D/D2 Level Name Relevance

[revenant_fister]

Anyone know anything about the relevance of the level names in Doom/ Doom 2? Like as in who came up with the level names and why?

Many of them are obvious, for example Entryway is an entry way to the game, but others, like 'Monster Condo' or 'Tenements' are less so.

[myk]

Tenements means something like housings or living places... but maybe we should ask the Arch-Vile if he'll rent us something. Monster Condo does give the impression of a mansion-like condominuim.

[Sephiroth]

some were probraobly gags, like monster condo. for the sake of sounding cool. others have meaning and others dont. i find it funny that until recently the level's name and the level had nothing in common. tenements doesn't look like living places to me

[Naked Snake]

Sephiroth said:

tenements doesn't look like living places to me

Yeah, and the Hanger looks so much like a hanger

[The_Aeromaster]

By hanger it means that you came in through the hanger (no doubt where the ships are kept).

At least that's how I figure it.

[The_Aeromaster]

On topic, I like some of the level names late in E3, and late in TNT. They just sound cool and some of em fit the levels well.

And before one of the mods or admins bitch at me for double posting, I had that all in one post but i must've hit the button twice or something cause my message was posted two times, so since the delete function is disabled, I just split the post in half.

[Ichor]

It is? I haven't had any problems deleting posts.

[Bloodshedder]

Regular users can't delete their own posts. Moderators can delete their own posts.

[Grimm]

Aren't you a mod?

[Nanami]

Bloodshedder said:

Regular users can't delete their own posts. Moderators can delete their own posts.

Yeah. I've tried to delete a post before and it doesn't work. Probably to keep from confusing everyone. Of course, a fair amount of confusion can still be made by post editing.

[Cacodreams]

About E4 level names, take a look at this.

[deathbringer]

I know that The city of Dis is supposed to be the capital city of hell, and there is a level in E3 called Dis.. (doesnt look much like a city though XD)

[myk]

Dis is the lord of the underworld, or Pluto, or Satan according to Dante and he also used Dis/Dite as the name for the underworld, like Hades was Hell to the Greeks (it's common to name the underworld after its lord.)

Dante wrote (c. VIII, v. 67-69):
The kindly master said: "My son, the city
that bears the name of Dis is drawing near,
with its grave citizens, its great battalions."

I'm not sure that would be the capital or anything like that though, as it's in the 5th circle of Hell (whereas Dis himself resides in the 9th.)

Other authors may have used the expression "city of Dis" afterwards as well, taking it from Dante (maybe Milton, for instance?)

[The_Aeromaster]

I've never actually read that (Dante's Inferno) but from what I'm told and from excerpts I've read, it must be fucking awesome. I must get it.

[Grimm]

Pretty cool book, lots of symbolism. (I should now, I did my frickin' term paper on it.) But make sure you get the version b maybe Michael Palma, can't remember his name exactly. Anyway, it's actually translated in the same rhyme scheme and everything (it actually rhymes like the original), and it has the original Italian on the facing page, which is always cool.

[revenant_fister]

Grimm, could you like, get the certain title/author of the book you recommend? I'd also be interested in reading it..

[Grimm]

Inferno--A New Verse Translation by Michael Palma

That's the title. It's worth noting that the reason I knew the author off the top of my head is becuase he did such a kick ass job. That's how good it is. Highly reccomended.

[Gokuma]

E2M8 Tower of Babel - biblical story about people building a tower as high as possible, maybe to reach heaven, but I think the way the story goes, God destroyed it resulting in civilization being scattered and divided into many different languages somehow. Yeah, God was the original terrorist, bringing towers down.

E3M2 Slough of Despair - no idea where it originated but google lists a whole bunch of stuff

E3M4 House of Pain - Isn't that a rap group? (Just searched with google, Yes, it is)

E3M6 Mt. Erebus - volcano on an island in a bay of Antarctica (came across it looking in an encyclopedia)

MAP11 'O' of Destruction/Circle of Death - I think someone posted on Doomworld forums before that it's some kind of D&D reference

MAP21 Nirvana - (afterlife?) state of enlightenment for Buddhists and Hinduists?

MAP29 The Living End - a book (found on Amazon with google)


I like the John D Sinclair translation of Inferno. It has the original italian on the facing page as well and a summary after each canto with some footnotes throughout the cantos. I don't think it rhymes the same but seems very well translated to me. I picked the same guy's translation of parts 2 and 3 of Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy - Purgatorio and Paradiso, but I haven't read them yet.

[Tobester]

heh

house of pain is old

for you new kids that dont know, Everlast came from house of pain, and DJ Lethal from limp bizkit originated from there

god is a faggot

isnt "The living end" some kind of lame phraze old people use

for example

"Oh Herb, this new scented condom is the living end!"

[Gokuma]

I knew Everlast was from Cyprus Hill, but I didn't know about House of Pain.

[Chopkinsca]

some of the doom64 level names made sense.. the abyss, the void.
I really don't know the doom level names though, I forgot most of them.. I wonder why my memory is so bad..

[Psyrus]

There is no "The Abyss" in Doom 64. However, "In The Void" is.

[Gokuma]

Tobester said:

god is a faggot

But he loves you.

[Gokuma]

MAP32 Grosse - last level of episode 1 of Wolfenstein where you fight Hans Grosse

[Black Hand]

When they named the lvl Dis it wasn't named after the city of hell. Dis is an early 90's term for insult or prank like joke with an ironic twist, if you recall the level Dis sort of ends with the Doom guy realizing that hell fallowed him thus the dis.

[insertwackynamehere]

Dis is the name of the Greek underworld (which really wasn't Hell; it contained a heaven-like place in fact, and everyone went there), and Nirvana is a good thing, so methinks it could be a tribute to the late Nirvana, the legendary band with Kurt Cobain as the lead singer. That's just a thought, though. E2M8, or the Tower of Babel, is based on the Bible story when the people attempted to build a tower that reached to the heavens, and the Lord decided that this wouldn't work, and created languages, so the people wouldn't know what they were saying to each other (which is where "babbling" comes from). E3M6, or Mt. Erebus is named after what was before there was anything, in Greek myths. Erebus was chaos and existed before the beginning, acording to the legends. Limbo (E3M7) is a part of Hell, where people can enjoy an earthly bliss, but not one of Heaven, because they are good, but don't follow the rules of the Bible. MAP32 (Grosse) means "Large One" in German. MAP14 Plutonia, Genesis, is named after the first book of the Bible. MAP19 Plutonia, Nme, is literally "Nme". En-em-ee or enemy. MAP06 TNT, Open Season, is named after open season in hunting, when you can kill everything on the list. Finally, MAP29 TNT, River Styx, is named after the river that you cross to get to the Greek underworld.

[revenant_fister]

Wacky, kick ass answer, man! Interesting shit.

And black hand I think you're half right- it did have an ironic twist but dis was used other than other words with the same meaning, because of it's relevance to stuff in the Doom story.. it's kinda a double meaning thing I think.

[DooMBoy]

Just out of curiosity, what the hell is a Gantlet?
Anyway, about 95% of the Doom maps in Doom and Doom2 make no logical sense whatsoever. Why would there be a key just sitting there in some dark alcove or nook, waiting for you to pick it up. Exactly why would enemies come teleporting in after you picked the key up? Of course, this in no way whatsoever takes away from the fun of the levels, they just make no sense when you come to think of it.

[deathbringer]

Thinking black hands answer was correct is punishable by death in some countries (so is asking "what year is star wars set in?" XD)

[Grogglogobofink]

well, romero just pulled all the E4 level names out of the bible.