Lost Episodes - is THIS it??

[TheLazenby]

I found a very small (1 or 2 MB) WAD file claiming to be "The Lost Episodes of Doom"... it's filename is JPTR_V40.WAD. It's nothing that impressive - no new title screen, no new level titles.

Is that the same "Lost Episodes" that came with the book???

[Maes]

Probably it is, because it's essentially undownloadable from most idgames mirrors. Can anybody please explain the story behind those lost episodes? And the book? The only hint is that those were commercial levels or something....

[TheLazenby]

I think Sybex, the strategy guide company, just decided to cash in on "Doom" and put out their own semi-official 'sequel'... three new episodes for original 3-episode Doom. And the catch was, the ONLY way you could get the game was to get the strategy guide.

[Maes]

Ehm...some better explanation? Was that a book about Doom or a kind of "stand-alone" Doom "sequel" with its own, custom strategy guide? :-S

[TheLazenby]

A stand-alone sequel with its own strategy guide.

EDIT - Nope, I was wrong, the WAD for "Lost Episodes" isn't in Maximum Doom.

[Maes]

OK, so what's its actual status? The readme says nothing about it being copyrighted or whatever, and has full modification/distribution permissions, yet it's not downloadable on "respectable" idgames mirrors.

[TheLazenby]

I'm not sure... I mean, I always thought it was one of the only two licensed add-on packs (the other being Master Levels).

[Maes]

Hmm...I looked at a few of them with Doombuilder's 3D preview and well, they look incredibly dull. I've rarely seen so much copy+paste in my life. They are really what you'd call a "1994 WAD", and most levels are short and look like they were intended for Deathmatch. Lost episodes? They had better stayed that way...

[TheLazenby]

Eh, they're OK - the few levels I played were fairly clever in their design.

It just seems cheap to not even change the title screen or anything... but I think they were really trying to get it all to fit on a single floppy.

[Maes]

E3M8 is the same with E1M1, and the first levels of E1 are quite copy and paste throughout (mostly long corridors and symmetric decorations). And it would probably fit even with a ton of new sprites (854 K Zipped, at least another zipped 500K to spare). They were just lazy :-)

[Bloodshedder]

http://www.doomworld.com/pageofdoom/lostdoom.html

[Vegeta]

I once made a patch converting the last maps of each episode into proper boss arenas. I also added a titlepic and victory pics for all three episodes.
Monfriez added intermission and automap level names, as victory messages.

They're some fun, but nothing spectacular. The book is a strategy guide with some plot elements, but nothing too complex. I'm nterested in buying a copy of the book but then I ask myself, why? I think the only good thing is the cover art, and the satisfaction of having it.

[DJShrimpy]

Hehe, I just nabbed this off eBay for $10.00. The book cover looks awsome.

[TheLazenby]

Ten bucks?! It's like, a penny on Amazon. (Not kidding.)

Only reason I didn't get the book was because I don't have a floppy drive anymore.

[DJShrimpy]

TheLazenby said:

Only reason I didn't get the book was because I don't have a floppy drive anymore.

You need a floppy drive for your book?

[TheLazenby]

No, but I needed a floppy drive for the disk IN the book!

[Searcher]

Get one of your friends or family to burn it onto CD for you.

[TheLazenby]

Why bother? I already found it on an abandonware site. :-P

[The Lag]

i still own a copy of the book+disk.
i loved these levels back then. there were 3 or 4 that i played repeatedly, especially "the draining pit". heh.
i have to dig this one up again for the nostalgia.

[Szymanski]

I bought the book on its release. The first episodes pretty good and imaginative in its design, especially when compared to the other compilations available at the time. The other episodes aren't quite so good.

[Bungleist]

I seem to recall that the first episode and half the second episode are also in ChrisK.wad, which is freely and legally available for download at /idgames. ChrisK also has several levels that aren't in the Lost Episodes, most of which are pretty good.

(There's also a Doom 2 version of ChrisK, called BF_THUD!)

[logidoom]

to all complaining about the lack of new sprites, weapons, sounds, music, whatever... do realize its just the "lost EPISODE of DOOM" and not the "lost T.C. of DOOM"

I came to that conclusion after realizing the additional 4th episodes "Thy Flesh Consumed" which formed the Ultimate DOOM pack did not have any additional characters, music, sprites, etc... just level design... (other than the end sequence that is and a sky texture)

just my 2 cents...

[Bungleist]

logidoom said:

to all complaining about the lack of new sprites, weapons, sounds, music, whatever... do realize its just the "lost EPISODE of DOOM" and not the "lost T.C. of DOOM"

Since there are no posts complaining about the lack of new sprites, weapons, sounds, or music, you just made addressed precisely no-one.

The only things that anyone said were lacking were a title screen and level names, the inclusion of which wouldn't have even qualified the wad for the status of partial conversion, let alone total conversion. (And for the record, even Thy Flesh Consumed included new level titles.)

[Maes]

It actually has new level names: e.g. E1M1 is "UAC SPACEPORT" and E1M2 is "FUSION POWER PLANT". They appear when entering a level, but not on the automap, just like they don't appear on the automap even on many modern, source-port era TCs or "partial TCs". Considering that it doesn't use a DEH patch, that's expected.

[Kid Airbag]

I bought this waaaay back when it first came out, must have been 1994/1995 or so. The levels are obviously nothing special by today's standards, but I remember them being fun to play. Actually, I might even still have the wad on my computer somewhere, cause usually when I get a new computer I just zip up my entire Doom/Doom2 directories and transport them to the new computer.

[GzStarWars]

I've got the book, but never had the disk. :/

[Aleaver]

Hmm just downloaded the wad thinking it would be something I haven't seen before. Turns out I have.

[funduke]

Bungleist said:

(There's also a Doom 2 version of ChrisK, called BF_THUD!)

Here's the free stuff:
CHRISK.WAD (THE FINAL INSULT) by Christen David Klie
http://www.doomworld.com/idgames/index.php?id=13054

BF_THUD! v2.1 (ChrisK for DOOM ][) by Christen David Klie
http://www.doomworld.com/idgames/index.php?id=1248

B21.WAD by BOB CARTER
This WAD was released by Carter for free in 1994.
In 1995 it became the level E3M6: SOMBER IO PROMENADE of The lost episodes of DooM.
http://www.doomworld.com/idgames/index.php?id=14497

Greetings
Funduke