Magazine Scans of PWAD screenshots

[Wadmodder Shalton]

I've recently started yet another time capsule project for the mid-1990s Doom PWAD experience. This time I'm starting to find scans of magazine pages that had at least a few screenshots of a couple of PWADs released during 1994 to at 1996 (with a few from 1997 to 1999 as well).

 

I've started by looking into the Quake II Magazine Archive and found a couple of these. To keep this forum post simple I've only provided hyperlinks to these scans as I don't want to slow down this thread with high-res images loading all at once. Here's a couple of these pages: #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9, #10 & #11

 

Hopefully, I can find a couple of Magazine scans to search for PWAD screenshots on Internet Archive and other PC gaming magazine archives as well.

 

What do you think of this project I've been recently working on? Feel free to provide comments here and help me out on this project.

[Endless]

This is pretty cool. I've always loved the old-school style of magazines and the way they used screenshots in such an impactful way, almost ''IN YOUR FACE!'' kinda of ads. I'd recommend to also add the source of each screenshot, like the magazine and issue so we can check the feature out ourselves too. Some of these seem very obscure and hard to find, so kudos!

 

This article is a cool read, one that you wouldn't find that much in magazines back then, as most didn't actually took the time to talk about community content or 3rd parties. It even includes a pic of Trinity College and other WAD that I'm pretty sure is famous but I can't recognize.

 

An article featuring a Top list of best WADs? Now that's rare for the year.

 

I don't even know Too Simple, What's for Dinner?, Episode 3 Best and Barrels. I must check them out.

Edited June 23, 2022 by Endless

[Doomlover77]

@Wadmodder Shaltonthis is an excellent and interesting project. @Doomlover77  

[Wadmodder Shalton]

Here a couple of more PWAD screenshot scans from magazines that I've found on Internet Archive. Here's the scans as follows: #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9, #10, #11, #12, #13, #14, #15, #16, #17, #18, #19, #20 and #21.

 

If there any that I've missed, then fill in the gaps for the rest of these screenshot scans from Internet Archive, when you look for text captions for Doom WADs, addon CDs, etc.

Edited January 15 by Wadmodder Shalton

[Doomkid]

Some notes on some of the articles:

 

(Page) - LMFAO, the Amiga port left in those "I'll let the lord drink my jizz" and whatever-the-fuck-else quit messages?! HAHAHAHA

 

(Page 1), (Page 2) - Was there a rule in the 90s that all UK gaming magazine writers had to be massively insufferable tossers? Holy shit dude. "WAAAH, people who smoke weed and have piercings exist, WAAAAH the internet as of 1994 isn't perfect for international Dooming, WAAAAAH!" Omfg stop whining, fucking christ.. Let's not forget, it was a UK magazine in the 90s (EDGE iirc) that came out with the infamous "Doom isn't that great because you can't sit down for a spot of tea with the barons" hot take..

 

(Page 1) - Well, this edition is a little less saturated with whining, with the whines-per-line ratio being notably lower, but still there for sure. They even talk about the BDL - British Doom League (sort of talking about it like it wasn't fucking awesome - the BDL wads are still staples of Doom DM/Duels to this very day - but now I'm being pedantic)... and frankly, they have us Doom addicts pegged, so credit where it's due.

 

(Page 1), (Page 2) - Woah, seeing Doomsday in an article from 2004 is awesome! I remember the old DKicks launcher and everything, what a throwback! (Also shows that the "Doom Remake 4" mod everyone hated so much a year or two back had 95% of the model and texture work done in fucking 2004... What a joke lol)

 

Adore this stuff! Keep 'em coming!

 

 

[Quasar]

23 hours ago, Doomkid said:

LMFAO, the Amiga port left in those "I'll let the lord drink my jizz" and whatever-the-fuck-else quit messages?! HAHAHAHA

This was a common trait among several early unofficial source ports. People didn't know why those were there and thought they were funny so they re-enabled them. There was also a false comment left in the code by Bernd Kreimeier that said "Final Doom?" above them, which may have fooled less knowledgeable programmers. Important to note the ADoom port being described here was not official. It was based on the public Linux Doom src release.

[Walter confetti]

Just digging in some magazines i have at home (and i'm also sure that i have few more magazines, but... probably i throw them away idk), here's some stuff i found:

 

PC Gamer "Best 50 games of all time" issue, 1997: (photo)

 

The picture at the right is from Nuclear Plant, but the square room at the left? I don't remember it from the official games!

 

Another PC Gamer issue from 1996/7: (photo)

 

In the picture description it's been mistaken with ZPC, a game that have a demo in the same PC Gamer disk. Actually is from a DM map that... i don't remember the proper filename now...

 

Another Hexen map taken from PC Gamer issue, 1996: (photo)

Edited June 30, 2022 by Walter confetti

[zokum]

I translated a 1995 article by Kvernmo that he had written for Giga, a norwegian computer magazine. That article had three Doom screenshots, and they don't look like any area I can remember from Doom 2 or The Ultimate Doom. They are probably from The Master Levels, but they could be from non-commercial pwads.

There is also a quite nice pcgamer.wad that was on one of the uk edition cover discs. Chances are there are screenshots of it inside the mag. That map had some nice technical special effects and played well. It was also chock full of ads for the magazine :)

[Doomlover77]

@zokum the Pcgamer.wad was on the Uk Cd Gamer #31. It was made by Dominion Aka Jason Saunders. It can be downloaded here. 

https://archive.org/download/pcgamer-uk-coverdisk-cd31/PCGAMER31.bin. @Doomlover77  

[Doomlover77]

@zokum the Pcgamer.wad was on the Uk Cd Gamer #31. It was made by Dominion Aka Jason Saunders. It can be downloaded here. 

https://archive.org/download/pcgamer-uk-coverdisk-cd31/PCGAMER31.bin.
 

@Walter confetti the Hangar picture you mentioned is from a three level beta version of Doom. There’s an items counter & a 3 next to the players head. 

@Doomlover77  

[Endless]

18 minutes ago, Doomlover77 said:

@zokum the Pcgamer.wad was on the Uk Cd Gamer #31. It was made by Dominion Aka Jason Saunders. It can be downloaded here. 

https://archive.org/download/pcgamer-uk-coverdisk-cd31/PCGAMER31.bin. @Doomlover77  

Is the .WAD file available? I have no idea how to open/execute that bin file, and damn is it heavy for a CD!

[FEDEX]

You must to download it first, and later convert it from .bin into .iso ,so ypu can open it with winrar. Other way is to download first, and burn it in a cd

[mrthejoshmon]

On 6/24/2022 at 5:53 AM, Doomkid said:

Was there a rule in the 90s that all UK gaming magazine writers had to be massively insufferable tossers?

That rule persisted into the late 2000s with some of the publications out there, in games journalism here you were either the biggest knobhead, the most painfully unfunny wetwipe or (somehow) a national treasure that makes me happy to be British (This is the highest accolade I can offer).

[Doomlover77]

@Endless Download this file 

 

https://www.mediafire.com/file/uvljtw1uqdkd862/starrover_COLLECTION.7z/file. You should find the Pcgamer.wad in there. @Doomlover77  

[Endless]

52 minutes ago, Doomlover77 said:

@Endless Download this file 

 

https://www.mediafire.com/file/uvljtw1uqdkd862/starrover_COLLECTION.7z/file. You should find the Pcgamer.wad in there. @Doomlover77  

Thanks a lot! I wonder, could this WAD (pcgamer.wad) be uploaded to the /idgames archive for preservation, or are there any legal stops?

[Doomlover77]

@Endless  it’s a new level from scratch with graphics from heretic so I can’t see why not. @Doomlover77 

 

The Pcgamer.wad can be found in the PC gamer extra stuff under Pc gamer CDs and floppies in the \Uk\CD 31 directory in the file I linked to you earlier on. 

Edited June 30, 2022 by Doomlover77

[zokum]

To me it's an interesting and classic wad. It is an interesting hybrid of several ideas as it a small free addon for a popular game, but it does feature ads embedded in the gameplay content. It is a direction free game addons could have gone, but we don't really see much of. Making content, and plaster it with ads and compensate the creator slightly. It is an interesting form of advertisement. The dwango maps had a lot of commercial content in them, but those are really the only other ones I can think of.

The pcgamer.wad contains some graphics ripped straight from Doom 2, like an animated texture based on the boss cube sprite.

The guy who made it obviously knew his thing as the map plays well, it features a new animated texture, see-through doors, bullet proof window, invisible stairs. I haven't played it in about 20 years though, but we used to play it for christmas. So for me pcgamer.wad is associated with family, fun and time off of school.

[thestarrover]

Pcgamer.wad is included in "The Works of DOMiNiON" (domworks.wad), a collection of Dominion's released and unreleased maps. Since the text file states that the maps have been tweaked and\or updated, that it  the reason why in this version the map slot is Map02 ( in the original is Map01) and the nice Titlepic is missing. In addition new sound effects have been added.

 

domworks.wad (idgames)

[zokum]

16 minutes ago, thestarrover said:

Pcgamer.wad is included in "The Works of DOMiNiON" (domworks.wad), a collection of Dominion's released and unreleased maps. Since the text file states that the maps have been tweaked and\or updated, that it  the reason why in this version the map slot is Map02 ( in the original is Map01) and the nice Titlepic is missing. In addition new sound effects have been added.

 

domworks.wad (idgames)

Basically an authors preferred edition then. I will check it out, becuase I really liked that map and I hope it's not a one-off.

[Endless]

On 6/23/2022 at 5:32 PM, Wadmodder Shalton said:

Here a couple of more PWAD screenshot scans from magazines that I've found on Internet Archive. Here's the scans as follows: #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9, #10, #11, #12, #13, #14, #15, #16, #17, #18, #19 & #20.

 

If there any that I've missed, then fill in the gaps for the rest of these screenshot scans from Internet Archive, when you look for text captions for Doom WADs, addon CDs, etc.

Hey man, was trying to save the pics and I noticed that #10, #16 and #17 are not working. Got any backup?

[princetontiger]

These were the days, guys... if I could spend one day again in the late 90s, I would. So many memories of Doom and 486 computers running Windows 95/98.