Endless Random /idgames WAD Adventures #042

[Thelokk]

Vault by @revan1141 (2014)

GZdoom / UV / 100% kills / 100% secrets

 

Those who know my mapping and my tastes in the maps I play also know that I have a very lax attitude toward 'mapping sins': almost anything goes, and I don't mind dying over and over to dickish traps 'cause, after all, that's also Doom. In fact, there is ONE single thing I would consider a mapping sin, and it's in full display in revan114's unfortunately mediocre map Vault.

Please, please, please, if you have to choke a room with four chaingunners and no cover, at least provide some armor. I'm not even asking for a good weapon, nevermind I just had to shotgun down endless fodder, four revenants and two cacodemons - I just ask for a chance at recovery from a trap that was absolutely not signposted at all. 

It's not a matter of difficulty, and I'll tell you why: a difficult map spreads the difficulty across the various encounters, and every fight has one or two elements that make it a threat to the player's survival; a poorly designed dickish map you can spot at a distance because it seesaws from absolutely unthreatening to ridiculously murderous without any kind of logic and continuity, as it's the case with this map - you are in no danger at all until the hitscan come, and then it's game over. 

This is what I call unfun, and this small, cramped, shoddily textured map has plenty of it. Almost every corner is a hitscan ambush, the only armor provided is a (painfully obvious) secret green suit that won't last you a room, especially when you're sandwiched by shotgunners while chaingunners potshot at you from all corners. Add to the mix fullbright rooms, ugly floor arrows, and the result is a map that was made in 2014 but feels like 1994 Maximum Doom material. 

 

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

[Andromeda]

15 hours ago, Clippy said:

Teleporter Station : https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/s-u/tstation

 

Not sure what is happening here but it's full on broken - if someone is bored can they have a look lol - wtf wouldn't load in GZ or DSDA - how is this on ID games? How did ppl play it before - why

This is a Doom 64 wad, it requires the Doom64 EX source port:
https://doom64ex.wordpress.com/downloads/

[Misty]

Qboard Doom2 SP wad by Biff Debris, Lunaran, Aardappel(1999) 

 

3 levels long mapping from dead Quake forum section(I checked links - one is dead(I wonder if doomnation has archived links) and other one about project history links you to the shop). It was supposed to be megawad, but seems only 3 mappers dared to show up, too bad, because levels were promising(just how many promising projects show up and later die, because of lack of interest or project leader quitting). Maps/project wouldn't be out of more modern mapping settings, especially last 2 levels. Gameplay is relatively easy, nothing what player couldn't fight. 

Screenshots:

Spoiler

 

[smeghammer]

It's been a little while since I did one of these, and the gods of randomized mediocrity did not disappoint...

 

https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom/g-i/glenold

 

To be fair, the author (glenzinho) does say in the readme that this collection of his old WADs are not of the best quality, so expectations duly set, I dived in to the first of this set of 16 maps:

GMC1.wad - the relevant bit of the text file is thus:

GMC1.WAD
Game                    : DOOM
Map #                   : E1M1
Single Player           : Yes
Cooperative 2-4 Player  : No
Deathmatch 2-4 Player   : No
Difficulty Settings     : Yes
Finish date             : Approx. October 1994
Base                    : New level from scratch
Build Time              : 26 Hours total
Editor(s) used          : DoomEd for Windows v2.60b4, WadEd v1.23, BSP v1.1TC, 
			  REJECT v1.0
Known Bugs              : None
Notes			: Very first level made from scratch.
			  Some texture misalignments.
			  Progression by secret (what was I thinking?)

I played UV, its most certainly an early WAD. OK for a few minutes mindless relaxation I suppose:
 

 

I'm not going to nit-pick as it is stated as a first map, from 1990's, so take it as such...

 

EDIT:
The second (GMC1_19.wad) Is a slight polish of the above, so not gonna post that playthrough as it's essentially the same.

Edited September 25, 2022 by smeghammer

[Biodegradable]

Black Hole Sun (2020)

 

A very lush and colourful map by joe-ilya that I was very impressed with. I haven't played a lot of his work and his general output has been scrutinised a lot over the past few years, but hot damn, this map is lovely. Very curious, out-of-the-box approach to architecture and texture work with curious, intricate detailing. It's wild, but not random, twisting nonsense. There's a good sense of form to everything. Combat progression is mechanical at times, but always good fun. This mapping is brimming with personality and shows a lot of promise. joe had definitely come a long way and this map is proof that practice makes perfect.

 

 

Edited September 26, 2022 by Biodegradable

[smeghammer]

And here is the second of "Glen's Really Old WADs":

BIGSTAIR.WAD
Title			: Big Stairway
Game                    : DOOM
Map #                   : E1M1
Single Player           : Yes
Cooperative 2-4 Player  : No
Deathmatch 2-4 Player   : No
Difficulty Settings     : Yes
Finish date             : Approx. Novemeber 1994
Base                    : New level from scratch
Build Time              : 24 Hours
Editor(s) used          : DoomEd for Windows v2.60b4, WadEd v1.23 
Known Bugs              : Clipping effects (Node builder didn't work properly),
			  you can get stuck in one wall.
Notes			: Simplisitc level, overscale was my thing then.
			  Bad progression that marks my early maps, such as
			  unmarked necessary doors.
			  Bad texturing and alignment.

I think the self-assessment above should tell you the score.

I ended really abruptly at a switch inside a wall that was actually an exit...
 

Oh, yeah - GZDoom 4.8.2, with freelook.

[LadyMistDragon]

AREA5.WAD (1996) by Adam Hawley & Scott Stancliff (Eternity)

 

Hey Josh you dickstain of a human being, did you know your brother actually....but in all honestly, this map shows it was made by two people and it rather shows. There seems to be some attempt at a symmetrical layout but the passageways between rooms twist in a somewhat interesting fashion. But the large area with the BFG in the middle is far larger than it needs to be and ammo distribution for anything that's not rockets (and that's only grouped in one place, as it probably should be) is incredibly weak.  3/10 for being aggressively uninspired.

 

 

1Berserk.wad (1996) by Dave Green (Eternity)

 

You know, anyone that says a wad has no gameplay is probably approaching said wad from the wrong perspective but this is just absolutely godawful. Cramped, square, rectangular and monotonously white rooms that come off rather like baby's first slaughter from 1994. You're provided with plenty of ammo and a decent amount of Invulnerbility Spheres and Berserk Packs, but this is emblematic of why the mid-90s were so fucking reviled. This isn't Doom, it's just "kill things" but without the fast-paced action of shmups and bullet hells, just tedious and unappealing guano that has no right to exist 1/10

 

There was a third map I got that I don't think sucks as bad, but I really have to move on to other things. So this'll have to be it for today.

 

Spoiler

 

[Endless]

KS4.zip | By Cory Banket | 2003

 

A rather large map with some nicely done visuals that, ultimately, fails me due to the ''clever'' design. By this, I mean a layout that's quite dynamic and evolving, but too obtuse at times and full of little time-wasting little gimmicks, especially hidden doors that seem to be randomly set so that you lose valuable minutes just trying to look for them, which really breaks down the pace of the WAD to a crawl that devolves into the worst kind of puzzle: switch hunting. Other than that, this map is quite well done in pretty much all the other departments. Gameplay is nice, with enemies positioned in weird yet fun ways. Plenty of items to go around and the various rooms make it feel invigorating. For 2003, those are some sweet vanilla visuals, even if there's a ton of texture misalignment, I don't mind them much.

 

I'd say give it a try if you actually like little puzzles that require you to explore and wallhump. It took me around 20 minutes to finish it when it could've been done in half, probably.

 

 

Bad Mood Wad | By Christophe DEMANGE | 1995

 

Typical 90s WAD with an extremely simplistic, crude and boring style. All the typical 90s sins are here, but, surprisingly, at least there's no major visual glitches such as HOMs. This map is just a long maze that goes through a variety of rooms to finally reach the final area, which is full of lethal traps and small puzzles.

 

Forgettable.

 

High/Low 1 | By @Chris Hansen | 2006

 

Chris Hansen never disappoints with his WADs.

 

This medium-sized map for Ultimate Doom has a cool, well-focused design that progresses in a great way thanks to a deep but accessible layout. The gameplay feels classic, traditional in the sense of being evolved enough without needing to fall back on the basics. The visuals are fantastic, making use of a select group of vanilla textures, but with good level design that has a sweet amount of detail.

 

Recommended without a doubt.

[Clippy]

did a short run with @Dub Bag - no hard time selecting a map today lol

 

 

 

Surveillance Base Ypsilon by Ittaanip - https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/v-z/ypsilon

 

I don't remember it - a pretty simple map - from 2020 but felt older - honestly not too challenging and a little on the new side maybe but competent  - over supplied - a lot of single monster group fights - spiders - revs etc - simple to follow progression -some copy paste jobs - overly big outdoor area - super easy cyber demon fight at the end - oh well, a gentle ride but nothing outrageous or silly this time - just straight simple fun if you are looking for a classic not too stressful time

 

bye

[Walter confetti]

ARACHNA.WAD by Bjorn Hermans and Holger Nathrath - Vanilla Doom, SP, 1995, played with Eternity "forseti" 4.0.2

Spoiler

 

A really great looking map made by the people behind the Serenity episode series sets in a hell temple, the layout is pretty well done and there's quite some puzzle elements, like multiple path teleporters a la Doom 2 hell maps and a switches hub that opens piece by piece when you progress in the map, new textures and music as well are included, lots of very good detailing for such a ancient map and a very exciting gameplay. Really awesome stuff! Actually, i was even thinking to suggest this on WADarcheology thread but i was beaten in time by Endless.

 

Hell Wad pack. For Doom 2 hell on earth. by John Cartwright - Boom, Doom 2, SP, 2005, played with Eternity "forseti" 4.0.2

Spoiler

The name of this author rings me a bell for some reason, did i have played a map from this guy in the past? Maybe... Anyway this is a 7 maps mini-sode sets in this sort of Plutonia like world with some changes in it, the difficulty for the first maps are... very though, initially, but then it just turns a grinding, tedious slaughtermaps events.

 

MAP01: A green\brown abstract place sets in... a jungle, i think? It's even more abstract of Plutonia jungle settings, man. However this map is map dark, dull and grindy. Not a great start imo.

 

MAP02: Now we are inside a computer maze structure that it's extremely rectangular and filled with monsters, as well for the outdoors and... WTF? Near 1000 monsters in MAP02? What I've just got now? What is this madness??? Anyway, the map doesn't appear to be that insanely hard as my initial suspects took me before playing... Sure, it's pretty hard for casual play, it's extremely grindy like the previous one and even a little confusing to navigate, but the majority of the enemies used here are hordes of imps and even groups of chaingunners, so it's easy to defeat them. I finished this map in 15 minutes, it was ok. Just a slightly acceptable hard battle.

[Roofi]

Month 12 Day 14

 

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

 

[1] WARLORD by David Davidson (AKA DRILLER) (1995)

 

Spoiler

 

Quote

Awesome Deathmatch for Doom 2 It has all the weapons, but it might not be obvious at 1st on how to get the plasma gun, all you have to do is start out at the bottom of the stairs and run up them, open the door, run to the exit, look left you should see it. Unless your opponent has it already ;)

 

Warlord is a small beautiful E4-themed marbled castle. It has some new funny sounds which I enjoyed listening to. It's weird that the author hid the plasmagun hid the plasma gun in an obscure secret whereas the BFG wasn't hidden at all (It's in the cage near the water). Maybe the PG is a better weapon than the BFG in deathmatch. I don't know.

 

[2] DOOMONAS.WAD by JOHN MARES (2005)

 

Spoiler

 

Quote

DOOM ON A STICK

 

What is a speedmap made in 1994? A bunch of flat rooms with random abstract shapes and things placed at random. In this map , the best weapon you can obtain is the boomstick and you can only find it if you're courageous enough to run in a tunnel of nukage. If not, the pew pew will be your best friend.

 

I prefer to warn you that DOOMONAS represents pure garbage stuff from the doom's prehistory but I didn't dislike it. It has ammo, health and it was short. The author was generous enough to grant you an automap and killing small enemies with the pistol amused me.

 

Grade : C

 

A revenant punch me from below in DEM.WAD

 

Spoiler

 

[Clippy]

So after I joined @Biodegradable finding High Low by @Chris Hansen - I loved the classic feel of it - I played it myself with Bio there - then I found another one and recorded a video - ultimately I found all 5 and decided to do a rare super video - putting all my footage together - it's also quite long cause I got lost a lot - but I did love the classic feel of it and traveling through the years of early mapper development - good times

 

 

 

Thanks to this thread series

[LadyMistDragon]

Graphed (2003)  by Tim Williams (Eternity)

 

This is another one of those maps comprised of a series of monotextured rooms broken up some attempts at interesting ports of call, so to speak. It's also incredibly stingy with ammo, although you eventually get more shotgun shells from shotgun guys more accessible than the beginning rabble. Speaking of, the stairway with the shotgunners in caged rooms can be quite tricky to survive because in addition to Imps, and the usual hitscanner suspects, there's also a pair of TWO chaingunners. If you're lucky, infighting will take care of much of thjiis, but probably not without taking a few hits, and there's still the aforementioned shotgunners. You really don't have much choice at this stage but to run around everything.

 

Then there's that stupid room with the Cacos and Baron guarding the red key with the series of curved platforms. This sort of self-indulgent mapping tendency is always going to wrangle myh craw. Oh look here's a teleporter. Look where it'll take me. Oh, to this platform here? Ok, what about this one?

 

It gets better after that. There's a rectangular outdoor area with a metric ton of enemies on the sides that stand a far higher chance of killing themselves along with some more quasi-slaughter incidental stuff, which you'll finally have enough ammo for, along with enemies you've left alive in previous areas.

 

 

The office computer bank is cool at the end, and of course, there's nastiness behind it! Although the exit is also opened and perhaps you should take it.

 

I don't really like getting two proto-slaughter maps in a row, but this was actually mostly ok despite the low ammo paucity of it. 5/10

 

 

Spoiler

Spoiler

 

[Walter confetti]

Hell Wad pack. For Doom 2 hell on earth. by John Cartwright - Boom, Doom 2, SP, 2005, played with Eternity "forseti" 4.0.2

Spoiler

 

Second part of my run of this mini-sode, the grindy parts ends in this part with a small breathing room so far.

 

MAP03: Last hard map in the mapset so far, with more than 1300 enemies in HMP and way too many barons and arch-viles in this map. Awfully grindy. The theme is overall nice, is a big Egyptian temple in the middle of rocky canyon, but is way too, TOO MUCH grindy in monster placement. A boring and menacing monster that I've happily skipped at half of it's battle.

 

MAP04: A short, fancy breather that... i personally i don't understand why it's here over than having a place to storming faster between battles, the previous maps doesn't have a death exit to break the gameplay progression or changing drastically the theme of the map, is a forest-like structure similar to the previous maps. But i'm just happy to have a easy, short map for a break from the previous maps.

 

MAP05: A better mapset breaker than the previous map, is a dark, square-ish techbase with a "light" monster placement and with shorter number of enemies in it (140 in HMP), you can easily rush in it and beat the level in 5 minutes. It's a funnier map than the previous entries imo.

[Revenant Boys]

On 9/25/2022 at 10:45 AM, Endless said:

 

High/Low 1 | By @Chris Hansen | 2006

 

Chris Hansen never disappoints with his WADs.

 

This medium-sized map for Ultimate Doom has a cool, well-focused design that progresses in a great way thanks to a deep but accessible layout. The gameplay feels classic, traditional in the sense of being evolved enough without needing to fall back on the basics. The visuals are fantastic, making use of a select group of vanilla textures, but with good level design that has a sweet amount of detail.

 

Recommended without a doubt.

This wad is good 

[Shanoa]

Cavern by @TheNooBringeR, released in 2013. Played with LZDoom on Ultra-Violence. This Doom 2 wad replace Map01.

Status: Completed

 

Unfortunately we have fairly plain looking map here. You start in an empty room outside, save for a stone structure which I assume is a grave. Once inside the first room you fight in a waterfall/water textured room with a non-damaging toxic sector in the middle.

Spoiler

The starting room.

 

The encounters are mostly throwaway fodders early on, including an E1M9 reference in the form of a star shaped sector with the pinkies ambush included. You get a chaingun instead of a rocket launcher here though. There're two secrets, both are very easy to find. One yield a box of bullets (you'll need it) and the other a mega sphere stuck in the land of HOM.

Spoiler

A small mistake, you'll get it right next time author!

 

The hardest room is the blue keycard room, the middle sector opens up and there's a couple of enemies including an Arch-vile, a revenant, some chaingunners and some slow walking mancubus in the corridor you entered from. The rocket launcher and soulsphere make the ambush easily dispatchable, even more if you're still fully powered by the mega sphere (which you will be).

Spoiler

A view outside from inside the blue keycard room and yes, there's an HOM in the distance. Still, much better outdoor than the mega sphere area.

 

One of your last stop is the blue door, where there's a Cyberdemon vs Spider Mastermind showdown "a la Gotcha". Although, in my case, the SM died while I was on my way out of the blue keycard ambush room. I scrapped by with almost no ammo left because there's a lack of them. I did miss two rockets because i'm that pro but i'm sure the Cyb would've survived if not for the first secret that yielded 50 bullets. Anyway, flip a switch, return to the starting room, kill the arch-vile and you're done.

 

The description state "you need ZDoom to play this map, it may not run with non ZDoom ports" and that's not true, the map is as vanilla as it get. It probably run on crispy doom even. I'm just guessing the author only tested with ZDoom and thought, because of that, this will be the only port where the map work, bless him. Regardless, you can skip this map if you want.

[Walter confetti]

Hell Wad pack. For Doom 2 hell on earth. by John Cartwright - Boom, Doom 2, SP, 2005, played with Eternity "forseti" 4.0.2

Spoiler

 

Last part of this mapset, finally. Man this beast was grindy.

 

MAP06: We are returning to slaughtermap zone, with all it's grindy, boring glory! A insane amount of barons, pain elemental and arch-viles, how freaking charming. Also includes slightly broken lifts but luckily the layout is not that broken like in the first 3 maps and the progression is more easier to understand where to go, luckily.

 

MAP07: The final map is like a crazy conjunction with Icon of Sin and Nuts.wad, but with much lesser monsters. Overall, a kind of funny arena slaughtermap and a good Icon of Sin map, incredibly.

 

Wierd World Cave JBL-500 .by Roo - Limit Removing ports, Doom 2, SP, 2007, played with Eternity "forseti" 4.0.2

Spoiler

 

A small old-school joke speedmap sets in this Wolfestein abstract structure with... scrolling turd? And a slaughtermap arena with 100 monsters surrounded by commander keens and romero heads. Not the best map but it's pretty inoffesinve, even slightly cute in the right state of mind.

 

Kmetl Series by Kurt Kesler - Vanilla Doom 2, SP, 1998, played with Eternity "forseti" 4.0.2

Spoiler

 

Kmetl, we meet again. This time it's one of the earliest in the series, sets in this brown\white techbase surrounded by many monsters and a pretty good layout and detail construction in it's simplicity. Backtracking with new monsters appearing via teleports are present, giving more playability. Hard, but not boring. Good map!

 

ZenNode Version 0.98a by Marc Rosseau - Node Builder, compatible IDTech1 games, 1996

 

The random button give me this early version of the popular  node builder ZenNode, bundled as well with Doom Builder from it's first release. It's a very good node builder, I've used this a lot during my earliest years of mapping. Still works perfectly for Boom compatible ports.

 

The Cybermarine v1.0 by PHOENIX - Dehacked Patch, Doom games, 1998, played with Eternity "forseti" 4.0.2, Crispy Doom 5.10.1 and DSDA Doom 0.24.3

Spoiler

 

This is conceptually a pretty nice idea, turning the player into the mighty Cyberdemon with 4000 HP and "infinte" rocket launcher, too bad that with these new amazing features you have also the troubles of being a cyberdemon with massive size and mass, making almost impossible to navigate in smaller corridors and giving you funky movements bug while playing on Eternity engine (that also give you the classic cyberdemon metal hoof walk, that's awesome! This only happens on Eternity). A interesting concept, overall. It could be great for slaughtermaps arenas.

 

Registered Heretic Editing Utilities version 1.2 by unknown - Level Editor, Heretic, 1995, played with DosBox

Spoiler

 

A primitive DOS editor based upon an modified version of DEU that can work on Heretic WAD for creating and editing maps as well as other options like adding .raw files in your wads and many other features. The usage is pretty clunky and slow to use expect to the much more modern editors like UDB, a simple "speedmap" example of what i can be done with this editor is here.

 

ALIEN vs. PREDATOR Theme Patch Release v1.00 by Tyson "T-Man" Geller - Vanilla Doom, Gameplay mod, 1997, played with Crispy Doom 5.10.1

Spoiler

 

A pretty neat vanilla mod that modifies Doom monsters and items with the creatures and assets used in Alien Doom by Justin Fisher plus some more new stuff, the new assets are pretty cool even if feeling a little to ripetitive. But overall, it's a enjoyable and fun experience.

 

Hell Cave by Andrew "Dman" Orman - Vanilla Doom 2, SP, 1998, played with Eternity "forseti" 4.0.2

Spoiler

 

Last map for today and it's a pretty surprise too! A medium sized map sets in a gloomy mine\cave where a hell temple hides below, the monster placement is pretty clever and the layout structure is pretty unique, with many traps where you should be prepare to save before going into a death trap. A fun experience, again! Just be very careful on your ammo and health, it tends to be pretty scarce here!

[Roofi]

Month 12 Day 15

 

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

 

[1] FORT DRILLER by David Davidson (a.k.a. DRILLER) (1995)

Spoiler

 

Quote

Awe inspiring deathmatch for Doom ][.

 

Fort Driller takes place in a square fortress built with brown bricks. I love the architecture of this map and especially the shadows generated by all the pillars. The combination of the Doom 2's brown bricks and the E4's orange sky is delicious. I love it.

 

[2] MindScape Inc. (mind.wad) by Adam Jacob Czarnecki (1998)

 

Spoiler

 

Quote

You are a marine sent in to investigate a building with strange reports of "alien sightings." (I hope MindScape Inc. isn't a real company. If it is, please tell me, I'll change it, and things will be okay. :)

 

Mindscape is a small episode containing 5 blue maps. Most of the maps look samey because of the extremly amateurish work brought by its author. Each map consists to a flat and almost monotextured labyrinth. Moreover, you have to go through many 64 pixels wide corridors, which is not a good thing for making interesting layouts.

 

Each floor of the building is populated by low-tier monsters with some mid-tiers here and here and eventually a cyberdemon you can easily defeat with some shells and circle strafing. The second map was by far the most frustrating because the author decided to be stingy with ammo. I had to punch some hell knights in this map. However, the others ones play fine since you have way enough shells.

 

Whereas Mindscape can be objectively considered as an incompetent mapset, I enjoyed its simplicity and the extensive use of blue textures. 

 

Grade : C-

 

[3] BLAZING.WAD by David Merrill (1997)

 

Spoiler

 

Quote

Clean symmetrical levels for good dm multi-player play. Rockets and Plasma only. First level has 4 giant lifts with staggered openings.

 

Blazing is a deathmatch wad containing 4 maps where its author heavily used the beige stucco textures. I love this texture when used in abundance. It brings a odd cozy feeling as if I was visiting an emptied building. Each map offers spacious combat zones.

 

[4] REAL: DOOM2 Conversion by Joe Zona "JAZ" (1998)

 

Spoiler

 

Quote

You must search for a brazilian UAC jungle base. New graphics and sounds immerse you in a jungle enviornment as well as caverns, an ancient temple, and more as you search for the base and attempt to destroy everything that escaped. (Press F1 after installation for full story)

 

Finding a jungle-themed wad from 1998 isn't a common thing ! Real features 6 maps and an epilogue one which just serves to conclude the wad. I played this wad with prboom because I was too lazy to install the dehacked.  Otherwise, it runs on DOS.

 

Real reminds me a lot of Rowdy Rudy, a vanilla project led by Doomkid and I'm 99% sure "Real" inspired him. However, while Real uses a Dehacked, the new assets have only a decorative purpose. Custom sprites of vegetation, rocks or water splashes can be seen and armor shards had been replaced by green potions. The wad contains new sounds which make the jungle environments a lot more immersive but it cruelly lacks of custom music. However, I can recommand to play it without music !

 

The way Joe Zona created tropical scenery is outstanding and represents the main interest of playing this wad. The other maps , whereas having great visuals, have a lot more generic themes. Indeed, you'll also explore a temple or tech-base in your adventure. Moreover, maps lack of substance since most of them don't have more than 20 ennemies !  Gameplay was relaxing thanks to the easy-to-find rewarding secrets and the low monster-count  but I was frustrated by how short the maps were. Every time I finished a map, I wished it was a little longer.  But that's the way it is, Real will occupy you for 10-20 minutes.

 

In any case, Real is a wad that has marked me. The use of new sounds really enriches the experience and the new textures add a lot of freshness considering that the vast majority of the wads of the time were limited to stock textures. Honestly , longer and more extensive jungle levels would have earned an A+ from me.

 

Grade : A

 

[5] The Chemical Base by Pablo Dictter (2001)

 

Spoiler

 

 

Quote

A huge map, hard in (a way), and fun.

 

Pablo Dicter is a liar ! 

 

First of all, chemical base sounds more like an embelished name for sewers since the combination of metal, green mossy bricks and nukage always make me instantly think of sewers.

 

Secondly, it's not a huge map but rather a mid-sized one. I took 10 minutes to beat it and it wasn't hard at all ! The hardest monsters you meet are few arch-viles and Pablo dicter give you a megasphere (and a secret plasmagun and soulsphere as well if you have sharp eye).

 

However, I had fun and I really enjoyed that map. Maybe, sewers/chemical plant figures among the most uninspiring themes but Pablo succeded at creating polished visuals thanks to the clean use of textures and the light gradations. Doom 2 map 06's music fits with the gloominess like a glove but it's not an achievement here.

 

As I said just above, this level is a breeze if you advance steadily  because this "hard" map doesn't have any elaborated hard scenarios , except if you still struggle killing lone arch-viles. The exit is not marked, I was a little disappointed that the map lasted only 10 minutes for my part.

 

Grade : A-

 

[6] The IGOR Series for DOOM ][ by B. Vannatta/B. Weldon (1995)

 

Spoiler

 

 

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A fast-paced, ten-level deathmatch pwad for DOOM2; supports monsters w/ respawn (two-player) or nomonsters (three- or four-player).

 

Those DM maps emulate the "earthy" of Doom 2 IWAD maps very well even if I don't have anything special to say. I have a fav for the remake of Tower of Babel in map 09. I already visited the wooden mansion in map 08 because it was released as stand-alone (and I completly forgot its name). I had a lot of fun killing the few enemies populating each map. The chaingunners were sometimes a bit dangerous !

 

Also , most of the maps have timed exits, which means you have to press a switch located far away and run to the exit room in order to end the level. It's sometimes impossible to complete the map alone but it's still fun.

 

[7] GoatDoom by Unknown (2001) [WARNING : NSFW!]

 

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Have you ever been to http://goatse.cx? If not, this WAD probably isn't for you. If you have, this WAD probably isn't for you. Otherwise, check out Map30 for a, er, surprise.

 

 

Heh ! It's 2001 and Kama Sutra wasn't released yet ! Anyway, here is the anal edition of KS map 30. Enjoy.

 

[8] Blind Alley U., "Deja Vu" by Gene Bird (2003)

 

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A nice but challenging map.

 

Oh... This is a Gene Bird's map ! Help ! Help! (I watched Mtpain's video on CC2 three times).

 

Actually, Deja Vu aka Community Chest map 04 wasn't the terrible experience that Mtpain described. I decided to compare my opinion with Mtpain's one because he was way too harsch with that map.

 

Gene Bird's Deja Vu , whereas being released in 2003, looks exactly like a shovelware map which would have been built in 1995. I agree with Mtpain about the fact this map suffers of its lack of consistency between rooms. Once you explore a court built with concrete, once a marble temple, once a bedroom, it's so random. However, each part doesn't look so bad while Gene Bird was stingy about detailing. Moreover, Gene Bird made spacious zones which make the navigation  pleasant.

 

Combat-wise, the level relies too much on the SSG , which make the fights quite redundant. However, Gene Bird was generous with ammo so it prevents the adventure from being an ordeal. The secret doors can easily be spotted if you know how to use the automap. Monster placement wasn't thought too, but I enjoy simple things. I enjoyed taking down groups of enemies with my powerful SSG.

 

For my part , I enjoyed playing that map. Far from being a masterpiece, Deja vu does not suffer from big gameplay problems that would be a source of frustration. All my opinions are biased because I ended up loving playing shovelware stuff so I can tolerate a lot more the 90's tropes than Mtpain do, but F? You smoked , man. 

(In case you read this, I still love your videos btw :p)

 

Grade : B-

 

Random hitscanners shot me in the dark in MAYhem 2048 AKA MAYhem2014's map 02

 

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[Andromeda]

31 minutes ago, Roofi said:

[7] GoatDoom by Unknown (2001) [WARNING : NSFW!]

I'm surprised this isn't in the NSFW section of the archive!

[Thelokk]

Tellerstein's Base by Tellerstein (2012)

GZDoom / UV / I ain't killing this stuff / 100% secrets

 

Look, we all went through this phase, ok? the 'my ceilings look like gruyeres cheese, see how Quakey and skilled I am', the 'lol dickish trap betcha didn't see that coming'... well, ok, this one last phase I never grew out of. 

The .txt file tells us that Tellerstein is mainly a musician, not a level designer, and their map Tellerstein's Base tell us that they are no Dragonfly or Jimmy: the bitchin' custom MIDI composition is, in fact, the only thing I would save from this hot mess. You and your trusty pistol are plopped into a room chock full of hitscanners, where the only decor is a picture of a HIM session man (Tellerstein themselves, I guess) which, upon being shot by you or any enemy releases three cyberdemons. Ah, and the platform you spawn on is also a crusher. Yeah.

The rest of the map is... kinda there. I mean, shooting an arachnotron through bars definitely beats shotgunning a baron, right? RIGHT? Map got me slightly excited when a whole room's floor lowered to reveal a new combat area, but then I looked at the map's year of making... umm, 2012, weren't these kind of tricks a bit old already? More hitscanners, no armor, and the map is pretty much over.

I'm saving the MIDI for the next community project I'm taking part in, but the rest can go. 

 

 

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[LadyMistDragon]

Palladium Electroplate Facility (2004) by Samuel @Kaiser Villarreal (GZDoom)

 

Reportedly, this was Kaiser's first attempt at a ZDoom map. And unfortunately, he doesn't have the same energy for advanced level designing as he does for programming, because he HATED it. He made a few more after this, but ended up quitting the port for good after releasing The Community is Falling 3, the sort of wad I wish was actually made these days.

 

But anyways, it would be incredibly easy for me to say "if you've played one Kaiser map, you've played them all" but I like this sort of progression, if handled correctly. And this actually is the case here! It's no Internal Reaches, but the progression here is still among the best. There's a bit of an obligatory hub area at the beginning, and a Pain Elemental you'll run into going in one direction suggests that you can find stronger weapons somewhere nearby, and thankfully not in a secret like some clowns seem to like with their maps.

 

Detailing is up to Kaiser's usual high standards, with some textures being borrowed from Strife with music that also sounds suspciously Strife-styled and definitely familiar from any case. Also, all the glass here is breakable, like that Eternal Doom map Paul Schmitz made, which is a really nice touch. There is also a stab at realistic architecture, although it's probably safe to say Kaiser doesn't try to stuff in Doomcute like you might expect from other mappers, and in all honesty, it would probably clash with his overall style.

 

One of the best tricks in the map is when you press a switch near a large lift near the red key where through a series of processes, a massive collection of teleport pads is deposited onto the floor. Step on the ones that are more faded to proceed. Step on the wrong ones, and some Imps will be teleported in to harry you.

 

It does seem the combat could have slightly more teeth to it like most of Sam's maps. There was this one room with some Mancubi, chaingunners, and hell knights that were kind of nice, and there were a couple of nasty ambushes that might kill a player or two. Although the chaingunner one near the blue key is probably intended the rocket launcher on. And credit, that Cyberdemon that appears as the whole map shakes at the very end was quite cool. 8.5/10

 

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[Walter confetti]

UACPEN.WAD by The Mad Hacker - Vanilla Doom, SP, 1994 but uploaded in 2005, played with Eternity "forseti" 4.0.2

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A pretty good map for 1994 standards, is a large destroyed base with some hellish influences in typical "The Shores of Hell" fashion, plus including a pretty interconnected (minus a annoying maze and a section that wasn't really clear where to go) layout, lots of secrets, lots of monster closets and destroyable assets that opens at your passage and at last this map includes some semi-realistic details and even a doomcute desk with pens! It's a pretty fun map as well, really enjoyable!

 

When All Hell Breaks Loose by genocide (Eric Simpson) - Boom, Doom 2, SP, 1999, played with Eternity "forseti" 4.0.2

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At first, i thought this was the more famous doom wad "All Hell is Breaking Loose!",but instead is a small city outpost that uses some Boom features like scrolling floors sets in a compact urban block, where cracks all around shows the demonic influences with a large hellish mountain\tower and a small temple, jump trough the rooftops is big fun! The blue key is a secret zone, for some weird reason. The map is short and fun!

Edited September 28, 2022 by Walter confetti

[pcorf]

On 9/21/2022 at 9:34 AM, Walter confetti said:

Altier 6 & Insanity by Keith Hickman - Vanilla Doom 2, SP, 1997, played with Eternity "forseti" 4.0.2

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Two pretty challenging maps made by one of the authors of Squadron 417, a very fun old time proto-slaughter megawad that precedes even hell Revealed by one year. These maps in particular have lots of common with Squadron 417 (using the sky from XENO11 and many early 90s sounds effects and music, a basic but good looking layout) and being MAP01 sets in the city of Altier 6 that includes a bank, a theatre, a techbase similar to entryway, a bar and many other stuff. Gameplay is pretty challenging with the less fun part with the backtracking parts, it's also heavily based upon exploration. The second map is just a small techbase that includes a icon of sin, blast romero head and the game it's over. Also a screenshot of this map has been used as intermission screen. Overall, a very good couple of maps!

 

Both these maps were also in Squadron 417.

[Thelokk]

Spacious Depot of Decay by @Tolwyn (2010)

GZDoom / UV / 100% kills / 5 secrets found out of 11

 

Easily one of the best things I pulled out of /random so far. Let's get one thing out of the way: if you dislike switch puzzles, backtracking and counterintuitive progression, you will HATE this map. The signposting is there but requires layers of interpretation, the three-keys hunt is non linear, and overall the map approaches Old Still Life leves of obtuse - in other words, everything I ask of a Doom wad. Texturing is full vanilla, nothing stellar but above and beyond your usual /idgames random fishing trips. 

The combat is also pretty great, with loads of cramped ambushes and just enough arsenal to get by (protip that lots of mappers should take to heart: giving the player a BFG doesn't mean your level has suddenly to turn into a slaughtermap). Maybe a bit heavy on the hitscanners for the armor provided, but I feel this is a common trope in single map wads, so I'll let it slide. The eleven (!) secrets range from the multi-step complex to the painfully obvious, something for everyone. 

A pleasant surprise, enjoyed this map a lot. 

 

 

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[SuyaSSS]

Water Plant - Avrg User, 30 March, 2022

Played on: GZDoom, Difficulty: Ultra-Violence

 

Short beginner map that kicked my ass. Ammo starvation is a common encounter even after I punched the pinkies. It still has the regular beginner map quirks such as areas that don't go anywhere (Looking at you, blue key area). The difficulty gets a bit high during the first 2 rooms but the final room is easy as hell. Also, the texturing of the building reminds of Doom 1's Episode 1. So, Nah! not my cup of tea at all due to the ammo and health starvation. Overall - 5/10

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Maximum Carnage! - Doug Bora, 30 May, 1995

Played on: GZDoom, Difficulty: Ultra-Violence

 

A deathmatch map but it has monsters so whatever. I have never been not disappointed and disappointed at the same time so much as this level. This map is a recreation of Entryway and it is good looking for the year it comes from. I expected to see a messily textured, barely any height difference map with easy monster placements. This map is harder than Entryway (which honestly isn't even a competition) but no way as hard to get the title MAXIMUM CARNAGE!! So, I wasn't disappointed at the beginning however I started to realize that I can't fiind the exit. So, I opened my automap and the horror I faced when I saw an unopened door. I thought what unopened door? I looked everywhere and I went there and the disappointment hit me like a fucking truck. What can be worse than an exit behind an unmarked door. Also, this map can be completed in 6 seconds because of this weird door choice. I wouldn't recommend to skip the parts because the fights are more fun than the original but there is only one Doom 2 monster for whatever reason. More Doom 2 monsters would've been cool. But, tbh, aside from the ending it was a good experience. Like everything in this map is optional but the optional content is the good content here. So, I am still going to take the ending into account but not fully. Even though it is a deathmatch map better texturing for the exit should've been put. The map was still fun for as 1995 map and I've seen worse. Overall - 7/10

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This is the fucking exit!!

 

[Walter confetti]

VOODOO by Patrick Davey - Vanilla Doom 2, SP, 1995, played with Eternity "forseti" 4.0.2

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A pretty amateurish map based upon a not really effective voodoo doll trickery, expect for the ending room, but is one of the earliest with so many voodoo dolls around the map that is actually based upon this gimmick. Not the best map visually or in the layout form, but have a interesting gameplay premise at least.

 

The Tiger Den by Jim Young - Vanilla Doom, SP, 1994 but uploaded in 2005, played with Eternity "forseti" 4.0.2

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This is a sprawling techbase with some hellish influences with many places to explore and rooms\closets that opens at your passage. The progression is "modular", with different areas that needs to be unlocked by keys and hitting switches. The layout is pretty interconnected and the monster placement, while being scarce is pretty efficient. Overall not a bad map, but i think the Doom 2 version is superior.

 

Nickel Electroplate Facility by Samuel @Kaiser Villareal - Boom, SP, 2003, played with Eternity "forseti" 4.0.2

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A really good map by the extremely well known kaiser, it's a medium sized techbase based upon the original Doom 2 maps as well with Community Chest reminiscences with many interconnections in the layout as well lots of care to the detailing, the gameplay is pretty challenging but i didn't find the rocket launcher and there's not a strong balance between monsters and ammo. But overall, a very good map!

[LadyMistDragon]

Warehouse DM (2001) by Pablo Dictter (Eternity)

 

The "Ninth Gate" guy (project that never finished) brings us this decent little 1 on 1 deathmatch map. Like all his maps, rooms are square and there's crates everywhere. Corridors are small, so there's not really tons of room to do much or play much really. 5.5/10 for solid construction though.

 

Sentinels of Damnation (1995) by Gary Atkinson (Eternity)

 

With a cool custom title screen and nice custom track. I hoped this map would be better than it was. Unfortunately, this draws (poor) inspiration from the Gene Bird school of level design. Very linear, along with some cruddily-placed enemies that can easily ruin your day, along with fucking required entering a tranparent wall with no visual cues. Did I mention there's a sergeant firing at you from another one? Yeah, not even Gene Bird did that BS. On the plus side, Gary creates some interesting locations, such as the temple with barrels surrounding it, and a sort of warehouse with might be sort of a drive-in structure or something that you might find at a base. I alsoi like the bit at the end where you shoot some barrels and sergeants go boom! Too bad the Mancubi at the end ruins everything. 5/10

 

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[Thelokk]

Above and Below by Rob Berkowitz (1999)

GZDoom / UV / 0% kills / 100% secrets

 

I fired up the map and was immediately greeted by the utter, complete, unfathomable nonsense of a secret starting sector. I refuse to go any further. 

 

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[LadyMistDragon]

oval3.wad (1995) by Philip Edwards (Eternity)

 

A deathmatch map that's, like, oval-shaped. Each separate room has a different theme that doesn't really go with the vague tech aesthetic. Also, where's the ammo. Decent design, but that takes this down to 1/10 on its own. I don't think I payed attention to that before.

 

 

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The Ultimate Busty Fucking Hardcore Doom Level (2021) by Lord Mattus (Eternity)

 

Yes, the title and text file tell you all you need to know. But this literally seems to have been last modified last year, so I'm actually quite perplexed. The subject matter, layout, and strangely funky midi are all straight out of the 90s. Massive rooms filled with posters that can't be shown here, monsters thrown in an incredibly haphazard manner along with more than enough ammo in most spots (and almost none in others) and an odd wooden hallway with seemingly no purpose but to lower a platform with the RK not so far from the entrance. There is this one room with Lost Souls with a platfrom in the center seemingly inaccessible without cheating, but Eternity had no issues otherwise. 2/10, mainly for general playability, because design is an objective disaster/

 

 

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[AD_79]

4 hours ago, Thelokk said:

I fired up the map and was immediately greeted by the utter, complete, unfathomable nonsense of a secret starting sector. I refuse to go any further. 

 

Strange take. If I remember correctly, creators in the 90s would do this if there were no actual secrets to find in a map. This would prevent the secret tally from displaying "0%" at the end, as it would do that if there weren't any secrets. Even if this wasn't the case, outright refusing to play a map because it does this doesn't make sense to me.