Endless Random /idgames WAD Adventures #040

[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 two 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 the results are resources or unplayable stuff, so we focus on looking for WADs.

 

So, what do we do here?

1. Play at least one random WAD 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 whatever you play. There’s no required pacing, but most of us post a review once every 1-2 days.
3. Always provide the name of the WAD, the name of the author, and a link to the file.
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. 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?

Any file on /idgames is fair game, but most of us choose to stick to singleplayer Doom or Heretic WADs that work in our sourceport(s) of choice. I also pull at least 5 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. 

 

Recommendations for reviewing:

Spoiler

1. Please take screenshots or video of your adventures.

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. Tubeworm
2. Dib Map26/27
3. Industrial Warfare
4. Aliens Total Conversion Disk 2 (Though I didn't technically pull it, I recommend playing Disk 1 first if you're going to tackle this)
5. Abyssal Speedmapping Session 27

 

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The Top 10 (out of 48):

 

1. @Roofi | 4610

2. @Sena | 2135

3. @LadyMistDragon | 1530

4. @Walter confetti | 1110

5. @ICID | 650

6. @Endless | 505

7. @smeghammer | 345

8. @Biodegradable | 270

9. @Clippy | 240

10. @LUISDooM | 235

 

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

[LadyMistDragon]

Kill 'Em With Kindness (2017) by Amber Graham

 

This is a wad you might know of if you've looked up non-violent Doom mods, but anyway, this is a simple GZDoom modification, that adds one map. It's made up of nothing more than a vaguely circular hand-drawn landscape, underscored by a pleasant acoustic track and  filled with flowers that will dance if you use a watering can nearby. There is also a fish leaping out of a pool to your right, as well as a cute dog and a bird in a tree. The hand-drawn art is certainly well-done and the aura of cuteness is a little difficult to deny. But the fact remains that this is practically substanceless. The only action you can take is essentially to water everything and this is good for maybe...1 play? 4.5/10 I'd say I'm concerned about offending someone....but who knows if this person is really around as such? Anyway, it's not terrible, but there's basically no gameplay.

 

 

[Thelokk]

Alright, let me bless this new thread with some hot bs the random button just net me. A warning: GRAPHIC CONTENT. And I don't mean the rip and tear kind... well, also the rip and tear kind in a way, I guess. Whatever, just make sure you're 18 if you read below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Doomguy's pimp ventures III: Cybie dreams by Randy & Mandy (2008)

UV / whatever kills / no secrets in impseland / GZDoom

 

 

So, yeah, remember Impse? Some people never forgot. Among them are Randy & Mandy, a mapping duo (I guess?) who decided that 2008 was high time to bring back the power of free love to Doom. But, how? simple: conjure up a Golden Souls-style dreamland, and populate with Doomguys freely enjoying some imps'... ahem, company, while you slay cyberdemons and pinkies on the notes of Pachebel's Canon, using a dildo chainsaw and a sperm-shooting plasma gun. Ah, also every demon, upon damage or death, now emits female orgasmic noises. I'm pretty sure the map is not maxable, and it probably also lacks a proper exit - if there is one, I didn't manage to find it, spending instead most of my time collecting shrooms ('Mario's were better', or so the game tells us) and prancing across green hills and love hotel rooms. A grand time was had. 

So, yeah, totally x-rated terrywad territory but, as usual, you just have to admire the dedication to the joke. At least it's all about free love this time, instead of jihad and anime. Well, there is some anime here as well, but it didn't try to blow up on me. Or I guess it did, in a way... jeez :S

 

 

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Edited August 22, 2022 by Thelokk

[myolden]

Decided to give this a shot and the whims of the RNG served me up a 2 map WAD called "Inflation Bay" by Shadowman from 2008. Fun fact: this was the year I graduated high school. 

 

I feel like there's some kind of context I'm missing here. The idgames description says "Map in city style, and also map about the inflation reasons", and while I can't be certain what that refers to, I imagine it has something to do with this bizarre titlepic:

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Getting into the actual map 01 itself, we seem to be in some kind of city that's in a state of disrepair. I'll admit the detailing here is quite nice and there are lots of little doomcute details and custom painting textures that look pretty nice:

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What isn't nice here is the actual progression of the map. The critical path the player needs to navigate to get the yellow key requires a jump from a second story window into a first floor one, which I likely would not have found if not for the arrow on the floor pointing to it. Run at full speed and you'll smack into the wall above the window and fall to the ground outside. Walk and you'll land short. Get your distance from the ledge just right and you'll make it inside. This feels more like a secret than main progression to me.

Spoiler

 

 

The rest of the map is pretty straightforward but can be a bit tedious. There are chaingunners in towers that get resurrected by unseen archviles outside, and inside you'll be killing hell knights, barons, and cacodemons with naught but the shotgun and chaingun, plus a chainsaw for good luck. This map is crazy stingy about it's aresenal. Outside of the weapons listed above there is a rocket launcher and a single additional rocket in a secret. This and the weird progression was enough for me and I did not proceed to play the second map.

All in all this map was alright, but I have to dock it a letter grade because one of the reviews mentioned an Archvile fight and there was not one to be found, even after getting 100% kills and secrets. 

[Endless]

CRUD | By @Moustachio | 2021

 

 

It's pretty late right now so I'll be brief: CRUD is a very simple, cozy and fast-paced set of 4 lovely vanilla maps designed with classical stock aesthetic but Plutonia-esque gameplay, mostly on the easy side. I played on HMP and had no major troubles. It's pretty short and each map plays dynamically well. Love this little mapsets. They fill the gap between single-levels and large WADs. A solid recommendation to those that enjoy both vanilla and more relaxed levels.

[Walter confetti]

Oh yeah, CRUD is a pretty neat small mapset! Played it some months ago, a fun experience.

[heliumlamb]

dl_ufo.wad - UFO by Simo Malinen (2003)
UV / woof! / with brightmaps on and vsmooth for the 'sthetics

Strange little level, incredibly cramped and jagged. DOORTRAK all over, including as at least one a door. 2 cacos, some imps and shotgunners are your challengers here. I wouldn't consider this a challenging level, but it's use of the tech and terminal textures is absolutely on point, a very pretty looking map. Cramped might be the point, but it still feels just a bit detrimentally cramped. Texture use is this map's greatest quality, it's aided by its brevity. Autorun might do more harm than good here.

video enclosed:

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keyboard only for this one

 

[Roofi]

Month 11 Day 26

 

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

 

[1] HELL.WAD - Hell on Mars!! by Martin Minkus (1994)

 

Spoiler

 

Quote

Hell on Mars!! Isn't this good enuff ??

 

A short and pretty intense Ultimate Doom which don't look like Mars at all but rather the unknown brother of E1M9 since it uses the same music and tons of ennemies teleport from the star-shaped pedestal. The level is ugly but the numerous things present on the screen somewhat embellish it. You have a lot of ammo , especialla plama cells, and I had a lot of fun killing those poor ennemies effortlessly.

 

Fun map.

 

Grade : B

 

I stop here for today.

[Shanoa]

TechBase 127 >127TECH.WAD< v1.1 by Martin Metzler, made in 1996. Played with LZDoom on Ultra-Violence. This is a Doom 2 replacement for MAP07.

Status: Completed

 

New thread, sweet! Time for more potentially horrible RNG. Unfortunately, this map is one of said horrible RNG. For a map called techbase there is very little techbase but plenty of mountain-area-with-some-hell in it. Right as the map load there's immediatly something wrong as you're greeted with this sight:

Spoiler

You can't get that SSG.

 

Your first opponent is a Baron of Hell, thankfully an actually acquirable SSG is provided with enough ammos to dispatch it. The next area has 2 imps and one pinky but i'd recommend using the pistol to kill them because up ahead in a room is an arch-vile so you'll want some shells to quickly kill it, not that it pose a threat. Second problem with the map is these doors-not-doors that are so prevalent in earlier wads. Or maybe there was no door, maybe doomguy was powerful enough to lift part of the mountain to enter inside. Kill the arch-vile and you'll soon come to a dead end with nowhere to go. How do you progress you might ask? By shooting a wall of course!

Spoiler

Shooting the wall where my pistol is pointing opens up the wall with the switch behind it to lower the teleporter.

Teleporting lead to a small room with 2 imps and a blue keycard, the blue door is right beside the room with the arch-vile in it, it's similarly textured with a not-a-door texture. You then enter a long corridor with crap lighting in it, only to be occasionally stopped by a spectre, a pinky or an imp.

Spoiler

Don't worry, this Pinky wish it could move too but it's stuck on place, better put it out of its misery. You'll need to if you want to progress anyway.

Once you're through there's another mountain themed area, wasn't this a TECHBASE? Very little opposition and a random SS so now you need the yellow keycard. Once you get said keycard and enter -gasp- it's a techbase! Okay maybe like 2 or 3 rooms but it's there...I guess. You'll see two identical room but one of them is a death trap and the last thing you want is having to restart this level.

Spoiler

This is the death room, avoid it. (its the left door)

The map drop the techbase completely before long and you end up in an area more suited for late episodes of Doom II with the hell textures, blood and what not. The final room has you fight 2 or 3 arachnotrons and 2 mancubus in a pitch black room with the occasional flickering light. Just fall into some hole and be freed from this map. Now, obviously, I didn't enjoy the map, it's ugly, has the typical textures misusage and cryptic progression most of the time. There's about 50 monsters but they're all so dispersed none of them will ever provide a challenge. Avoid this level.

 

Bonus picture!

Spoiler

You come across this room and this wall shortly before the end of the map, shooting that wall opens up a secret door with a Soulsphere and the Plasma gun. The plasma will be handy to make quick work of the enemies in the last couple of rooms.

 

[LadyMistDragon]

 

DeuTex/DeuSF3.1 Linux (1995) by Oliver Montanuy

 

A tool that allows you to reverse-engineer wads. Sounds really cool, although I suspect that once the source code was released, no one released these things to the archives anymore

 

 

DIABLO HOUSE (2000) by XXLFragger  (Eternity)

 

Ok, that's a bad user name and player 1 starts facing a wall. This isn't such a good sign. Visually, it's ok, mossy brick on the outside wall, red brick on the outside of the building here and tan textures indoors. But the layout feels clueless. The corridors have decent enough room for dodging but they are incredibly butt ugly and supplies are placed in a fairly haphazard manner. The worst part might just be the exit. There's actually a Supercharge sitting on top, to catch people unawares. Probably. It's one of the shittier deathmatch maps found so far, and it's sort of hard to fuck those up unless you don't understand supplies 3/10

 

Spoiler

 

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Arena of Pillars (1996) by David "Kenobi" Harvey (Eternity)

 

I have to admit, starting at one end of a long corridor of what is easily my least-favorite of popular textures (pea-soup marble) in front of several power-ups gave me a horrible first impression. The center of the map is actually quite solid. A collection of pillars in a medium-sized square room make for some fairly tense and frenetic circling. And that outside view of skull 'n trees is so cool. Not to mention how you can hear a sound like running through water when you walk through a pool texture here. Supplies feel like they could've been much better balanced though 4/10

 

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Edited August 24, 2022 by LadyMistDragon

[Thelokk]

The Dark Retreat by Macro11_1 (2005)

GZDoom / UV /100% kills / 100% secrets

 

So, I must admit I've never heard of this Macro11_1 fella, but I have heard of the 1 Monster megawad they took part in a few years ago, as well as the NewDoom forums they were involved with (fun fact: while I entirely lurked, I was for a brief time on NewDoom, before I even knew Doomworld existed - typical me). What we have here however, is one of their solo maps, borrowing textures from GothicDm and Gothic2... I mean, what early 2000 wad didn't?

 

The beginning is not exactly the hottest: before we can even leave the first room, we have to sit through rolling credits, including trademarks, and a reference to custom music that just isn't there (no DEHACKED came with the wad either, so no fault on my side I assume): I mean, the starting room is very well lighted and textured, but do I really have to sit there for five minutes? And you better not die, or you have to sit through it all over again...

 

While the texture work is rather nice, reminescent of, you guessed it, GothicDM - the gameplay is just weird. In a sort of ante-litteram Russian Overkill, you can boost your health to ludicrous amounts, and the provided chaingun is so fast it pretty much sounds like a blender when fired. To compensate, all monsters are set to their Nightmare! speed (save the turret behavior) and some shoot more projectiles - more as in, mancubi volleying 20 blasts at once.

 

The gimmick is fun at first, but one of the things that makes Russian Overkill fun is the constant humor that keeps attention going when gameplay just becomes silly, something that this wad does not achieve: you just steamroll through stuff until an unfair ambush of ten hyper-chaingunners gets you and burns through your 500 hit points in a matter of seconds. 

To be honest, the funniest part was skipping to map02, and playing regular Doom 2 levels with the modified monsters. Quite fun!

Overall a forgettable experiment. Sorry :S
 

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[Roofi]

Month 11 Day 27

 

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

 

[1] TIGHT!!! by Michael White aka. OSAKA!! (1995)

 

Spoiler

 

Quote

This is a new level i made specificaly for deathmatch. If u like Super Shot Gun you will love this level because thats all there is. I have changed the music to fit the fast pace action. Metallica's Master of Puppets song has been added to make this wad ROCK!! I have also added new sounds. I hope u like it.

 

Yes , I love the SSG too but this argument will not suffice to convince me for staying in your map more than 3 minutes. The layout just consists to a cross-shaped arena. I like the extensive use of yellowish stone texture and the metallica kills a bit the boredom as well.

 

[2] Another Screamer V1 by @Buu342 (2012)

 

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Quote

Just a screamer map. Planning on using my scripts for my other wads. Other can use the scripts too :)

 

Well it seems more appealing to qualify your level as a "screamer map" than a terry one , but the concept the same. Just press the first door you see and wah! A scary picture with a very loud shouting sound. I'm scared. I love how the doomguy stays indifferent in front of that stupidity.

 

Grade : F

 

I stop here for today.

[LadyMistDragon]

Ungrateful Dead (1996) by Doria (Eternity)

 

What a 90s map. Incredibly bland and strangely contrasting texturing along with invisible doors  and a strange detour into a sewer probably mark this map. Lots of little sector actions are used as well, opening up some walls and lowering you into other rooms in spots. The best that can be said is that these traps really don't detract in any form. I sort of liked how you walk into a platform with a candle and you're attacked by a sergeant and commando in a room filled with barrels. Although it does feel as if this is merely lots of gimmickry. The one room with the lowering crates seems to require only one of the switches on top to proceed though.

 

The combat is mostly boring and absolutely reeks of its corridor-crawling nature, but has its moments, such as when you press a switch in the library section and you have to contend with a couple of Barons and a small group of chaingunners with what'll most likely be a rocket launcher that you'll be a little hard-pressed to find rockets for. There were one other fight I can't really remember that I liked. But unfortunately, I could not find the blue key, even after using iddt, so I just quit there. Even though the reviews suggest its not unfinishible. 5.5/10, mainly because the sector movement stuff's kind of cool but combat is basically a weak joke. Although the increasing presence of mazes also was a personal nadir for me.

 

Spoiler

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[myolden]

Back again for another random wad, this time I landed on Cloven Hoof by Chris Wright from 2010.

This map is very flat. Aside from a few holes in the ceiling and a set of steps near the exit, there's very little height variation here. Monsters are sort of scattered about in a way that isn't "bad", but I think aimless might be a better word. The description states "A modest size map with one particularly-harrowing marble room." - though I don't think I would use the word harrowing to describe this combat, as it's relatively tame. 

I get the distinct impression that this was an early effort by a mapper just figuring out how to make something in the editor, which I can't be too harsh on. Hopefully this was a good learning experience for the author. 

Spoiler

 

 

[Thelokk]

Ready to play some more crap and, sorry to say, the/idgames roulette delivered once more (after, like, ten DM levels). Looks like my luck has really ran out...

 

Dirty Harry meets Scarface Capone by Goldust (1996)

GZDoom / UV / 100% kills / 100% secrets

 

So, you see a map named Dirty Harry meets Scarface Capone and, what do you expect? at the very least a partial conversion, right? instead, all we get from Goldust is a terrible, terrible babby's first wad where, aside for a few horribly out of place sound effect replaced with quotes from, you guessed it, Dirty Harry and Scarface (or so IMDB tells me, I'm not into that kind of movies), the only outstanding 'features' are the endless HoMs and unpegged doors. I kid you not, there isn't one single door that doesn't either grow up and down as you open it, or provide access into an endless void pit. The only screenshot I can be bothered to provide is, believe me, exemplary of the map's overall architecture.

Gameplay is shovelwarish at best, inundating the player with ammo and health against a handful of zombies and imps. To top it all off, the texture work is inconsistent as San Francisco hell and the automap is all manners of borked, basically unusable. 

This kind of stuff makes that cybie pr0n conversion I played a while ago actually look fun and creative. Or maybe I should have stuck with one of the DM maps...

 

EDIT: I rolled once more just out of curiosity, and I got a Killer5 mapset. Not sure whether to be happy or sad. 

 

Spoiler

  

Edited August 25, 2022 by Thelokk

[Roofi]

 

16 hours ago, myolden said:

Back again for another random wad, this time I landed on Cloven Hoof by Chris Wright from 2010.
 

 I already played this the last year and I like the organic layout of this map.

 

Month 11 Day 28

 

[1] Fury of Procyon by Brad Spencer @Vorpal (2000)

 

Spoiler

 

 

Quote

Sister to freon.wad and was meant to be in The same style. Medium sized DM, good with 3 players, but 2 is sort of a hunt.

Demo1: Vorpal vs. Silent_Stalker 15minutes zdoom 1.22 Real slow at the beginning ;)

Demo2: Ion_Blade vs. Bots 5minutes zdoom 1.22

 

A rusty nukage plant which uses Quake 2's texture pack. This level also features a cool module track that I'm 99% sure I already heard in No reason speedmapping 2. The layout remains pretty simple. If you use crouch/jump, you can sneak in small nukage tunnels. Zdoom effects such as the scrolling grey sky and the sliding enhance the level's look.

 

I fell in a deep ravine in HeXen: The Dark Tower ver. 1.1

 

Spoiler

[Thelokk]

Ruins of Sathryn by @Endless (2022, though DoomWiki says 2021)

UV / GZDoom / 100% kills / 100% secrets

 

Taking a chance, I know, but the /idgames random button took me, after the usual litany of DM maps, to a work by a fellow adventurer. I'll try and be as nice as possible, while not ignoring the fact that Ruins of Sathryn, being only a second released map, shows more promise than actual qualities. 

The cc4-textured map (please, if you release a stand alone map included the texpack :)) is essentially a large rock arena, peppered with ruins, in which Doomguy finds himself immediately under fire from every possible direction. Resources are abundant, but the hot start is a bit eccessive in my opinion, especially considering that you get no shelter until you basically traverse the whole map, whose ground floors are infested by spectres and hitscanners. It's the kind of difficult that feels more unfair than difficult proper, but I did make it in the end, so I guess it is possible after all.

The big culprits, here, are geometry and texturing. I like arena maps, but connecting each terrace with tiny, collision-prone steps really hampers a map that is based around moving at all times. This is compounded by the monotonous texture work, which makes each terrace and stairs fairly hard to tell apart at a glance - most of my deaths happened when I stumbled on a corner thinking it was a staircase. 

Not the worst for being a second map, but far from an enjoyable experience. I'm sure Endless has only grown since then as a mapper!

 

Spoiler

 

[Walter confetti]

23 hours ago, Thelokk said:

Dirty Harry meets Scarface Capone by Goldust (1996)

Played long ago, here's a review for your pleasure. Silly, dumb fun. C'mon, what do you expect with a map with that title?

Spoiler

I wonder if exist a awesome map with a dumb title lol

 

[Thelokk]

1 hour ago, Walter confetti said:

I wonder if exist a awesome map with a dumb title lol

 

Spoiler

@Thelokk's maps, but don't tell her I said so. Shhh.

 

Edited August 26, 2022 by Thelokk

[Endless]

1 hour ago, Thelokk said:

Ruins of Sathryn by @Endless (2022, though DoomWiki says 2021)

UV / GZDoom / 100% kills / 100% secrets

 

Taking a chance, I know, but the /idgames random button took me, after the usual litany of DM maps, to a work by a fellow adventurer. I'll try and be as nice as possible, while not ignoring the fact that Ruins of Sathryn, being only a second released map, shows more promise than actual qualities. 

The cc4-textured map (please, if you release a stand alone map included the texpack :)) is essentially a large rock arena, peppered with ruins, in which Doomguy finds himself immediately under fire from every possible direction. Resources are abundant, but the hot start is a bit eccessive in my opinion, especially considering that you get no shelter until you basically traverse the whole map, whose ground floors are infested by spectres and hitscanners. It's the kind of difficult that feels more unfair than difficult proper, but I did make it in the end, so I guess it is possible after all.

The big culprits, here, are geometry and texturing. I like arena maps, but connecting each terrace with tiny, collision-prone steps really hampers a map that is based around moving at all times. This is compounded by the monotonous texture work, which makes each terrace and stairs fairly hard to tell apart at a glance - most of my deaths happened when I stumbled on a corner thinking it was a staircase. 

Not the worst for being a second map, but far from an enjoyable experience. I'm sure Endless has only grown since then as a mapper!

 

  Hide contents

 

Hah, never actually expected to see a map of mine here. Thanks for the review!

 

This was my second map, and first standalone. I remember that I was quite troubled learning all the ropes, especially how to make ''outdoors'' maps look good. @Remilia Scarlet pretty much helped me with everything, especially the ugly paper-thin walls I used to do :p It was a fun experience!

 

Maybe you'll get Technical Issues some day, which I'm still quite satisfied with.

[Womp the Cat]

JAIL ESCAPE by Jay McKoon (1997)

 

IWAD: Ultimate Doom

Source port used: GZDoom

 

Pretty standard 90's map, with a handful of rooms linked by corridors, lots of corridor shooting, killing Barons with the shotgun just wholesome 90's stuff really. The most annoying thing about this map, is that, Jay gives us these large rooms to fight in, but the monsters are all crowded at the entrances to these rooms, so you end up having to just run back and shoot everything from the entrance and wait for everything to die before you get into a nice big room you could have had a fun fight in.  In the room pictured bellow with the nukage, the player enters on a raised platform, there's an imp at the end of the hall in sight, and a pinky hiding next to the platform in gzdoom, no problemo, I can run over him, but back then I wonder if the mapper took infinite height into consideration and intended to provide the imp with a meat shield. 

 

not very fun tbh.

Spoiler

 

[LadyMistDragon]

2 hours ago, Endless said:

 

Maybe you'll get Technical Issues some day, which I'm still quite satisfied with.

 

That one was rather monotextured though....that's not necessarily instant crap but you know....

 

 

Enslavement (1997) by Kurt Emch (Eternity)

 

A shockingly solid series of 11 vanilla maps, but contrary to the text file, they are all fairly short, taking 15 minutes at the longest in some of the trickier ones if you're slow. And they all have under 100 enemies. Difficulty is around the first third of Doom II so don't get your hopes up. There is also a small amount of Dehacked content. 3 of them are enemies. One is this fat floating cartoon Imp of sorts which replace the Lost Souls, a sort of venemous plant that spits these enemies out and a skull with some wires at it's back that replaces the Mancubi and fires a BFG ball that does the same amount of variable damage as their default counterparts' fireball attack. All but the latter feel horribly out of placeThe plasma rifle has not been so much replaced as modified, with extra red-lit wires running around the barrel and with the plasma shots now a bright-pink color instead of blue which pardon me, is just a nice thing to see.

 

This also replaces all the default music except in Map 10 with some stock music, tunes from Heretic, and a couple of other upbeat sci-fi numbers that sort of sound like something from Lee Jackson but probably weren't.

 

The map design gives little regard to thematic consistency and even less to continuity. Basically, there's a mild habit of placing techbase and wooden/dungeon textures next to each other in a rather illogical manner. You could argue some of these areas are like temporary outposts, but at a certain point, that argument loses its steam. And it gets even worst between maps. The first map starts you in a wooden building with boiling blood (one of the rare damaging floors in the wad) but for the next couple of maps, transitions to techbase with a strong ship/facility feel. The map after that is sort of underground ruin thing, the other one's a palace that's really a mansion, while the next map can probably be called a fortress (making a maze in dark blue is such audacity). After that, it's pointless to talk too much about distinct themes. Although I think Map 07 is a volcano monitoring station and 08's obviously a dungeon, though in a room or two with fucking SHAWN(i could rage so much about this, but I don't wanna). Map 11 is a stupidly easy Icon of Sin fight in a cavern of red rock. Basically

 

There are also some other and more noticeable mapping sins, such as some poorly-aligned doors and non-traditional textures being used for doors with some questionable accompanying context. Every so often, you'll come across thoughtless monster placement (Baron in lava easy to avoid and spamming of Lost Soul replacement) but combat is actually very solid for the most part, in the tradition of other easy wads like Revolution and Rebirth, but easier.

 

Two things to note. In Eternity (and probably Boom) there's a vanilla mapping trick in 06 where a certain bridge over slime lifts up but not correctly and you can't get back from the switch in front if you don't noclip. And in Map 07, you might softlock yourself if you press switches in the wrong order. Those are the only serious flaws I could mention. This is a good classic vanilla set, not all that visually competent, but good at what it does. Unlike that stupid Playmate model wad I plated sometime back. 7/10

 

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[Shanoa]

DOOM 1.666 WADS The Gateway ; The Pedestal ; The Great DOOM by Dave, uploaded to the archive in 2005 but released in 1994. Played with LZDoom on Ultra Violence. This is a Doom replacement for E2M1, E2M2 and E2M3.

Status: Completed

 

Oh this time I get three maps from 1994. As usual with those levels I go in expecting the worst but this time it was passable. Again, it's textured the way a 1994 often end up textured but I think Dave here did a good effort, there's WAY, WAY worst out there. E2M1 is the longest map and definitely the most amateurish of the bunch, it's got a good monster count of over 200 and a whooping 27 secrets (more on that soon). The first map is the usual boring straight corridor, most of the time, with door-not-door. But Dave REALLY wanted you to survive so there's enough soulspheres in each maps to ensure complete survival with minimal damage. For secrets, while there is 27 of them, some locations have like 9 secrets in one and by that I mean, say the secret has a staircase each steps will count as a secret.

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Damn, look at all that ammos, I'll definitely need them for these shotgunners. (they died in one shotgun blast)

 

Each of these steps are tagged as "Secret". So that's like 8 secrets in one.

 

Dave definitely upped his game for E2M2, there's definitely LESS door-not-door textures and more proper door this time. The map progression is slightly less cryptic than E2M1, you just need to clear monsters in each of the 4 sections and grab the keycards. Dave also tried his hands at using some proto-SUPPORT texture so hey, there's improvement! Alignment is also much better.

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Not the cleanest but yeah.

 

E2M3 starts you in front of an almost doomcute where the author spelled "DOOM E2M3" with sectors also each cardinal direction are noted in sectors too so N, W, S, E.

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At least wrote DOOM in the style of the logo.

 The progression is similar to E2M2 where you visit each sectors to get keys, except here it's on a slightly grander scale, although the occasional switch will make you go "what did this activate". There's also a bit of misleading where you think you've come upon a door requiring a yellow keycard but in reality that door house the yellow key while there's another door that actually requires the card.

Spoiler

This room does not require a yellow key, the yellow key is actually inside.

Can't say much about the combat, you get so much ammos overalls that you can probably blast your way through with the rocket launcher and the plasma gun. Biggest surprise is the lack of cyberdemon and spider mastermind, they don't appear in any maps so I gotta applaud Dave for this. It's sort of a dull trilogy but as far as maps from 1994 I played much worst.

 

Bonus picture!

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Dave predicting 4K all the way back in 1994.

 

[Thelokk]

59 minutes ago, Shanoa said:

DOOM 1.666 WADS The Gateway ; The Pedestal ; The Great DOOM by Dave, uploaded to the archive in 2005 but released in 1994. Played with LZDoom on Ultra Violence. This is a Doom replacement for E2M1, E2M2 and E2M3.

Status: Completed

 

Oh this time I get three maps from 1994. As usual with those levels I go in expecting the worst but this time it was passable. Again, it's textured the way a 1994 often end up textured but I think Dave here did a good effort, there's WAY, WAY worst out there. E2M1 is the longest map and definitely the most amateurish of the bunch, it's got a good monster count of over 200 and a whooping 27 secrets (more on that soon). The first map is the usual boring straight corridor, most of the time, with door-not-door. But Dave REALLY wanted you to survive so there's enough soulspheres in each maps to ensure complete survival with minimal damage. For secrets, while there is 27 of them, some locations have like 9 secrets in one and by that I mean, say the secret has a staircase each steps will count as a secret.

  Reveal hidden contents

Damn, look at all that ammos, I'll definitely need them for these shotgunners. (they died in one shotgun blast)

 

Each of these steps are tagged as "Secret". So that's like 8 secrets in one.

 

Dave definitely upped his game for E2M2, there's definitely LESS door-not-door textures and more proper door this time. The map progression is slightly less cryptic than E2M1, you just need to clear monsters in each of the 4 sections and grab the keycards. Dave also tried his hands at using some proto-SUPPORT texture so hey, there's improvement! Alignment is also much better.

  Reveal hidden contents

Not the cleanest but yeah.

 

E2M3 starts you in front of an almost doomcute where the author spelled "DOOM E2M3" with sectors also each cardinal direction are noted in sectors too so N, W, S, E.

  Reveal hidden contents

At least wrote DOOM in the style of the logo.

 The progression is similar to E2M2 where you visit each sectors to get keys, except here it's on a slightly grander scale, although the occasional switch will make you go "what did this activate". There's also a bit of misleading where you think you've come upon a door requiring a yellow keycard but in reality that door house the yellow key while there's another door that actually requires the card.

  Reveal hidden contents

This room does not require a yellow key, the yellow key is actually inside.

Can't say much about the combat, you get so much ammos overalls that you can probably blast your way through with the rocket launcher and the plasma gun. Biggest surprise is the lack of cyberdemon and spider mastermind, they don't appear in any maps so I gotta applaud Dave for this. It's sort of a dull trilogy but as far as maps from 1994 I played much worst.

 

Bonus picture!

  Reveal hidden contents

Dave predicting 4K all the way back in 1994.

 

 

A mapper called Dave has to be a guarantee of quality *chef's kiss*. Only DemonDestroyerBrutal666 could top him.

[Walter confetti]

13 hours ago, Shanoa said:

DOOM 1.666 WADS The Gateway ; The Pedestal ; The Great DOOM by Dave, uploaded to the archive in 2005 but released in 1994.

Ah yes, the wad with the 4k apartments! Funny that this session have 2 maps have 2 maps that I've already played and reviewed in the past!

[Womp the Cat]

LOCO DOOM: by Dan 'REZIDUE' Bernstein (1997)

 

Maps played: 3/9

IWAD: Doom 2

Source port used: DSDADoom

Other: Used UDB to look at the maps.

 

 

Ok so this is actually a kinda interesting wad, there is a bunch of new custom music, not sure who made it, no one is credited in the text file. Doomwiki, retrieved one result for a Dan Bernstein (the author of the set) and it referred to a Daniel Bernstein who worked on the Blood soundtrack, I cannot confirm that these are the two same people. perhaps someone may have more information. But it does seem like an interesting link, I find it particularly interesting because LOCO DOOM features an archaeological dig site as it's final map, and Epic 2 which uses a midi by Daniel Bernstein also features similar themes. Maybe it's all just coincidence. 

 

Map01: Pretty linear map, corridors joining rooms. but some fun-ish traps. the final room with the barons and an arachnotron was kind of cool.
0 deaths.
3 plasma rifles scattered across the level. (this is level one of a 9 map set mind you.)
I got the blue key, not sure what it does, I think it's for a secret earlier in the level, but I wasn't keen on backtracking.
I like that the mapper took some time to try make things visually interesting. a lot more so than my previous adventure from the same year.
We encounter chain gunners 2 barons and an archvile. the archvile and barons both provided the most fun encounters in the set, but there was also some good fodder elements.
5/10

Map02 (Pistol Start):
Another fairly linear map, but there seemed to be a few secrets, I didn't find with optional encounters possibly? there were still a handful of enemies on the kill counter when I exited.
There was one really cool detailed room, see the screenshot below. and other interesting attempts at detailing like, a star I'm pretty sure was stolen straight outa UD. because there's a wonkier star later in the map.
the combat was largely less challenging than the first map. but the final fight features a Spider Mastermind and a handful of revenants, I let them infight and then finished the Spider off with the plasma.

Map03 (Pistol Start):
Probably my fault for pistol starting this map, and the abundance of ammo at the end of map02 makes much more sense now.
map03 finds me in a room with a shotgun. there are to doors, both lead to a courtyard outside, in the middle of the courtyard is a cyber demon standing in a pit. he's confined to the center of the courtyard, in his pit, is a plasma gun and four back packs, good luck grabbing everything!
This is where I noped out of this adventure, and decided to play god instead and peak at the maps in the editor.
there are a bunch of stolen maps from the UD Iwad including e1 and e2's boss fights, that have been "remixed" with more monsters of the doom 2 variety and other haphazard changes. a Hell level, and a strange archaeological dig level that features some ss as the final map. the final map looked the most interesting from an aesthetic point of view while the hell level, seemed to have kind of a moody lighting, and interesting layout (still rooms + corridors). Mind you I stopped after the bs cyber in map03. so who knows.

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[heliumlamb]

TheEscape - by Jack Russel (2010)

UV / zdoom 2.8.1 / walking simulation

preliminary thoughts
"Bugs:The teleports don't work"

huh. i wonder if anyone who has been able to beat and play this one legit, if they did all i can say is that they might have been one of the few to experience an avant-garde slaughtermap to its fullest? couldn't be me. i might be wrong. i'm disoriented by default, and my experience with this map, even while godmoding through doesnt help matters. you can see for yourself below. it is a map

 

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same

 

[LadyMistDragon]

DOOM IV: Daisy's Revenge (1996) by Zhangyun Zhang (Eternity)

 

From a decent classic mapset, we almost instantly plunge into something best described as being completely opposite. Here we are presented with a map that's as bad as something by Ruba, though at least the latter made some attempt at passing his maps off as jokes. What you get in the text file is some official-sounding garbage about how the subsequent maps will require this map as well....but it's absolutely disgraceful. The only thing that could possibly make these boring square rooms worst is if any of them were overlayed with fireblu. Although I do wonder how the ending Doom tableau was made into a texture. Also, did I mention the starting room counts as a secret? Gameplay is an absolute joke, there's a Spider Mastermind and Cyberdemon that can't be killed because you're not allowed and the little bit where you can let loose with the chaingun in the little narrow path at the end fails to change this. Horrible pistol replacement sound by the way. Probably a little more realistic than the original, but the sound consists of an utterly repulsive weak chunkiness. 1/10 but for some of the sector stuff. Seriously, China's internet was not so prevalent in the mid 90s but I can't believe no one could make more of an effort than this.

 

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[Shanoa]

9 hours ago, Walter confetti said:

Ah yes, the wad with the 4k apartments! Funny that this session have 2 maps have 2 maps that I've already played and reviewed in the past!

Ah, is that so? That's a strange coincidence! Looking at your review I see you also pulled the UHD joke, haha.

[Clippy]

Hey guys hey ... I rolled the dice and lost ... again lol

 

 

get it here https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/s-u/tinytod

 

A speedmap I guess that feels a bit troll like - it has peanut pillars and cyberdemons up the ass - I guess it's fun for ppl who are into playing 2 shot the cyber - but the environment doesn't give you good ways to do it with awkward holes to full in and cyber buddies blasting you from the sides etc

 

thats all I have to say about that