found this level. To be completely honest, I don't remember making this at all. I was 10 or 11 years old in 1997 (!) so I can just kind of laugh at the weird design decisions (like the one grey room where you teleport in, kill two shotgunners, then teleport to a totally unrelated room--this made sense in 1997). I do recognize lots of bits that I clearly lifted from certain Memento Mori levels. MM was definitely my biggest influence at the time. Anyway, 11-year-old me is really glad you enjoyed it, and present-day me is glad you found it.

I'm not really in "the community" these days; my last map was released 10 years ago, and I'll probably play through a "big" release like Valiant or Sunlust when they come out if I can. And on the rarest of occasions I load up GZdoombuilder and sigh wistfully, thinking about how, evidently, my mapping ability peaked 20 years ago.

Hey @prower would you mind firing me an email (jon at dow dot land) or pm? Nothing important just would like to catch up.

...and try WadC next time you get the itch ;)