A question about "terrywads"

[DoomBoomer]

I've read about so-called "terrywads". Are they really potentially so harmful as claimed? Offensive content is not a problem for me, but I don't want to take risk that they might cause some damage.

[Billa]

No, the only risk is you die from cringe. Or maybe from loud unexpected noises if you're sensitive to that kind of thing. Doom wads can't damage your computer

[Biodegradable]

1 hour ago, DoomBoomer said:

Are they really potentially so harmful as claimed?

 

Who's even making this claim? TerryWADs were just an ancient, cringe-worthy trolling trend cooked up by bored shitposters in the Doom community 20 years ago. Nobody ever got a virus from playing them or anything.

[Hitboi]

1 hour ago, DoomBoomer said:

Are they really potentially so harmful as claimed?

Nope, just some old wads with unfunny jokes and inescapable traps.
But, some of them can trigger epilepsy or seizures (e.g. rapidly flashing colored lights), aswell as loud and annoying noises.

Edited February 3, 2022 by Hitboi

[Marisa the Magician]

Some mild "damage" is definitely possible. I've heard of a couple out there that are distributed as zip bombs (archives that decompress to a massive, disk-filling filesize).

[Maes]

Perhaps related?

 

 

Then again, if the terrywad comes prepackaged with its own source port + IWAD, you might want to double-check the executable ;-)

[Captain POLAND]

I think some of them would mess with your settings, like setting them to random values that made the game unplayable unless until you went and manually changed everything back. There were also the aforementioned zip bombs. But I think most of them just use shock images and ear rape.

[Ludi]

Echoing the sentiments of others, yea they are mostly just dated memes and shitposts. They are fine as long as you use your normal source port. I think the only reason people make terrywads nowadays is to get on YouTube for how "shocking" they are 

 

It's so odd to think that foundational wads like AV and Scythe were coming out at the same time as these.

[Zakken]

The day someone discovers a way of doing RCE in any Doom port is going to be a catastrophic day indeed...

[Roebloz]

15 minutes ago, Zakken said:

The day someone discovers a way of doing RCE in any Doom port is going to be a catastrophic day indeed...

Didn't someone already find out how to do that with vanilla? (I know that's not all ports, but still)

[thiccyosh]

A wad can't do alot of damage as far as I know, perhaps some lua shenanigans like in Gmod back then or you click on funnywadxdxd.wad.exe . But I don't think alot of shitposters even give the effort of making a malicious script in the first place.

[Sena]

Not really. Worst case scenario, it freezes your source port and you have to open task manager to shut it down. Most likely scenario, you play it for 5 seconds and then realise there's no actual level and stop playing.

[GraphicBleeder]

Maybe 15 years ago there was somewhat of a danger with terrywads, but no longer. The worst thing that could happen is a loud noise and you get goatse'd or something. Honestly most terrywads are so unfunny they're not even worth downloading.

[Doomkid]

I was gonna come in here and be like "guys, terrywads are only like 10 years old by now lol" but the first one - and the only one that actually was kinda funny, since the joke was still fresh - was UAC Military Nightmare which came out in 2008..

 

Damn, the years have flown by..!

 

EDIT: As far as malice goes, just to echo the others who have already posted, it was restricted to mega-bloating zip bombs and scripts that edit the player's configuration (why that's possible or ever was is beyond me).

[VoanHead]

As stated before, all they really are is a bunch of unfunny shitposts put in a pwad. Aquarius199 showcases videos of terrywads for you so you don’t have to play them on his youtube. It’s a bit of dumpster diving essentially, but there’s some outright malicious ones like zip bombs, which tbh anybody who thinks it’s funny to upload shit like that for anybody to download can go fuck themselves. 

[Edward850]

1 hour ago, Doomkid said:

why that's possible or ever was is beyond me

Skulltags ConsoleCommand ACS function, which could execute any arbitrary console command on behalf of the player. Graf wanting nothing to do with that function was entirely justified.

[dyshoria]

Terry wads are just wads that look good on first glance when they are just shitposts