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

[LadyMistDragon]

9 hours ago, Endless said:

Always love little references to retro sci fi works in WADs. Reminds me of the Altair WADs that reference Forbidden Planet.

The fool, the meddling idiot....

 

(i don't actually know if it says that in Altair, but I wanted the excuse to use that quote :P)

[LadyMistDragon]

Temple of Hate - 12/10/97 - Played in Crispy Doom 5.12.0

 

Honestly, there hasn't really been tons of incentive to do this lately but due to the recent activity, I thought I might as well write a little bit about the map I just played, though not too much.

 

Anyways, this map has some obvious 90s traits, primarily those of sound effects of alerted monsters being replaced with "Join us" and the title screen actually looking quite cool!

 

The map itself has some weird damage tagging (blue poison leaks from an altar but for some reason won't hurt us on the lava itself) but some surprisingly cool locations such as a ritual room, a sacrificial slab, a high priest in a room of slime, a major shrine probably used for executing people and an exit teleporter of flesh walls and shaped like a star.

 

The combat itself is less impressive but still carries the map. The Super Shotgun is withheld until we come upon the final altar and secrets are necessary if we want to get through some of the narrower corridors. Moreover, it's not really recommended to bother with most of the flyers in the final crater area unless you spark some seriously generous infighting because the amount of spare ammo anywhere is barely there. 

 

The crater is kind of a mixed bag. Accidentally or otherwise, it conveys scale and leaping through the ledges is kind of fun BUT there's at least one jump that can be called blind and the other can probably be glanced through the map, but the design here was still bad.

 

Despite that, it's not wholly bad to play by any means!

 

 

Link

 

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[LadyMistDragon]

I also wanted to do that one called Guardian but I need to check some other stuff atm.

 

DELCRET.WAD (DOWNTOWN2) - 6/1/1995 - Played in Crispy Doom 5.12.0

 

Tony Soderlund is not someone whose name rings much of a personal bell when compared to other popular 90s wad authors like Doug Ryerson and Bob Reganess. But on the other hand, if this map's any evidence, he drew about as much inspiration from the real world as Bob Reaganess, though I'm not sure he was capable of the latter's abstract oddities at times.

 

No matter, though, this is a real treasure, possibly located in an unmodified form in the CompuServe holy grail but it's also easy to see why the legendary Lupinx-Kassman uploaded this just as he was starting to get serious about mapping. The amount of custom textures used is actually kind of limited (there's buildings which use Wolfenstein blue, for instance) but all buildings are clearly marked, if perhaps not in English. But there's just enough to make the depiction of a city actually feel somewhat convincing in spots. There's a gas station, club with a Cacodemon telling jokes or singing to a party of zip, a bank, a hotel, a stadium and for some reason, even the id software headquarters, though I doubt it was in Germany, contrary to what the foreign language signs would have the player believe.

 

One of the best parts is the Doomcute of the monsters though. Getting attacked by human enemies in the gun store is kind of expected but just wait what happens when we break into the vault! All cops are bastards and fascists and blah, blah, blah. The id headquarters is the best though. Head into the offices and there's Barons in two of them but John Romero's office is occupied by an Arch-vile because of course. Then there are chaingunners and Imps at seemingly every reception desk. The only somewhat tricky ambushes are the SS attacks though, but the challenge really isn't the point. Except for dodging the obligatory Cyberdemon in the city streets and he can be a real problem if you're not careful. There are weapons one can find that are effective against him though.

 

That and navigation aren't going to win this map any awards but arguably, the ability of exploring a city itself is its own reward and while it plays like every other Doom map in the sense of finding 3 keys and exiting, the custom textures that include some flashing and scrolling bits are indelibly charming and have to be taken on their own terms

 

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[LadyMistDragon]

Advanced Unknown Mariner World - 2/19/96 - Played in Crispy Doom 5.12.0

 

Japanese wad development (like other countries where it's not widely played) is one of those sorts of topics you're only going to find most information in the language of origin due to how niche it is. It's possible that there were plenty of Japanese maps shared in the 90s that were never uploaded to /idgames. Like this one, created by someone called MT and let me just say one thing: it stands out.

 

It kind of feels like the sort of thing that may have influenced a Japanese mapper or two who went on to make content for the JPCP like Nanami, creator of the quite-charming Bad Dream. Moreover though, this isn't some stereotypical texture mishmash but what feels like a sincere attempt to create an actual place, and not just a level, which might be fine, but doesn't necessarily fit the out-of-the-box artistic approach some Japanese mappers might take.

 

Anyway, the sense of place here shines. A canal running through the middle of everything, buildings collapsing as if though they might've had to withstand a bombing, and out of one channel, rad leakage can be seen!

 

Is it fun to play? Ehhhh........it's cool to see enemies teleporting on a somewhat random basis but environs get incredibly cramped in spots and monster placement has some degree of randomness where considerations' concerned. It's a fun space to explore though, a location one can really stop and admire the detailing. For the sheer fact that it's not as anoymous as that one Japanese mapper people who've trawled through retro wads will probably know of (he did a Christmas wad of sorts), it's worth taking a look at, and to be honest, it's a perfectly do-able map once ya get your bearings. But maybe you should drop the difficulty because it's quite a nasty one, really!

 

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[thestarrover]

DoomRaider by Dirk Sessler, 1997

Doom II, Map01

GZDoom

Originally conceived on OS/2 and released for the Amiga Doom ports by Dirk Sessler in 1997, DoomrRider was inspired by the PSX game Tomb Raider.

It is a map set in a sort of base hidden inside a huge cave. The level focuses more on exploration than on fighting: there are various switches to find to unlock doors and new areas and a couple of these, at the beginning of the level, are a little difficult to find because they are well hidden or positioned in areas where you must explore the cave carefully. To complete the level you need two keys (blue and yellow) and to press a well-protected switch. As I said, the fights are not difficult and there are not many monsters to face: on Hurt Me Plenty to die is quite difficult, considering that outside the cave there is a landing zone where there are many medikits. It is better to play the level in UV or Nightmare skill. The design in my opinion is very nice with high tech elements that integrate very well with the enormous cave, which can be explored not only in its width but also in its height, with elevated areas where it is possible to see the inside of the base and vice versa. The cave is also enriched by a titanic door and gigantic walls which can block the path.

Although it's not difficult, I think it's worth playing the level just for its pleasant design.

Dirk Sessler had planned to continue the series, but I haven't found any other info about it at the moment.

In the zip archive it is also included a sound patch: it replaces the pistol and chaingun sound effects.

The wads were released with the ".pwad" extension. GZDoom loads the file regularly, however to play the level on DosBox you must rename the files.

 

:

 

Download (repackaged released): Doom2_wads.zip 

 

Original package on Aminet.net  (levels bundled with an amiga utility)

[Walter confetti]

That's a really unexpected find: A doom map based upon Tomb Raider years before the one did by Russel Pearson in 2002 iirc and with that level of detail i see in the shots from a 1997 map is a thing you can't see everyday!

[thestarrover]

The cave design and colors are really beautiful. I really like the details of the main entrance of the base shown in the second shot. I couldn't find any information about Sessler unfortunately.

[Arrowhead]

2 minutes ago, thestarrover said:

The cave design and colors are really beautiful. I really like the details of the main entrance of the base shown in the second shot. I couldn't find any information about Sessler unfortunately.

Very nice map - 'Dirk Sessler' sounds like some kind of 80s action hero name...

[thestarrover]

5 minutes ago, Arrowhead said:

Very nice map - 'Dirk Sessler' sounds like some kind of 80s action hero name...

Or the main character of a crime TV series... :)

[Insaneprophet]

I albsolutely remember this when it was made. I have it on one of my floppy discs and remember finding the web page it was on back in what, 97?, there was a full wwb page write up about the making and details of it with pics and a download. Doom and Tomb Raider were the only games I played and I was in heaven. 😝

[thestarrover]

17 minutes ago, Insaneprophet said:

I albsolutely remember this when it was made. I have it on one of my floppy discs and remember finding the web page it was on back in what, 97?, there was a full wwb page write up about the making and details of it with pics and a download. Doom and Tomb Raider were the only games I played and I was in heaven. 😝

It is fantastic! I wonder if the site is still online...maybe saved by wayback machine... Thanks for the info! :)