The Top 100 Memorable Doom Maps of All Time

[skillsaw]

Now that I've had a few days to digest this... here are some random comments on picks that I was involved with:

 

91. Ancient Navajo Wolf Warp - "Memorable" is exactly what I wanted this map to be, even though I knew a lot of people would instantly hate it. I was trying to do for the megawad opener what Rian Johnson did for Star Wars.

 

65. Candlecove - This one surprised me the most. Overall, I'd rank it somewhere in the bottom half of my maps. I like the atmosphere and music quite a bit, though; and I'm sure some people have tender loving memories of being turned into meatballs by the pink spaghetti Cyberdemon.

 

36. Leave Your Sol Behind - If any map from Ancient Aliens was going to be on the list, I knew it would be this one. I have mixed feelings about it. It's a map whose execution (IMO) falls short of its lofty ambitions, and I've never been as excited about the results as I wanted to be. Thanks for recognizing the ambition, though.

 

14. The Mancubian Candidate - Just like Ancient Navajo Wolf Warp, this map gets extra credit for subverting expectations. So I guess if you want to make maps that are memorable, that's one way to go? Also, use a map name that is basically a bad dad joke.

 

5. Culture Shock - @lupinx-Kassman deserves all the credit for everything that makes this map awesome, but I did do a detail/cleanup pass, the first pass at thing placement, and built a couple areas (the less awesome ones). For me, ranking at #5 might not even be high enough, even; but that's because I had the unique experience of leading the project this map was a part of, and being so impressed and grateful that someone so talented delivered such a gem, and made Ancient Aliens all the better for it.

 

Runners up -

I'm not going to comment on these, except...

 

The Final Countdown

If I picked any map from my catalog for how memorable it is, it would have been this one. I wonder if I/others have revisited the moon a bit too often and it's lost its impact.

 

[lupinx-Kassman]

Congratulations on this giant undertaking! I'm sure it wasn't easy to make selections among all the amazing content created over the past 25 years. Much less write the columns! It was an enjoyable read: serving as both a trip down memory lane and a beacon to cool levels I still need to check out! Of course, it was a very pleasant surprise to see a few of my maps in the list =)

 

Incidentally I love to overthink things when making maps, so I do have more background lore about Culture Shock. Course' I realize the mystery and creating your own conclusions is part of the fun when it comes to stuff like this, so I've spoilered it for only those that are deathly curious:

Spoiler

 

    Tor is a museum world built by a civilization that ended long ago. It was a society heavily invested in the historical preservation of cultures spread throughout the cosmos. Though the civilization existed millions of years ago, the strange otherworldly artifacts it had amassed are much older. Some even dating before the formation of the planet itself. Some pieces were obtained simply for their cultural value. Others also had useful properties. There are artifacts in the aerial gallery that could even be considered as ancient living organisms: prisoners to a society only interested in their cultural significance.

 

    But one of the most cryptic mechanisms obtained by the people of Tor was the Gateway of Knowledge. No matter how hard they toiled, they simply could not understand the mechanism behind its function. Passing through the gate would lead the user down a path that conclusively answered the burning question in their heart. Even if the user didn't necessarily know what that question was. After spending an inordinate amount of time on the other side of the door, most of the gate users returned raving mad or suicidal. Nobody knows how or why the gate was was constructed. However its speculated that it was built by extra-dimensional beings to teach lesser lifeforms an important lesson. Often the answers to your questions come at a cost not worth paying. Knowledge can be Painful.

 

Also yep, the exit in Culture Shock is supposed to be the Gateway of Knowledge. It may not seem obvious at first, but it does ultimately lead the player to the truth behind the enigmatic origins of humanity. I.e. the terrible truth you learn in map29 and map30 ;)

 

 

Also huge thanks to @skillsaw for helping me finish the map. Initially I almost missed the deadline, and its thanks to him that it was wrapped up at all =)

 

There's also a lore + silly detail dump for Interstellar Sickness and Shaman's Device, but you can find that here.

 

And now I'm done blabbing. Thanks once again to everyone involved for this awesome article. It was a pleasure to read!

 

EDIT: I said I was done blabbing, but the unfortunate reality is I never shut up. I made a list of dumb facts for CC4 Map20 and Map21, so I may as well do it for AA Map24 as well:

Spoiler

 

-The cloud textures in the map were originally sprites used by temporary Decorate actors, which is why they have a somewhat odd naming convention compared to the other textures.

-The original versions of the sky textures I made for the map looked like this (day) and this (dusk). The cloud textures were also basically pieces of this sky. The closest versions I could get when paletizzed ended up looking more like this and this respectively         . It was kind of a happy accident though, because the daytime paletizzed version had similar colors to...

-...aboocean.wad. This wad is sorta referenced in the intro text at the start of the map. The ruins of AA Map24 float thousands of miles above the Aboo Ocean. Bob Reganess' maps don't play super well these days, but they have a ton of surreal touches and his music is really quirky. They're inspirational and worth checking out. In fact everything Grazza uploaded to the archives from the Compuserv days is worth checking out!

-The ladders in the map are actually from Roger Ritenour's Earth. Ritenour is another one of my biggest inspirations, and my favorite episode from him is the Zdoom version of Pleiades. Its a space adventure that includes all of his older works (even Phobos).

-There are a couple of rock band references in the map. There's a secret area with an Emerson, Lake, and Palmer reference, and the sun symbol above the Gateway of Knowledge is the album icon usually used by Tears for Fears. Sowing the Seeds of Love was one of the songs I was addicted to while working on the map.

-Before Stewboy made the awesome track Imaginarium, I was testing with Chris7.mid by Chris Wilkens and Silver from Crusader: No Regret.

-Making this map not claustrophobic was a challenge, and unfortunately I wasn't really successful in that regard. Skillsaw's additions however play much better. The ambush scenario that occurs after you drop down from the second hole in the top layer into the arena leading up to the ring of teleports before the exit is pretty much all him. As a result its I think its the best gameplay in the map.

-There's a secret prisoner you can find in this map that gives you a BFG as well as a bit more cryptic plot stuff. You can find this guy (albeit dressed a bit differently each time) in a few of my other maps. He's a dude from Autumn Flock. Something I hope to finish within my lifetime.

 

Alright I'm done babbling for real now. Promise. Thanks for reading this! You kind soul!

 

 

 

Edited December 16, 2018 by lupinx-Kassman

[Optimus]

Great great list. There are maps I remember and maps I might have not played, so I'll have a lot to reply through xmas and next year :)

 

Just one thing because my eyes might have missed that. Did Trinity College ever made it to the list? That was THE memorable map back in times.

[Obsidian]

I'm still massively humbled that my map's somehow on there, considering the staggering body of work the Doom community has. Thanks guys. :)

[Tristan]

I feel pretty proud to see maps I wrote music for on here, even though that's only a minor part of what makes those maps memorable. Transduction will always have a special place in my heart being the first time I was approached to write music for something. Maskim Xul was a very fun exercise in writing especially for a higher-fidelity format*, I was able to write in a way I had never done so before, and as for the other one...it's The Given, what else is there to say?

 

^{* play it in GZDoom, play it in GZDoom, play it in GZDoom...}

[TakenStew22]

On 12/15/2018 at 7:48 PM, Eris Falling said:

I feel pretty proud to see maps I wrote music for on here, even though that's only a minor part of what makes those maps memorable.

I'm in love with your song "Blood Rush" in the Plutonia midi pack. Great work with that one.

Song is at 30:35.

[DJVCardMaster]

Sad not seeing any Memento Mori/Memento Mori 2 maps in this list. I would have added MM MAP15 for being one of the first "Hell Revealed-Style" maps, or MM map02, getting mind-blown by the custom textures back in the day.

[Linguica]

We were aware that MM / MM2 were not mentioned but I believe the consensus was that no individual map stood out enough, especially when contrasted against the entire rest of Doom PWAD history.

[Robo_Cola]

On 12/17/2018 at 10:05 PM, Linguica said:

We were aware that MM / MM2 were not mentioned but I believe the consensus was that no individual map stood out enough, especially when contrasted against the entire rest of Doom PWAD history.

Not even MM2's Frustration, Base Exposure, Forgotten Town, The Silos?

[Cynical]

I've played both MMs, and the only map I can actually remember from either is Viper from MM1.  I'd say that leaving them out is entirely justified.

[PsychoGoatee]

Not sure if two and half months is necro these days, but I gotta chime in. Memento Mori map 9 High-Tech Grave is one of the all time great Doom maps for me, and I played it for the first time within the past few years. But we all have our favs.

 

In general these lists are so subjective and personal, but I can't believe there weren't any Suspended in Dusk maps included. For me that's the cream of the crop, though it was cool that Espi was included none the less.

[blackthorn]

Edited for stupid.

Disappointed to see that UAC_DEAD wasn't included. I know it's ancient, but as a Doom-playing kid back in the '90s I thought that the overturned truck with the spinning wheels was the coolest thing ever. Still sticks in my mind today!

Edited March 11, 2019 by blackthorn

[Not Jabba]

2 minutes ago, blackthorn said:

Disappointed to see that UAC_DEAD wasn't included. I know it's ancient, but as a Doom-playing kid back in the '90s I thought that the overturned truck with the spinning wheels was the coolest thing ever. Still sticks in my mind today!

It's #10.

[blackthorn]

Sorry, I'm an idiot! Not sure how I missed that...

[vdgg]

I may be missing something obvious, but I can't see the runners up list anywhere anymore. Any help?

[rehelekretep]

runners up list is on the right hand side if you click straight to page 10

[lol 7]

thanks for the list. it'll be good to have some very nice WADs to play