how do you store your wads?

[invictius]

Ideally, I'd like to store all wads in the same folder as the source port, but that slows explorer down something shoocking. So... how do you store yours? I've got the entire idgames archive (Don't worry Ty, I downloaded most of it years ago and just update occasionaly) and even keeping the 0-9, a-c etc structure is difficult, since you need to unzip *everything*... I wish there was a port that could read zips, much like emulators... so, how do you store yours?

[kristus]

In a directory on my harddrive.

[quakis]

After downloading, I play them, review them after that and then delete the files afterwards.

[Dr. Zin]

I download the zips with Firefox, the open them using Zipcentral (http://zipcentral.iscool.net/). I can then drag the wad from Zipcentral to the GZDoom executable and it will extract the wad to a temporary folder. When I exit GZDoom Zipcentral deletes the temporary wad. It is very efficient.

[Grazza]

I keep them zipped on my hard drive (for the more important wads I'll have an unzipped copy on the hard-disk too), and maintain a spare copy of my Doom directories on another computer. If I've downloaded a whole collection of wads from somewhere, I'll give that its own subdirectory, and often retain any directory structure that existed in the source. I'll just stick misc wads (as opposed to full collections) in c:\doom2 (or c:\doom if they're for Ultimate Doom).

I also keep back-ups on disks of various types, but they're not as up-to-date as the copy on the second computer.

I never delete them. No reason to, and you'll never know when you (or someone else) might need them. Aside from the inconvenience of redownloading, there's no guarantee that the place you downloaded them from will still exist.

invictius said:

since you need to unzip *everything*... I wish there was a port that could read zips

Many ports should be able to play them from within zips - associate the wad filetype with the port (or several ports - then choose the one you want by right-clicking), and then just open them from within Winzip (or a similar program of your choice). Or you can drag and drop from a zip onto an icon/shortcut for the exe you wish to use (this is useful for ones that are in the form of more than one file). Of course, this doesn't have all the flexibilty that running them from a command line has, but it is good enough for general use. I also run some lmps (those on the more popular wads for recording) in this way, though the file associations there are a bit more complicated (and any required wads needs to be sitting in the appropriate directory, unzipped).

[Deeforce]

I save the best wads on harddrive and DVD. The 1-map-wads I seperate from the Megawads and I only unzip all of the Megawads. Miniwads I let in zip-format until I want to play some of them.

[myk]

I really don't back up many wads on my HDD. I rely on the Internet to get what I need (wads are small and broadband is fast.) I do put all the wads I'm using in the DOOM/pwad (sub)directory, which I clean up once in a while if it gets too big (leaving a few essentials that are in folders within it.) I also use a "send to" right-click menu option to easily move wads and their text files into the pwad directory. Works for me.

[Kaiser]

e:\doom2\
my wads goes in e:\doom2\deepsea\work\

[Balos]

All of my wads go to ...\ZDoom\Pwads\. Then I unpack them, delete the zip files and set a launcher to find the wads.

I usually keep only above-average stuff and delete everything else after trying/playing through them. Makes it easier to find stuff that's actually worth (re)playing and keeps the list fairly clean.

[Enjay]

Dr. Zin said:

I can then drag the wad from Zipcentral to the GZDoom executable.

Seeing as how you are using GZDoom, you do know it can play WADs from within a zip don't you? Just get GZDoom to load the zip instead of the WAD.

As for me, I DL the wads to my desktop. I usually unzip them because I open them in case there are multiple WADs or special instructions - so the zip is open anyway.

I play them from the desktop.

When I'm done, I add a few comments to the zip file (usually a mini review and other comments to remind me which wad it is). Then I put a copy into a directory on my backup drive.

The good wads get put into a directory of WADs I like to play often. If I have one I like to dip into a lot, I'll leave a copy on my desktop (I've had nb_wst01.wad sitting there for about a year now - a really small, simple wad but it's just perfect for a few minutes playing before shutting down).

Periodically I back up all the WADs on my backup drive to CD and clear out the backup directory.

[DaniJ]

I keep all my PWADs, ZIPs/PK3s etc in D:/Data/Wads

I then tell whichever port I'm using to look there for addons. Mostly I use Doomsday (duh), where I have my D:/Data/Wads folder setup as a custom addon folder in Snowberry. Snowberry then very kindly indexes my addon folder and puts them into subfolders for easy management automatically. It also does the same with ZIPs/PK3s and all the other types of addon supported by Doomsday.

So all I need to do to play a ZIP from the archive is download it into D:/Data/Wads, open up Snowberry, put a tick next to the ZIP I want to load and then press play. Simple.

The only issue is that DEH patches arn't loaded from ZIP/PK3 in current Doomsday releases (so I can't play BatmanTC unless I unzip it first) but this has been addressed in Doomsday1.9.0-beta4

[Dr. Zin]

Enjay said:

Seeing as how you are using GZDoom, you do know it can play WADs from within a zip don't you? Just get GZDoom to load the zip instead of the WAD.

Yeah, but its simpler to just use "Open File" on Firefox's download manager.

[abysmal]

Well i just downloaded 1000+ wads from here. All the ones 3 stars and above.
All zips on desktop, deleted after unzipped. All unzipped to a folder in my Doom folder.
Sorted out the unuseable files. All .txt to one folder, all wads to 0-9, a-c style folders.
They all just fit on a CD for backup.

Ill get around to playing them, sort out the very best maps to one folder, buggy/missing textures to another, not working ones to another so I can try another port on them.

Took about a week while playin online cards, didnt really waste to much time downloading while playing in a game.

[SYS]

I place them neatly into a jar under my bed. I just keep them in directory, been thinking about getting one of those 2 gig flashdrives to keep them all on.

[188DarkRevived]

I have one folder called Doomsday Engine.

In this folder I have: the Ultimate DOOM IWAD, the DOOM2 IWAD, the TNT and Plutonia IWADs, the Heretic:Shadow of the Serpent Riders IWAD, the Hexen IWAD, the JDOOM sourceport, the ZDOOM sourceport, and the BOOM sourceport, and about 5 really really good TCs...

This folder is presently 527MB in size.

[Hobbs]

Everything is stored in a relatively complex directory layout in C:\Games\Doom\. I keep each port in a sepearate folder, IWADs in their own folder, and PWADs in a folder with many subdirectories.

For you 1337 h4x0rz out there I keep my own wads (in development or finished) in C:\Games\Doom\PWADs\Hobbs\

[CODOR]

What HobbsTiger1 said. Even most of the directories are the same (except for C:\Games\Doom\PWADs\Hobbs\ of course)...

I've also got most of the idgames archive spread across several CD-Rs, and about 200MB of other material that didn't come from idgames (for either legal or music-is-too-big reasons).

[Bloodshedder]

WADs I've downloaded but not played yet get stuck in one folder. Unzip, play; if I like it, the zip gets stuck in another folder permanently. If not, it gets deleted.

[ellmo]

I put them in D:\Download...
Damn it's a total mess down there.

[invictius]

just out of interest, you guys with hundreds of wads in the same folder, what AV software do you use? Kapersky slows the system to a crawl, even when I look at an a-c mirror...

[myk]

invictius said:
what AV software do you use?

I don't. Well... Alien Vendetta, sometimes.

[Grazza]

I scan everything that comes into my computer, from any source, and do a full system scan regularly, but don't have antivirus software running in the background.

[ellmo]

Grazza said:

I scan everything that comes into my computer, from any source, and do a full system scan regularly, but don't have antivirus software running in the background.

Seconded. I won't give my RAM to tray/resident/background programs... even if i have 1024MB of it.

[Kinsie]

WIPs: C:\doom\projects\whatever
Actually Good Wads: C:\doom\gzdoom

[wildweasel]

C:\games\doom\wads

That folder contains four subfolders:

iwads - self-explanatory
mywads - Anything that I made myself, so I don't accidentally delete it when clearing the rest of the wads
wads - Levels, TC's, and resources. Also contains DEH patches.
weapons - Weapon mods that other people made.

My Doom folder consists of several other subdirectories for each port, and I launch them all with ZDL 3 (to ensure that I only need one copy of each IWAD).

[Kristian Ronge]

Much like Bloodshedder, I have a "temporary" holding place, and every WAD I deem worthy to keep and play again is placed in a unique subfolder.

EDIT: Spelling.

[TheDarkArchon]

C:\(portname)

(or \windows\C\(portname) if I use Linux)

[Apocalypse]

bad wads are deleted
good wads on a memorystick along with the editing program's

[invictius]

ellmo said:

Seconded. I won't give my RAM to tray/resident/background programs... even if i have 1024MB of it.

2048mb here - kthxbai - j/k :P

I've had AV running resident, but even after not installing anything for a long time, I'll get a notice that something from \windows\system was blocked - it looked like something from over the net, but I thought that was zonealarm's job - just disable resident scanning completely?

[ducon]

Zip files in ~/jeux/doom/zips/, temporary wad files in ~/jeux/doom/bin/tmp/ and wads I like in /usr/local/share/games/doom/wadoom/[thewad]/ (it’s wadoom2 for Doom 2 wads).