Doom Wadarcheology - To dig, rediscover and enjoy the classics.

This thread is so fun! 

 I'm glad to see some of my favorites already reviewed (Castle of Evil and Outpost21 specifically, glad to see OOZI mentioned as well since that was a nice map. ) and I just played through "Breeze" by Brad  Kiefer since I had never heard of it before (well made with some obscure progression that I just wasn't in the mood for today, not terrible just not what I needed today).

@LadyMistDragon Very good and detailed review! :) I'll try it. I read the txt file and the story is inspired by Aliens, one of my favorite movies.

5 hours ago, Endless said:

I have no idea what language that is

there is a hint inside a text file: "wz.cz". it's Czech. not that it helps much, tho (i don't trust google translate ;-). it's "confident return" or something (sorry, i don't really know Czech too).

BloodLust - 06/01/1994 - played via GZDOOM 4.1.2

BloodLust is a sewer type map made by Greg Grimsby. The map consists mainly of a central hub like area w/ many diverging paths coming off of it. Texturing is above par for the time, as is the overall layout of this map, I really enjoyed exploring this map, despite it being not that large.

Combat is not difficult, but of course that is to be expected of this age of mapping. There are a little over 60 monsters in this map on UV. I normally stay far away from sewer levels, as they usually more often than not involve mazelike progression - and aren't usually nice to look at. That's not the case here, as the map is really quite well designed, and the curved staircase in the first screenshot is my favorite geometric feature.

There is also a completely optional area in this map, I don't believe you need the blue key to actually progress. I was able to make it to the exit switch without getting it. Also, like Doomkid stated in a previous review on /idgames, there is really nice use of early light-casting in this WAD - I included a screenshot of that, too - as I thought that was quite nice for a WAD of this age.

Overall fun map, don't expect anything insanely complex. This map is a real quick blast, w/ it taking maybe 4-7 minutes to beat, quicker if you already know where the exit is. Check it out, if you have a few minutes to spare!

Download link: https://bit.ly/2Xju3di

THE TALLMAN'S DOMAIN By Steve Schulte  03/23/1997  GZDoom 4.6.1

The Tallman's Domain (Phantasm Doom in the TITLEPIC) is based on the famous movie "Phantasm" by Don Coscarelli, and it is a very nice wad to play and it was a pleasant surprise.
This is a one level wad for Doom II Map01 and the map is a huge and complex maze with wide and big rooms, very long corridors and stairs and narrow passages.The textures are predominantly green with a few tech labs, storage facilities and bedrooms with wooden details.The main purpose of the map is exploration and although the map is very big the combat is not very difficult and there are only 122 enemies. Many are the secrets  and the fake walls you to have unlock, and even to find the keys (all of them are required) takes some time. The wad comes with new graphics: new TITLEPIC, INTERMISSION and ENDOOM screens; the Imps and Cacodemons shoot the famous Silver Spheres and the medikits have been replaced with the Reggie's Ice Cream. The sound effects have been replaced with new ones taken from the movie, and a new music track has been implemented. Although aesthetically is not a masterpiece, in my opinion this is an enjoyable and fun wad and I think it is worth a try.

Screenshots

Download from idgames

DeadSoul.wad - 06/22/1998 - played via GZDOOM 4.1.2

Deadsoul.wad is an arena style map by Dave Johnson. The map consists mainly of progressively more dangerous arena battles. Often times hitscanners are placed hap-hazardously in these large arena areas, and this can cause you to need to quickly rush for cover - or retreat. The map is very difficult without the chaingun secret - I imagine many seasoned players will find it before they even enter the first 'arena'. The chaingun is integral to limiting hitscanner abuse in this map, but it is of course beatable without it.

Some of the map can be quite difficult, with enemy placement being particularly evil in some instances. The map has a decent amount of traps for the time, usually in the style of enemies guarding keys. The map is fun to run around in, and the main arena areas allow for a lot of overall movement freedom. The arena surrounded by the midtexture fence is a little tricky - as you often have little to no room to dodge revenant fireballs in this area. This makes for some tense run 'n gun action.

The end area has you fighting off against 2 cybies, but this map, much like DMT.wad - provides an invulnerability sphere that essentially eradicates any tension or danger the final fight may have had. There is a little suspense trying to grab the BFG from around the cybies, trying to kill them before the invulnerability wears off. This 'fangless' final encounter is my primary complaint for this map.

It is fun fighting against progressively more obtuse arena designs, and the map never really gets boring, despite the rather unbalanced ammo / power-up placement. You will feel powerful in this map, but you will also feel vulnerable - this is often the mark of a decent Doom map. Fun map. :)

PS - Also has a custom MIDI, but I'm not familiar with it, its definitely not NIN, though, according to an earlier /idgames reviewer.

Download link: https://bit.ly/3CNKezV

Since there is a lot of interest in this stuff right now, I have attached the files I had marked as possible uploads at the time when the whole Oldstuff Chronicles venture fell apart.

ToUpload.zip

Notes:

1) This is a large file, so I will probably remove it from my 50MB DW file allowance at some point. Download it now if it is of interest.

2) This is from 2006. As you can see, I had marked some as "probably not", "no", "maybe", etc. I don't recall exactly why this was. Maybe they appeared to have errors (subject to further investigation if they were fixable or not actually errors at all) or were already publically available somewhere that meant uploading them to the archive seemed unnecessary. Or maybe, in some cases, they just seemed to be crap. :p In a very few cases, the text-file may not actually match the wad.

3) It's possible that some were uploaded to the archive at the end of the Oldstuff Chronicles venture.

4) I don't think any of these prohibit distribution; if they had, they *shouldn't* have made it into this directory at all. But maybe I screwed up somewhere. Maybe there were things still to check. 15 years later, I am not sure.

5) These are from various sources. Some were from the CompuServe Action Games Forum; others were found on the web, and some were in collections that had been sent to me.

6) Some may have subsequently been uploaded to the archive by other people during the last 15 years.

7) Provided "as-is".

2 minutes ago, Grazza said:

ToUpload.zip

Downloaded! Thanks so much Grazza, this looks really interesting, lots of stuff for us to comb through. :)

6 hours ago, thestarrover said:

THE TALLMAN'S DOMAIN By Steve Schulte  03/23/1997  GZDoom 4.6.1

 

The Tallman's Domain (Phantasm Doom in the TITLEPIC) is based on the famous movie "Phantasm" by Don Coscarelli, and it is a very nice wad to play and it was a pleasant surprise.
This is a one level wad for Doom II Map01 and the map is a huge and complex maze with wide and big rooms, very long corridors and stairs and narrow passages.The textures are predominantly green with a few tech labs, storage facilities and bedrooms with wooden details.The main purpose of the map is exploration and although the map is very big the combat is not very difficult and there are only 122 enemies. Many are the secrets  and the fake walls you to have unlock, and even to find the keys (all of them are required) takes some time. The wad comes with new graphics: new TITLEPIC, INTERMISSION and ENDOOM screens; the Imps and Cacodemons shoot the famous Silver Spheres and the medikits have been replaced with the Reggie's Ice Cream. The sound effects have been replaced with new ones taken from the movie, and a new music track has been implemented. Although aesthetically is not a masterpiece, in my opinion this is an enjoyable and fun wad and I think it is worth a try.

 

Screenshots

 

Download from idgames

I will definitely give this a try. I remember when Phantasm was popular back then. When I first saw the movie and saw that silver ball flying around going after people, I was like, holy shit! Haha!

22 minutes ago, Grazza said:

Since there is a lot of interest in this stuff right now, I have attached the files I had marked as possible uploads at the time when the whole Oldstuff Chronicles venture fell apart.

ToUpload.zip

Notes:

1) This is a large file, so I will probably remove it from my 50MB DW file allowance at some point. Download it now if it is of interest.

2) This is from 2006. As you can see, I had marked some as "probably not", "no", "maybe", etc. I don't recall exactly why this was. Maybe they appeared to have errors (subject to further investigation if they were fixable or not actually errors at all) or were already publically available somewhere that meant uploading them to the archive seemed unnecessary. Or maybe, in some cases, they just seemed to be crap. :p In a very few cases, the text-file may not actually match the wad.

3) It's possible that some were uploaded to the archive at the end of the Oldstuff Chronicles venture.

4) I don't think any of these prohibit distribution; if they had, they *shouldn't* have made it into this directory at all. But maybe I screwed up somewhere. Maybe there were things still to check. 15 years later, I am not sure.

5) These are from various sources. Some were from the CompuServe Action Games Forum; others were found on the web, and some were in collections that had been sent to me.

6) Some may have subsequently been uploaded to the archive by other people during the last 15 years.

7) Provided "as-is".

 

Big thanks for this Grazza! I'm pretty sure we'll find something good in here. I did a quick check and pity that some of the .txt don't have a release date.

Just wanted to be more helpful, so I've checked some old wads linked on iddqd.ru (created not by russians), and which are not mentioned in Top 100 WADS or something like this.

• 666 mini-episode (1994) - Replaces E3M4 through E3M8
• Heroes (1995) & Heroes 2 (1996) - a russian reviewer said maps are good, but custom sounds are bad (still worth to play).
• RRWARD01 (1994) - there are also 02, 03, 04. RRWARD02 is mentioned in List of Notable WADS.
• Proxyon Military Base (1996) - I've even played this 10 years ago. I was interested in screehshots which are minimalistic "gray-blue-white colored".

• Gallery - The Art of Maligormax (1997) - 2 maps. And the second one is kinda "E1M8 created from Memory in Doom 2".

• Naka-Dashi (2001) - reviewer said it's a good architecture map with smart traps. Not easy to play due to lack of ammo.

• Welcome to Hell (1996) - a sequel to "Notable" WAD called "The Artifact". Still, "WtH" is not mentioned in lists. A russian reviewer said "Paul Schmitz is a good level designer, but he's aspiration to add mechanics which are not compatible with Doom gameplay (?????) does a disservice"

• Dante's Gate (1994/later modified in 1996/later modified in 2005) - 1994 version, 1996 version, 2005 version - hmm, the evolution of the same map, that's intriguingly.

And looks like that's all, what I can find in old classic WADS on this website.

BUT I'd like to share a not widely known Ukrainian (!) WAD made in late 2006 (maybe it was started earlier, but I don't have a proof info).

It's called "SJ Technoworld" and it's never uploaded on idgames. As @Endless said about "МИФИ", this WAD is also "seek to replicate real architecture or life scenarios".

The WAD is designed to play without jumps, contains 6 maps (from map02 to map04, and from map07 to map09), which recreated Ukraininan/Russian/Eastern Europe city architectures on vanilla Doom engine (except 1 map which recreated De_Dust from CS1.6). I think it's also worth to check, even it's not really "ancient" WAD.

5 minutes ago, Dexiaz said:

Just wanted to be more helpful, so I've checked some old wads linked on iddqd.ru (created not by russians), and which are not mentioned in Top 100 WADS or something like this.

 

• 666 mini-episode (1994) - Replaces E3M4 through E3M8
• Heroes (1995) & Heroes 2 (1996) - a russian reviewer said maps are good, but custom sounds are bad (still worth to play).
• RRWARD01 (1994) - there are also 02, 03, 04. RRWARD02 is mentioned in List of Notable WADS.
• Proxyon Military Base (1996) - I've even played this 10 years ago. I was interested in screehshots which are minimalistic "gray-blue-white colored".

• Gallery - The Art of Maligormax (1997) - 2 maps. And the second one is kinda "E1M8 created from Memory in Doom 2".

• Naka-Dashi (2001) - reviewer said it's a good architecture map with smart traps. Not easy to play due to lack of ammo.

• Welcome to Hell (1996) - a sequel to "Notable" WAD called "The Artifact". Still, "WtH" is not mentioned in lists. A russian reviewer said "Paul Schmitz is a good level designer, but he's aspiration to add mechanics which are not compatible with Doom gameplay (?????) does a disservice"

• Dante's Gate (1994/later modified in 1996/later modified in 2005) - 1994 version, 1996 version, 2005 version - hmm, the evolution of the same map, that's intriguingly.

And looks like that's all, what I can find in old classic WADS on this website.

 

BUT I'd like to share an not widely known Ukrainian (!) WAD made in late 2006.

It's called "SJ Technoworld" and it's never uploaded on idgames. As @Endless said about "МИФИ", this WAD is also "seek to replicate real architecture or life scenarios".

The WAD is designed to play without jumps, contains 6 maps (from map02 to map04, and from map07 to map09), which recreated Ukraininan/Russian/Eastern Europe city architectures on vanilla Doom engine (except 1 map which recreated De_Dust from CS1.6). I think it's also worth to check, even it's not really "ancient" WAD.

Thanks a lot for looking for all this stuff mate. Very helpful, even as an index on its own. Out all those, the only ones I know is Heroes and Heroes 2, those are actually quite popular, but the rest look enigmatic to me. Love it! :D

Also, a CS 1.6 map on Doom? Yes please.

23 minutes ago, Dexiaz said:

666 mini-episode (1994)

 

Heroes (1995) & Heroes 2 (1996)

Heard of these ones, but the rest are brand new to me. Thanks for taking the time, @Dexiaz ! :)

I am interested in Naka-Dashi, maybe I'll take a look at that one soon!

5 hours ago, Grazza said:

Since there is a lot of interest in this stuff right now, I have attached the files I had marked as possible uploads at the time when the whole Oldstuff Chronicles venture fell apart.

ToUpload.zip

Notes:

1) This is a large file, so I will probably remove it from my 50MB DW file allowance at some point. Download it now if it is of interest.

2) This is from 2006. As you can see, I had marked some as "probably not", "no", "maybe", etc. I don't recall exactly why this was. Maybe they appeared to have errors (subject to further investigation if they were fixable or not actually errors at all) or were already publically available somewhere that meant uploading them to the archive seemed unnecessary. Or maybe, in some cases, they just seemed to be crap. :p In a very few cases, the text-file may not actually match the wad.

3) It's possible that some were uploaded to the archive at the end of the Oldstuff Chronicles venture.

4) I don't think any of these prohibit distribution; if they had, they *shouldn't* have made it into this directory at all. But maybe I screwed up somewhere. Maybe there were things still to check. 15 years later, I am not sure.

5) These are from various sources. Some were from the CompuServe Action Games Forum; others were found on the web, and some were in collections that had been sent to me.

6) Some may have subsequently been uploaded to the archive by other people during the last 15 years.

7) Provided "as-is".

 

Amazing stuff! Thanks a lot @Grazza

5 hours ago, TheGreenZap said:

I will definitely give this a try. I remember when Phantasm was popular back then. When I first saw the movie and saw that silver ball flying around going after people, I was like, holy shit! Haha!

 

Probably you already know but on Doomwadstation.net there is a Phantasm mod for Doom 3 and it seems amazing. Take a look HERE

Sorry guys, I delete this post as I made a big mistake and wanted to post in in the other thread about Endless Random WAD 13 :(

@Endless Sometime ago I found this site. It is a bit confusing but you can find some Russian (and not Russian) stuff. HERE

That's a pretty all of sudden finding. Never heard about Stepan Patrishev, and I can't google him on russian Doom scene, but Doom was a very popular game in Russia, so many people played it without living on Doom forums or chats.

P.S.: The folder which is called "IZVRAT" means "PERVERTED (Content)". That's...pretty intriguingly.

1 hour ago, Dexiaz said:

That's a pretty all of sudden finding. Never heard about Stepan Patrishev, and I can't google him on russian Doom scene, but Doom was a very popular game in Russia, so many people played it without living on Doom forums or chats.

 

P.S.: The folder which is called "IZVRAT" means "PERVERTED (Content)". That's...pretty intriguingly.

I checked that directory and, luckily, there is nothing "dangerous": LETI1.RAR is a deathmatch wad , and 8055BALL.RAR is a rugby/football wad (and the megasphere is the ball !) I can't download the others file (with Safari) in that directory 

lake4.WAD by Neal Ziring, 06/29/1994 GZDOOM 4.6.1

Since Neal Ziring, according to previous reviews, seems to have a good feedback I would like to share with you a map not available on idgames.* 

This is a small one level wad for Doom and it replaces map E1M1. The map consists in an open are with a a lake in the middle. All around the lake there is a building, a tunnel with a jail at the end, and a short sewer. Inside the building there are only two small rooms and almost all the textures are grey. Only one official secret to reveal and a teleporter is hidden somewhere. The map is short but the combat is funny (do you like Cacodemons? :D ). Anyway it is a nice map thanks also to the new music track by Bach. If you have free time you can try it.

A note for DosBox: play this wad on DosBox could be a problem : sometime, randomly, when you are inside the building, on a platform, dosbox crashes showing this error: 

"P_PlayerInSpecialSector: unknown special -32759".

I tried to play it with Udoom32.exe but, unfortunately, the problem persists.

Screenshots

*EDIT 10/26/2021: Lake4.wad IS available on idgames archive together with Blt.wad in a single zip file (Blt.zip)

Download HERE

Photon - 01/19/96 - played via GZDOOM 4.1.2

Photon is a fun map based on a real life laser-tag arena. This map was created by Steve Mavronis, another author who created just one map. What's here is pretty good, this is a very well done recreation of a real place using mostly vanilla assets. This is a good map for DoomCute enthusiasts - lots of decor, including appliances, arcade machines, and toilets - all using the stock Doom2 textures. Also included, are a custom sky, a custom title screen, a custom MIDI, and a custom texture for the logo 'Photon'. The other assets look nice, but I found the MIDI a little flat - whenever I went to laser tag as a kid, there would always be some kind of electronic music playing - I feel it would have worked better here than the current track.

The map consists of a large outdoor area - and an inside building area. Much of the action takes place inside - the action outside is really easy, as you only have to strafe a couple cacos in a pretty wide open area. Combat significantly changes once you enter the building proper - combat inside involves a lot of peeking and hiding, there are a myriad of small nooks and crannies that hitscanners will try to nail you out of - much like a real game of laser-tag. The only enemies you'll find inside the laser arena are former humans, I think any other monsters would be too big to fit into the complex paths or bunker found here.

Being based on a real place, the map is very easy to navigate - maybe too easy to navigate. Once you get the red key, you just simply head back to the original outdoors area, and exit. This is my only complaint - a bit of an unrealistic complaint, as the author was only attempting to make a 1:1 recreation of the building, and not necessarily an extremely complex level.

Interestingly, if you take a look at this link: https://web.archive.org/web/19970216230437/https://www.photon-qei.com/

you'll see that the owner of the website, (maybe the owner of the business, too?) actually listed this WAD on their official company website. I think that's pretty cool. If you take a look at some of the more recent Wayback Machine timestamps, you'll see a gallery of photos showing the assembly of the laser tag arena. It was pretty fun trying to see if I could recognize areas from the WAD! I think most Photon locations use the same props / layouts anyway.

Overall, one of my favorite Doom attempts at a real-life location! Definitely a nice change of pace from the usual schools, offices, and libraries! Takes about 5-10 minutes to finish. :)

Download link: https://bit.ly/3CPb3nl

I was also able to find this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jof1opCuERw , maybe play this while playing the WAD, and turn the music off? :)

On 8/14/2021 at 2:17 AM, thestarrover said:

@LadyMistDragon Very good and detailed review! :) I'll try it. I read the txt file and the story is inspired by Aliens, one of my favorite movies.

thanks a lot!

VoidShip - byHevKev (Kevin McGrail) - 12.12.94 - Played on Eternity Engine

The 90s were truly a wonderful time for Doom mapping. Despite Doom mapping tools requiring some hours of practice if you wanted to put together a competent, playable set, it was really the first time people were lining up to take a crack, Wolf3D be damned. Doom's combination of eerie otherwordliness and abstraction ultimately proved a very productive creative outlet for many thousands of people around the globe. Eventually, people started moving on and the scene shrank somewhat for a little while. But in the years 1994-1996, thousands of user-made wads were created in various forms. Some are sadly lost to the mists of time. Others are most certainly still around, while others are quite playable, but use such outmoded architecture, it'll take some patience to glean through. All of these wads varied greatly in quality, from the abstract, blocky wonderlands of Jim Flynn, to the short and quick action bursts of Adam Windsor to the many more experimental wads released by other people which essentially tried to insert some sort of distinct visual touches. Unfortunately, many of these maps were cumbersome to navigate, overscaled to oblivion, and with seemingly little thought given to logical enemy placement(Artifact, Visigoth, coughcough).

The wad we're going to cover today falls somewhere in the middle. VoidShip is a highly playable map with some moments of cool combat, despite progression being stupidly obscure at points.

You start out in what I think is the middle of a computer mainframe. There are some zombies and some little elevators going up and down. After pressing the first switch behind one of the silver doors, the mainframe opens up to reveal switches surrounded by red light? textures and yellow warning bands (so I assume). At a certain point, you'll press the switch in the southeast (there's no real hint to figure it out) and open your way into what seems like an empty room with a silver line in the middle. Walk closer to the line, and it'll raise up, creating a platform cobbled together from lift textures. Possibly the best example of charming ameteurishness this map can offer. It also doesn't seem like initially you can exit the room but walk up the platform a little and several closets will open up.

Progression is not worth getting into, but safe to say there are some cool secrets as well as combat that shows HevKev knew what he was doing more so than say, Chris Klie, though he does tend to bunch up enemies in a rather illogical manner. At a certain point, you'll reach a hallway with a random texture in the middle and seemingly no further way to progress. Eventually, you may spot some tiny holes which show the yellow and red keys to be located in rooms behind completely anonymous walls. Ok, it's a cool puzzle, but mandatory secrets are still really dumb. In these rooms, the yellow and red keys are located on pillars of their color.

So, eventually you go up an elevator with space you can see through glass, go down a long hallway and eventually emerge into a long silver room with a whole host of enemies. This was the best fight of the map. Whilst its basically a camping fight, rocketing down enemy mobs is always, always satisfying, and I don't care what you say, and finally emerge into the captain's deck. This was easily the visual and conceptual highlight of the map: very Doom cute, but also conveys danger Tell the Baron "I'm the captain now", kill his minions and push a switch which will lower the platform at the beginning so you can exit.

For a 94 map, it's really pretty good. If you try comparing it to even Memento Mori or TNT, it starts to fall apart. But the unbridled creativity and spontaneity are on full display here. Unlike, oh, Wolfendoom (other than maybe Arctic Wolf, that was AWFUL)

Download here and search for a folder called DMVOI2, itself located in 'Early originals.'

double post

That spiral staircase looks inventive as fuck.

DE2106.WAD by Unknown Author, 06/21/1994 GZDOOM 4.6.1

This is a one level wad for Doom E1M1.

Another wad exists with exactly the same name, but it is a completely different map and it is for Doom II.

I found this map in the October 1994 issue of PC Zone.

Unfortunately no text file is provided with the wad and on idgames this level is not available. Instead it is available on dsdarchive but, again, without text file.

Your journey begins in front of a building that resembles a sort of sanctuary or a temple. You enter in and after few steps you are immediately attacked by the beasts that came from hell. If you defeat them, after a while you'll reach a big room, the first of the two of the entire map. Soon the enemies will surround you and staying alive will not be easy (especially if you take the chain-gun… ). Following the path you'll arrive in a wide area the majority of which is occupied by a lake filled with toxic water. There are also some cacodemons locked in a cage and they will attack you together with imps, demons and sergeants. Be prepared to be hit also from above: zombiemen and imps will shoot you trough a window in the wall. You can try to escape but it's not a good idea: other monsters are waiting for you. In this area you can choose the path to follow, but let me say the map is very linear and the backtrack is required only if you missed a key. The yellow and blu keys are very easy to find but the red key could be a problem. There are few doors in the map and only one is locked. The red key is guarded by an enemy, so be sure you are in good health and fully loaded, because you'll be in a small room and hanging corpses will limit your movements. For a 1994 wad, this map is quite hard in my opinion and you have to constantly watch your back because even though the path in front of you may seem free of enemies, the one behind you may be not..! Only the “conventional” weapons are available, no plasma gun and BFG. The main path is quite large but there are also some narrow passages where the probabilities to be hit are higher. There are no secrets to reveal and just a couple of switches, doors...and lifts: this underlines the purely action-packed essence of the map and the author seems to say: "Open doors? Push switches? Take a lift? Are you crazy? Where do you think you are? In a shopping mall? Shoot! Shoot! :)…” The design is essential with the classic glossy green textures of the '90s, with devils/demons faces covering almost entirely the wall of the map. Only when you are almost at the end of the map the color of the textures changes to a hellish red.

It is a very good map, fast and full of action and no time to rest.

And let me tell you one last thing: if you think unlocking the door makes you feel safe, you don't know how wrong you are.... Trust me!

Although I prefer wads based on exploration because I am not a very skilled shooter/action player, I found this map very funny and enjoyable.

Try it!

Screenshots

Download from dsdarchive.com

Or from HERE

6 minutes ago, thestarrover said:

Download from dsdarchive.com

Forgot all about the dsdarchive! I remember finding a bunch of stuff a while ago that wasn't in the /idgames archive for whatever reason. Nice find! :)

@Arrowhead Doomwadstation.net is another good place to find some stuff not available on idgames or some wads in their original version. :)

Vampire 5 / Frodo 5 - 09/25/94 - played via GZDOOM 4.1.2

'Vampire 5' is a pair of two WADs (E1M1, E1M9) made in the E1 style by Darrell Bircsak. This is probably one of the best 1994 WADs I've seen in the E1 style, it really holds up well today. The first level in this pack feels like it could have easily slotted into 'Fava Beans' - or any other competent E1 style episode. The second map is a lot less appealing, w/ many oppressive dark areas, and constant pinkie teleporter abuse, even w/ this is mind, though, the second level (E1M9) is still leagues better than the 'average' 1994 map. If you are too play 1 of the 2 maps, play the first.

Detailing in this WAD is very impressive for the time, w/ careful texture selection and placement being one of the best features of this map. The secrets in the first map are quite creative, I won't spoil any, but they're really quite good. Enemy placement is mostly incidental, w/ large amounts of enemies waking up and marching towards your location when you fire a shot. The combat is never overwhelming, but it is easy to get nailed by the occasional shotgunner from behind, as they meander through the many complex passages of this map.

Architecture is what's to be expected of an E1 style mapset, w/ all the usual 'tech' and 'startan' textures everywhere - I've always liked this look - E1 style maps still remain my all time favorites. The second map's architecture is quite simpler, w/ a big grid looking area taking up the most real estate in the map.

Exiting the first map can be mildly annoying at first - if you keep encountering difficulties trying to reach the exit switch from 'straight on', maybe try to press it from the side? There is also a really fun baron-telefrag in this map - he can be a pain to fight if you don't do this.

Definitely a great 2 map pack, even though much of the effort seems to be put in the first map - worth checking out for fans of E1 style episodes. This mapset feels much younger, it feels like it could have been made circa 2000-2002, instead of 1994. :)

Download link: https://bit.ly/2XwMprw

The Playground - 09/04/1995 - played via GZDOOM 4.1.2

'The Playground' is a creative map put together by Quinn Salley. Much of the action takes place inside a large expansive base, but there is some outdoors action as well - combat in this map can get downright hairy sometimes - there are a multitude of traps present in this map. You will seldom be able to pick up an item unpunished, this is nice to see from a WAD this early, as I find a lot of these early maps don't really rely on traps to present their encounters, but instead rely more on incidental enemy encounter design.

Progression is a little funky in this one, you will often press a switch, and wonder what it did. You will usually have to backtrack to a prior location upon flipping a switch, to progress. This kind of progression usually gets on my nerves, but the map is so well structured that these little backtracking forays are hardly blips on the player's radar.

This map is not on the /idgames archive - this is one of those maps that were posted by Grazza earlier, so thanks for preserving it, as what's here is pretty fun! The map also includes a custom titlepic, as well as custom menu text, I thought that was pretty cool for a single map. You don't often see new titlepics or new menu text on single maps even nowadays.

Architecture is great, w/ the map having very memorable areas in it - despite needing to backtrack occasionally, you should never get lost - every location is very recognizable. Texturing is above average for the time, w/ very little misalignments or other issues visible.

Very fun map, takes about 10-15 minutes to beat. The map is not punishingly difficult, but does have some tricks up its sleeve. This is apparently Salley's first WAD, and I gotta say for a first WAD from this era, this is pretty impressive. :)
 

Download link: https://bit.ly/37MJQDk