Thelokk Posted December 18, 2022 (edited) EDIT: scratch part of the below, shortly after playing I have realized reading @Walter confetti's post that port-specific files are in fact required in order for textures and some features to work properly. I downloaded said files and replayed the first few levels: my general criticism still stands, but the missing textures are gone. Leaving the below review intact for transparency. Hmm... probably because I grew up in an old, dank country mansion, I can't say I ever had a fear of darkness. I usually keep all lights off at night, even when I have to move around the house. Achluophobia.wad by @Th0r (2006) GZDoon / UV /100% kills / 100% secrets A 10 maps set that took a whole... 3-4 weeks? Now my interest is piqued. Sadly, such piquing does not last for long. First room of map 01? a HoM and untagged doors that won't open. I switch from DSDA do GZDoom, just in case (did GZ even exist in 2006?) and... nope, it's not the port, it's that the mapper forgot to tag stuff and texture walls. .txt file says it was tested in Skulltag, but I get the feeling that the LOADS of missing textures throughout the levels are simply patches not implemented. Strange mistakes, that and the swathes of unproperly tagged sectors, since there are some custom textures implemented, and the author clearly knows how to edit in stuff like MIDIs and level names. There is no indication in the .txt file that a separate texture pack must be loaded. These blunders aside, the mapset is your typical 'first map' endeavour: super simple layouts, with very little height variation; blocks of mobs placed behind doors, directly in front of the player; very uniform lighting (it's been a while since I last saw such a brighly lit sewer level). Now, while these mapping naiveties would strand regardless of port, I fully understand I might not have grasped some Skulltag-specific thing about textures. If the mistake is on my part, I will replay the set properly. Otherwise, I can't really suggest Achluophobia unless you like to navigate white-and-blue checkerboards. Spoiler 5 Share this post Link to post
brick Posted December 19, 2022 I rolled a random one myself, and got a much-needed breather after NGM2. zfactory by Callum Guy Oliver (2011) What can I say, I'm a fan of the late Callum Guy Oliver's maps. They're not the most visually striking, their gameplay is not the most involved, but they're just good simple fun. As far as I can tell this was his first wad, but aside from the fullbright it's a great first try. I've seen criticisms of his peculiar layouts, where passages coil on themselves and connect through windows (I think it was kmxexii who called them cinnamon rolls), but I like the way they allow you to see where you've been and where you'll eventually be, and make everything seem interconnected. This is probably this map's strongest aspect and one that Oliver clearly put a lot of care in, from the first peek you get of the sewers, the blue key behind the bars, the exit room that you can see from the sewers and later from the stairs to the red key, and of course that elusive secret SSG. They also spice up the combat a bit, with the mancubus shooting through the windows, especially if they're still around when you trigger the surprise cacos. Oliver also uses the windows near several switches to hint at what they've opened to cut down on blind backtracking. With this kind of awareness of how to visually direct players, I would've loved to see him try his hand at an Eternal Doom or Hexen style wad. Spoiler 3 Share this post Link to post
LadyMistDragon Posted December 19, 2022 16 hours ago, brick said: I rolled a random one myself, and got a much-needed breather after NGM2. zfactory by Callum Guy Oliver (2011) What can I say, I'm a fan of the late Callum Guy Oliver's maps. They're not the most visually striking, their gameplay is not the most involved, but they're just good simple fun. As far as I can tell this was his first wad, but aside from the fullbright it's a great first try. I've seen criticisms of his peculiar layouts, where passages coil on themselves and connect through windows (I think it was kmxexii who called them cinnamon rolls), but I like the way they allow you to see where you've been and where you'll eventually be, and make everything seem interconnected. This is probably this map's strongest aspect and one that Oliver clearly put a lot of care in, from the first peek you get of the sewers, the blue key behind the bars, the exit room that you can see from the sewers and later from the stairs to the red key, and of course that elusive secret SSG. They also spice up the combat a bit, with the mancubus shooting through the windows, especially if they're still around when you trigger the surprise cacos. Oliver also uses the windows near several switches to hint at what they've opened to cut down on blind backtracking. With this kind of awareness of how to visually direct players, I would've loved to see him try his hand at an Eternal Doom or Hexen style wad. Reveal hidden contents I rolled this one several months back and while PhobosDeimosAnomaly maps were all better than this, I completely agree. Just a little dull perhapsmaybe. Chief's Wad (1998) by Simon Varzeghy (Eternity) A six-map set of "the player can suck it!" type of maps. I dunno if this has difficulty settings and honestly, you should look for yourself if interested. I'm quite busy right now. Anyways, these are fairly short, yet quite brutal types of maps, filled with various shades of green brick and generally small rooms. And there are replacement sound effects. They kind of lean towards the cheesy. Although perhaps you'll like the pistol and plasma sound replacements, they definitely sound more goofy. The shotgun replacement sounds a little compressed. Other sounds include the item pickup noise from Doom 64, the banging of trash cans when you kill weaker enemies, and the Goldeneye death music when you're killed. Also, this wad features a custom status bar I think was ripped from alpha Doom, and a cute little ENDOOM screen Anyways, let's get to the maps! Map 01 - Well, I think we're in for something special! A dude facing us at the beginning, a collection of barrels behind him, and behind you, a secret behind a fake wall. But "I Sawed the Demons" proves to be a touch deceptive. Because what seems like a fairly average opening map quickly goes from practically zero to 100 in just a few minutes when you open monster closets at certain points and reveal Arch-viles in one and Pain Elementals in the other. Yes, this mapper's a douchebag but he does make some effort to equip you. In a way, it's not unlike Crestfallen but with a touch more generous ammo and more focused on kicking the player's teeth in. Map 02 - A first map, I suppose. Fewer enemies than the last one and not quite so pressing. I do like the chasm room with the untagged secret hallway with the cells box. You press the skull switch here and kill some Imps and a Hell Knight with an SS. I think there's an Arch-vile at the end, or maybe a Pain Elemental or two. Map 03: You find yourself behind a pillbox of sorts, facing a whole host of enemies you may not quite have the ammo for. You may want to kill the Revenants first, but it's not a requirement by any means. You'll have to drop down to some underground passages and take some teleporters to get keys. Sound a bit dreary, but the pressure never lets up. And I think this might be one of the few maps without Arch-viles (read: probably 1, so that's definitely saying something!) My favorite was probably the Caco ambush near the blue key I think. Map 04: The most notable feature here might be the sort of "gladiator" room, grassy floors with green bricks surrounding the entire room and fences that make immediate access to the enemies difficult. Unfortunately, pistol starters will have to camp because you won't be able to just rush in and kill the Arch-viles. Then there's an unmarked door with a BFG and TWO MORE Arch-viles and then, a damn Cyberdemon when you get close to the other end of the room! This map is not impossible but might get a little bit over the top. Still, you need the RL if you want to go the other direction because the Arachnotrons quad at the other end of a teleporter will eat you alive. Then key placement feels needlessly obscure. Cool and brave to make a teleporter a pool with a corpse though. Progression gets a little better toward the end, I suppose, but overall, not a favorite. Map 05: "Shawn's Got the Shotgun" is blaring through the speakers and boy, does it fit! So this central outdoor courtyard has Arachnotrons in each corner, along with some Hell Knights and Imps in the middle. You'll want to kill at least some of the enemies here so you can get into the side rooms without being destroyed, but keep in mind most of the Arachnotrons are easily accessible from other paths. Toward the end, you walk past a pillbox of shotgunners, and in a rare moment of triumph, get to squash a Spider Mastermind with a pair of SHAWN pillars! Map 06: Completely breaking from the other maps, this one features an open layout and more texture variety than anything displayed thus far in this wad. Maybe it's like a lost town of sorts, because the green pyramid with the blue key is really kinda nice. The Revenants in the cage killed me the first time! Also like the last map, you'll find it's actually some different-colored torch which will open the secrets. The BFG in particular will be critical for the last fight if you're pistol-starting. And this is where the wad finally gets too over the top for its own good. Like I may have missed some cells, but picture, enter a bland scarlet fortress of lava rock, find yourself facing several Arch-viles in a tower with shotgunners on the sides, then suddelnly you're also attacked by a mob of imps to your back and Cacos to the front, and um yeah......not a good time! Having said that, Simon knows what he wants and executes it incredibly well, despite the presence of some rather questionable visual choices. If you can get down with it, you have yourself a largely fun set 7.5/10 Spoiler Spoiler Spoiler Spoiler 3 Share this post Link to post
Walter confetti Posted December 20, 2022 Achluophobia.wad by Th0r - Skulltag, Doom 2, SP, 2006, played with Zandronum 3.1 and Skulltag-data.pk3 Spoiler Second and final part of this Doom 2 episode, luckily without many much mazes as the first part, but it is any good? Let's find out! Sometimes for skipping time I've just cheated used [THE WORLD] by using the "freeze" command on the console, sorry about that. Also, i discovered that title is the "scientific" term of the fear of the dark, maybe the author doesn't wanted to use that title due to... copyright issues with Iron Maiden? I don't know and personally i don't care. Also it's pretty strange since i didn't find any dark, creepy maps around there so far... MAP06: A large green techbase with some kind of maze-y structure, but this time the level is cool to look and play! Maybe too grindy in some parts, but overall it was a good one. Also have the very hard to reach secret exit. Also, missing textures, what's going on here? MAP31: No, please no, not another maze. And a shitty one as well, fantastic. I don't have the patience to travel trough this shit. Noclip to the exit and next map! MAP07: Another nice map with a nice joke in the title (Hell Beckon... Lots of fleshy structures... Get it?) without a maze, finally! Expect for the simple one at the end, but it's a nice puzzly map. Pretty enjoyed this one. I liked the music as well, I've heard it many times in YTPMVs but i don't remember where this coming from... Beatmania maybe? MAP08: The good part of this map is the moudly\cyriak creepy music used, where this track coming from? It's pretty neat! Also i finally get the fear of the dark mentioned in the title, is a dark sewer conduct (insert sewer count from Civvie11 here) with deep water effect and free from mazes, yay. MAP09: Final map with a red flesh Icon of Sin style starting room, all weapons are here but you will not fight a icon of sin here, just 4 viles and cyber in a neat looking arena... with the wild decision of using MARBLOD1 as border\outer walls texture. Shoot the cyber, shoot a random arch-vile and... end without understanding what the freaking hell just happened. Time to say goodbye at this place: BYE! Overall, a forgettable episode with some good stuff in it like MAP06 and MAP07, but for the other maze-y affairs... skip this. Good if you love mazes in Doom. 4 Share this post Link to post
brick Posted December 20, 2022 PCDOOM by Steve Baldwin (1994) I'd like to think that this is the youngest of the Baldwin brothers trying his hand at Doom mapping (perhaps in-between shots while filming 8 Seconds), or even better the other Stephen Baldwin making this wad as a pre-teen before deciding his true calling was in politics instead. The map is supposed to represent the Ziff-Davis offices. Unfortunately it is really, really awful. I'm so much more tolerant of flat level design, I love 90s-style mapping more than most here, and I don't even notice texture misalignments most of the time, but the design really is bad here, and it's impossible not to notice the awful texturing. Most myhouse wads that I've seen have more personality than this, there's an endless row of tiny offices all around the circumference, some things that vaguely look like cubicles, and who knows what that is on the east side; there's so little detailing and so much abstraction, but everything is so repetitive, and you have to scour every last tiny corner looking for the blue key. My first reaction was that the 1-star rating was perhaps harsh, but after playing it I think not. Avoid. Spoiler 1 hour ago, Walter confetti said: I've just cheated used [THE WORLD] It's [ZA WARUDU!] :P (thank you for that reference, it gave me a good laugh) Also thank you for the map by map analysis of the wad, I wanted to play it initially but got turned off by the mazes. Knowing which maps don't have them, I might just play those instead, so thanks for pointing them out! 5 Share this post Link to post
Roofi Posted December 20, 2022 Year 2 Month 01 Day 24 I play until I die or intentionally stop. I don't comment the wad where I died/stopped. [1] kmetl_2 by Kurt Kesler (1997) Quote I saw some demos on the twitch channel about the "kmetl" series. It's a first time I play one of those Kurt Kesler's map and I easily suppose it's the second episode. Moreover, I don't doubt one single second that "metl" means metal because this factory has more metal than a Metallica song. Kurt Kesler seems to have a fetish for metal textures and I'm totally fine with this because those are great ! Now , as X number of maps released in the 90's, k_metl2 doesn't bring custom resources... except the mayan sky from the first episode of Ultimate Doom which doesn't help making the level less grey. However, Kesler said "Its not D_RUNNIN!!!" about the music and there's no music ! He deserves a fine for this. I had a great experience on this lenghty map featuring 3 colored keys scattered in a complex layout. However, I wonder if it's bad luck or stupidity, but I missed the most important weapons during 3/4 of my playthrough : the SSG or RL. Indeed, they're far from being hidden because the RL is stored in a regular room with a visible door and the SSG stands at the very beginning... In the end , I had to kill a lot of hell nobles with my single-barrel shotgun and it miraculously didn't prevent from appreciating this map thanks to the many available shell boxes and medkits. I think kmetl_2 plays like a TNT evilution's tech base map because it has a lot of intricate crampy paths, noisy machines here and here, and a pronunced use of low-tiers monsters and especially chaingunners. It doesn't have any elaborate traps except monster closets when you get keys or when you reach a certain point of the map. The fight against the cyberdemon both relaxed and disappointed me because it consists to a long-range duel winnable without effort. However, I don't enjoy kmetl_2 for his difficulty but rather for its pretty high monster density which turn some combats into tiny slaughterish scenarios. Despite the lack of colors because of the massive use of brown and grey metal, kmetl_2 still remains visually appealing to me and a part of the base shifts to green tek textures in order to implement some variety. The well-constructed layout and the fun easy gameplay result to a good-old classic map. Grade : A [2] Water Treatment Plant by @mrthejoshmon (2013) Spoiler Quote This is an old building somewhere in a derelict town, but that's not important, the truth is its a front for a teleport station... sneaky UAC... this is my first vanilla map, I am quite proud of what it is now, its not all polished or detailed fully, but the gameplay is exactly how I wanted it to be, easy is tailored to how I play, medium is about average and hard is me challenging myself! this map is also a surprisingly fun bot deathmatch map! This map has been tested fully in multiple ports, these ports are: prboom, prboom+, zdoom, zandronum, skulltag, gzdoom and chocolate doom. I know mrthejoshmon for being a TNT enthusiast and this little map populated by less than 50 monsters appears to be an obvious tribute to TNT map 04's "Wormhole" with its odd long tight corridors , but with some greeny outdoors sceneries this time. I had a feeling of Deja-vu while playing this level because I played the first Nova a long time ago and recently watched Mtpain's video about this megawad in september. However, this level is so memorable than that I was still able to rediscover it while playing. Water Treatment Plant has definitely the look of an early map in a megawad but the stingy ammo balance prevents it from being an opening one. My adventure was about to end in this map because I carelessly rush to the outdoors without thinking of the chaingunners hidden behind the pillars. I think WTP offers more challenge than it should. As a regular TNT map and beginner work, the layout was weird. It's not a problem for me but WTP is far from being as iconic as Wormhole. The lack of new music doesn't contribute to give this level a true identity. OK map overall. Grade : C+ A mancubus deleted me in a fraction of second while I was trying to punch him in UAC Ultra (v1.2) Spoiler 5 Share this post Link to post
Thelokk Posted December 20, 2022 Abiosis! by Billy Fromal (1996) DSDA / UV / 100% kills / 100% secrets A three-maps set from 1996, showcasing the usual limitations of the era, but also a taste for the abstract I greatly enjoyed. There is no specific theme to each map, as each jumps between techbase, natural environments and marble hell without warning; there is, however, a focus on lighting and complex (for the time) geometry I have rarely seen in a 1996 wad. Some of such complex geometry, given the limited tools of the time, leads to strange if not downright buggy results - 1 pixel thin walls and such - and the last map is actually impossible to complete without cheats, but nevermind that. It's just refreshing to see something that tries to develop a more abstract Doom than the IWADs offered. Combat is on par or above for the era, surprisingly I rarely ran out of ammo, was given some armor in hitscanner-heavy areas, and for every heavyweight there was usually a big gun hidden somewhere. Nothing trascendental, but a nice surprise. Spoiler 5 Share this post Link to post
Walter confetti Posted December 20, 2022 (edited) 8 Pointed Star Chamber (Doom 2) by Bryan Murphy - Vanilla Doom 2, SP, 1995, played with Eternity "forseti" 4.0.2 Spoiler A very plain Doom 2 map sets in the MAP03 slot instead of the usual MAP01, is a large brick structure where the only good parts are the nominal 8 pointed star sector and the hidden blue key room, for the rest is a pretty annoying map with no real great interesting parts in it, lacks of height variations, have a weird exit system hub, boring snake corridor half-maze, a corridor filled with light-amp visors, even a glitchy wall clipping in the ceiling for some bizarre reason. Lots of monsters (206 in HMP), but not implemented in a good or funny way. Skip this one too. Perdition's Anteroom by Evan H. Bynum - Vanilla Doom, SP, 1994, played with Eternity "forseti" 4.0.2 Spoiler A medium\large map from 1994 sets in the Deimos episode (E2M1), a raw techbase that is surprisingly good to play, there's pretty neat non-linear paths divided in 4 zones between techbase, cargo, forgotten vents made of rock tunnels for some reason, hellish areas and a fiery burning outdoor arena. Really neat design choices and a fun gameplay, pretty enjoyable despite it's rawness. Cool map! One last map and it's time to... SUFFER by Jose Luis Galliardo - Vanilla Doom, SP, 1997, played with Eternity "forseti" 4.0.2 Spoiler Not sure iirc but i remember this map mentioned in the wadarcheology thread? Or in a previous ER/iWA thread? Anyway this is another big and monster-heavy map that uses every kind of 90s map cliches in one large adventurous map with lots of hanged corpses in square rooms, lots of triggered actions that raises stairs, doors, floors and so on, a little maze for my pleasure and overall a nice experience, but nothing too groundbreaking or with anything special in it, unluckily, because conceptually is a pretty good map! But some rooms are too cramped and i don't find it that fun, sorry. Edited December 20, 2022 by Walter confetti 5 Share this post Link to post
LadyMistDragon Posted December 20, 2022 (edited) KNOB'S Carnage (for Doom ][Only!) Part 3 (1994) by Jeff (Eternity) Hey, it's a shovelware map actually uploaded onto /idgames at the time! Really, the user name will prove entirely appropriate to our British friends. Well, you know some of the flaws of 90s maps? This one uses Wolfenstein textures and enemies in such a lazy way that you know this map can do nothing but suck (we aren't going there now). The package also includes Beavis and Butthead sounds, which I, as a girl of (any) class, made no attempt to load. The one sort of cool bit was the one bland stone room where Imps start teleporting in massive numbers to comprise the vast majority of the enemy count. Otherwise, there really isn't much to say, other than questionably textured lifts lurk near the exit and the blue stone wall/teleport rug combo are an absolute nadir of what was already offensively bland. There is nothing of value here. 1/10 Spoiler Spoiler 6 Share this post Link to post
Walter confetti Posted December 20, 2022 Not even in my wildest dreams i could think to make such a texture combo like in that screenshots, wtf 3 Share this post Link to post
brick Posted December 21, 2022 DOOMII demo screenshots by id Software (1994) Sometimes you roll something that reminds you what the archive really is all about: archiving. Apparently John Romero demoed Doom II during something called the Austin Virtual Gaming Tournament on 18 June 1994 and he used a couple dozen screenshots to showcase the new stuff that was going to be in Doom II, then someone (presumably from the Tournament staff?) uploaded them to the archive a few days later. It's fun to see some very recognizable setpieces (like the cyber/spider faceoff in Gotcha), but also that some things were still not finalized even in June; the Pain Elemental was spitting something that looks suspiciously like a caco fireball, and the arachnotron had a minigun. Unfortunately the images are all PCX and neither DW nor Imgur will let me upload them. 1 way Ticket (One Sector Map) by Clippy Clippington A wad by our very own @Clippy! This is a pure concept map, as the name implies the entire map is only one single sector, and you start getting some very strange engine behaviour. The most prevalent one, and the one Clippy said he wanted to explore, was that enemies completely ignore you, they won't see you until you punch them, and even then they can't attack you so they just run around doing not much. The trick here is that the floor is all damaging (remember, one sector!), so they act more like obstacles, and you have to decide which ones to get rid of to clear a path and which ones are not worth wasting time on. A Supercharge and a couple of radsuits (more on easier difficulties) give you a bit more breathing room. The map is a series of small sections, each being a challenge of sorts. The opening section is the one that uses enemies as just obstacles, there are lots of mancubi and a row of nobles that you have to clear quickly (and a trollish red key door that is't one). The next part is full of invisible teleporters that send you back, if the correct path is hinted then I missed it, but once I started noticing a pattern I stuck to it and it does seem to hold up perfectly. Then there are a series of voodoo dolls blocking the way that you have to punch away without getting yourself killed. I think there's another side effect of the one-sector here, it seems as if I was not taking damage from the barrels when they blew up. The last room is a combination of monster-obstacles, lots of them, and a troll teleporter to waste your time. The end took me by surprise, but once I understood what was going on I did chuckle. The fun of the map is to keep experimenting to figure out how things work and what you're supposed to do, the map is so short that dying and having to restart is really not a bother, and once you've got it figured out the whole thing can be done in a minute or two (though I am not convinced that the par time is possible!). It's a pretty good exploration of the concept and I had a lot of fun with it. I need to play more Clippy wads, the only other one I played before was Leg Day, another really fun concept map. Spoiler 6 Share this post Link to post
Thelokk Posted December 21, 2022 stairs.WAD by Kuranes (1997) DSDA / UV /100% kills / 100% secrets Yup, it's that time of the day again, where we suffer through yet anoter 1997 shovelwareish level, except this time... ...nope, it's a 1997 level again, but at least it's not a shovelwareish one. stairs.WAD, a 'good and also great' level according to its certainly unbiased maker, is part of that crop of TNT-ish maps, not quite techbase and not quite wooden hell, that began displaying the sort of visual competence that would eventually lead to '99 and beyond, more complex wads. There are still a few naiveties, but overall it's a rather pleasant map. Sure the name doesn't lie, as the first thing we encounter is the titular stairs. Nine secrets, which I appreciated - some of them are one time only too. There is a focus on traps, some more dickish than others (you really thought that crusher would get me'), and switch puzzles set within labyrinthine rooms, which I personally don't mind but your mileage may vary. You get the PG and chaingun fairly soon and, since this is an UD level, that means you're pretty much served an iwin button by that point - combat is by far the weakest part of the map, as it's largely incidental and toothless. The key hunt is a bit obtuse, but nothing unmanageable. So yeah, full 1997, but a bit ahead of the pack. Somewhat reccomended. Spoiler 4 Share this post Link to post
LadyMistDragon Posted December 22, 2022 Sin City (2001) by @Ed (Eternity) Technically designed for Zdoom, but I'm not sure it matters. Perhaps there are some lines where invisible linedefs are thrown up for no reason like Blackness but it doesn't really matter. At this point, Ed hadn't made too many single-player maps, so it was actually quite surprising to see this on the Top 100 Wads of all time list for 2001. Though I recently found out this time period was sort of a nadir for Doom community activity, so that makes some sense. Although Sin City is still far from bad: the aesthetic lifts this one over the top more than anything else. With the aid of a few striking custom textures, you're greeted with the site of an ancient temple that of course, has lava which doesn't actually damage you in several places. There are also vines in certain places, along with a hanging texture that will only be rendered in ZDoom. Hanging over all of this is one of Skinny Puppy's contributions to the Descent II soundtrack, the frantic and claustrophobic rhythm of "Brut," which I'm not entirely sure fits, but it doesn't entirely clash with what's presented at the same time. Honestly, it does lend some energy to the required exploration. Despite the enemy count reaching maybe 80 and only getting slightly obnoxious toward the end, the real challenge comes from finding the puzzles. Although at least half of them aren't terribly interesting, taking lifts down and plumbing the depths of ancient caves is still somewhat satisfying. But most things here come easily, even the unmarked secret supercharge. However, it all felt routine in a way that I'm not really certain befitted the setting. Maybe it was just the design for the majority of this map. The combat definitely serves as a precursor to what would show up in later projects like Back to Saturn X. At the same time, there's far more room than there needs to be to avoid monsters, and several of the monster placements end up feeling toothless for one reason or another. Even the mass of Arachnotrons that appear when you open the way to the switch which opens the exit aren't exactly all together. It definitely feels like someone not terribly confident with enemy placement. 7/10, for concept alone. Spoiler Spoiler Spoiler Spoiler 3 Share this post Link to post
Clippy Posted December 22, 2022 On 12/21/2022 at 1:51 AM, brick said: DOOMII demo screenshots by id Software (1994) Sometimes you roll something that reminds you what the archive really is all about: archiving. Apparently John Romero demoed Doom II during something called the Austin Virtual Gaming Tournament on 18 June 1994 and he used a couple dozen screenshots to showcase the new stuff that was going to be in Doom II, then someone (presumably from the Tournament staff?) uploaded them to the archive a few days later. It's fun to see some very recognizable setpieces (like the cyber/spider faceoff in Gotcha), but also that some things were still not finalized even in June; the Pain Elemental was spitting something that looks suspiciously like a caco fireball, and the arachnotron had a minigun. Unfortunately the images are all PCX and neither DW nor Imgur will let me upload them. 1 way Ticket (One Sector Map) by Clippy Clippington A wad by our very own @Clippy! This is a pure concept map, as the name implies the entire map is only one single sector, and you start getting some very strange engine behaviour. The most prevalent one, and the one Clippy said he wanted to explore, was that enemies completely ignore you, they won't see you until you punch them, and even then they can't attack you so they just run around doing not much. The trick here is that the floor is all damaging (remember, one sector!), so they act more like obstacles, and you have to decide which ones to get rid of to clear a path and which ones are not worth wasting time on. A Supercharge and a couple of radsuits (more on easier difficulties) give you a bit more breathing room. The map is a series of small sections, each being a challenge of sorts. The opening section is the one that uses enemies as just obstacles, there are lots of mancubi and a row of nobles that you have to clear quickly (and a trollish red key door that is't one). The next part is full of invisible teleporters that send you back, if the correct path is hinted then I missed it, but once I started noticing a pattern I stuck to it and it does seem to hold up perfectly. Then there are a series of voodoo dolls blocking the way that you have to punch away without getting yourself killed. I think there's another side effect of the one-sector here, it seems as if I was not taking damage from the barrels when they blew up. The last room is a combination of monster-obstacles, lots of them, and a troll teleporter to waste your time. The end took me by surprise, but once I understood what was going on I did chuckle. The fun of the map is to keep experimenting to figure out how things work and what you're supposed to do, the map is so short that dying and having to restart is really not a bother, and once you've got it figured out the whole thing can be done in a minute or two (though I am not convinced that the par time is possible!). It's a pretty good exploration of the concept and I had a lot of fun with it. I need to play more Clippy wads, the only other one I played before was Leg Day, another really fun concept map. Reveal hidden contents hey there! Nice to see my map collection piling up enough to be selected here tho I wish something more substantial I made was pulled haha ya the gimmick is silly but wanted to see how far I could take it - if the red key worked the whole sector would get weird maybe - and splash damage from rockets and barrels seems to hardly work the torch pattern is simply do not go between red torches - or travel only thru green n blue ones I thought back on this map as not being much to it but seeing you explain it out so lengthy, I guess there was more than I remembered thanks buddy! 3 Share this post Link to post
Roofi Posted December 22, 2022 Year 2 Month 01 Day 25 I play until I die or intentionally stop. I don't comment the wad where I died/stopped. [1] Marine Doom! by Robert (1998) Spoiler Quote Great. After you wiped the evil demons off the earth and hell(you think), strange things start happening at UAC. Something has gone wrong there and it turned all the marines against you. You know that UAC has all the weapons from the lowly pistol to the awesome BFG9000, and this strange new weapon the shoots fireballs which you don't ever get(sorry), so some marines will be very dangerous, especially the ones with BFG9000s! You are determined to get to UAC headquarters where the source of the problem is and stop it. Could it be some hellspawn that somehow has survived? Only you can find out, your life depends on it! This vanilla wad works with a dehacked. I wonder if I installed it correctly because it just replaced the demon's sprites with marine clones of different colors. The red marines throw imp's fireballs which is extremly weird to say the least. The author brought new titles for the maps on the automap too but it's more than anecdotal considering how forgettable the three levels are. By the way, I had a sadistic pleasure to kill my possessed buddies. However, the funny dehacked doesn't compensate the mediocre level design. It's far from being bad because I had no problem about the progression or the item balance but the author didn't put a single effort in order to make his maps more memorable. All of them have clashing themes, uninspired corridors and lot of teleporters. Moreover, they lack of substance so each map will take 5 minutes or even less. So, Marine Doom! had nothing promising before and today. A bland world astonished by evil marines. Grade : C [2] No title - just fun! by Michael Drosdowski (1995) Spoiler Quote Each Player begins alone in a little room with some Bonus-Items. Choose one, and let the game begin! If You die, You restart in one of the 4 rooms. (It's the only way to reach them...) And then... (You'll see!!) Have fun, and send me a mail how You liked it... This untittled map, while the filename is called "dr_death" has such a vast layout with immense corridors and rooms that you could easily transform into a singleplayer map. As a deathmatch ignorant, I suppose this map doesn't work for duel because of its size. About the visuals, the kind of metal flying saucer located at the central courtyard catched my eyes. It's ancient aliens without the aliens. [3] Cry.wad by Joseph Pacheco (1995) Spoiler Quote Nervous What's up there? Yep, when you see a wad rated less than 1-star on idgames, you already know things will be great ! Or not... It's an inspid singleplayer-map with junky texture choices, flat layout with mishaped corridors. All the aesthetics will make you throw up. Your goal consists to get keys clearly separated in different sections. I tolerate the 3/4 of this map because of its lack of frustrating challenge. Killing the helpless cyberdemon stucked in the pit after grabbing the invulnerability represents the most amusing part of this map. However, cry.wad holds its name for its disastrous ending. You have to cross a hideous spiraling corridor filled with damaging lava and find the completly unmarked exit guarded by several arch-viles. I accidentally pressed it, after pressing the brown walls at random. Fortunately, you don't have to search for a long time but damn, it's mean. Grade : D I tried to walk on toxic nukage with 5% health in the second map of Chubz Missions (Episode 1) Spoiler 2 Share this post Link to post
Thelokk Posted December 22, 2022 666 - The Number of the Beast by Gul Dahre'el (1999) DSDA / UV /100% kills / 100% secrets Hexagonal rooms! Unfortunately, Hive Mother this one is not. It is, however, nested inside some very random sequence of folders, the kind of stuff that would be an instant reject by /idgames nowadays. At least there is a MIDI replacement for once - a hideous version of Iron Maiden's "The Number of the Beast", so terrible it actually made me miss D_RUNNIN. The map's geometry and layout are boring and gimmicky to the brink of shovelwareishness - a shot of the automap should drive home just how bland of an experience navigating this map is: Spoiler Only a single wall texture is used, so each room looks exactly like the previous one - there are no point of reference to base navigation upon, and even the few larger rooms are just more greenish techbase blandness. Items are placed at random, so that you might find yourself with all the health available locked behind a stretch of ten revenant-filled rooms. For most of the map your only weapon is the shotgun, which you will use to gun down haphazardly placed mid-tiers and plenty of hitscanners, all of this with one paltry blue armor at your disposal. The one slightly interesting thing about gameplay is that, thanks to an open layout, all monsters on the map will be alerted, leading to a bit of randomness as to where you'll encounter each. A very tiny saving grace, I must say. Just... just terrible. If you make a gimmick map, please make sure yours is a compelling gimmick. If you don't mind, I'll go back to Akeldama now. 4 Share this post Link to post
LadyMistDragon Posted December 22, 2022 thefwf's cargo bay, final version (2004) by thefwf (Eternity) Why would a map consisting of gray hexagon tex and small as it was take "ages?" Anyways, it doesn't seem like it would be such a bad DM map. Series of square rooms in some kind of space3 ship as some kind of Mega Man music plays in the background, the different rooms gazing out into space are kind of a nice touch, as well as the control console that exits the map. Not sure about the shotgun replacement which just seems to be a collection of parts from other guns. But easy 5/10 Spoiler Spoiler genetics.WAD (1996) by Christopher Roode (Eternity) Quote It's finally over. You kicked hell's butt. Also you are a hero. You saved the world. For such bravery, you get to go home on Earth and live there instead of Mars. You feel great. It has been forty eight hours since you received the following message: Sir, we have confirmed that this base we are studying is genetically manufacturing the creatures for warfare. We would like to send in someone for definite proof. Your mission is to break into the base, steal the information, and break out. You may take any team you wish. If you must, kill. We have found information on the layout of the base. There are three access corridors. One is guarded very heavily. The other ones are only exits. Inside, there are hidden rooms for emergency use. In case of any emergency, the hidden rooms will be loaded for ambushes. There is a lab near the entrance. Creatures are kept here. Other labs are in lower levels, but there is rumor that the door to access the lower levels is jammed. If the information is successfully transferred to the government, the government will take care of the problem. This is your mission if you choose to accept it. This really pisses you off. Actually it is easy to believe that this could happen because this is the UAC, and they were dumb enough to mess around inter-dimensional space travel. Using these guys that came out of them isn't much better. To make it easy, you accept the mission. You break into the place. Hopefully, nobody saw you. You copy the information to your data disk. It's time to go home. you open the door to see a guard standing in your way. You shoot him, pick up his shotgun and go. This must have raised a lot of attention. You have to break out. This story is not on /idgames but it just makes me pine for the old days when people wrote stories for no reason. But despite many mapping 90s cliches, this actually possesses a strong sense of place. The long corridors with doors leading to little rooms every step or two, little sort of water treatment room in the east displayed below hidden room filled with test tubes, and the larger area with a Cyberdemon and Spider Mastermind on either side of you, feel like something you'd actually expect to find in an actual research lab, albeit, not with the rather abstract style that is presented here. At the same time, there are quite a few odd sections as well. Many little pointless mazes, such as the little red-light-ceilinged and brown floor room in the southeast that would actually make a good color combination if Chris did more than make a blood maze out of this area. Yes, there are quite a few non-human monsters despite the declaration of the text file, but the monsters are almost always in little gray rooms and cells where you'd expect those in a research lab to be. Combat is kind of a joke though, so we should probably be grateful Chris didn't go full TNT on us and place 20 shotgunners around every corner. At the same time however, monster closets with hitscanners will open behind you every so often which actually makes little sense with the map's premise with the rather bland way they are thrown in. You do have three keys to collect but they aren't really necessary, certainly not if you do some exploring in the west if you spot a certain room that seems inaccessible and happen upon a quick way to the northern and heavily-forested outside area after walking through long rivers of slime. Through this strangely evocative dead forest, you'll eventually come upon an exit in the north. And frankly, it's somewhat of a relief. The 90s genericism is incredibly hard to escape so I was quite relieved to find the exit so soon. Guess it's not too bad though 5/10 Spoiler Spoiler Spoiler 3 Share this post Link to post
Thelokk Posted December 23, 2022 KA2JT.WAD by Jussi Tuononen (1996) DSDA / UV /100% kills / 100% secrets Yet another mid 90s map I have very little to tell about, because there is very little to talk about. A sprawly, grindy (370some monsters), copy pasty gauntlet where you endlessly SSG down a storm of baddies neatly arranged in a pile in front of you. The map is replete which chaingunners cause', you know, there were the New Thing™ to make your map difficult. The middle section, a sort of wooden pyramid in a courtyard, was sort of cool (one of the map's pros is that it's not the usual fullbright), but the cages section before it was D2 IWAD cringeworthy, and the latter section was just your usual, old, tired PIPE and gree techbase. ... yeah, three sentences in and I already ran out of things to say about this map. Not the absolute worst of the 90s, but far from the best. Forgettable. 2 Share this post Link to post
Roofi Posted December 23, 2022 Year 2 Month 01 Day 26 I play until I die or intentionally stop. I don't comment the wad where I died/stopped. [1] Return to hell by Diego Cea (Killator) (2007) Spoiler Quote A level based on the hell. "Return to hell" is a brief adventure in ... hell. You need gzdoom according to the text file but it plays like an amateur map from the 90's but with slightly more detailed. As many hellish maps made by beginner mappers, the visuals look goofier than creepy and the lack of real challenge transforms the adventure into a baby stroll. So whereas I can take pleasure from the items generosity, low difficulty and the old-school feeling, Return to hell will quickly evaporate from your memory after you played it. However, I approve the use of the midi from "DOOM CITY" composed by Shamus Young, it gives a special touch, which also contributes to the 90's feeling. Unfortunately, the music choice was my favourite thing about the map... I don't want to qualify this short level as bad but rather dull. Grade : C I got quickly overwhelmed in Tau Sigma Phi's 10th Anniversary, a slaughtermap with more than 12k monsters. Spoiler 3 Share this post Link to post
LadyMistDragon Posted December 23, 2022 WILLE1M1.WAD (1994) by William Leslie (Eternity) Hey, it's a baby's first map from that primordial soup we call early Doom mapping! Honestly, it's not too bad for someone who probably struggled quite a bit with DEU before producing something that could be called a finished product. But these tight corridors and wrongly-textured doors are still a massive error that could've easily been avoided. I think it's probably Willy's attempt at maintaining a consistent color scheme. Doesn't change the fact that the tiny room with 3 (starting doors) is fucking ugly as sin and wholly unrealistic. And there is such a dearth of ammo, with one of the only caches (of any size) being located in a hidden hallway in the RK room by pressing one of several switches on a series of columns. Most of these switches don't even work! But one will raise a bridge over a pool of blood leading to the red key, which also triggers some platforms to lowersome enemies on each one, with (sigh) a Baron of Hell among their ranks. The red key opens a door that leads to a tiny gray outdoor area with trees that bears too much of a resemblance to the last area in the Genetics map I played a day or two ago and no more ammo to handle the greater enemy threat. This questionable balance ultimately make another personality-less and disposable 90s map not worth anyone's time. edit: And it appears I took no screenshots either. Honestly, that probably says something. the rk room looked nice but those columns as well as room's small size don't really help visibility. 2 Share this post Link to post
Walter confetti Posted December 23, 2022 PANIC!.WAD by Jason Hargreaves - Vanilla Doom, SP, 1994, played with Eternity "forseti" 4.0.2 Spoiler A short map for the E2M2 slot for some reason. I thought it will be better for E2M1, but what's done is done. The level is ets in this bizarre hellish\techbae pastiche heavily based upon some vanilla puzzle gameplay with some concept taken from the original Doom game as well (noticed E2M3 checkboard lifts and the red hot bricks horrors from E3M7 but without the annoying maze, GREAT!), now the puzzle is pretty neat... as well as being horribly bugged in places, like a door that doesn't open in a room, fantastic. Anyway, the level itself while badly bugged not only by broken puzzles but also by broken node building in a pair of spots for me it was a funny experience, liked the level basic construction and the puzzle stuff is, as i wrote above, pretty neat. 2 Share this post Link to post
LadyMistDragon Posted December 24, 2022 EPA HOLD-UP V1.05.3 (1996) by Benjamin R. Lierman I dunno if Ben just pulled that version number out if his ass because he describes his build time as "How fast can you say 'Alrighty then?'" Either way, it's hard to see why this ended up getting released to the public like the /idgames reviewer said. It seems to be someone that like Jim Flynn, was interested in unconventional and not particularly obvious progression, but with far less of an understanding on how to make that obvious. Or maybe there's no need to so that in such a cramped and bland map as this. Although you then have to ask why Ben put so much effort into the MS Paint status bar if he was so bad at the mapping thing. Like, why the hell could you possibily place a rocket launcher practically as the starting location whilst a Cyberdemon fires at you from a narrow aperture on your right? This feels like some kind of weird test-thing and has quite literally zero positive design traits. Also, it can't be finished. Sure seems like a map gone over with a fine tooth comb a few times, eh? 0/10 Spoiler HOMER2.WAD (1996) by me (mike w4173) (Eternity) So um, we got ourselves a map here that might almost be Cyb's first map (c'mon 'I hate cyberdemons?' Doesn't seem random, lol) that seems to have been designed for a Simpsons doom wad which I didn't tracking down because I didn't care enough to bother. I'm sure it would've made the ashwall more bearable, but basically, the letters in "Simpsons" are drawn out, then you're transported into a large outdoor area that's shaped like Homer's head whilst you fiddle around it looking for the exit, and in the process, stumble upon an area surrounding the original starting sectors that spells out "The" containing whatever replaced the SS in Simpsons Doom. Perhaps appropriately, you're confronted by a Bart Simpson revenant at the exit that I can just imagine laughing and saying "Hahahaha....looh-ser" I think this would be a decent playground for the Simpsons wad but there's little else of value here. 4/10 Spoiler Spoiler DISCO.WAD (1996) by Bob Ferguson (Eternity) Quote Do you like dancing? Well, go ahead in this Doom game. There is a dance floor with 2 stages and a DJ, bars, toilets and everything. This is one of those maps that basically are a display for why people say that Doom's visual style is ill-suited to depict realistic spaces, at least with the default textures given. The lighting in the opening room is a an atrocious attempt at depicting flashing lights which crashes and burns almost instantly. Yes, it is incredibly easy to spot the central floor, bars, storage rooms, basements, offices and the like, but the problem arises when you get into a darkened basement section where the central part of the floor is hot all too literally, hot enough in fact to burn you to a crisp in less than 10 seconds. RIP Doomguy. Although combat is quite easy for the most part and is a fun romp so it really isn't too bad. Amusingly, there was a review that mentioned the Doom Toilets actually seeming appropriate. But the funniest part was probably running into a cadre of shotgunners enjoying the services of a pair of Imp bartenders. Free drinks for everyone! The aesthetic makes it hard to give this a high score, but this is dumb fun, and you have to accept the way vanilla texures are used to confuse the heck out of you and make you think you're next to keyed doors which really aren't key doors. Like, does anyone really think we'd want to relax in sofas with that kind of texture? Ugggggggg. But play it, I guess, it isn't too boring 5/10 Spoiler Spoiler 3 Share this post Link to post
ICID Posted December 26, 2022 On 12/12/2022 at 2:22 PM, Clippy said: did that stream get me extra points or something lol - no idea how it works Sorry I didn't respond to this in a timely fashion (you guys know how busy the holiday season is) but the main source of points is WADs, each of which is worth 5 points. Since you played 17 WADs on that stream, which is worth 85 points. That alone was enough to push you to 8th place. I think I also gave you a small amount of bonus points for creativity, but if you really want to climb the (meaningless) scoreboard, sheer WAD volume is the way to go. 4 Share this post Link to post
Clippy Posted December 26, 2022 2 hours ago, ICID said: Sorry I didn't respond to this in a timely fashion (you guys know how busy the holiday season is) but the main source of points is WADs, each of which is worth 5 points. Since you played 17 WADs on that stream, which is worth 85 points. That alone was enough to push you to 8th place. I think I also gave you a small amount of bonus points for creativity, but if you really want to climb the (meaningless) scoreboard, sheer WAD volume is the way to go. Cool buddy no worries about not responding I already forgot to ask the question Merry Christmas eh That stream was a wacky experiment. I don't plan on doing that again for a long long time lol. I haven't even resumed my regular episodes and I will get back into it. But I'm not actually concerned about trying to find the leaderboard just having fun but was also curious This is a very interesting time I'm planning on getting back into it good times everyone 1 Share this post Link to post
