Do you play a lot of 90's wads?

[HombreSal]

Just want to know how frequent/weird this is. I haven't played many yet, but personally the biggest reason I have for it is, I just really like looking for wads that use the vanilla textures at their truest potential (this means how impressive can the enviroments/buildings look with them). Obviously gameplay matters too.

Edited February 28, 2021 by HombreSal

[Andromeda]

Think I've played more 90's wads than modern wads, not sure though. Certainly a lot in any case, to answer your question directly.

[Endless]

I always love to play them. I don't usually have a favorite decade, but the 90s have the scent of gold just because they were the predecessors of all the wonders that would follow.

 

According to my spreadsheet, I have approx 25 WADs from the 90s up my sleeve. Out of a total of 164 WADs played.

[P41R47]

53 minutes ago, HombreSal said:

Just want to know how frequent/weird this is. I haven't played many yet, but personally the biggest reason I have for it is, I just really like looking for wads that use the vanilla textures at their truest potential (this means how impressive can the enviroments/buildings look with them). Obviously gameplay matters too.

 

Most of my favourite wads are from the the nineties or around the 2000.

 

-Aliens TC

-Enjay Doom II

-Cleimos II

-Dark Covenant

-The Abyss

-H2H-Xmas

-TNT: Evilution

-Hell To Pay

-Perdition's Gate

-Memento Mori II

-Realm of Chaos

-Infested Area

-The beggining of the End I & II

-Icarus: Alien Vanguard

-32 Hours of Pain

-Eternal Doom

-Equinox

-Return To Phobos / Slaughter Until Death / The Evil Unleashed / Crusades make a perfect Ultimate Doom megawad.

-Serenity / Eternity / Infinity

-Dystopia 3

-Osiris TC

-Army of the Dead TC

-STRAIN / Return To Daro is a nice throw back to the nineties by one of my favourite mappers, Ryath.

-Mordeth

-The Talosian Incident

-Cyberdreams

-Batman Doom

-HacX

-Demonfear

-Mars War

-The Darkening Ep. 2

-SlayeR

-Fragport

-The Invasion

-Kill!Zone

-Operation: Biowar

-The Twilight Zone

-Revolution!

-Alien Vendetta

-2002: A Doom Odyssey

-Garrulismo

-Hellcore

-Vile Flesh

-Kama Sutra

-Scientist 2

-Suspended in Dusk

 

So its nothing weird at all.

Those are the mapsets i play and replay from that time period.

[dei_eldren]

i absolutely love them, as well as modern maps made from vanilla only.

[Dubbag]

90's WADs are great. I like them for the simplicity that alot of them have because editing had just started evolving and hadn't reached the heights of over blown and outrageously beautiful things such as "Lullaby", I love that map but it's ridiculous XD. They did what they could and alot of them are very creative for their time as well. Like "H2H X-mas" and "The Unholy Trinity". Then you have what are in my opinion the greatest 90's megawads of all time. I guess you can call them the "Big 5 of 90's Megawads" at least IMO, Momento Mori 1 and 2, Icarus, Requiem, and Hell Revealed.

 

BTW because you mentioned that you like vanilla textures, maybe you could check out my 9 map episode made whole with vanilla textures last year?

https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/a-c/compfrac

Edited March 1, 2021 by Dubbagdarrel

[Roebloz]

I only play them for the LOLs. (Although I do like playing the remastered version of my dad's 94 WAD from time to time I made with him)

[Argenteo]

Yeah, 90% of the wads I play are from the 90', they have some kind of charm and I can play them without problems on my potato laptop.

[xvertigox]

Fuck yeah, I love 90s wads. I try to put myself back in time when I do, I like to imagine what the mapper was thinking, what other wads he/she would have played etc. I also like to listen to era appropriate music with NIN being an all-time favorite.

[xX_Lol6_Xx]

I've actually been trying some wads and mods from the 90 thanks to @Doomkid's videos. Considering the tools back then they're quite good and I personally enjoy them.

 

Edit: Jeez, I think I got involved in the comunity thanks to him. Thanks @Doomkid!

Edited March 1, 2021 by Lol 6

[Deadwing]

As for myself I'm not really a big fan. The only wad from that era that I enjoy a lot is Plutonia.

[joepallai]

Still love 90's pwads, both for the nostalgia factor and for the occasional rawness of the adventure and gameplay.   Everything was new back then and unfolding as we went about Dooming.   There was room for anything as the scene hadn't been so categorized and distilled into formulas just yet.   there was a youthful hopefulness in the text files for example, people included their home addresses to get feedback; along with some hilariously terrible story-telling.  It was a fun and experimental time for a gamer to be on an equal footing with the developers as far as what could be produced with the tools available.   

 

Other reasons for loving 90's era pwads; the one-shot level was king back then (until '96 when megawads really got their foothold).  Also, I really enjoyed the adventure-like feel of the earlier wads.  It was like a bunch of Dungeon Masters learned Doom editing to unleash their dungeons onto the world at large; at least it felt that way to me.  

[thelazyqdude]

No, but looking at these replies I think I'm gonna start playing some more.

[Arrowhead]

I unironically enjoy shovelware discs, so yes. :)

I actually play a ton of 90s WADs, w/ my favorite 90s level pack being Slugfest. I'd recommend checking out that and 'Doom City' by the same author.

[Steve D]

As a Living Fossil from the '90s, I . . . don't really replay a lot of '90s maps/mapsets, apart from my ultimate faves, Fava Beans and Osiris TC. Although this Ancient Doomer generally prefers modern works by our current amazing mappers, this doesn't mean I hate the products of my own time. What it does mean is that I'm so busy IRL and with my current projects, that I really have little time to actually play stuff made by other people, although I'm desperately trying to do more of it to avoid getting stale and stuck in my own rut.

 

That said, as the only active Doomworld member of The Macintosh Team -- I no longer have a Mac, tho -- which produced the 1996 megawad Realm of Chaos, I can announce that Realm of Chaos 2:The Revenge of '96, is scheduled to be released this Halloween, the 25th Anniversary of the original's debut. Dat's right, it ain't no '99 megawad as most people think because of the 1999 date at idgames. 1999 was when the version 1.4 bugfix was released, and it still had bugs, mostly my fault. ;D

 

RoC2 came about when Rob Berkowitz, one of the original mappers and the Executive Officer of the project, made the mistake of contacting me a few years ago and I talked him into mapping again. We even got his son Leo into the project, so now it's a family affair. Several other mostly oldschool mappers who started in the '90s and early 2000s also got snookered into it. The names of the guilty parties will all be revealed when I create a development thread in a few weeks.

 

So what does it mean to have a bunch of oldschool mappers reviving a '90s brand? Will it be like the '90s all over again? No. But it will be an eclectic mapset, in the spirit of the original. I've finished a few of my '90s maps for it, including one I started while working on the original RoC, in hopes of getting some '90sisms in there. Rob maps like '96 never ended, so we're golden with him. ;D  If it's fun to play, we'll have accomplished our mission.

 

As @joepallai said, the '90s was an era dominated by one-and-done mappers. We tend to remember the big names and legendary releases, but there are thousands of maps out there by one-timers, and while a lot of them are straight-up garbage, many of them have quirks and peculiar ideas that a significant percentage of Doomers find intriguing to this day. Also, there were a few mappers who did several works of higher quality, such as Scott F. Crank with Castle of The Renegades 2, and his legendary use of the Archvile bug in The Waterfront; Michael Reed with Hoover Dam among others, and Damian Pawlukanis with Dinner, which I need to replay to see if I'm right that it needs more love.

 

I can't leave without mentioning my favorite mapper of the '90s, the Master of Epicness, Michael Krause. His classic maps, such as Run Buddy, Dark Star, and Moon2000 are completely unique in their grand-scale science fictional architecture. I feel confident in saying that there are mappers who've been influenced by him without ever playing one of his maps, indeed, without ever hearing of him. The influence comes second and third-hand from other mappers they've played, who were directly or indirectly influenced by Michael Krause. Back in '96, Krause began to create structures in ways which, so far as I know, no one ever did before, and others were inspired by his works. To the best of my knowledge, Michael Krause never participated in any megawads or smaller team projects. If he had, I'm sure his name would be heard far more often today.

 

So in the end, yeah, '90s mappers did some great stuff, and even when they failed, they tried their best. Kinda like mappers today. ;) 

[Endless]

Quote

That said, as the only active Doomworld member of The Macintosh Team -- I no longer have a Mac, tho -- which produced the 1996 megawad Realm of Chaos, I can announce that Realm of Chaos 2:The Revenge of '96, is scheduled to be released this Halloween, the 25th Anniversary of the original's debut. Dat's right, it ain't no '99 megawad as most people think because of the 1999 date at idgames. 1999 was when the version 1.4 bugfix was released, and it still had bugs, mostly my fault. ;D

Oh shit. I love sequels. Mordeth material inbound? I'll be tuned for that thread!

[ReaperAA]

I am more inclined towards modern wads because they are more polished in their gameplay and aesthetics(even if they are using only original/vanilla textures). This could be because I am relatively new member of this community and didn't get to play the 90's wads in their heyday.

 

However with that being said, there are some 90's wads that I enjoy like Fava Beans, The Darkening E1+E2 or 90's styled wads like D2TWID, Deathless, Doom Zero.

 

If I include the early 00's into this, then I would add Alien Vendetta and original Scythe into the mix.

[Doomkid]

I have played a lot of 90s wads. I even played some of them back in the 90s!

 

These days if I'm deathmatching, there's a decent chance it's on old Dwango maps which were all made in the 90s, and occasionally I'll come across an old gem I've never played before when digging through random idgames stuff. So yes, I still play them.

[Mordeth]

3 hours ago, Endless said:

Mordeth material inbound?

 

Literally, in some cases. Rob will be using his old maps / resources originally intended for Mordeth E3 for this project (with permission).

[printz]

I'm in a campaign to finish playing all Heretic PWADs from /idgames, and I'm playing them in chronological order. There are a few hundred wads to play. Most PWADs for any game are during the first or second year, the rest of the years are only by enthusiasts.

[Endless]

2 minutes ago, printz said:

I'm in a campaign to finish playing all Heretic PWADs from /idgames, and I'm playing them in chronological order. There are a few hundred wads to play. Most PWADs for any game are during the first or second year, the rest of the years are only by enthusiasts.

That's sounds like something that should be shared/wrote about ;)

[printz]

2 minutes ago, Endless said:

That's sounds like something that should be shared/wrote about ;)

Well, I'm posting reviews here on Doomworld for all of them :) I also recorded videos with several of them, but maybe not enough. Could think of a YouTube chronicle later, but I didn't quite log everything...

[seed]

Nope, I've played the classics back when I came back to classic Doom, and although I still have a few waiting on my list (such as Perdition's Gate), I vastly prefer modern wads over 90s wads due to their aesthetic and more polished design, even if they don't come with custom textures, monsters, sounds etc.

[P41R47]

9 hours ago, Steve D said:

As a Living Fossil from the '90s, I . . . don't really replay a lot of '90s maps/mapsets, apart from my ultimate faves, Fava Beans and Osiris TC. Although this Ancient Doomer generally prefers modern works by our current amazing mappers, this doesn't mean I hate the products of my own time. What it does mean is that I'm so busy IRL and with my current projects, that I really have little time to actually play stuff made by other people, although I'm desperately trying to do more of it to avoid getting stale and stuck in my own rut.

 

That said, as the only active Doomworld member of The Macintosh Team -- I no longer have a Mac, tho -- which produced the 1996 megawad Realm of Chaos, I can announce that Realm of Chaos 2:The Revenge of '96, is scheduled to be released this Halloween, the 25th Anniversary of the original's debut. Dat's right, it ain't no '99 megawad as most people think because of the 1999 date at idgames. 1999 was when the version 1.4 bugfix was released, and it still had bugs, mostly my fault. ;D

 

RoC2 came about when Rob Berkowitz, one of the original mappers and the Executive Officer of the project, made the mistake of contacting me a few years ago and I talked him into mapping again. We even got his son Leo into the project, so now it's a family affair. Several other mostly oldschool mappers who started in the '90s and early 2000s also got snookered into it. The names of the guilty parties will all be revealed when I create a development thread in a few weeks.

 

So what does it mean to have a bunch of oldschool mappers reviving a '90s brand? Will it be like the '90s all over again? No. But it will be an eclectic mapset, in the spirit of the original. I've finished a few of my '90s maps for it, including one I started while working on the original RoC, in hopes of getting some '90sisms in there. Rob maps like '96 never ended, so we're golden with him. ;D  If it's fun to play, we'll have accomplished our mission.

 

As @joepallai said, the '90s was an era dominated by one-and-done mappers. We tend to remember the big names and legendary releases, but there are thousands of maps out there by one-timers, and while a lot of them are straight-up garbage, many of them have quirks and peculiar ideas that a significant percentage of Doomers find intriguing to this day. Also, there were a few mappers who did several works of higher quality, such as Scott F. Crank with Castle of The Renegades 2, and his legendary use of the Archvile bug in The Waterfront; Michael Reed with Hoover Dam among others, and Damian Pawlukanis with Dinner, which I need to replay to see if I'm right that it needs more love.

 

I can't leave without mentioning my favorite mapper of the '90s, the Master of Epicness, Michael Krause. His classic maps, such as Run Buddy, Dark Star, and Moon2000 are completely unique in their grand-scale science fictional architecture. I feel confident in saying that there are mappers who've been influenced by him without ever playing one of his maps, indeed, without ever hearing of him. The influence comes second and third-hand from other mappers they've played, who were directly or indirectly influenced by Michael Krause. Back in '96, Krause began to create structures in ways which, so far as I know, no one ever did before, and others were inspired by his works. To the best of my knowledge, Michael Krause never participated in any megawads or smaller team projects. If he had, I'm sure his name would be heard far more often today.

 

So in the end, yeah, '90s mappers did some great stuff, and even when they failed, they tried their best. Kinda like mappers today. ;) 

 

6 hours ago, Mordeth said:

 

Literally, in some cases. Rob will be using his old maps / resources originally intended for Mordeth E3 for this project (with permission).

my god!

this is the first time i experience a readingasm!

 

You two are a fountain of bliss for me.

I don't have problen waiting, but when they come out, please:

[roadworx]

i primarily play wads from the 90s/early 2000s or are styled after that era. while i think modern wads are absolutely gorgeous, and i recognize the sheer amount of thought and effort that goes into them...they don't have that same charm that i love so much, y'know? like, they become so advanced and beautiful and amazing that it just doesn't feel like i'm playing the same game anymore, and that kinda puts me off a little. i guess it's maybe more of an aesthetic preference than a gameplay one, but even still, i find myself enjoying the gameplay from Ye Olden Days more than i do a lot of the major releases of today

[Sir Hattington]

I play a lot of WADs from the 90's, and 95% of the deathmatch maps I play are the DWANGO map packs from the 90's.

[Tato]

I'm a purist for the vanilla engine, so yes. I play almost exclusively 90s WADs.

[Steve D]

20 hours ago, P41R47 said:

 

my god!

this is the first time i experience a readingasm!

 

You two are a fountain of bliss for me.

I don't have problen waiting, but when they come out, please:

 

Wow, thanks! I'll pass your words on to Rob. :) 

[Doom_Dude]

Sometimes I'll go back and play some 90's map or dumpster dive into /idgames and dig up some 90's map I never played before.

 

On 3/1/2021 at 2:15 AM, Steve D said:

What it does mean is that I'm so busy IRL and with my current projects, that I really have little time to actually play stuff made by other people, although I'm desperately trying to do more of it to avoid getting stale and stuck in my own rut.

 

That's about right for me too. I have enough stuff to do, especially with my own projects that I rarely play other peoples work. The truth is, I'd rather work on a level than play some other wad. Then when I do play something I'll want a change of scenery and play some other game. I got my own rut over here. :D

 

[94's the best style]

90's map are beautiful in their simplicity. It's just fun to check out if your vanilla map will work in Chocolate Doom. And of course, the level geometry won't distract you from the fighting, which is a huge plus.