'Wads of Wads' CD from 1994

[Russell_P]

 

 

I was sorting through some of my old stuff and came across an old CD called 'Wads of Wads' which was released by the CD ROM Users Group in 1994. It was a collection of Doom related shareware, levels and other related files from that year. I don't know if anyone is interested, but I've zipped up the entire contents of the disc and uploaded it. It was all shareware to start with, so I don't see any problem with doing this.

 

You can download it here....

 

WadsOfWads (201MB)

 

There's some interesting stuff tucked away in there, including some stuff about a petition id was running to trademark the name DOOM. Here's an excerpt...

 

 

 

Our VERY important request..

  We could use your help.  Apparently, there was a game called "GATE
  OF DOOM" that came out some time ago.  When we applied for a
  trademark on "DOOM", they wouldn't give it to us because they
  thought the name "DOOM" was too close to the name "GATE OF DOOM"
  which has a trademark on it.

  Reasoning doesn't work.  Apparently, you have to do a petition
  to get people to say, "I associate Blammo's LOG! with this rotting
  lump of wood my daughter carries on her back everywhere with
  'LOG! from Blammo' written all over it."  Jay has written up a
  lusty e-mail letter to ask for your support.  If you've got a
  minute, it would help us a lot- thanks!

  What follows is from the Mind of Jay..

    =-ddt->

    ------

  We hope that you are enjoying DOOM, the latest creation of Id
  Software.  Id Software is currently pursuing trademark registration
  of the mark "DOOM".  We would like to get your assistance in
  gathering information about DOOM, for delivery to the trademark
  office.  Please review the following statement and if it is agreeable
  to you, complete your name, address and telephone number, and deliver
  it back to Id Software.  We will likely present to the trademark
  office the information sent back to us.  Id Software appreciates your
  assistance.

  Please fill the following petition form in and E-MAIL it to
  petition@idsoftware.com.  The petition@idsoftware.com mailbox will be
  active until May 1, 1994.  After May 1st the mailbox will be shut
  down and messages sent to it will bounce.

       -=-= CUT HERE =-=-=-= CUT HERE =-=-=-= CUT HERE =-=

  NAME__________________________________________________

  ADDRESS_______________________________________________

  CITY, ST  ZIP____________________________________________

  TELEPHONE_____________________________________________

  E-MAIL ADDRESS________________________________________

  I agree that the following is a true statement.  I consent to the use
  of this statement for commercial reasons, or otherwise, by Id
  Software, Inc.  ("ID"), and further consent to possibly being
  contacted in the future with regard to this statement.

  I have purchased and/or have played the computer software game
  "DOOM", and I understand DOOM was developed by ID.  ID has a
  reputation of producing high quality computer software games, using
  the latest interactive 3-D technology.  Based upon advertisements,
  trade magazine write-ups and word-of-mouth among my fellow computer
  software game players, I recognize DOOM as coming from ID and from no
  other source.  There is no confusion between DOOM and any other
  computer software game which may contain the word "doom" in its
  title, including "GATE OF DOOM."  DOOM is recognized as the latest
  creation from the minds of ID.

 

 

 

[WadArchive]

Nice find. I have added it to my site and you can see a full listing on https://www.wad-archive.com/disc/WADs-of-WADs . There were a handful of WADs in it that I didn't have in the archive.

 

Are you able to take an photo or scan of the cover/disc?

[ETTiNGRiNDER]

Sweet, this is one of those discs I knew existed (since it was mentioned on a CD index page) but wasn't sure if I'd ever hear of a surviving copy.

 

Yeah, a picture of the CD/any surviving packaging would also be great.

[KVELLER]

I guess that petition worked.

[Russell_P]

Sadly i don't have the packaging anymore, it was most likely thrown away when I moved most of my CD's into cd wallets years ago. But it was identical to the image in my original post.

Here's a scan (200dpi) of the disc, although my scanner isn't great.

 

[FractalBeast]

Oh of course a .wad collection from the UK is called WADS of WADS.

[wolfmcbeard]

Wow, I've heard about these things since I was a kid, but never once In my 27 years of existence have I actually seen a Doom wad disk, I'm surprised to be honest because I though stuff like this was only done on floppy disks until the 2000's.

[Linguica]

@Russell_P that trademark petition thing is intensely interesting to me! I contacted Romero asking if it rang a bell, so hopefully we can dig something up.

 

edit: well it's archived at http://doomgate.gamers.org/pub/archives/idNews/idNews11_work1.3_ports_petition so I guess it's real. How weird.

[VanaheimRanger]

16 minutes ago, wolfmcbeard said:

Wow, I've heard about these things since I was a kid, but never once In my 27 years of existence have I actually seen a Doom wad disk, I'm surprised to be honest because I though stuff like this was only done on floppy disks until the 2000's.

I used to see D!ZONE discs in the software section of my local entertainment store back when I was a young teenager, but I could never buy one.  I had no idea at the time that there were places online where you could just download maps for free, or that the stuff you could find online was 1000x better than what was on those discs, lol.  (I am 35 so you probably just missed them by a couple of years.)

[ETTiNGRiNDER]

@Russell_P Cool, thanks for the disc picture.

 

Would you be interested in contributing this to the archive.org Doom level CD collection too? (Or having me submit it for you if you want?)

 

10 minutes ago, wolfmcbeard said:

Wow, I've heard about these things since I was a kid, but never once In my 27 years of existence have I actually seen a Doom wad disk, I'm surprised to be honest because I though stuff like this was only done on floppy disks until the 2000's.

Nah, there are a lot of different CD compilations out there particularly for Doom stuff (other popular games have some as well).  Floppy ones were probably the less common option, unless you mean swapping floppies between friends rather than making a commercial product out of it.  I've got like 30+ different ones in my collection just for Doom-related ones and I know there are still a lot of other ones I don't have (like the one in this thread).

[wolfmcbeard]

@guitardz probably didn't help that I didn't have a PC of my own until I was sixteen (yes, I did fall for the "delete System32 to speed up your computer" joke withing a month of getting it.), we never had a family pc before that, only played Doom once back in 99 on a computer that belonged to a friend of my mom.
Ironically, the only time I've seen a software disk was when I reinstalled Vista after breaking it.
These days, I've got a stack of hardware and software disks that go to things I don't have any more, including an old Sonic disk from 98 i think.

[Dark Pulse]

Hate to say this to the bloke in the chair, but if a Cyberdemon is that close...

1. You're not shooting it until it dies, and
2. You're not going to get to try to shoot it for much longer.

[SaladBadger]

I remember Sgt. Shivers actually did up a sprite of the Wads of Wads guy a long time ago, I really want a mod at this point where you roll around the map in an office chair with an assault rifle.

[VanaheimRanger]

6 minutes ago, InsanityBringer said:

I remember Sgt. Shivers actually did up a sprite of the Wads of Wads guy a long time ago, I really want a mod at this point where you roll around the map in an office chair with an assault rifle.

I seem to remember someone having that as their avatar...

[Dark Pulse]

10 minutes ago, InsanityBringer said:

I remember Sgt. Shivers actually did up a sprite of the Wads of Wads guy a long time ago, I really want a mod at this point where you roll around the map in an office chair with an assault rifle.

Stairs quickly become a bigger bane to your existence than any demon.

[Grazza]

I see that there is a LMP section in there that might be of some historical interest. Judging from the number of files alone, it must have some demos that aren't included in the "The DOOM Hall of Fame: Collectors Edition", which has a similar vintage. From their date-stamps, most of the demos must be 1.2 format, which Prboom+ can attempt to play back, with a good degree of success. (I have only tested a few of them though.)

[Russell_P]

On 12/1/2018 at 2:32 AM, ETTiNGRiNDER said:

@Russell_P

Would you be interested in contributing this to the archive.org Doom level CD collection too? (Or having me submit it for you if you want?)

 

Feel free to submit this wherever you want.

I'm glad people found this stuff interesting/useful.

[Havok]

Does anyone have a working download link for Wads of Wads please?

[thestarrover]

A copy of the original .zip file has been uploaded on Archive.org by @ETTiNGRiNDER

 

Wads of Wads

[Doomkid]

Thanks so much, this is one hilarious collection (mainly for the cover and the interesting Doom name petition) so I'm glad to see it's been preserved.

 

Hey @ETTiNGRiNDER, if it isn't too much of a pain in the ass, would you mid adding this to the archive.org page for Wads of Wads?

 

[Alex S.]

Wow! Really glad to see this somewhere where we can grab a copy. I always love exploring old CDs like this one, and I'm pulling down a copy as I write this. Another great addition to my collection of Doom stuff. If it's not any trouble, could you image this to ISO or BIN/CUE when you have a few minutes? Raw image dumps are even better for historical archiving. Either way, thanks for this interesting addition :)

[Gez]

1 hour ago, Doomkid said:

would you mid adding this to the archive.org page for Wads of Wads?

Yes, CRUG ALERT deserves to be preserved for posterity.

 

 

I am slightly disappointed, however, that they didn't go with CDRUG, though. I mean, look at this cover artwork and the logo, and tell me, honestly, that you don't CDRUG use?

[Wadmodder Shalton]

Whatever that level is on the cover art, I really want it identified.

[ETTiNGRiNDER]

On 4/13/2022 at 2:30 PM, Doomkid said:

Hey @ETTiNGRiNDER, if it isn't too much of a pain in the ass, would you mid adding this to the archive.org page for Wads of Wads?

Done, thanks.  It seems like Archive's being ornery about showing both images as a gallery like it usually does, but I got the new one to show as the front cover at least.

 

This may unfortunately break the torrent download option as Archive torrents are infamous for refusing to complete the last few percent and if I recall correctly one of the reasons is that it doesn't update them when the files are updated.  Let me know if this is the case and I'll try to figure out if there's anything I can prod to get it to re-generate the torrent.