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Endless

Doom Wadarcheology - To dig, rediscover and enjoy the classics.

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5 minutes ago, Walter confetti said:

A medium sized map that includes new textures and sounds, sets in the titular "Sky City" of the title 1 mile above the , a gray/white structure that resembles some kinda of abstract techbase\temple place, abandoned by long time as shown by some of the spider webs you see around in the hallways, there's also a pretty clever usage of mazes used a some sort of puzzles, especially in the blue-red chees structure this puzzle aspect really shines. A pretty clever map that reminds somehow of good Evilution and Team TNT stuff...

This looks like some real fun stuff. Love the low-res tacky sky. Nice find! :)

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the.wad - 06/07/1995 - played via GZDOOM 4.1.2

 

'the' is a tremendously fun 3-key town map made by W. Davis Thornton. The town isn't that large and is around the same size as the 'town' in MAP16 of Doom 2 - this was pointed out by 2 of the 3 /idgames reviewers for this WAD. This is the author's first map, and wow, does it ever play decent for a first map! I think this level is super obscure for two main reasons: It has a terrible name, (the worst offence in my opinion) - and only 3 reviews on /idgames in 26 years. The author went on to create one more map, which didn't receive nearly as good of reviews as this one did.

 

The town is made up of a few buildings. There is a movie theatre, (in which 2 different animated textures are looping) a graveyard + church, some kind of tenement building, and a couple other buildings that are more difficult to describe... There is an arch-vile in the movie theatre - I recommend actually going to the theatre last, as the red key door that leads to the exit is there - this way you'll have more ammo / weapons to deal w/ the arch-vile. An interesting feature of this map is that it contains an incredibly pixelated image of a nude woman - when I found it in an unmarked secret, I got quite the surprise! I can't give a screenshot of that! ;)

 

The SSG is in the church - a really well done church, I might add, as it is complete w/ pews, a pulpit, and ornate stained-glass windows. I recommend going to the church first, as you will encounter the least amount of enemy resistance in that building - not to mention if you snag the SSG early, you'll be able to make short work of the yellow key swarm ambush that comes immediately after grabbing the yellow key. This is the best fight in the map - there is a cyber, a pack of mancubi, and a bunch of imps that are released. They start heading toward you, the moment they hear a shot after you pick up the yellow key. Right when you get out of the yellow key area, head directly to the yellow key door. There is a BFG in here that will really help out when the cyber is all that's left. It is great fun to have the cybie blow-up these mancubi - probably my fave part of the level - this level has some stellar infighting. Another great part of this mission, is the supercharge secret. I really hope you all find the supercharge secret, as it is one of the better secrets I've seen in a while. The area where it is hidden is positively massive for a secret, not to mention it has a wonderful elevator that raises you out of one of the graves in the church's graveyard. The graveyard contains my favorite custom texture, the 'RIP' tombstone texture.

 

I would go as far as to call this an underplayed classic. This is a map that I'm sure more people would know about, if only its name was more memorable - I think that is the main contributor to its continued obscurity. Really solid level - I don't think I even have any complaints for this one; if you liked Peterson's Suburbs, you'll absolutely adore this map. This one is going into my 're-play' folder, I might try for UVMAX next time, as the secrets are so decent. Hopefully this review brings a tiny bit more attention to this level - it is the quintessential example of a good 'town' map. :)

 

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Download link: https://bit.ly/3cw1eib

Edited by Arrowhead

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FOA4.wad - 12/18/1998 - played via GZDOOM 4.1.2

 

This is a Harq WAD. Harq was a very talented map designer who was much more popular during their era - '97-'99. I hardly ever hear anything about Harq nowadays, which is a shame, they were an extremely skilled mapper who really knew how to communicate themes through ambience and intelligent encounters - this map is no different. The first thing you'll notice in this map is its ambient atmosphere. A lot of the map is dark, but never too dark - this grim setting really gets you immersed in the map, or at least it did w/ me...

 

Design work is decent in this one - there are a lot of nice bracing textures and tons of gory details... This is one of the more intimidating non-hell maps I've encountered. Harq states that this map is set in a demonic mortuary, (but doesn't make it clear if it is set in hell or not) - and you can definitely see that in the map - there are a lot of coffins. These coffins lower at some point, and monsters begin to travel through the gaps they leave. The level is really well constructed - almost too well constructed; you will often be hit by hitscanner fire from areas you didn't notice. The author always evens things out for the player, though - there are sections where you get to be the sniper in the dark - namely 2 small slats that you can shoot through, (via autoaim) to clear out a dangerous room before you need to enter it. The occasional trap will open behind you in this WAD, although these situations are never too dangerous... the author doesn't put super tough enemies behind you in these scenarios, it's usually something like a single chaingunner or an imp cluster.

 

The 'major' complaint I have w/ this level, is that the integral switches needed to progress in this map are all very small. If you're playing a mod that adds extra blood / gore, (like Brutal Doom, or Dead Marine) you may end up 'covering up' the switch texture, and missing important progression. Just remember, there is no wasted space in this map - everything has a purpose - there are no dead ends that serve no use.

 

Combat is fun in this map, every encounter is constructed w/ a certain intentionality - nothing feels incidental, every encounter feels as if it was carefully made and designed. There aren't really 'open door, see monsters' type fights, I hope that makes sense, you'll see if you decide to play this level. You'll deal with just under 100 enemies on UV- this monster count never feels this small though, because of the quality monster placement... My favorite part is probably when you have to fight 6-8 hellknights in a somewhat cramped series of corridors at the end, I thought that was pretty fun.

 

Geometry and architecture are this author's strong suits, well, other than encounter design. There wasn't a single ugly area in this map, despite a lot of it being fairly dark - darkness and ugliness often come hand-in-hand in a Doom WAD - not the case here!

 

You're pretty much guaranteed a great time whenever you play a Harq WAD, every single one of their 18 maps on /idgames has at least a 3/5 rating, something quite difficult to achieve considering how unreliable /idgames reviews were. This is an extremely talented author that is seldom talked about today. Hopefully, this might (slightly) help bring them back into the wadding limelight. A great time, takes about 12-15 minutes to complete!

 

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Download link: https://bit.ly/3kWaj8t

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Gut-Father by Tobias Forsberg (Doom 2, 1998, MAP01, played with Eternity 4.0.2 forseti)

 

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A very short and tough wad i found noted in one of my notes for various Doom maps inside one of my shovelware doom CD cases that i downloaded with many others around, not be best visually like the previous wads i've talked about but it's a pretty challenging map crafted around the "No Health" gimmick and probably one of the earlier, if not the first, build around the gimmick of a map without health. The level is challenging and fun level even with small amount of monsters, there's some small detailing work like arches and texturing is pretty competent.

 

CONGO (Congo Collection #1) by Ritche Macalaguim (Doom 2, 1995, MAP01, played with Eternity 4.0.2 forseti)

 

DOWNLOAD LINK

 

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A deathmatch oriented map (but playable as well for SP since it have monsters and they're not badly implemented like in other DM maps) with a map style strongly reminiscent of the more famous The Lost Mines by Mark Klem, sets a green rock and wood mine -like structure (a theme i always adored in old maps), level is really well crafted and looks extremely clean and professional, thinking this is the first mapping effort from this author, including some small detailing works like destroyed shafts and terrain change near the building sections. Also the monster usage is well implemented making this map kinda challenging and fun to play even using low-tier monsters for all the map like shotgunners and imps, with the only exception of a revenant and some chaingunner. Only downside is the hidden exit that needs some type of triggering event that i don't know how to activate. Overall, a really good map for the time it was made!

Edited by Walter confetti

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Damn Box! - 12/23/1995 - played via GZDOOM 4.1.2 + LZDOOM Local Splitscreen Deathmatch

 

Damn Box! is a really fun deathmatch map created in 1995 by Owen Williams. This is really competently designed - the author references danzig17 and danzig19 as inspiration for their map - and for once the author isn't blowing smoke, you can definitely see the influence from these two well-known deathmatch levels here. The map is actually around the same quality as these maps, in my opinion. This map really feels good as a duel level - as the author states in the readme, a map this small will really only work well w/ 2 players. I think this map is an unknown classic - it is leaps and bounds ahead of most of the deathmatch maps from this period.

 

Spawns are sensible and well placed, w/ real care to make sure all spawns are on weapons - a really nice feature from a map this old; while so many others from this time period still made you run off looking for your guns. This map feels very modern - it is a bit more tight than modern deathmatch forays, but still really makes for some fun encounters. There is a really dark corridor that leads to a BFG teleporter, and another teleporter that brings you up to the upper loft, where you can jump down into the 'damn box' - a small shawn2 box that contains a plaz in UV, and a rocket launcher in lesser skill difficulties. This is the main gimmick of the map - there is also a megasphere nearby this box, so it makes it really appealing to a player to dive into it. This megasphere / 'box drop' pattern is very prominent in this map, (we always play w/ Weapon Stay ON, and Respawning Items ON) - as this is essentially a 'power-up cycle' level. Some players won't like this kind of map, as they have to pay such close attention to such a powerful pick-up. I think this works though, as the megasphere isn't obscured in any way, nor is it hidden in a hard to reach area - it is right smack in the centre of the map... a good place for it. This also means that there are no lopsided spawns - no single spawn has an advantage of reaching the megasphere over another. The author states in the readme that "It's really really hard to get in the box, hence the name." This isn't really the case - it's actually pretty simple to lunge into the box, maybe it was harder in the day of predominantly keyboard-only play?

 

The only issue we encountered w/ this map was w/ 'furthest spawns ON'. This allowed for many conversion frags, and the occasional well timed double kill. W/ 'furthest spawns ON', it becomes too easy to jump through a telly and nail the player on the other side of the map. We'll definitely turn that setting off for our next duel. One other small issue is that it is a bit hard to differentiate the BFG teleporter w/ the loft teleporter - although, I'm sure this'll get picked up over more time playing and learning this fun map.

 

This map has some great verticality, namely the loft that you dive into the box from; it is also really close-quarters - so expect some tight SSG-dancing in this level. The map has all the weapons - which works really well in this level; the BFG serves as a great distraction from the megasphere, as well as a great counter. Really makes for some intense combat scenarios.

 

This map plays and looks leagues above the average deathmatch map from '95 - it's definitely something me and my brother, (guardianz13) are going to be going back to over and over. It doesn't look like the author made many other maps save for a version of their school: 'idgames://2065'. This is the final map the author made, which is a shame, as they seemed to really be coming into form in this map.

 

Can't believe this has never received an /idgames review in 26 years! Shocking that something this well-made was missed! This seems to be the case w/ a lot of deathmatch maps - there are far more DM maps on /idgames without reviews than SP levels... Maybe I should hunt down some more of them? :)

 

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The final score! :D (he usually kicks my ass, haha)

 

Download link: https://bit.ly/3qVvWJU

 

PS: I don't normally '@' people out of the blue, but this map really made me think of @Doomkid 's great compilation packs. Perhaps this map would be a good pick for a future deathmatch collection? :)

Edited by Arrowhead

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WAHWAH.wad (v1.45) - 05/24/1995 - played via GZDOOM 4.1.2

 

WW is a really good first level put together by Robert Dutton Esq. This is his only map, as far as I can tell. This is a pretty robust and advanced level for being a first and only WAD - there are a ton of traps, (many quite mean) lot of attention to detail, and memorable battles. There are line-actions galore in this map, often this involves a new part of the map opening up - usually immediately behind you, in the form of a cruel trap. These traps are never unfair, they're just a little too well placed - you'll be startled every time, even if you're under the impression that you can predict the next trap... Often the author will place a chaingunner in one of these traps - the author has a real love for chaingunners - it never becomes abusive to the player, though. You start off in a room w/ 4 of the 5 doors locked - I thought this starting room was a slight missed opportunity - as it could have been neat to be able to return there later in the mission and find another door opened...

 

There are many good fights in this map - namely the room w/ the 'well' in the middle of it, and the yellow-key door room - the red-key door 'fake exit' is a really nice encounter, as well. There are just over 130 enemies in this map, a decent sized force - 5 secrets also make an appearance, although, I only found 1 of them in my playthrough... Ignore the weird 'aerial switch' in the hub room w/ the 4 pillars. I don't think it does anything in SP - seems like it might be a deathmatch only function... I included a screenshot of it, just so you don't waste any time. Anyway, the pillars in this room lower subsequently when you complete other parts of the map, and they release a new mini-fight each time. This is one of the more difficult 1995 maps I've played - the author actually had a really great understanding of gameplay / health balance. You'll rarely find health in this map.

 

Architecture is skilfully assembled in this level. The 'elevating staircase' in the yellow-key door room is probably my favorite geometrical feature in this WAD - you rarely see such features in a map this ancient! The final fight against an arch-vile standing on a raised platform - surrounded by medium class mobs, is quite hard to beat, the archie obnoxiously keeps reviving the monsters on this platform - which means you'll really need to unleash those many rockets the author so kindly gave you - this area is especially cruel, as there is a hellknight on either side of the platform in alcoves that act as particularly dangerous turrets... Still, even w/ this intense enemy placement, the fight still ends up being fun - and it is both accomplishing and relieving to decimate that damned arch-vile!

 

There are a couple 'walk-through' walls in this map, but they are made explicitly obvious, as imps will travel through them right in front of you. I only have an issue w/ 'walk-throughs' when they aren't hinted at all - they work perfectly fine here, and the walls lead to a cool little maintenance tunnel type thing... It is fun clearing out the small-tier creatures that reside here.

 

The main scheme of this map is trickery and deception - really nice to see from a '95 map - traps are so rare in these early levels, that it is quite nice to see an author really focus on that aspect of their craft so early. It's always a crying shame when a talented mapper leaves the community - it's always unfortunate to see such refined skill 'wasted'...

 

A great Doom2 mission on MAP03 - this is a dynamic level - sure to be liked by any who enjoy old-school WADs! :)

 

Spoiler

 

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Download link: https://bit.ly/3CIFIRP

Edited by Arrowhead

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This thread is great. I've been checking a lot of the maps reviewed here lately - a wide mix of cute hidden "gems", brief super-conceptual abstract design, with eye candies and that questionable sense of scale sometimes, many of them are still charming if you obviate their age and flaws, which is easy to do imo, most of the time (fortunately only one I found unplayable and quit halfway through). I'm having a good time meeting different authorial works from the past, so kudos for you guys for giving these lesser-known/forgotten stuff another opportunity to shine!

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7 hours ago, galileo31dos01 said:

This thread is great. I've been checking a lot of the maps reviewed here lately - a wide mix of cute hidden "gems", brief super-conceptual abstract design, with eye candies and that questionable sense of scale sometimes, many of them are still charming if you obviate their age and flaws, which is easy to do imo, most of the time (fortunately only one I found unplayable and quit halfway through). I'm having a good time meeting different authorial works from the past, so kudos for you guys for giving these lesser-known/forgotten stuff another opportunity to shine!

Yeah this is an excellent thread. Lots of cool maps and @Arrowhead has contributed a lot. So great work guys!

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Castlevania Deathmatch v.01 for Doom2 - 08/26/1997 - played via GZDOOM 4.1.2 + LZDOOM Local Splitscreen Deathmatch

 

Castlevania DM is a fast-paced 2 map deathmatch pack by Josh Ray. This appears to be Ray's only project, as I was unable to find anything else on the archives. These are some pretty fun, but old-school deathmatch maps... don't expect to see any crazy new textures, the author only uses the stock Doom2 textures in this one. That's my main complaint about these maps, sure, the titlepic is different, and Castlevania music is playing, but there really isn't much else to differentiate this as 'Castlevania'. I think a couple custom textures or even a custom sprite replacement would have done this map wonders - can you imagine if the fist was replaced w/ Belmont's whip? That would have been awesome.

 

While these two maps don't have the Castlevania graphical theme down too well, the gameplay is certainly very commendable for its time period. Honestly, though - I shouldn't give this map too much guff for its treatment of this theme, as the stock textures the author used kind of work - I've always thought the green marble textures, and many of the wood textures in Doom were a bit gothic in appearance - it's really not that much of a stretch to think that this author would think that too...

 

The first map consists of a medium-sized rectangular courtyard braced by a building w/ a medium-sized interior that has many twists and turns and doors. There is a megasphere in this building, but it is deep enough in the buildings confines that it rarely comes into play in a fast paced deathmatch duel. You basically have to go really out of the way to grab it. The supercharge smack centre in the middle of the courtyard is going to be far more used - the supercharge placement feels fair, as there is so much traffic in that area from nearby spawns that both players have quite a good chance of grabbing it from the get-go. One unconventional feature of these maps is the use of the blursphere - you will almost never see a blursphere in modern deathmatch circles, as it gives a player far too much of an advantage in a predominately dark area. The blursphere in this map isn't really that advantageous, though, as there are very few darkened areas in this map... The fact that this power-up's effect is weakened, is a good thing in my eyes - I think it produces more balanced gameplay - I don't think any player enjoys being nailed by an SSG for 100+ damage from some dude hiding in the shadows, at least I don't enjoy it... One other thing to keep in mind w/ the first map is that the BFG and plaz are both here. This causes a slight balance issue, where if the plaz is picked up first, followed by the BFG - this gives the user a massive surplus of BFG ammo. It might have been a good idea to just pick one of the cell weapons. This can be seen as fun / annoying depending on which side of the BFG's barrel you're on. I would hesitate in calling this abusable, as it's a bit of an inconvenience to navigate to the BFG after spawning w/ the plaz; (you can't reach the plaz unless you spawn on it, maybe this is a failsafe to help partly prevent this exact kind of ammo abuse? Maybe I'm giving these old map authors too much credit.) and even more annoying to try to successfully jump out the window w/ the BFG once you have it. Any skilled duel opponent will punish you for snagging this, as it is slightly convoluted and obvious to reach the BFG.

 

The second map is a bit more flat than the first, but I think overall it plays a bit better - its got a neat flow. There is a large open area similar in function to the open area in Quake 3's first map, Arena Gate - at least, that's what it reminds me of - this is where most of the action will be taking place. Speaking of action, I've found a better way to take screenies - I've assigned my 'screenshot button' to my right mouse button - makes it a ton easier to snap more exciting screenshots in the moment! This large outdoor area filled w/ pillars is connected to a large one-floor building - this building is much easier to navigate than the previous level's building in this pack. This map seems to be arguably balanced better than the first - the only questionable aspect is the curious placement of the supercharge in this level. It is in the map's exit nook, which is located just adjacent to the open-air room w/ the pillars. Grabbing this power-up is strictly punished, as there is really no viable escape from that nook once you enter it - unless you're extremely quick, it is very likely that you will get shot in the back by your opponent. I enjoy this kind of punishment for power-up seekers, as it keeps things even - there's not much incentive to constantly try to snag the supercharge, when there's a such a high chance of being fragged for it...

 

The second map flows a bit better too - there are almost no doors, and so less ways for you to give away your map position to your opponent. I've got a bit of a 'thing' against doors in deathmatch design - I didn't include any in my megaWAD at all - mainly for the sole reason that they impede a player's flow too much - having to wait that half second or so still while opening a door, really gives your opponent a decent opportunity to harm you - this is made even easier when using autoaim's mechanics - they just have to see your legs, and BAM!! - you've lost a frag. There aren't many doors in this second map, but there are quite a bit in the first map. This was probably done to make the BFG on the second floor loft more difficult to retrieve. It makes sense for there to be doors in that map for that reason... You'll probably be pretty miffed every time you have to briefly stop for a door - it puts you in a lot of danger. Still, there are worst offenders out there in the deathmatch sphere!

 

I played both of these maps against my brother, (guardianz13) and we had a lot of fun - I think these are competently constructed maps for 1997 - I wouldn't call them revolutionary in their design, as their design is quite conservative considering the chaotic layouts of a lot of user deathmatch maps from this period. They get a lot right, though - it has all its guns on spawns, and has some very clean design - there aren't any misalignments, there aren't any stupid monsters present - these might sound like bare basics, but sincerely; a lot of DM maps from this period, (1994-1999) are a visual / gameplay mess. You really have to look hard to find well-constructed maps pre-2000 - if you want to play anything but the established classics. Thankfully, these are both fun levels, and any duel fan will likely have some good times w/ a friend or two in these maps, I wouldn't include more than 3-4 people at a time w/ these levels, as I think they're a bit small for anything more than that.

 

An enjoyable couple duel maps that have some decent gameplay - that somewhat missed the mark thematically... :D

 

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Download link: https://bit.ly/32q6uSM

Edited by Arrowhead

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4 minutes ago, Endless said:

Poor Guardianz13, he had to endure Arrows fury!

He normally beats me pretty soundly haha, but in these last couple old deathmatch maps I've done pretty well against him... I think weekly Flag Fest and WNDM are helping me, lol :)

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brave.wad - 06/06/1994 - played via GZDOOM 4.1.2

 

brave.wad is a short little Doom1 excursion by an unknown author. This is a pretty fun map that doesn't outstay its welcome - it plays on E1M4. As there are only just under 75 monsters, you can expect your visit to this map to last about 5-10 minutes. This is a well put together map that has very few of the standard 1994 design flaws.

 

The only issue I had w/ this level was initially finding the blue + red key doors. I wasn't aware there were two mirrored elevators in the extreme corners of the second room in this map. This is the only progression difficulty - most doomers are likely to trigger these corner elevators anyways by just messing around in the room; I just wanted to be as thorough as possible, and give you all a slight head's up. This is really the only 'mistake' I noticed in this map, if you want to call such a style of progression a mistake... I think it's alright - sure the elevators could be better marked, but hey, this is 1994 - and a very short level - so perhaps the author was trying to pad the runtime a little bit by adding a small 'puzzle' element to the progression. I'm not sure.

 

There are a couple cool looking regions of this level - there is a section where a midtex cage 'lowers' from the roof, there is a single baron in this cage. As you'll likely only have the single shotty here, this section might seem a bit tedious. But hey, it's not like the baron can follow you - just leave him in his cage! ;) My other favorite section, and perhaps the biggest draw to this map is the cool BFG extermination you get to do on a crowd of about 25-30 shotgunners. Drop down ever so slightly behind them, and BOOM - you should be able to annihilate nearly all of them w/ the one BFG shot you have ammo for. Really fun - brought a smile to my face. I don't think there's anything more satisfying in all of doomdom ... but that might just be me!

 

Fun map, give it a go if you're in an old-school sort of mood. It only takes a handful of minutes to beat - I recommend NOT UVMAX'n on this map, as the few barons at the end will likely need to be single-shotgunned to death. No point in needlessly engaging in tedium... Regardless, what's here is enjoyable - even if it is not a very long experience. :)

 

Spoiler

 

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Download link: https://bit.ly/3cCXDij

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SAPIDUS by Eddie Nguyen (Doom, 1994, E2M4, played with Eternity 4.0.2 forseti)

 

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How can this map been so good with so less and with mapping mistakes like weird progression trough secret doors and switches that break the game progression if you don't wait enough time for floors to raise? Well, is it because with the short amount of textures and floor graphic used for these map, Nguyen used them in a very good way with a layout that has been inspired by the Death Star maps, in fact i've always considered the poor man's version of that map, but i digress. The layout is good and the theme of some sort of reactor that needs to be shutdown by the player is a interesting concept, and have a pretty big and kinda tough crowd of monsters trough the base, making it a some sort of proto-slaughtermap based upon (intentional?) ammo and health starvation gimmick. A interesting, charming and fun map to play, despite it's flaws.

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From time to time I go on a "download random WADs from idgames" spree.  Many, of course, are not so good, but as this thread points out -- there also are some gems on there.

 

One thing that always intrigued me though -- does anyone ever try to track down the authors, especially for authors that uploaded just one or two WADs in the mid 1990s?  I'm always amazed when a WAD's README says something like "I'm just 15 and living in <city>" and the WAD is from 1996 or something.  Like, that was a kid in high school and now he's 40 years old.  It always seemed tempting to try to track down authors like this and see what they've been doing in the last 20+ years, and ask them a bit of history about the WAD you just played.  Never made the effort myself, alas.

 

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3 minutes ago, CrueCut said:

From time to time I go on a "download random WADs from idgames" spree.  Many, of course, are not so good, but as this thread points out -- there also are some gems on there.

 

One thing that always intrigued me though -- does anyone ever try to track down the authors, especially for authors that uploaded just one or two WADs in the mid 1990s?  I'm always amazed when a WAD's README says something like "I'm just 15 and living in <city>" and the WAD is from 1996 or something.  Like, that was a kid in high school and now he's 40 years old.  It always seemed tempting to try to track down authors like this and see what they've been doing in the last 20+ years, and ask them a bit of history about the WAD you just played.  Never made the effort myself, alas.

 

Some authors used to even put their home adress in the .txt! Crazy stuff. But yeah, it would be interesting to know what these people think of the work they did more than two decades ago, but I guess if they didn't stick with it, they probably won't remember much.

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32 minutes ago, CrueCut said:

a bit of history about the WAD you just played.

 

A summary of things you would be likely to hear:

 

Map editors were way less advanced. No 3D preview. Texture alignment done by hand (or more often, not at all). Sectors weren't merged automatically; you had to do this yourself. Took several minutes to launch the game. This made testing tedious. Secrets/kills were only tallied at the end of the map, so forgetting to tag a sector as special 9 or placing a monster that can't be found was a much easier mistake to make.

 

Most of the WADs played for inspiration probably came off a shovelware CD. There was no centralized review system or way to get feedback. If you were (very) lucky someone posted about your map on one of the few Doom sites around at the time.

 

When you consider the difficulties, it's amazing what was created under the constraints.

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river.wad - 07/11/1997 - played via GZDOOM 4.1.2

 

river.wad is a large map by a returning author in this project, Joe Winter. Some of you may remember Winter's level hellbell.wad - from way earlier in the review cycle - this level is also a 3-key design, very much like hellbell.wad - actually, forget that - nearly all of Winter's 10 maps are self-declared 3-key constructions... This is a fairly long level to play - it should take you about 20-25 minutes to best.

 

Curiously, the titular river is nowhere to be seen - I could be mistaken, but I'm pretty sure I looked everywhere - and no; no river to be had. No idea why that's the case - but I found it odd enough to mention.

 

There are about 275 enemies in this map, so quite a large legion of fiends! Be prepared to face quite an aggressive opposition - while this map isn't brutally difficult, it really doesn't mess around. The author neglected to add any official secrets in this map, and I honestly can't remember if he added any in the previous map of his I reviewed. I'm gonna assume he knows how, as this is a pretty late map of Joe's. One thing Winter excels at is pacing - the map never feels like a slog, all the risky encounters are adequately spaced out, you likely won't even notice that 20 minutes went by in this level.

 

Combat is engaging and fun - there is a varied enough selection of arenas w/ which to do battle in - my favorite being the ending fight against a pack of varied enemies in a star-shaped room. I think I encountered a weird glitch in this map, (not any fault of the author's specifically, I don't believe) that caused projectiles to disappear in that one very long wide corridor - you'll know which one when you see it. I'm convinced its got something to do w/ my highly deprecated version of GZDOOM, (4.1.2) rather than anything that Winter was responsible for. You likely won't encounter this issue in your potential runthrough of the map, but if you do, please let me know!

 

There aren't really traps in this map, moreso there are ambushes. I don't think I saw many traditional monster closets in this entire experience - but there were a multitude of teleporting enemies. The teleport-ambushes in this map are a great time - one of the highlights of this map's design. The area where you travel alongside that building w/ many windows, (see screenie 2) is one of the most dangerous regions, as there are some particularly well placed shotgunner snipers up there. It is very easy to counter them w/ the single shotty, as the angle to shoot into the windows from below isn't very extreme... they aren't situated too high up in the building's facade for you to kill. Autoaim should be able to take care of things just fine here. You should pay close attention to your health in this map, as there are not too many health items in this WAD, this may be an old map, but it has nice gameplay balancing. One thing I liked about this map was the very kind SSG the author gives you at the beginning of the map - I always like when an author 'loads you up' before sending you into the fray - an SSG at the beginning of a level generally indicates that you're in for some tough opposition, and while there aren't a ton of medium-class demons in this level, you'll still want to keep it close at hand - it is quite useful in clearing out the occasional tight cluster of weak mobs.

 

Geometry is pretty decent in this level - I especially like the weird variably glowing stairs in the first screenshot - just taking a screenie unfortunately doesn't do the effect justice. The library / wood area in the map are also really nice, I included screenshots of those areas, too. The author does a really good job of keeping a theme consistent. This isn't like a lot of old levels that are a mishmash of conflicting ideas - everything is quite carefully designed to ensure some type of cohesion. I'm not sure what to call the theme in the map, but it is mostly a 'brick / wood' decorated level. The only visual error I detected was the mysterious 'floating tree' - probably an effect of putting that one tree so close to the building's wall - you can make it out in the second image I posted.

 

Great map - really fun, well paced and fair. Winter's maps are very underrated in my opinion, he was quite a decent level designer - I wouldn't rank him as highly as, say, someone like Harq - but I've yet to have a bad time w/ his creations.

 

Give it shot! :D

 

Spoiler

 

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Download link: https://bit.ly/3cGXQ4d

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On 11/20/2021 at 7:37 PM, Arrowhead said:

the.wad - 06/07/1995 - played via GZDOOM 4.1.2

 

'the' is a tremendously fun 3-key town map made by W. Davis Thornton. The town isn't that large and is around the same size as the 'town' in MAP16 of Doom 2 - this was pointed out by 2 of the 3 /idgames reviewers for this WAD. This is the author's first map, and wow, does it ever play decent for a first map! I think this level is super obscure for two main reasons: It has a terrible name, (the worst offence in my opinion) - and only 3 reviews on /idgames in 26 years. The author went on to create one more map, which didn't receive nearly as good of reviews as this one did.

 

 

 

This was excellent; thank you for recommending this. I can't believe I never stumbled onto this map before now.   The map's name really did hurt it becoming more known.  

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3 minutes ago, joepallai said:

This was excellent; thank you for recommending this... The map's name really did hurt it becoming more known.  

Thanks! I'm just glad I was able to put it in front of more people! I really think it has a lot going for it!

 

It's a shame that the author didn't continue on in that same vein... There is a lot of good stuff going on in that map. I think I've done 83 reviews by this point, and I can confidently say that this map is in my Top Ten. I plan on giving it a re-play at some point... Definitely one of my new favorites! :)

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Hey !

 

Weeks ago , I recorded a playthrough of SLUGFEST.WAD , a 1995 episode made by Shamus Young , a 48 year old videomaker who now specializes in gaming. (He has 48k followers)

 

 

I had the idea to send him my video by email and thanks to that, he wrote a special article on his blog where he comments his own wad from my video! A very interesting article to read!

 

https://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=53203#more-53203

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SLUGFEST.WAD

By Shamus Young

1995

 

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I actually played and reviewed this before, but now seems the right time to publish it!

 

Oh, the 90s. What a time to live. The internet emerges as a global power, computers become more and more powerful and intuitive to use, and the best video games in history begin to take root. Without a doubt, a good time to be a fan of Doom, and in general, of computers. The overall quality of WADs may be mediocre compared to the future (the present) but oh lord, the simplicity of these times is probably their greatest strength, that added to a charisma full of creativity and desire to create, and we have a fruit full of modest innocence. It's hard to describe what makes the 90s so special, apart from its primordial state, but if anything, it's the fact that it's the first steps we took in our history, and some of them, boy, did they take some big steps.

 

This is SLUGFEST.WAD, aptly named, but for the right reasons! Created in 1995, this is a rather old, classic and, at this point in time, golden WAD. 10 maps for Doom 2, all created with a sense of narrative progress that evokes sweet characteristics, only found in the 90s. A feeling of exploration is open thanks to the design of the maps. They expand in such a way that they follow a set rhythm but you can play them any way you want. Maps often have a clear system: Find the keys and progress to the next level. The keys are usually placed independently of each other, so it offers different types of paths to find them, as well as a sweet variety of encounters and levels. They're not linear, but they're not fucking complex either. They are expansive, medium-sized maps that offer a lot of options for you to approach, but usually with a clear and straightforward objective that you must strive to find, fighting demons along the way until you reach sweet, sweet victory. In this sense, SLUGFEST.WAD creates an impeccable progress for the 90s, taking into account that those times stand out for having super cryptic WADs full of secret paths, this one presents a variety of designs that, despite being open, is clear and easy to navigate, offering players a good re-play value option.

 

Far superior to anything from that year, this WAD stands out from the crowd for possessing a palpable quality from start to finish, something that, as much as I hate to admit, is rare to find in, like, 90% of the WADs from the 90s. Heh. It's an adventure full of visual value that presents different encounters with a variety of levels that pleasantly entertain. Not only are there new maps per se, but it even brings with it new sounds, sprites and a new skybox that fills my heart with sweet nostalgia, oh yeah. If you like simple, vanilla maps, then I think you're in the right place. Even if you're not particularly a fan of the 90s, this is a WAD that can entertain you today, because despite being somewhat old, it's still entertaining, fast to play and I'm sure it will leave you with a sweet passionate longing for those times long gone, hanging in the depths of a forgotten memory among lost dreams, floating lightly through the membranes of a heavy melancholy, a testament to an age frozen in time, distant and near, but impossible to relive. Okay, enough prose.

 

Another plus is the fact that the WAD presents interesting gameplay without being complicated or unfair. It is fast and with a traditional design, but the combat is entertaining and, at times, even relaxing thanks to its modest design, which despite its simplicity, manages to satisfy without much needed. It's not a crazy challenge, but more like a trip up a mountain; it's relaxing, calming and lets you admire the scenery, but it will also make you work those legs. SLUGFEST.WAD, it may sound like a slug to play, but nope! It's 10 solid maps that are worth reliving one more time. Do it.

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Satan's Hell Hole (cheese.wad) - 09/12/1994 - played via GZDOOM 4.1.2

 

I was a bit on the fence on recommending this WAD, as it has many of the issues that plagued 1994 maps... But there's just so much about this level that I liked, that I had to get the word out to others. This is a WAD created by Matthew G. Hooper.

 

I'm going to get this out of the way: There are a LOT of inescapable pits in this map, none particularly hard to avoid - there is also a quite unpleasant teleporter puzzle that you can cheese, (no pun intended) by viewing the automap as you go through them. Also, the blue skull doors in this map open up without the blue key - this is intentional, but it will confuse you at first - you are given the real blue key later in the map, and it is used to open the blue door in the 'hub' room. Seems like the author liked the decorative look of the blue skull texture, and so used it like a standard door... a weird choice even for 1994.

 

I hope the above concerns don't scare everyone away from this map - this is a really complex level for '94! The good in this map far outweighs the 'bad' here. This is a hub based map, in the sense that you usually will end up going to some other area, only to return to the hub area to progress to the next area. The hub room is very cool, and contains a massive 4-sided 'Icon of Sin'-like texture, at least that's what it reminds me of. The eyes are hollow, and there are imps shooting through the empty eye sockets - a really cool effect to see, and some really interesting texture work. You hardly see textures this size even nowadays, so I found this area quite intriguing.

 

For some inexplicable reason, there is a McDonalds knock-off in this map - this is my favorite part of the level, the restaurant comes complete w/ docile zombiemen clerks, little sitting booths, (empty of tables for some reason) and a pair of washrooms, complete w/ two barons *ahem* using the facilities... It is worth killing both of them, as there is a supercharge in one of the stalls. Actually, I say this is my favorite area, but it's really a tough choice between the 'petrified' cybie in the coffin - and this... Really difficult choice to make, there's just so much in this mission that is memorable / visually appealing.

 

You will fight against around 140 enemies, and there are 8 secrets - an interesting feature about these secrets is that they are predominately 'nested'. Meaning, if you find one, stick around, and check for others - the secrets aren't particularly OP in this level - no massive stocks of power-ups, moreso stuff like a chainsaw, some ammo, a bunch of health / armor bonuses, etc. Pay especial attention to the red corridors section of this map. Combat is easy in this map,(on UV) this map seems to be a bit too large in most places for anything to be properly dangerous - you'll have more than enough room to circle-strafe all of your opposition, in pretty much every location...

 

An interesting sequence early on in this map, is when you grab the yellow key from the nukage area - once you do this, the series of red geometrical 'arches' you passed through will become fast crushers - I always enjoy when mappers make backtracking exciting like this - it's so much better than just going through the same area again w/ no consequence. Oh yeah, the 'uac base' computer texture in the fourth image is actually a door...

 

I feel bad having suggested a map that requires so much foreknowledge before jumping in; it really is worth the slight bit of extra 'work', though. The map looks super cool for the time period, and there are some VERY creative sections - namely the 4-sided Icon of Sin 'hub' room, and the McDonalds restaurant. Not to mention the petrified cybie in the coffin - I found that quite funny!

 

The map holds one more interesting area - the final area. This is shown in image 6. See all those barons? They don't exist. That's just a really crafty animated texture - startled the hell out of me when I first saw it! To get into this area, you need to open a large red door at the end of that red corridor section, I previously mentioned.The red corridors are also where the map's only chaingun is - super peculiar to only just then place a chaingun this far into the level, you'd think it would make its appearance earlier, as it isn't even particularly useful in this section of cheese.wad. Once you enter this large final room; there begins a brief switch 'puzzle' where you just simply run to one side of the room, flick a switch, and then run to the other side of the room to flick the opposite switch - really easy, I'm sure most every doomer has done this type of puzzle at least once. The map ends w/ a BBS ad - I thought this was cute, I'm always a sucker for that type of thing, as you all know.

 

Okay, so this is a really ambitious map for the time, both in size and texture design / choice.

I think this map is important to remember primarily for the above two reasons - not to mention the author seems to have a great understanding of what looks aesthetically interesting - there are next to no misalignments, and not a single visual glitch that I was able to find.

 

It is really clean in its design, I just wish there was some slightly clearer progression - though, keep in mind - it only took me 21 minutes to complete this map, and I spent very little of that wandering around aimlessly - hopefully if you decide to play this, you'll have to spend even less time lollygagging, and more time dooming! Took me 21 minutes w/ all the 'obscured' progression in mind - so should take one of you about 12-15, seeing as that is mostly cleared up, now.

 

Give it a shot, if you're in a turbo-old-school mood - just keep in mind this isn't a perfect map; it is pretty damn fun, though. Especially seeing all the new assets - easily the best part of the level. I say try it out, it might speak to you, like it did to me! :D

 

Spoiler

 

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Download link: https://bit.ly/3CQMy7T

Edited by Arrowhead

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1 minute ago, joepallai said:

To this day I think Cheese is responsible for the Icon of Sin being created.

Now that's an interesting hypothesis - the dates would certainly work. I wish we could know what user pwads the id team was playing after Doom1's release - surely it's possible that they might have come across this map, as it was pretty ambitious for the time...

 

The resemblance that texture has to the IoS is quite uncanny...

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I was thoroughly enjoying Map04 of Slugfest when I encountered this VPO (NE corner facing SW).    Didn't encounter the other vpo's shown despite having gone into those areas.   Mapset is solid so far and highly enjoyable.  Going back into the map and will plan around that spot.    

 

slugvpo.png

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Now up to Map09 and encountered no other problems.   Favorite maps so far are 4, 6, 8, 1-3, then 7.   Didn't care for map 5's grind fom a pistol start.   Map 9 I'm liking but had to stop at due to poor playing on my part, will get back to it tomorrow.   Overall this is excellent; featuring fast paced levels set to good music, terrible sound replacements (standard practice for the time) and fun combat situations.   

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dickie10.wad - 07/30/1998 - played via GZDOOM 4.1.2

 

dickie10.wad is a challenging WAD - and a worthwhile end to the venerable dickie series. This map is by Richard Wiles - a really talented author who was active mainly from  1998-2002, but who then took a hiatus, and came back w/ the interesting monolith series in 2006-2007. I hardly ever hear anything about this author, which is a shame, as he really had a deep understanding of Doom2's gameplay mechanics, and has impeccable monster placement. This particular map plays on MAP10 of Doom2.

 

There are about 175 enemies on UV, w/ a lot of those being tougher medium-class demons. Wiles uses the Doom2 roster to great effect - and clearly knows what demons compliment each other. There are a few creative / fun fights that I liked in particular. The first fight in the map is quite easy, but it feels really good to play. Essentially, about 30 imps spawn into the room, and you need to clear them out w/ the single-shotty - you have more than enough ammo to get the job done, it just feels satisfying to slay that many imps in a row...

 

This is also where the only progression difficulty in this map occurs - this one is pretty logical, but can still be missed / misunderstood. There is a shootable switch w/ a yellow key border around it - this switch is not immediately obvious as shootable, as you would maybe think you need the yellow key first, and then find some way to press it. What it does is lower the walls around the yellow key, so you can take it and use it on the yellow door in the main hallway. This switch is also likely to be shot by mistake when fighting the lost souls initially in the area - so it really isn't too bad.

 

Once you have the yellow key, you need to open the 2 yellow doors in the hallway. I recommend going into the bigger of the two rooms first, and getting the first arch-vile fight out of the way. This is also where you get the red key, and the SSG. There is a cool arch-vile that you see first, and then it teleports back to the entrance of the room, this is a tough fight, as there were a bunch of shotgunners and revenants in this room, and the 'vile will likely revive some of them. Mop these up, then go back to the other yellow door, and jump down the chute into the blue key area.This area is probably one of the easier in the map - as there is no ambush / punishment for grabbing the blue key - now off to the arch-vile room...

 

I think there are six arch-viles in this level, (on UV) but I may have miscounted. That may seem like a ton, but four of them are in this same room. They are situated in each of the corners in the blue key room, and are really tough to fight - the angles you are given here are absolutely cruel. I recommend not even shooting them, treating them like any other environmental hazard, and just dekeing into the two narrow hallways in the middle of the room. There are switches here which open the next area of the level.

 

This next area is a really expansive room w/ some kind of reactor in the centre. You need to press two computer consoles on opposite sides of the massive room. I was going to give the author heck for using 'unmarked' computer consoles - but they aren't unmarked - if you look at the automap any time in this room, you'll see the massive glowing arrows pointing to the consoles. A little obscure, but really not too bad - the consoles are in pretty suspicious places for people to not want to interact w/ them anyway. These consoles open up the reactor in the middle of the room, so you can travel across the big room more easily. Once you do this, you need to climb a couple platforms up to the top of the room, where you will fight an extremely oppressive 4 pain elemental fight - there are also cacos, but they're hardly an issue compared to the pain elementals - prioritize those first - you'll have lots of rockets at this point, so make sure to use them - even if such a tactic is normally frowned upon. Tough.

 

The final encounter in this map is counter-intuitive, but unique. This is a 'fight' against a cyber on the upper platform. This is where you might realize that there is a Romero head somewhere in the map... You should be able to see a big flashing red tunnel from this top position - if you or the cyber shoots into the tunnel it will kill the Romero head, and end the level.

 

There are two ways to go about this fight. You can snag the BFG, and try to get a quick 2-shot off against the cybie, (difficult if you're playing keyboard only like I am) and then fire 3-5 rockets into the tunnel, (you're gonna want to save a few rockets if you want to use this method) and there you go, you win! Or, alternatively, you can travel to the other side of the room, where the cybie will see you and shoot 'through' the reactor to hit the Romero head in the red tunnel. This second way was how I won the level the first time - I think it's the intended way, as Wiles gives a somewhat rude hint in the readme at the end: "OK - if you're reading this, I guess you're stupid.  Try getting out more....read a few books etc. It's simple really, just leave the cyberdemon alone!!!!!"

 

Great map. The most difficult I've played in this project so far. Play this if you want a fairly challenging time; the map is no slouch in the visual department, either though, one look at the screenies is enough to see that! This is the final level in the dickie series for a reason! :)

 

Spoiler

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Download link: https://bit.ly/3xkHO9E

Edited by Arrowhead

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On 11/18/2021 at 10:53 PM, Arrowhead said:

Sander Dee. This appears to be the only level Dee has made.

Other wads by Sander Dee for Doom 2

Prison.wad

LEV01EXT.WAD (Level 1- The Extended Version)

Sander Dee

 

On 11/19/2021 at 11:08 PM, Arrowhead said:

'Richard', and is the first of three WADs he published in 1997.

The first wad released by Richard, Good.wad (mywad.zip), is available on his site  (Wayback Machine)

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1 minute ago, thestarrover said:

 

Your WAD finding skills never ceases to amaze me - thanks a lot for these! :D

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