What were the first three PWADs you downloaded?

I first played Doom through DsDoom SVN v1.4 so I was really stuck with vanilla WADs. But I barely remember what my firsts WADs were, so here is a possible list:

• Doom 4 Vanilla
• Jaguar Doom TC
• Chex Quest (along with the DeHackEd)

Alien Vendetta, Eviternity, and Back to Saturn X E1. Played them all on Hurt Me Plenty, along with a handful of other wads (first megawad I played on UV was Speed of Doom). Currently on a crusade to go back and replay everything on UV.

Rim

Rim 2

Icarus

Can't remember. 

My first experience with pwads was through Online multiplayer in the 2000's.

It's always fascinating to see where others started their journey playing custom content.

RTC-3057. The first pwad I ever downloaded after grabbing ZDoom and getting back into playing Doom again to check out the user content scene having primarily focused on the output from Duke3D/Half Life mapping scenes.

The second/third pwads however, not so clear to me anymore. After RTC-3057 I went on a binge, impressions as high as they were. The closest that comes to mind would be, Hell's Twisted Influence, and something from either Dutch Devil, Russell Pearson or Ed Cripps releases around or before ~2005.

Scythe
Bloodicide (it looked a lot different back then)

Nuts (1 2 and 3)

Probably Doom Barracks, Shotgun Frenzy and Chillax

When I was a young kid (around 7 or 8 or so), my family downloaded two PWADs off the internet for me to play with:

Cleimos II

A Hellraiser total conversion

That would have been it until I got back into Doom in my early twenties/late teens, and I'm pretty certain the first one I downloaded after that was Scythe.

If I had to take a crack as to what some of the first PWADs I played were, I'd guess
DTWiD
PSX DOOM
I can't remember what it's called, but I think it was a TC of Wolf 3D because there still wasn't a good source port for Wolf 3D back in 2013. (at least that I was aware of)

I'd have to reassemble my crusty old craptop to get a better idea. Maybe someday, someway...
 

The first one was scythe, really fun when i played it but map 30 destroyed me haha, Alien Vendetta mas my second one and i fell in LOVE with the wad, was like playing doom for the first time again :), in it is my favorite doom map ever is "misri halek", I must have played it like 6 times because I love everything about the map, map 25 hit me like a truck and was the first time i cheated in doom "IDDQD" lol. My third one was... nuts.wad my fps were so low cuz my PC was crap and i was playing it on gzdoom making fps even worse haha.

I don't remember very well, but I guess the first three Pwads I downloaded were Memento Mori, Eternal Doom and Alien Vendetta.

12 hours ago, Doomkid said:

Ahhh, it's a shame you feel this way, but "modern megawads are too hard" is a sentiment I see all the time. The vast majority of my wads are not only on the easier side even on UV, but have thoroughly implemented difficulty levels.

 

I think some people are finally starting to remember that accessibility is a strong selling point - it seems like we're (pretty much) past the era of mappers coming up with subterfuge to excuse the laziness of not implementing difficulty settings. You really should try any wads you're recommended on the easier skills before deciding they're too hard, a good number of wads actually do implement them, I speak from experience on this one!

 

 

Anyway, I know for a fact my first wad was Doomed 2 Die, I'm 99% sure my second one was Hellrun, and my 3rd was DoomCity.. (I'm pretty sure Bermuda and Area 51 were the 4th and 5th.. I found them all within one year and this was 20something years ago, so it's hard to say for sure. I kept finding other wads of course but this was my "first batch".)

 

I was a kid so I was just enthralled by any new maps or content at all, really - especially if there were some custom MIDIs, SFX and graphics. None of them are too hard by modern standards, and compared to most wads floating around on the net in the late 90s, they were all of a somewhat high quality. All were crucial in making me want to learn modding and mapping myself, and shortly after I started doing just that.

First off, I'm not against modern wads, I've gotten a lot better at Doom, and my stubborn butt makes me try everything on UV first time round, haha. It's certainly payed off with a skill increase. 

I've actually played a good amount of your wads and I really enjoy them. I was turned on to them by your YouTube channel, which I'm also a big fan of (you probably don't remember, but I pointed out an awesome Peaches in Regalia midi in one of your videos. Weird thing, I know, but probably the only memorable comment I've made).  But anyway, I've really gotten into a lot of more modern wads. However something about the style, mapping tropes, and creative gimmicks you see in the 1995 - 2005 era really sticks with me, and I love a lot of the classic wads I've found. Including Doomed2Die, which I found from your YouTube channel. 

And I was hoping the orignal post would come off as humorous, I was not trying whine and moan about difficulty, I've always thought that was kinda a goofy thing to do. And yeah, new midis, homemade textures, and sound effects ripped from a teenager's favorite movie also still kind of leave me enamored with old, hard to find wads. They're remarkable in the their unremarkable - ness. Something kind of beautiful when someone that lacks massive skill, but holds lots of passion. It's something I see in lots of old wads. 

So sorry for the big response, but I hope that makes my point clear. 

12 hours ago, Worriedidiot said:

For some reason my first pwads were:

1. Void
2. Crossing Acheron
3. Aliens TC

I played a lot of really old stuff, because when I started playing Doom I didn't know where to look, somehow stumbled upon this: https://www.doomworld.com/10years/bestwads/1994.php and thought to myself "Wow, there's so much stuff in here. I can't wait to play it all". Thank god, I soon snapped back to reality and started to look for something more "modern"

I actually really like a lot of Dr. Sleeps maps, but that list has a lot of outdated style maps, seeing as it's as old as Doom 2 itself. I find them admirable efforts, but when (unfairly) compared to the genius of Skillsaw or Dragonfly it doesn't match up. So I definitely appreciate a desire for modern wads.

Around 2003 the first 3 wads I'm pretty sure I downloaded that I recall in no particular order :

Cygnus IV

Phobos - Relive The Nightmare

Escape!

11 hours ago, Demion said:

-Requiem

-Scythe

-Memento Mori

12 hours ago, pcorf said:

- Squadron 417

- Memento Mori 2

- Icarus Alien Vanguard

Good stuff.

Scythe is probably my all time favorite wad, both for gameplay and nostalgia reasons. It and Demonfear are high on my list for desert island wads, I never really tire of them.

11 hours ago, DuckReconMajor said:

LEGO Doom and 2 others I have no idea. I think I downloaded some ZDoom wad that had tons of scripting and other features that I thought was incredible. Not sure how people remember these things lol. I've run across old posts of mine mentioning playing wads I have no recollection of.

 

OP I'd like to congratulate whatever sadists gave you those wads to start and told you that you had to play on Ultra-Violence, it gave me a chuckle at least.

I generally take it 12 steps further than what Doomkid said and remind you of

• god mode
• SUPRWEP8.DEH
• other deh that help lessen the difficulty
• nomonsters
• resurrect when you die (or iddqd twice when almost dead), and best of all:
• SAVESCUM (or, even better, dsda-doom new rewind feature)

Difficulty is there for you in case you get bored. It's not a standard to prove you "played" something. Cheat your way through every wad just to look. It's not against the law (that I know of)

Yeah, this was a few years back. Still funny to me, I was hoping someone would get a laugh out of my story. I've gone back and beaten Plutonia 2 and it's excellent for the most part. I definitely agree with your last statement on difficulty, but I'm stubborn and force myself to play on UV for no real reason. 

Well, I can't remember many, except that mod which makes the SSG shoot BFG balls rapidly. I believe EOA was also one of the first mods I downloaded.

I cant remember, I only remember some starwars weapon mod and once playing a wad back in the 90s in a tropical setting with pinkies being changed in to sharks.. can't remember its name and I was never able to find it here 20+ years later

This might not be entirely accurate but it was probably;

1) Marswar

2) Hell Revealed

3) Memento Mori

At the time I really got into Doom the only computer I had played vanilla doom and as such I was stuck with vanilla wads and only the bits that didn’t destroy my pc on it. I was admittedly late to the scene (I really started playing during my university days back in the late noughties).

1) Aliens TC

2) Can't remember

3) Can't remember

I have very fond memories about Aliens TC. I stayed up late and was allowed to use the modem (big deal then) to dial in to the bulletin board. About 1,5 hours later, I had it downloaded and played until 5:00 am in the morning. Sweet memories . . .

I might forgotten some, but the three that I do remember are:

- What Lies Beneath Titan-426

- Valiant

- Eviternity

I downloaded each of them roughly around the time they came out, so there's like a decade in-between my first and second PWAD, heh.

I remember that the first download I did was a batch of something like 10-15 WADs.

As for which I've played first, I am pretty sure that Plutonia 2 and Icarus were among them. No idea about the third though... Could have been No Rest for the Living actually, as I've never played that before getting into source ports sometime around 2013-2014.

Hell on Earth when I first tried Doom modding back in 2012

Eviternity later when I saw a bunch of articles about it.

Scythe 2 when I looked for more stuff like Eviternity.

Back in 2015 My first mods were Brutal Doom and Hell on Earth (Extermination day)

but back in 2018 when I really got into doom it was: Pirate Doom, Combined Arms, Diabolus Ex and High Noon Drifter

Oh man i remember this!

• Plutonia II was my first Add on in Zdoom.
• Then i downloaded one .wad that i don't remember, it's was a first launch, and i got some midis from videogames, every level ended with a dialog of the story, and i got a yellow cacodemon.
• And...illegally copy of Grezzo II, because a friend want to play it as one famous youtuber was doing his walktrougth, and he got interesed.

After my break from Doom, i come back for Rush.wad, and Hell on Earth Starter Pack.

The first ones I played were off of various CDs, or downloaded/procured by my dad, so if it was my first three downloaded WADs, that'd be around 2002-2004. Pretty sure it was:

• The ZDoom demo map (came with ZDoom 1.22 and was awesome)
• The Great Escape (a dodgy ZDoom map set that was named after a map designed to replicate the prison camp from the film of the same name. Also featured a "Monster Zoo" map and a "MYHOUSE.WAD" style map, plus a range of other stuff)
• An early version of GoldenEye 64 for Doom that... Sort of worked.

I was searching for stuff that made good use of ZDoom. Took me a while to get nearer the mark, but when I got there, hoo boy did I get there (ZDCMP#1 and Torment 'N' Torture being early highlights).

For (maybe) sure, the first PWAD I played was UAC_DEAD. Beyond that, it's anyone's guess.

Simpsons Doom 2

Icarus

Memento Mori

Though theres probably a lot of other stuff i can't quite remember that were downloaded by my brothers before any of these. But I clearly remember these being among my own earliest downloads.

"tnt31fix", Scythe, Plutonia 2, in that order.

Maps of Chaos (At the time they were still called Brutalized Doom or something like that),Ancient Aliens, Back to Saturn X