Endless Random /idgames WAD Adventures #018

[ICID]

^{(logo by @4MaTC)}

 

ICID, what the hell is this now?

Endless Random /idgames WAD Adventures is a small project of exploration, interaction, entertainment and reviews where we meet once every 2 weeks to select random WADs in search of hidden treasures, lost promises, or our worst nightmares! We use the /idgames archive’s special feature that lets us search for random files. Of course, sometimes they are resources or unplayable stuff, so we focus on looking for WADs.

 

The event is named after its originator, fearless leader and WAD reviewer par excellence Endless, but I am helping to run things for the time being.

 

So, what do we do here?

1. Play at least 5 random WADs in a two-week period of time. WADs are selected using the Random File feature on /idgames or from the list below.
2. Post a review of each WAD. There’s no required pacing (you can do all 5 on the first day if you want), but most of us post a review once every 1-2 days.
3. Please take screenshots or video of your adventures.
4. Play however you want, on any skill level, and with any source port, as long as you play the WAD as intended/in working shape.
5. Review with integrity - be respectful. Good rule of thumb: making fun of a map is okay, making fun of the mapper is not.

 

What kind of WADs are we looking for?

Mostly singleplayer Doom or Heretic WADs that work in your sourceport(s) of choice. You can skip DM WADs if you don’t have anyone to play with. I also pull at least 7 random WADs for the event and add them here. Feel free to play them with me if you wish, or look for your own! The point of the event is to encourage you to explore this vast, random world. 

 

Tips/recommendations for commenting/reviewing:

Spoiler

1. Always provide the name of the WAD, the name of the author, and a link to the file. Very important.
2. Commenting the source port and skill-level is not required, but provides helpful context to your review.
3. Try to stick to no more than 1 WAD per day to avoid burnout, but this part’s all up to you, champ!
4. As mentioned above, screenshots or videos are awesome.
5. Reviews of all formats are valid. Both longform and shortform are good as long as you write with integrity. 

 

Endless Random /idgames WAD Adventures of this event: 

1. Palace of Sky and Water

2. Pits of Despair

3. Beyond Horrible!

4. Induction

5. Revolting Rocks

6. Abyssal Speedmapping Session 26

7. Latchhatch

8. Rayzik’s Birthday Doom 2015

 

Spoiler

The Top 10 (out of 28)

 

1. @Roofi | 2145
2. @Sena | 910
3. @Walter confetti | 440
4. @ICID | 385
5. @Endless | 325
6. @LUISDooM | 235
7. @smeghammer | 210
8. @LadyMistDragon | 165
9. @Maribo | 145
10. @Biodegradable | 105

 

Join the Doom Master Wadazine community for more events like this! » https://discord.gg/Q2RKn4J

[Walter confetti]

I guess last time TMD prayers are been heard from the gods of idgames algorithm lol

 

And you have again a double dose of confetti both in Beyond Horrible (even if my nickname is mispelled) and in ASS 26. The map in beyond horrible is a map I'm pretty proud of how come out, i was thinking about it some days ago!

 

Don't be afraid for the number of maps in Abyssal, the level are almost all pretty short.

[TMD]

Yeah no they saw the callout and didnt want to raise suspicion.

In a series declared random, there sure are a lot of coincidences.

[Sena]

Day 1: Palace of Sky and Water https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/s-u/skywater

 

Third time's the charm? Don't get your hopes up, because this trilogy of maps is nothing short of painful. Map 1 involves being deployed into a huge room with shit being thrown at you from all sides, three doors you can't go in, and a nukage path that has nothing in it, meaning the map is, by definition, unplayable. Map 2 gives you a ton of obnoxious teleports when you just want to advance, jumping is probably cheating but no chance I'm going to actually try and play this shit properly, as if they didn't have to make a convoluted map where everything looks the same and you have no idea where to go they had to put in a ton of teleporters to disorient you further. Bourgeois Deathmatch had the right idea, if you're going to make a map in which the player is being exposed to enemy fire almost all the time, number one, make the level simple to navigate because nobody wants to backtrack or get lost when having to deal with homing revenant missiles every 10 seconds, and number two, actually give them some fucking weapons. Map 3 is basically a repeat of the first one - three doors, you can't go in any of them, you can go downstairs, but you can also shove a wrench up your arse if you feel like it, it's going to do about as much in allowing you to progress through this WAD. 2/10, downright travesty this one.

[ICID]

Palace of Sky and Water (1999) by Sam Ketner

 

^{Play Settings}

^{Source port: prboom+, complevel 2}

^{Difficulty: Ultra-Violence}

 

This is the first time I’ve ever played anything by Sam Ketner – the late 90s, early 2000s Doom auteur best known for his early ZDoom standout Assault on Tei Tenga – and it left me wondering whether the man was a genius or an idiot, because it feels like the person who made “Palace of Sky and Water” must have been one of the two.

 

Let’s start with the good: I love the look of these levels. They have a classical style augmented with just enough textures from other Doom games (most notably Strife) to stand out. They’re intricate structures that fold in and around themselves with truly impressive moments of design, like when the walls fall in map03 to reveal a fortress much grander than the one you initially thought you were assaulting. It would take me weeks to think of, let alone build, something this impressive on a purely technical level.

 

 

The downside is perhaps predictable: these here levels are confusing as hell. MAP01 marks the first time I have failed to find even the second room of an ER/iWA map, and I assure you it was not for lack of trying. You start in a big open area surrounded by key doors and monsters (including revenants and some brutally-placed chaingunners) who get to take free chunks of your health as you run around trying to get somewhere new. Is it the teleport pad in the corner? Nope, that’s just for decoration apparently. Is it the complicated slime maze? As far as I can tell, that only leads you back to the aforementioned key doors. My best guess is that you need some kind of SR50 jump somewhere, but I truly have no idea.

 

MAP02 is similar, taunting you with platforms that are just a little too high for you to actually climb up. But while progression’s a little more reasonable, the monster count (and how they’re used) spikes to egregious levels, with the only way I know of to proceed requiring you to mow down a tight corridor packed with a couple dozen imps. It is at least possible to get SOME new weapons in this map – in particular, the relief I felt when I finally found the super shotgun was a palpable rush.

 

Which brings me back to the “genius or idiot” thing. Because in many ways – the nonfunctional teleporter, the insane placement of weapons and totally useless ammo caches – Sky and Water feels like an amateur effort. But in that moment, it felt like maybe this is just a type of gameplay we’re not used to. Running past monsters instead of killing them, weapons that are like powerups rather than expected tools in a well-worn toolbox…these are things I usually find thrilling in early maps (see my unapologetic love of Jim Flynn.) Was I just not getting it?

 

 

Not too much to say about MAP03 – it’s the only one I managed to finish (or even find a single key in) and therefore the one I enjoyed most, despite the continued presence of too many paths and enemies (augmented here with shoddy texturing and windows that are way too easy to fall out of). Maybe this set is more than I’m inclined to give it credit for, or maybe I’ve already given it too much benefit of the doubt – either way, all I know for sure is that I didn’t have much fun with it. I’m rating it squarely in the “interesting failure” category.

 

Grade: 5/10

TL;DR: Beautiful, challenging, but mostly just confusing.

[ICID]

Also: I find the implication that I would fake the randomness of the ER/iWA very funny (to what possible end? would I do this?) BUT instead of arguing I will use this as an opportunity to remind everyone that you are under no obligation to go with the choices in the OP - you are welcome to instead go to the /idgames archive and hit the "Random File" button for yourself, if you prefer. :)

[Endless]

Europa 3 | By Erik Alm | 2002 | Played on Doom Retro | Ultra-Violence

 

 

Oh, Erik, the lost dream, the great Avatar that left us when we needed you the most. I still dream about your reckoning, your return to the mortal world to spoil us with such blessings. Anyway! This is Europa 3, the 3rd installment in the Europa series that I haven't played yet, but if this one gives me a good bite of the cake, I can say that this is a great trilogy, or, eh, cake. Erik indicates that this particular WAD is inspired by the Vrack series, and boy can we see the inspiration clearly in the super detailed design and sadistic difficulty level. Typical Erik. This is a medium-to-large sized map, with a style reminiscent of Vrack in its over-detail, linedefs art and depth in every meter. Erik himself points out that if your PC is slower than PII 200 Mhz, you won't be able to play this WAD, so you better get your beast out and overclock your PC to the max to enjoy this experience to the fullest, and boy is it worth it. The map is visually simple in its use of textures, but incredibly complex in the amount of detail, adding a sense of well-done depth that creates a delightful sense of wonder. The map feels like a sort of floating mining station in space, succumbing to the fury of the underworld. A lot of fury is encountered with over 400+ demons on this map, most of them being challenged through combat arenas with teleportation traps and overwhelming numbers. The difficulty is high, no doubt, but it is not, at its cruelest, unfair. Although you will feel overwhelmed at times, there is always more than enough opportunity to defend yourself from the demons, and attack them with everything. A good luck to have found this map. I always wanted to play the Europa series but it crossed my mind, and I am satisfied. It is a map created by Erik Alm, what do you expect? It's epic.

 

Hellhole.WAD | By The Hound | 1995 | Played on Doom Retro | Hurt Me Plenty

 

 

Well, my lucky streak only lasted for 1 map.

 

Hellhole.WAD, uploaded to /idgames in 2010, but actually made in 1995. For being from that year, I have to admit that the general design, especially of the first area of the map, are not bad at all. It's decent and has no major visual errors apart from a few texture misalignments, but after that, I've seen worse, much worse. However, this map fails radically in the gameplay sector. As one of the wise reviewers of /idgames put it: Testing your maps in God Mode is not a good idea. The map is overrun with enemies, with practically no ammo or weapons to enjoy it. That change alone would have done substantial wonders for the average value of the quality of this map. It's cramped, dark, confusing and ridiculously difficult thanks to arbitrary enemy placement that's all about making your life miserable, not to mention the new addiction of what appears to be some modified SS officers using the shotgun. A pity, because I'm sure that, had there been a more accurate and humane approach to the gameplay, this map would have had a better fate. Truly, a hell hole.

Laser Wars | By Charles C. Josephs (AKA Mystical Beast) Josh Feinblum (AKA The Reaper) | 1995 | Played on Doom Retro

 

 

A deathmatch map, why not? This one caught my attention for including a conversion designed for Heretic, something we don't see much, apart from DM maps for Heretic, is maps that are converted for both games. A nice touch and thought on the part of the author. Unfortunately, that's the only good thing about it. This map fails as a DM, and unlike a few authors of the time that used to include monsters for Singplayer, this doesn't, so it's not worth playing in any mode. It is a dull, boring and badly designed map, with a terrible layout. It even has an invisible blocking lindef in the middle of the map for... reasons? Well, at least I hope the authors had fun designing it together.

 

Hell Keep (Console Remix) | By Samuel Villarreal, Midway INC. | 2002 | Played on Doom Retro | Ultra-Violence

 

 

Kaiser is quite well known for its efforts to bring new life to the console versions of Doom, and you can tell this is a passion that was born since the very beginning. Hell Keep is, originally, MAP17: Hell Keep from the PSX version of Doom. It is quite the charming little level. This is a conversion, or replica, of the original one made for Ultimate Doom, but now for Doom 2 replacing MAP21. The original author of this map is unknown, but seems to have had the fundamental basis for the design, but not so much the practice. It is a small map, with exactly 504 linedefs and a few textures themed around Hell. It's simple, rather modest in its presentation possibly due to the limitations of the time, but thanks to that I can say it's charming in its sympathetic way of presenting such a small, but at the same time, basic level that, despite not standing out in anything, doesn't contain major flaws either. I don't see any problems with it and it's that kind of level that it doesn't really matter if you play it or not, you don't lose anything, but you don't lose anything playing it either. If you're interested in the history of Doom console maps, give it a try. Not bad for its time.

NiGHTMARE Speedmapping Compilation #2 | Various authors | 2002 | Played on Doom Retro | Hurt Me Plenty*

 

 

Well, that sucked. This is the 2nd entry of the NiGHTMARE Speedmapping series. Rather than an event or a series of WADs per se, it was an ''exercise'' for authors to practice their skills under the 100 minute time limit. On the other hand, I'm sure many authors used it to make the equivalent of shitpost but in mapping format. Legends like Erik Alm or Enjay make their presence known in this series, and uh, leave their mark, I think. Practically all the maps are of dubious quality, with the sole exception being MAP03 and MAP04. The rest of the maps seem more like a sad attempt to create something comical and result in something terrible. They are short, boring and most of them are simply too ugly. I'm surprised that authors who are otherwise considered to be born in the art of mapping, participate in events like these just to give maps like... these, heh. One of the mysteries of the great ocean of WADs that we will probably never understand. How deep do these secrets go? We'll never know. If I were you, I'd skip this WAD altogether.

[Sena]

Day 2: Pits of Despair https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom/d-f/despair1

 

Considering what I said yesterday, this WAD has one significant benefit to its design, namely that I can complete it, and it is easy to navigate. However, that is also the main detriment to its design, it is too easy to navigate, on account of the fact the whole thing is just a narrow hallway, guess it's kind of amusing that half the enemy count happens to be lost souls because you couldn't ever get lost in a place like this, not even I could. And that really summarises the whole level, sit in the back of a hallway, shoot stuff with a shotgun, and that's about it, not "and try and avoid dying", because you never could, there's some doors to the side, holding some stuff, mostly enemies, and also an invulnerability, which while helpful in having to kill the baron placed up ahead, doesn't make spending half a minute shotgunning him any less tedious. There's one area that seemed kind of broken, I could only walk on specific squares for no particular reason, but I don't know, there's nothing else to say. This level isn't painful to play, nor is it difficult to get through, my two main issues with most bad maps, but it's just got not much going on. It's not very interesting, but it's playable, and it doesn't have any chaingunners, so I guess it gets a pass from me. 4/10.

[ICID]

Pits of Despair (2005) by Alex Hanson

 

^{Play Settings}

^{Source port: prboom+, complevel 3}

^{Difficulty: Ultra-Violence}

 

After spending hours lost in the corridors of “Palace of Sky and Water”, I have more appreciation for a map that’s just a big, dumb cross loaded with ridiculous numbers of powerups, weapons, and ammo (though weirdly not the chaingun – what do mappers have against this weapon so consistently?)

 

Unfortunately it occasionally tries to be clever and that’s where the lever quickly flips from “stupid in the fun way” to “stupid in the bad way”. The worst offender is this room:

 

 

Believe it or not, this room is a maze. An invisible maze. We’ve had stuff like this in the ER/iWA before and absolutely nothing does a better job of making me Mad Online. Stuck with this one long enough to get the blue armor and get trapped in what appeared to be a four-way deadend before having a word with my good friend IDCLIP and getting the hell out of the map.

 

Not much else to say about this one except that the textures are laughable – often misaligned or missing entirely – and there’s a bunch of hilarious Block Monster lines that make trivial fights even trivial-er. Hilarious. Pits of Despair is hard to like but even harder to hate.

 

Grade: 4/10

TL;DR: Stupid, but harmlessly so, minus the invisible maze.

 

[Sena]

Day 3: Beyond Horrible! https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom/Ports/m-o/oskyrt2

Yeah. An E2 replacement, with some good music, which is probably its greatest strength, I wish I could talk about it at length, but I lack the vocabulary to say anything more than, 'the beeps and boops sound good', however the undeniable fact of the matter is that music cannot save a WAD, because the gameplay is painfully repetitive.

 

Here's a question to you: are Doom's weapons well designed? I am going to guess most people would say yes, and I would guess a good common argument for that is their distinct role, picking up a new one is a real game changer, and they all are used for different things, which makes them all feel unique, compared to some modern game where you can choose between an AK-47, M16, or an MP5, which all do the jack-of-all-trades thing decently enough meaning none of them stand out at all. However, given the choice, if I was forced to play this WAD again (because there's no other circumstance wherein I would), I would do so with those weapons, because, even if they only look, sound and perform marginally different, that is more than I got here. The simplified version of all that is the only gun you use for the entire fucking thing is the shotgun, and as a general rule, the only enemy you get is the shotgunner, nearly every map in the WAD has a 120 enemy minimum, but in those maps, you can probably count on one hand the number of enemies that aren't a shotgunner. These maps are profoundly boring, when the only enemy you have to fight 90% of the time dies immediately, you're walking through these maps as fast as you would be if you had godmode on, and literally never having to stop to deal with a group of enemies or acknowledge your surroundings does wonders in making maps I cannot begin to care for in the slightest. Or at least, that's a general rule, every so often they'll throw in a zombieman, and if they're trying to act really experimental, they'll even put in a baron (at least I managed to catch this one while he was busy taking a dump), to which I say experiment failed, having to shotgun barons is not any less boring just because I've been shotgunning other shit before, you might say this is my fault in my decision to adhere so strictly to this one weapon, but there is zero reason to use anything else, that's part of why Doom's weapon variety is actually good, it has different weapons that are beneficial for different situations, but this WAD refuses to provide you with more than one situation, shotgunners, spread around the edges and corners, no more than 2 at once, have fun, or at least try your best to. The only respite for this purgatory of mediocrity is the closing map, Walter's only contribution (apart from the titlepic, apparently he got banned, don't know if that was from this project or Doomworld itself), which vaguely adheres to the Tower of Babel, i.e. cyberdemon and lost souls, but in a much smaller area, and you just push a bunch of switches around the corners to open a door and get out. Works well enough I suppose, beats having to rocket-duel him, although it's so short it doesn't leave much to think about, which might be for the better, I'd be very impressed if anyone outside the ER/IWA would legitimately have the patience to get to it, the rest of the WAD is so dull, at some point I legitimately think I was having more fun staring at my wall than I was playing it. 2/10.

Edited October 21, 2021 by Sena

[Walter confetti]

8 hours ago, Sena said:

The only respite for this purgatory of mediocrity is the closing map, Walter's only contribution (apart from the titlepic, apparently he got banned, don't know if that was from this project or Doomworld itself), which vaguely adheres to the Tower of Babel, i.e. cyberdemon and lost souls, but in a much smaller area, and you just push a bunch of switches around the corners to open a door and get out. Works well enough I suppose, beats having to rocket-duel him, although it's so short it doesn't leave much to think about

 

Uhm... Aren't you misunderstanding stuff? I made E2M9 (the secret level) that i recall being much more bigger of what are you describing.... E2M8 was made by the project leader @hardcore_gamer, if you want to thank him, thank him! Well, i made a building in the map that in the intentions is actually the Tower of Babel from a distance to where you are, but that's the only thing I made regarding the final map. My map is made upon E2 design tropes and some puzzles...

 

And, uh.... I'm glad you liked the music used in the episode, it's almost all from Rise of the Triad, so thanks again to Lee Jackson for being such a great musician!

[Sena]

8 hours ago, Walter confetti said:

 

Uhm... Aren't you misunderstanding stuff?

 

Yeah, looks like I am. Guess I assumed that E2M9 must have been the level that concluded the episode, seems I'm not as good at counting to 9 as I thought I was.

[Roofi]

Month 5 Day 18

 

I play until I die or intentionally stop. I don't comment the wad where I die/stop.

 

File 1) Rooms of Doom 2 by  @CrazyDoomFan (2021)

 

Spoiler

 

Quote

Training rooms for Doom 2. No beating around the bush, no keys, no puzzles, no labyrinths, no beautiful design, just you, your weapons and monsters to kill. Every level can be beaten (perhaps not from a pistol start) and there is an exit switch around always, just look for it. This is meant to provide combat ideas and scenarios. Enjoy

 

A set of 4 levels, which I think would not qualify as such. Indeed, the author brought only the minimum necessary to know monsters, ammunition and an exit, in short all that it is necessary to play Doom.

 

The first level consists of a large room with randomly positioned monsters. The same for the second level but with a cyberdemon, a mastermind and walls to protect yourself. The third level contains only cybers and SMs.

 

The last level is probably the most "interesting". However, I had a hard time finishing it. The first time, DOSbox crashed and I had to switch to crispydoom. The second time, I had an all-ghost bug. On the last attempt, it took me at least 15 minutes to finish the map, because you have to face a lot of enemies coming from a narrow corridor. They come little by little and I had to play on the infighting to keep my ammo.

 

I'm going to be mean by saying that the maps are stupid but at the same time, I had a lot of fun.

 

 

 

 

I fell in a dead pit full of slime in the single map Lucifer's Temple . I already beat this map during Month 3 Day 12.

 

Spoiler

 

[Sena]

Day 4: Induction https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/themes/TeamTNT/return/inductn

 

This map uses the same graphics resource as Eternal Doom, and the txt tells you to get them off teamTNT.com, a domain which is now for sale, whereas I was able to find it immediately off the idgames archive, and this map itself is made by Ty Halderman, who was the primary maintainer of the archive until his death in 2015, maybe that's symbolic of something, maybe it's a pointless anecdote, I don't know, onto the WAD.

 

To start off with, it certainly looks good, I know I've slagged off Eternal Doom plenty before, but its visual design is its greatest strength, and it comes as no surprise that this WAD is the same way, it might adhere to some been-there-done-that themes, namely libraries and underground caves and a whole lot of stone, but the custom textures go a long way in making it feel new and not like something I've seen before, but even still, it does feel different to most maps, first thing that stuck out to me was that you start off in an outside area, which becomes a major part of the level, which doesn't sound that special, but it's not something you get to see all the time.

However, much like ED, my enjoyment of this WAD was limited greatly but one simple fact, namely that I have no idea where the fuck to go, or what I'm supposed to do to get there, leading to me having to retire early at 90% kills. I'd suggest that the predominant reason for this is just the way in which new areas of the map open up, which is via backtracking, which is also how most combat encounters occur, you can almost always guarantee that if they're going to throw any more than 2 enemies at you, they're going to start teleporting some of them behind you. Fine by me, I can see how some people might find it getting a bit tiresome after a bit, but it didn't really bother me too much, even despite one specific point in which I took some damage I probably shouldn't have because autoaim and stairs didn't agree with each other. The issue that this creates is that the level doesn't really open up in a cohesive manner, you go into a room, you push a button, and you never push a button that then directly opens a door that allows you to continue moving forwards immediately, it's always in some far-off place which leads to you having to backtrack around the whole map to figure out what it was, which gets really bothersome every single time they do it. And that's the schwerpunkt of this WAD really, when you're actually getting to play it, it's good, but in order to do anything you have to spend 10 minutes going around the whole place having to figure out which of the doors of which there are too many to count you're supposed to go into next, and it's never one in a convenient location. 5/10.

[ICID]

Beyond Horrible! (2008) by Hardcore_gamer, The Iron Hitman, and Damion Reloaded

 

^{Play Settings}

^{Source port: k8vavoom}

^{Difficulty: Ultra-Violence}

 

Was originally planning to do a map-by-map review of this one but I honestly wouldn’t have enough to say about most of them. The most notable thing about Hardcore_gamer’s work is that it’s way too dark – literally eye-strainingly so, at times. Other than that, we’re talking default Doom 1 textures and holding down left-click with the basic shotgun until the map ends. It’s a sorry replacement for the original E2, which – love it or hate it – had some of the most interesting and unique visuals and texture usage in classic Doom, seamlessly combining techbases and hellish corruption into something wholly original.

 

 

One exception here: the new E2M4 is a MASSIVE sea change from the rest of the mapset, and a highly welcome one. It’s a much brighter, much more richly-detailed techbase that cleverly uses teleport traps to punish progression and keep combat thrilling while also beefing up your armory with more weapons than you’ve gotten up to that point…which is to say, anything above the aforementioned shotgun. The final fight of this map is an awesome opportunity to splatter imps with the rocket launcher that’s so fun you’ll forget you’re playing this WAD, only to be cruelly reminded of that fact once more in E2M5. A guest author credited as "The Iron Hitman" really delivers the goods here and I would love to see more of their stuff.

 

E2M9 is another guest contribution, which I found mostly forgettable (sorry Walter) despite its impressive and clever visuals. Other than that, "Beyond Horrible!" is a dark slog to the final rocket-only fight with the cyberdemon and his lost soul pals, except even easier than the original E2M8 because you can just exit without killing anything. Would not recommend. Rise of the Triad music never misses, though.

 

Grade: 2/10 (with one 7/10 map)

 

[Roofi]

Month 5 Day 19

 

I play until I die or intentionally stop. I don't comment the wad where I die/stop.

 

File 1) Below by Neil McKellar (1995)

 

Spoiler

Quote

Reports of strange noises in the basement have brought you to a castle in Northern Europe. You go downstairs, gun in hand, to investigate, and now you're trapped there. It looks like someone's been busy redecorating the place, but that's ok. You have a few ideas of your own about color scheme. Time to get to work.

 

An extremely dark underground map, which in my opinion doesn't look like a castle at all despite the marbled area towards the red key but whatever. I rather liked it although there are a lot of narrow corridors of 64 pixels wide.

 

The level doesn't present much difficulty with its fairly classic gameplay and thanks to the fairly plentiful plasma ammo. The rare revenants turn out to be the "biggest" threat. On the other hand, there is no risk of falling into a deadly pit or getting crushed by a surprise ceiling.

 

Visually, it's not bad but nothing special to point out because of the darkness and the very orthogonal layout. However, I appreciate the extensive use of long stairs that bring some relief.

 

A rather ordinary 1990's map but not bad.

 

File 2) Blue Blood Patch by Lunch (1999)

Quote

This wad is a DOOM patch to replace all blood splats with blue ones. I seriously don't know what the point is, but it looks pretty cool.

 

The mod doesn't work for me. I checked the wad on Slade and contains only 3 lumps. Serious, don't download this. 

 

File 3) SCOTDOC2.WAD by Scott Dougherty (1994)

 

Spoiler

Quote

My second wad. This is smaller than my first one, SCOTDOC1.wad. Have fun.

 

A very old level replacing the E2M7 slot that could be described as a kind of trial run. Like almost all the 1994 wads, SCOTDOC2 has no real meaning but seems to take place in a somewhat hellish universe. Anyway, I found this map of good quality because of the creativity of the progression and the traps.

Indeed, the progression, although particularly obscure because of the doors to be opened through windows and by pressing on a green marble texture placed randomly, the author has created something out of the box. I appreciate first of all the attempt to create large circulars instead of staying on square shapes. Secondly, I like the many switches to press to open compartments containing some monsters and other switches. 

The second half of the level is less confusing and more linear. There is an interesting passage where you have to avoid a giant crusher or an elevator that goes down with monsters that are revealed little by little, as we can see in Plutonia map 02 for example.

 

The aesthetics are not very charming but I have seen much worse.

 

 

I stop here for today.

 

[smeghammer]

It's the weekend, so I have a chance to do another of these now the kids are in bed...

 

So, I got 'This Suxxx!' from 1998, by NFS Freak and Weeds.

 

It does too.

 

 

Time for another one I think. Let's hope the Gods of Second Chance are kind to me this time.

 

Spoiler

A brownie point to anyone who gets the reference...

 

[Sena]

Day 5: Revolting Rocks https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/p-r/revro

 

Speedmap by @Khorus, and while I think at this point I've grown quite averse to the S word (and I'm sure tomorrow I'll be able to list off plenty of reasons why), this map doesn't really share any of the issues characteristic of most speedmaps. It involves you having to walk in non-damaging nukage, which is a bit weird, of all the textures to use I don't know what compelled him to use that one, but with that aside, I would struggle to find anything negative to say about the map. At 60 enemies on UV, it is a bit short, but I would much rather have quality over quantity, if anything, it's impressive that they're able to provide such a varied experience on account of the length. There's far more height variation here than is standard, got some good enemy variety, bit heavy on the boner boys but I suppose everyone is heavy on them, and, unlike most speedmaps, it actually looks good, some impressive looking structures, of which the aforementioned height variation contributes majorly to. But, ultimately, there isn't really much that comes to mind about this, it's a solid experience, it doesn't do anything wrong, but I suppose on the contrary it doesn't stand out a great deal either. 7/10, so still worth your time.

[Roofi]

Month 5 Day 20

 

I play until I die or intentionally stop. I don't comment the wad where I die/stop.

 

File 1) Giznad for DOOM ][ Deathmatch by S. Bacquet (1995)

 

Spoiler

Quote

Giznad09.wad is a small-sized level designed for two- or fast three- or four-player DOOM ][ Deathmatch. Supports 2 modes of play (see below) and monsters (use respawn). YOU LIKE DANZIG ? SO YOU WILL LOVE GIZNAD.

 

A small classic DM map that is not very extraordinary. I have to say that it looks more busy than it really is because of the great variety of textures used and the number of switches/teleporters/ports that can be used. Moreover, the structures revolve around a BFG located on a kind of pedestal. 

 

 

 

I got blasted by 2 Arch-viles in Cover

 

Spoiler

[smeghammer]

Aha! A much better one:

 

https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom/d-f/dmbrnd

 

A pretty good, old-school Doom 1 map from 2004, by Scott Harper. I've definitely played this one before. I didn't get all the secrets (but then I wasn't really secret-hunting) but difficulty-wise it was just right for me (therefore probably quite easy in the scheme of things...). Progression is quite good in terms of enemies and the play area is open and non-linear. Spoiled a little it by being Doom 1 limited roster, but enough variation to make this one have good replay value. All in all a well-spent 20 minutes.

 

I played GZDoom, UV, Freelook with no saves, though I didn't get all secrets:

 

 

[Roofi]

41 minutes ago, smeghammer said:

Aha! A much better one:

 

https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom/d-f/dmbrnd

 

A pretty good, old-school Doom 1 map from 2004, by Scott Harper. I've definitely played this one before. I didn't get all the secrets (but then I wasn't really secret-hunting) but difficulty-wise it was just right for me (therefore probably quite easy in the scheme of things...). Progression is quite good in terms of enemies and the play area is open and non-linear. Spoiled a little it by being Doom 1 limited roster, but enough variation to make this one have good replay value. All in all a well-spent 20 minutes.

 

I played GZDoom, UV, Freelook with no saves, though I didn't get all secrets:

 

 

 

Hey, I read the description of the file and it's a 1994 map. It's even better . :)

 

Sometimes, old's 90's wads got uploaded a lot later on idgames like this one.

[ICID]

Induction (1999) by Ty Halderman

 

^{Play Settings}

^{Source port: prboom+, complevel 9}

^{Difficulty: Ultra-Violence}

 

Surely if there's any mapper who needs no introduction, it's Ty Halderman - TNT founder, /idgames maintainer, and project leader of Boom, Eternal Doom, Evilution, and more. Always hard to be objective when you know the work comes from a true blue Doom God.

 

By reasonable measures, this probably isn't very good. It's not really designed to be - it was originally intended as just a tech demo showcase for The Return, the texture pack associated with TNT's magnum opus Eternal Doom III. It looks very nice, as you'd expect, and plays to the usual Halderman strengths of atmosphere and exploration peppered with cramped combat. It's at its best when you're walking down magical stairways to telefrag a cyberdemon or making you way through a hitscanner-packed hallway just to get hit with a surprise mancubus, but most of the time combat is less fun than just exploring the environments. Puzzles and progression seemed pretty easy (at least to someone like me who has Eternal Doom Brainworms and thinks Jim Flynn maps are fun) except for a blue key I never would have found without IDCLIP (after which I of course reloaded and picked it up properly, triggering the single revenant that serves as the map's final boss.)

 

I doubt I'll have a strong memory of Induction a week from now, and almost any other Halderman map is a better use of your time. Still, I enjoyed it. After playing a zillion anonymous 90s maps in a row, it's nice to spend even a few minutes in the world of a serious artist.

Grade: 6/10

TL;DR: Only Ty Halderman could make good Doom out of a texture pack demo.

 

[Sena]

Day 6: Abyssal Speedmapping Session 26 https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/a-c/abyspe26

 

This WAD's like the Doom 3 shotgun: it's hit and miss, and most of the time, it misses. While most speedmap compilations seem to have one general theme, this let the mappers choose between one of three, namely E1, high tier enemies and weapons, or putting all the vertices on the 32 grid, of which the last one is meaningless to me given my lack of knowledge pertaining to actually making maps. It contains 21 maps, but I kind of gave up on it after about 14 of them.

 

You'd think that when so many of these speedmaps have these listed themes, I can actually find myself in agreement with what they claimed to set out to do, but for some reason or another, that's never the case. Doom is a science fiction first person shooter, for which reason, you should expect to see two central things: space, guns, and space guns, but this WAD seems to lack all three, or, to speak in terms that actually make sense, the maps are too narrow and don't give you enough ammo. There are high tier enemies, I certainly witnessed that, if you think having a meagre 10 rockets to deal with a group of barons who number twice that, followed by just as many cacodemons, then by all means, you'll love what you see, but I find that kind of gameplay gets tedious very quick, and it's what the majority of these maps adhere to. With that said, one of the maps just straight up didn't seem to work, as it involved getting a blue key stuck inside of a tree, and those trees are always difficult to negotiate around in the first place, but it is stuck inside of the tree, not next to it, meaning the key is inaccessible and thereby the level cannot be finished. Still, it's not all bad, Jimmy's map was a breath of fresh air with its interesting Hell architecture, interesting architecture not just because it looked different to the E1 style of nearly every other map (though I can't exactly criticise them for that when it was a theme they had to adhere to), but because it played different, it was one of few maps that wasn't just small hallways, revenants/hell knights/barons, no cover, no weapons, and you being asked to figure out the rest, the one advantage speedmaps do have is their short length, you don't want to play that stuff for a long time, but when you're playing 10 of them in a row, that advantage is lost, and most of these levels just offer nothing in the way of fun, and that advantage is definitely is hard to come by when you have to spend 10 minutes instigating infighting and scavenging for ammunition, because just trying to get in and get out isn't an option. 4/10.

[Roofi]

Month 5 Day 21

 

I play until I die or intentionally stop. I don't comment the wad where I die/stop.

 

File 1) Techno Takedown by @Dreadopp (2014)

 

Spoiler

 

Quote

It's a smaller map with a bit more of an old- school feel to it (I think). Don't forget to save often!

 

A small but very detailed tech-base with a little less than 100 monsters. Nothing particularly difficult, but the strict ammo balance and some traps make this level quite dangerous. Moreover, you start directly surrounded by monsters and especially zombies that can easily take away precious health Points.

 

Actually, you can find boxes of shells as well as bullets if you look hard enough in the corners. For example, towards the yellow key, you have to go into the slime canal to find ammunition. There are 5 secrets, which is a lot for the size of the map. The funny thing is that three of them are nearby in the big room full of boxes. In my adventure, I didn't manage to find the backpack though.

 

The gameplay remains particularly standard. So I liked this map mostly for the aesthetics. I like the fan in the central room, but an interesting boom effect would have been to animate it with a voodoo doll. I'm quibbling a little bit, I loved the cavernous grassy area in the northern part of the map and from now on I would have appreciated natural areas separating the tech areas. There is however a real work on the outside scenery, allowing to reinforce the atmosphere. In the same way, the music "Astral Dreadnought" of Jimmy will always remain a classic to use and reuse without moderation.

 

In any case, a very good little find in the giant trash called idgames.

 

File 2) August03.wad by Kenneth Jacobsen (TheAugustMan) (1996)

 

Spoiler

 

Quote

A level for Deathmatch only. It's sort of an "arena-style" level and even though it's big, it's quite simple so you still can get some action going with 2 players only. I recommend 3 or 4 players for a good game though.

In my opinion, DEATHMATCH 2.0 sucks but I admit that it's great for a level like this so please play this level with DEATHMATCH 2.0 rules. HINT: To get the Rocket/SuperShotgun/MegaArmor you need to *RUN* from top of the cross... and when I say *RUN* I mean running DIAGONAL (shift-forward-strafe)...it makes you run a bit faster in case you didn't know...try it! Note: * skill 1/2 All weapons available except the BFG * * skill 3/4/5 all weapons available INCLUDING the BFG! *

Hope it rocks on your network/modem; that's what it's made for!...

 

A fairly standard Deathmatch map from the August series. From memory I played August08 and 02 I think, but no matter.

 

I have nothing special to say but I love the theme consisting of a small park with high hedges and a small white stone path. To get to the BFG and other weapons you have to take an elevator to climb over these hedges.

 

File 3) DeathMatch Afternoon v1.0 by J.C. Bengtson (SailorScout) (1999)

 

Spoiler

 

Quote

This level was built for my afternoon DeathMatches, hence the title. It consists of a central raised area around which there are several walkways and weapons. There are also several "hiding-holes", perfect for an ambush.

All the weapons are present, as are a Soul Sphere, Combat Armor, Beserk Pack and a Backpack. These items can only be reached by lowering one of the outer lifts, then running to the corresponding plat in the center.

There is no exit in this map, so you'll have to play it with the '-timer' parameter. I usually like DM levels where there is an exit, but in testing I found it led to too many people accidentally pressing the exit switch as they ran to the center.

In addition to the stuff mentioned above, each of the four corners of the level are color-coded; red, blue, green and gray. This helps you tell which direction is which, as well as where the weapons are.

 

The author description is enough self-explanatory here. Extremly basic but looks ok and pretty consistent. I liked the midi but it was too short and morover unfinished. Also, according to the text file, the author made the level in 1997 despite being released in 1999.

 

File 4) Q-ZONE TeamDM Arena by G-money (CyberPlay BBS) aka Static (SJ Dwango/H2H) (1996)

 

Spoiler

 

Quote

4 player team deathmatch level with a lasertag concept (Q-zar, UltraZone). See *Rules* below.

 

Another Deathmatch map, but this one really stands out and has its own concept! I copy and paste the famous rules mentioned in the description.

Spoiler

* Rules *

Objective:

   -  to win.  hey, it's true :)
   -  to score points by deactivating your opponent's HQ, and to defend your
      own HQ against attacks.  The first team to reach 100 points wins.

 

Starting off:

  1.  All 4 players start off in the briefing room.  Split into 2 teams, Red
      team and Green team, and enter the appropriate door.  Be sure to grab
      a weapon before running down the stairway.
  2.  When you enter the arena, you will be inside your own HQ.  Decide on
      who will stay to guard the base and who will attack.
  3.  If you die, you will start back in the briefing room.  Again, be sure
      to enter the side corresponding with your team color.  You will then be
      teleported into the arena in one of 4 locations.
      
How to score:

  1.  When you reach enemy territory, you will notice a partition in front of
      their base.  On the outside of this partition is a button marked
      "DisArm HQ".  Press the button and you will hear a loud warning tone.
      This tone alerts all players that the base is now vulnerable to attack.
      An opening on the wall will appear inside the HQ.  This opening will
      only last for a few seconds before closing again, so you must hurry.
  2.  Run around the partition into the base.
  3.  Now stand on the blue steps facing the wall opening.  You will see a
      small colored dot deep inside the wall.  Line up with the dot and shoot
      it before the opening closes.
  3.  If you successfully deactivate the base, you will hear a fast, high
      pitched siren followed by a low rumbling sound.  The rumbling sound
      will last for 30 seconds, during which you will not be able to
      deactivate the base.  Wait for the sound to stop before repeating
      steps 1-3.
  4.  Check the scoreboard.  Each HQ hit counts for 10 points.  The game is
      over when either team reaches 100.

 

Hints:

  1.  Use teamwork.  Have your buddy press the button while you're inside the
      enemy base.  This way, you won't waste any time running all the way
      around the partition.  You will get more shots using this method.
  2.  If you have trouble lining up with the dot, run forward against the
      wall while using the left/right mouse turning for fine adjustments.
  3.  For best results in hitting the dot, use the regular shotgun or pistol.
 

 

Being alone and not having a friend to play this type of wads, I loved this TRON theme mixed with the darkness. The electronic music also contributes to this pseudo-futuristic aspect (Indeed, it is just the lasertag game). The wad also has its own statbar and some very nice alarm sounds.

 

However by its concept, it is impossible to play this map properly with bots for example. However, I consider this map, although released in 1996, much more interesting than 99% of the DM wads I found.

 

File 5) GOONS.WAD by THE APE MAN (1994)

Quote

:Things have got desperate.... The british army has been called in to clear up the sewers under London. You are Major Dennis Bloodnock of the Third Disgusting Fusiliers, a slightly deranged british commando. Armed only with a used wire brush and disinfectant you must attempt to expunge all nasties from the East Finchley sewer system. No job for a boy scout!

These insane sounds were the creation of Peter Sellers, Spike Milligan, and Harry Secombe, under the guidance of Spike Milligan. The world is a richer place for their efforts.

The idea for this project was inspired by the PYTHON sounds produced by... Solomon White, Adam IsGreen & Andre Vrignaud.
("BB Boom Da Da Bing" and "RIGHT!!". All we can say is.. "Nice one centurian")
There WAD file was modified using DMAUD.EXE by Bill Neisius.
Thanks a ton guys!!

 

Great, a crappy and totally indispensable wad replacing the Doom sfx ! Unless I'm wrong, the sounds come from "The Goon Show", a show I absolutely don't know.

In any case, expect your weapons to pop or the switches to make cashing noises.

Seriously, don't download this...

 

 

File 6) The all singing, all dancing God-disco road show. by  Dan Sumption (2004)

 

Spoiler

 

Quote

# The Story so Far # There you were, just sitting in the living room when suddenly an inter-dimensional gateway opens out from the screen of your TV. Your excitement at the thought that you may be about to come face-to-face with Cilla Black is replaced by horror, fear and, shortly thereafter, a foul smell coming from within your underwear as you hear hideous grunts and groans accompanied by the piercing screams of some of TV's top variety performers. Clutching a plastic pistol in front of you with both hands, you edge towards the TV screen as the frightening realisation hits you - only you can save Jimmy Tarbuck! Hang on. Does anyone know what the hell I'm talking about? Thought not. Pah! Stories so far ... who needs 'em? # E1M1 - The cloak-rooms of hell # In this episode you play a disgruntled lavatory attendant trying to win back the affections of a mass of hideously evil, yet at the same time cute and loveable, cholera viruses (virii?). No, I lie (again). I consider this level to be the 'main' part of this little escapade, in that it's fairly playable and has a nice smattering of variety. [...] # E1M2 - Fiddler on the roof # After you've escaped from the cloak-rooms of hell, what do you do next? You climb on the roof to have a fiddle of course. This is another one of those pointless monster overkill levels, derived from the previous level but very different in terms of both the scenery and the playing. It's not very complex, as by this time I was getting a little tired of continual level-editing, but it's far from being easy, mainly because you can soon find yourself fighting almost every monster on the level simultaneously. [...] [Note from the uploader: Please read the included textfile in the zip for complete detailed description]

 

A wad from 1994 uploaded in 2004. This is a pack of two maps that honestly deserves to be presented on Wadarchelogy. 

 

Of course, it contains its dose of quirkiness like any self-respecting 1994 wad. However, this one is really much more crazy than what I played, especially because of a new and very strange texture made of yellow, black and orange. To tell the truth, apart from the colorful aspect, I don't feel at all in a discotheque, but rather in an extremely mazy Aliens nest. The gameplay is still very fun and fair. Moreover, you can get an automap which helps you a little bit to navigate in this complex without coherence.

 

The first map is the most interesting because it offers a lot of exploration despite its boring parts like the labyrinths I mentioned before. The layout makes me wonder how many mushrooms the author ate before producing this map. Also, in some places, numbers are drawn for a reason I don't know.

 

The second level doesn't offer much but highlights this new orange sky, which personally scares me a little bit. The latter is particularly apocalyptic and abstract.

 

In short, a map of 1994 like no other that I really enjoyed. The new texture, although used massively, maybe too much, adds a really unique aspect to this wad!

 

 

 

 

The next wad is a set of 12 maps called Clavicula Nox (Revised Version) but I have no more the time to play it , so that's all folks for today.

 

[Sena]

Day 7: Latchhatch https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/j-l/latchhch

 

Not much to say about this one. Like the previously played E2M8 replacement, i.e. the cyberdemon fight where you don't have to actually fight and just have to push a bunch of buttons to move to the end of the level. It starts off with some standard fodder, who you can just ignore completely, and then a bunch of arachnotrons, who you can also ignore, maybe shoot them once to interrupt their attack pattern, you've got a megasphere so it's basically impossible to lose with a level this short, and really, there is nothing to say about this level. Playing it pacifist is basically the only way since you don't have much in the way of ammo, and trying to fight 2 cyberdemons and 10 arachnotrons at once in an open field clearly is not what anyone is going to want to do. With how much this level seems to discourage actually engaging with it, I'm not sure what the rationale behind it was, it certainly wasn't a level that produced much in the way of interesting combat encounters, nor was it even that notable when it comes to just having to run past stuff and dodge things, other maps have done that better. This level is enigmatic, but it's not really an enigma that feels worth solving, just a bunch of rooms and buttons you push around to end it, with some stuff shooting at you to make sure you go through it fast. 4/10.

[Roofi]

Month 5 Day 22

 

I play until I die or intentionally stop. I don't comment the wad where I die/stop.

 

File 1) Tab15 Level by Michael Contorno (1997)

 

Spoiler

Quote

Your luck has finally ran out. After your last darning raid on the mountain stronghold, you have been captured and imprisoned in a demonic torture chamber. Foolishly, the guards left some weapons near by... guess you know what to do!

 

Here is a level from the TAB series. This saga is not unknown to me because I had played episode 28 or 29, I don't remember exactly.

 

 According to the mapper, this level is hard and long. I don't know if he managed to finish Doom 2 at least once because I found TAB15 not more difficult than a Doom 2 map and besides I finished it in less than 10 minutes without rushing. Besides, it's funny that it specifies : "Quality : Average". I think he is a bit hard on himself, I liked it.

 

It's an underground temple which has the particularity to have a very rectilinear layout with many rectangular corridors. The clean look of the map is well enhanced by a rather clever choice of textures.

 

After that I don't have much to say, the level is linear, contains a lot of ammunition and very useful bonuses to easily take over the enemies.

 

Another good level of the TAB series. I would love to see this series compiled into a megawad one day.

 

File 2) the Cesspool by Squonkamatic for the People!! (1999)

 

Quote

Multipurpose DOOM2/Final DOOM level set in a sludge processeing plant's holding/processing tanks .... "there be monsters" .... an exit is provided.

 

Hum I would like to play this level but it's totally broken. Even Gzdoom can't launch it. Oldschool-ports showed me this error message "cesspool.wad doesn't have IWAD or PWAD id". M

 

Maybe this error is fixable but I don't care.

 

File 3) .SPC to .IT Example. by @Dgon92

Quote

This is a simple wad containing an Impulse Tracker module dumped from a music file from a Super Nintendo game, or a SPC file. I used a program called OpenSPC (Google it) to dump it, then used ModPlug Tracker to clean it up and format it. Then, I put it in this wad for use with ZDoom.

 

I think the author knew consciously that a wad containing only one music would have little use and just serves as an example to show that you can put track modules on gzdoom wads.

 

However, even with that, I don't think there is any interest to upload on idgames. The music of Megaman X3 is very cool though.

 

File 4) Luige Bros. -total convert- by Tomo Shida (1997)

 

Spoiler

 

A total conversion that disappointed me a lot!!!!

 

I was expecting a nice Mario wad and instead of that, I got 3 crappy maps where you play as Luigi! 

 

The first level is an old lame marble maze, the second is an "intense" fight with your brother mario which is just a replacement of the Hell Knight skin and the last one consists of a room with monsters hidden behind an invisible wall which can be killed by crushers. To access the Icon of Mario, you have to press randomly on a wall to open it.

 

There's always a way to enjoy the intermission screens but otherwise it goes to waste.

 

Besides, the first level crashed on DOSBOX and no port except gzdoom could open the first map...

 

File 5) Requiem Help demoset (2000)

Quote

It's finished! (already :) This collection took me nine days to do from the tenth of January, and on the eighteenth, I really pushed the gas pedal on 'em, as I did them from 15 to 26 on that day (I don't have much to do in general, just editing, playing Requiem and STRAIN and before the 20th, these demos :)

These demos are recorded with skill 5, no monsters. They basically show the quickest way to complete the various levels in Requiem with 100% secrets. Note that these should be played with my Requiem patch WAD, available at http://www.geocities.com/metabolist/. Without it, the Map12 demo and others will desynch.

There is no Map07 or Map30 demo in this pack for a reason; the completion of these maps requires monsters to be killed - IWC Map07 is impossible to make a demo for, as it has 666 and 667 tags in it, and Map30 I originially though of recording and I did, but it was no help really as it is a very easy map and what's more I procrastinated on it. In Map15, I leave through the secret exit.

To run these demos, type REQHELP followed by the map number (01-32). This will run DooM2.exe in the current path. This needs my patch, BTW. The patch is too large for a reasonably-sized archive.

For those who have batchfilephobia, this command is required to run the demos:

 

The description explains it quite well. A compilation of 32 demos in case you get stuck in the Requiem megawad. Sorry, I'm not going to look at the demos, first because I don't feel like it and second because I'd like to do Requiem again someday and so I don't want to spoil myself.

 

 

I ended up getting killed in the project Clandestine Castle Crashing (I really didn't want to play it).

 

Spoiler

[Walter confetti]

5 completely random maps played today!

 

Phobia by Kristain "Ebola" Kall - Doom Legacy, 2001, played with Gzdoom 4.7.0

Spoiler

A medium sized really impressive in layout and Legacy special effects (that, as i always love to remember, have 3D floors and sort of decorate like item years before zdoom have it! sure, they're janky as hell, but are extremly work) but less understable to understand where to go, especially the "five twins" part, what is this all about? However, is a pretty impressive map that takes big advantage of all the new special effects of Doom Legacy, giving you this frightening, epic void map sets in this mysterious temple where ancient gods sleeps waiting for a new victim to their cruel plays, in this case you. 3D floors gives birth to rotten wood bridges and bungalows, while new things and scripting creates a puzzle like adventure where you have to fight all the nightmarish events in this world... But i think this map in Legacy gives is real best, because in gzdoom emulation fells pretty janky. But overall, a really great map. iirc this map was part of the best 100 doom maps for the 25 years of Doom, maybe?

 

The Court Yard by Paul Pina - Vanilla Doom, 1994 but uploaded in 2005, played with Gzdoom 4.7.0

Spoiler

A pretty bland map by this Paul Pina guy from this "Pina series" i never heard of before just uploaded because the author was (probably) a friend of funduke, at first i tought it was a remake of a map i've played before, but it's something completely new. The level is a sort of maze-like techbase\wood abstract thing, pretty hard to navigate and there's a room filled of nazist swastikas, lots of monsters but it isn't really hard or challenging with the expection of a final cyberdemon, also this map doesn't have a exit? wtf. A bad pick this time.

 

cannonball's speedy episode 1 wad by Matt "cannonball" Powell - Limit Removing Doom, 2012, played with Gzdoom 4.7.0

Spoiler

Played this map long time ago, here's a playlist of this episode FDAs i've posted on youtube (really sorry for the garbage quality):

Spoiler

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpBl6lfPzMI&ab_channel=walcon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OWNy3GKZh4&ab_channel=walcon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Cd38auogvY&ab_channel=walcon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDCdAC7SODA&ab_channel=walcon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBQNhRhIbd4&ab_channel=walcon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kr9WEyDmsjw&ab_channel=walcon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3zBz_eCDGg&ab_channel=walcon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nk0IPo8Bn0g&ab_channel=walcon

This is a pretty good first effort mapset from a author became more famous thanks to his "Return to Hadron" series (that, iirc the first episode is a better remake of this one i've got) and "Thy Flesh - Turned into a draft-excluder".Good layouts and challenging gameplay, worth your time!

 

Nin Uac maps by Matt Rogers - Vanilla Doom 2, 1996, played with Gzdoom 4.7.0

Spoiler

A short first effort episode made out of 6 maps, 5 for SP and 1 for DM, both on two separate wads. levels itself are basic but good looking, with some interesting scenery like the docks in MAP04 and weird choices like the invisible nazi zombiemen sprites that replaces the wolf ss and personally just a bad concept since this monster is invible and make me think of The Sky May Be.
The maps are all pretty short, with a boxy layout and all pretty easy, the episode can be completed in 15 minutes, there's not even many changes in the theme departement, the levels are all sets in a techbase location surrounded by the sea with some nudges to original IWAD Doom E1M3 (MAP01), A small boss battle with a spider mastermind and a horde of barons (plus some homage to E4M5 starting stairs / blood fountain) in MAP02, a oversea \ undesea small adventure in MAP03 that ends in a ugly MAP30 ripoff, the dock bay already mentioned in MAP04 (that leads into... a wolfestein 3D maze section? What?) and finishing into a hellish cave in MAP05. Also all the maps are inspired by Nine Inch Nails songs, including some of the midis of the songs as well.
The deathmatch map is a techbase similar to MAP01 of the SP wad, with mazes and water filled with health potions all around!
A nice and little quirky mapset, short and fast to complete.

 

BASTARD3.WAD by Ben Lagow and and Mike Arnett - Vanilla Doom, 1994, played with Gzdoom 4.7.0

Spoiler

 

Three maps from the old times of 1994 era of doom maps and it's also a nice surprise as well, it's nothing extraordinary like Doomsday of UAC or other more impressive stuff, but it's none that simple and fun maps, with some little charming details and a pretty solid layout, with the least favorite the dark, boring maze of E1M2, but the other two maps are cool in their simplicity. Is a cute mapset.

Edited October 26, 2021 by Walter confetti

[smeghammer]

Well, today I got Enjay's Marine Assault:

 

https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/m-o/njma01

 

I have played Enjay's maps before and are usually pretty good. This one is - still pretty good - a more 'realistic' map - it's you infiltrating a base and fighting various human soldier types. Various texture, flat and monster replacements - all very well done.

 

I had an eerie feeling that I recognised it, though I have definitely not played this one before... I got a little distracted as a result, and did not finish (I'll definitely revisit though). Then, on reading the text file, it referenced 'Ruma' by Espi, which I definitely have played before, and have in my collection. I went back and played the first few minutes of that, and lo and behold, the beginning section is very similar. 

 

Anyway, here are both runs for comparison (gzdoom, nojump, no crouch and UV):

 

 

 

 

[Yandere_Doomer]

I did this a year ago and i found a wad called WNIEPOOH, and it runs on Doom 1

I dont know what i was expecting, but this is what i got.

 

It was a bunch of monsters tightly packed into simple, Ameteur rooms.

I didnt have that great of a time playing this one, Facing a bunch of Cacodemons and pinkies and an occasional Baron was Irritating. 

I dont have too much to say, because this wad didnt stand out in any way. 

 

(and there was no Winnie the pooh)

[Sena]

Day 8: Rayzik's Birthday Doom 2015 https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/p-r/rbd2015

 

Don't let the title mislead you, this is just another speedmap compilation. 3 maps by 3 different people, but they all felt rather the same, all characterised by three main features, claustrophobia, spawning enemies directly in your face, and not knowing where the fuck to go. Map 2 was definitely the best of the lot because it was the least claustrophobic, and reminded me vaguely of MAP10, but even if it was okay at times, it was also triple the length of the other maps, and I'd rather have to deal with a confusing map where you spend 5 minutes figuring out where you're supposed to go, instead of 20, even if the latter is interspersed with actual good sections. As seems to be Doom tradition, the closing map is the worst one, featuring narrow platforming over toxic pits, narrower than The Chasm which leads me to believe they were just taking the piss, pretty sure it was legitimately 2 pixels wide, and that's not to mention the absolute mess that is the level design on platforms you can actually walk on. 5/10, whole ordeal just isn't much good, might have some custom textures, but a speedmap is a speedmap.