levels by Tom Hall

I found a quote on JohnRomero.com:

John Romero said:

Tom started many of the original DOOM maps and after he left, Sandy Petersen finished them -- some of the maps had very little work done to them, in fact

I knew that Tom started the maps. But does it mean, that Sandy had to do very little work on the maps to complete them, or does it mean that Tom did very little work on them (so Sandy had to do most of it)?

"some of the maps had very little work done to them"

I take that to mean some maps had only a little work done by Sandy, as Tom had nearly finished them.

If the 'to' was an 'on', then it might have been different.

I´d almost think it to be the other way round. Then again, I´m no native English speaker.


edit: I thought about it and you´re probably right :)

edit_2: I wonder why id didn´t credit Tom Hall for Doom then. Graeme Devine was credited for Doom 3 although he left the company before its release.

"some of the maps had very little work done to them"


Meaning Tom didn't do much work to the maps and Sandy had to finish the job and work out the maps herself.

Sandy Petersen is a guy, by the way.

Are you sure about that? The way he was phrasing it, it seemed to be focusing on te fact that Tom had done a bunch of work on Doom before he left...

Well, whatever. It's not like I have all the answers or anything.

Regarding the fact that Tom is an old friend of John´s, John probably wants to emphasize, that the maps were basically complete when Tom left the company and all Sandy had to do was a bit of retexturing or replacing of things. But I´m not 100% sure.

No tom did a shit load of maps. Hell even one of toms ended up in Doom 2. Sandy made alot of maps and toms was so good he re textured added, deleted. You know.

Looking at the maps you can get an idea of the different techniques used by both authors: Tom is neater and "realistic" whilst Sandy plays around more with the design, and his maps look somewhat less "finished". Tom Hall does indicate what he worked on. He seems to imply that he made the designs. Also, you can tell from the designs that what he and Romero say is pretty accurate.

Heh, the levels Tom Hall claims on that list are pretty much my favorites.

Danarchy said:

Heh, the levels Tom Hall claims on that list are pretty much my favorites.

Its true though. Alot of Sandy's maps do feel very unfinished. Like the map that lloks like e3m1. Its so crappyly done.

Technician said:

Its true though. Alot of Sandy's maps do feel very unfinished. Like the map that lloks like e3m1. Its so crappyly done.

the worse map ever in doom2 is like map18 I think? Its a city themed one where you start off in a square room with a skybox and theres a teleporter. And there's also medkits everywhere... can't remember the name of it but MY GOD that level is utter shit

Dittohead said:

the worse map ever in doom2 is like map18 I think? Its a city themed one where you start off in a square room with a skybox and theres a teleporter. And there's also medkits everywhere... can't remember the name of it but MY GOD that level is utter shit

Do you mean Nirvana (MAP21 I believe)? That's the one a lot of people hate.

Danarchy said:

Heh, the levels Tom Hall claims on that list are pretty much my favorites.

yeah, Tom Hall was an excellent mapper.. the only maps I really liked in Doom were the ones started by him and Romero, the ones Petersen did from scratch were pretty embarassing.

I think that´s too harsh. E2M5 and E3M4 are good and atmospheric levels. And I also like the boss levels of E2/E3.

And Sandy Petersen´s "Azure Agony" is one of my favorite Quake maps! It was a really dark and atmospheric map and the spawns in that level scared me to death because they have the same colors as the walls and floors/ceilings. This level gave you a good glimpse of the Doom3 atmosphere, I think. (Although Sandy didn´t design levels for D3)

Deathmatcher said:

I think that´s too harsh. E2M5 and E3M4 are good and atmospheric levels. And I also like the boss levels of E2/E3.

yeah.. i guess E3M4 wasn't too bad. e2m5 i can't say i care for, though at least it's big enough to be mildly interesting. stuff like e2m9 and map16 and map21 in doom2 really are pretty laughable. i can't think of which quake maps he did, though i also can't remember any of the maps being much more memorable than the others.

You don't like Map15?

Danarchy said:

Heh, the levels Tom Hall claims on that list are pretty much my favorites.

myk said:

You don't like Map15?

i meant to change that but i got sidetracked. 15 is of course a romero map.

sargebaldy said:

...stuff like e2m9 and map16 and map21 in doom2 really are pretty laughable. i can't think of which quake maps he did, though i also can't remember any of the maps being much more memorable than the others.

Well, some levels by Sandy would most likely be called "under par" when being released as a pwad nowadays. But back then, I loved them (and still do) because they´re the original Doom levels.

In Quake, Sandy did most of episode 4 (The Elder World). Although I like the other episodes better, the levels are pretty dark and have some cool areas in them.