John Anderson "Dr. Sleep" Lethe.Wad

[BlackxZodiac13]

Hello everyone. I’ve been looking into John Anderson aka Dr. Sleep Inferno maps lately and as some of you know the last map called Lethe.Wad (Waters of Lethe) was never released to the public in 2004.

 

In honor of his anniversary of his passing, would anyone be interested in starting a group project to finishing his map while using his core mapping style from the Inferno Canto maps and releasing it to the public possibly around april?

 

I've seen alot of excellent mappers in this community and would live to contribute as well. 

[Not Jabba]

Xaser created a completed version of the map as E4M8 of Ultimate Doom the Way id Did (though that doesn't mean you can't make your own).

[kmxexii]

10 minutes ago, Not Jabba said:

Xaser created a completed version of the map as E4M8 of Ultimate Doom the Way id Did (though that doesn't mean you can't make your own).

 

I've seen this crop up several times. What's the story? I haven't seen any acknowledgement that it's based on Lethe apart from an unofficial dedication; the .TXT itself doesn't directly credit Anderson except for inspiration. Looking at the automap I can see that the northmost central room is based on this screenshot but is there a bigger story?

[Not Jabba]

I don't know the story behind it, but there's writing in the map itself that declares it to be the final canto of Inferno. I hadn't been aware that it was based on a screenshot before now.

[Ultimate Freedoomer]

Actually, I know this is an old topic, but there is the possibility that Lethe would’ve been a Doom 2 conversion of Recant. The room in that screenshot does look similar to the starting area of that WAD.

[Xaser]

Is there a source for that claim? I don't see any resemblance at all, aside from the fact they're both symmetrical (which isn't saying much).

[CapersOnSalad]

19 minutes ago, Xaser said:

Is there a source for that claim? I don't see any resemblance at all, aside from the fact they're both symmetrical (which isn't saying much).

Beyond that, what's the story with your E4M8? Doom Wiki states only the starting room is a tribute to Lethe, but @Not Jabba implied otherwise.

[Xaser]

There's a hidden texture in the map itself:

 

Spoiler

 

[tl;dr: yes, it's a tribute. The opening room is based directly on the screenshot, since it's the only known piece of media that ever surfaced related to it.]

[TMMMS]

remaking his heretic levels as doom maps would be neat

[Maximum Matt]

Is the original version of E4M7 available too?  I read somewhere that it was originally a D2 map, but Sleepy retrofitted it for D1 when he got involved in the Thy Flesh Consumed project.  

[Ultimate Freedoomer]

On 9/3/2024 at 1:37 AM, Xaser said:

Is there a source for that claim? I don't see any resemblance at all, aside from the fact they're both symmetrical (which isn't saying much).

It’s more apparent if you look at it in the automap. The general resemblance in shape makes me think that he wasn’t only going to convert Recant to use Doom textures & actors, but modify the geometry to accommodate the lack of freelook

[Ultimate Freedoomer]

On 9/7/2024 at 2:21 AM, Maximum Matt said:

Is the original version of E4M7 available too?  I read somewhere that it was originally a D2 map, but Sleepy retrofitted it for D1 when he got involved in the Thy Flesh Consumed project.  

Maybe @Romero has it in his files. A future update may eventually bring it & some of the other yet-to-be-released Master Levels prerelease content to a public release, what with us having the id vault in Doom now.

[Xaser]

47 minutes ago, Ultimate Freedoomer said:

It’s more apparent if you look at it in the automap. The general resemblance in shape makes me think that he wasn’t only going to convert Recant to use Doom textures & actors, but modify the geometry to accommodate the lack of freelook

 

Where is this resemblance? I'm still not seeing it, aside from general "Dr. Sleep style-isms" which are present in all his maps.

 

I did a best-attempt recreation of the room in the Lethe screenshot in UDTWID E4M8, and my attempt looks like this from above:

 

 

I'm not sure which area from Recant this is meant to resemble:

 

[Ultimate Freedoomer]

The room in the Lethe Screenshot looks to me like a stripped-down version of the starting area of Recant.

Edited September 11 by Ultimate Freedoomer

[Ultimate Freedoomer]

@Xaseractually, this discussion reminds me: what would you think of doing a Doom II conversion of DTWID E4M8? Because most "continuous play" compilations of Dr. Sleep's Inferno seem to use that map as the stand in for Lethe.wad, but the lack of Doom II actors/textures make it feel kinda out of place.