Station X - 30 years old. A real classic

[Brad_tilf]

I can't EVEN begin to tell you the respect I have for the original wad authors that began the long journey of map making back in the early 90's after the release of Doom in December of 1993. This map was created in 1994 using DEU 5.21 and BSP 1.1. There was nothing visual about these tools. At best you could say it was like being in the stone age of wad making. By the time I started making maps just a few years later the tools had improved immensely (Bronze age I guess is a good analogy). To give you an idea of the time (probably before many of you were even born), his email address shows as this in the txt file:

Russ Ringer Email Address : Compuserve 75410,1116 FIDONET 1:343/64 internet: fnork@u.washington.edu

Compuserve. lol

Also this little bit of info at the end:

Where to get this WAD * FTP sites: ftp.uwp.edu, infant2.sphs.indiana.edu BBS numbers: BETTER WORLD (206) 634-0671 Other: Compuserve GAMER forum

 

How many of you remember BBS's? I had one back in the day (during the wild west days of dialup before WWW was a thing or at the best an infant and "dancing baby" was the internet craze. Anyway. Enough memory lane stuff. I'm posting this because I think maps and map makers shouldn't be forgotten. Lost to history if you will.

I hope Russ is still out there somewhere, still Dooming. Here's the description:

 

Description : The genetic experiments at the Universal Acme Corp. have gotten out of hand. You must clean up the mess, find the computer control central, shut it down and destroy it. This wad shows off many of the neat things DOOM can do. This is a polished wad with NO HOM and full alignments. Plenty of ammo and weapons if you use the right strategy. This level is designed for strategy and playability. Watch out for traps! You WILL be killed the first time through! Full support for single, multi-player and deathmatch.

 

You can download it here: https://www.doomwadstation.net/doom_reviews/1994/stationx/

[Fonze]

47 minutes ago, Brad_tilf said:

full alignments.

Bob check your glasses I see texture misalignments in the screenie you posted! 😋

Joking aside, it's always cool to see maps from the stone age of wad dev. Being able to make anything decent back then surely must've been tough, time consuming, or both. 

Wad looks cool and it's great to see you still reviewing 😃

[Brad_tilf]

8 minutes ago, Fonze said:

Bob check your glasses I see texture misalignments in the screenie you posted! 😋

Joking aside, it's always cool to see maps from the stone age of wad dev. Being able to make anything decent back then surely must've been tough, time consuming, or both. 

Wad looks cool and it's great to see you still reviewing 😃

I don't really have time for reviewing any more. I reviewed this some time ago but I feel like here in 2024 we need to look back at our beginnings.

[Gez]

Back to Station X

[Fonze]

28 minutes ago, Brad_tilf said:

I don't really have time for reviewing any more. I reviewed this some time ago but I feel like here in 2024 we need to look back at our beginnings.

Yeah it's good to take a step back and look at where we've been every now and again. I know my time doing twid's for you wasn't super long, but it was fun times and I appreciated and still appreciate that opportunity back then. Glad you still making what time you can for the hobby 😃

[Brad_tilf]

16 minutes ago, Fonze said:

Yeah it's good to take a step back and look at where we've been every now and again. I know my time doing twid's for you wasn't super long, but it was fun times and I appreciated and still appreciate that opportunity back then. Glad you still making what time you can for the hobby 😃

I do what I can. :-)

Hopefully DWS will be there for many years to come. Almost 26 now. lol

[Warboss_Gegguz]

I always find old 94 wads super interesting, regardless of quality. The tools, standards, and distribution method at the time were all so primitive vs what we have now that it's kind of impossible for me to hate them even when they aren't very good. Likewise, that makes extremely good wads like Serenity stand out all the more. People dunk on the work from the 90s, but forget they didn't have stuff like UDB back then.

Of all the early FPS games, I think ROTT was probably the only one with a good user-friendly level editor (albeit, the simplicity of the level architecture vs Doom helped).

 

Spoiler

Quick aside I had no idea the Serenity series was from 94/95 until like a month ago, I just assumed it was at least late-90s or maybe even early 2000s because of the quality.

 

[Brad_tilf]

7 minutes ago, Warboss_Gegguz said:

I always find old 94 wads super interesting, regardless of quality. The tools, standards, and distribution method at the time were all so primitive vs what we have now that it's kind of impossible for me to hate them even when they aren't very good. Likewise, that makes extremely good wads like Serenity stand out all the more. People dunk on the work from the 90s, but forget they didn't have stuff like UDB back then.

Of all the early FPS games, I think ROTT was probably the only one with a good user-friendly level editor (albeit, the simplicity of the level architecture vs Doom helped).

 

  Reveal hidden contents

Quick aside I had no idea the Serenity series was from 94/95 until like a month ago, I just assumed it was at least late-90s or maybe even early 2000s because of the quality.

 

I liked the wolf 3d editor. Kinda like working in paint

[Warboss_Gegguz]

1 hour ago, Brad_tilf said:

I liked the wolf 3d editor. Kinda like working in paint

Guess what the RoTT editor is a direct descendant of? lol.

[El Juancho]

Dont ask idgames random races runners their opinion about stationx

[Brad_tilf]

15 minutes ago, El Juancho said:

Dont ask idgames random races runners their opinion about stationx

I won't but do you want to share the story? I'm not familiar with it

[El Juancho]

28 minutes ago, Brad_tilf said:

I won't but do you want to share the story? I'm not familiar with it

Some time ago we did a idgames random race in a discord server, one of the wads we runned was station x... We had a very miserable time running it, the level had a extremely cryptic level progression, had a lot of softlocks and it was way too long. We where in a voice chat so we could hear each other when trying to beat the level, because running station x was a miserable experience it was actually hilarious hearing some people cursing the level or just talking about the level. There was a runner who was about to finish the level but sadly got soflocked at the end, i somehow finished the level first. It was one of the most memorable and bizzarre experiences i've had with doom lol.

 

The level was so miserable and bad that it became a meme in the server for months. Like those movies that are so bad that are memorable and famous :P

[Brad_tilf]

33 minutes ago, El Juancho said:

Some time ago we did a idgames random race in a discord server, one of the wads we runned was station x... We had a very miserable time running it, the level had a extremely cryptic level progression, had a lot of softlocks and it was way too long. We where in a voice chat so we could hear each other when trying to beat the level, because running station x was a miserable experience it was actually hilarious hearing some people cursing the level or just talking about the level. There was a runner who was about to finish the level but sadly got soflocked at the end, i somehow finished the level first. It was one of the most memorable and bizzarre experiences i've had with doom lol.

 

The level was so miserable and bad that it became a meme in the server for months. Like those movies that are so bad that are memorable and famous :P

When I played it on SP (you'll see if you read my review) I found it infuriating, honestly. But, it WAS 1994. lol