An old Polish article from '94

[Gez]

It's not easy to translate "dead simple" in a different language while preserving the play on words. "Dead" used as an adverb (rather than an adjective) is an intensifier; dead simple: very simple. But if you called the level "very simple" or some other idiomatic expression like "child's play", it just wouldn't fit the level as well.

The official French translation, as shown in d_french.h, is "NIVEAU 7: L'HERBE DE LA MORT" (LEVEL 7: THE GRASS OF DEATH"). I assure you that in comparison, "A simple death" is perfect.

(I suppose something like "Simple comme la mort" ("simple as death") or "Mortellement simple" ("lethally simple") could have worked alright. But even that is far from being faithful to the original. Traduttore, traditore.)

[Belial]

Gez said:

"Mortellement simple" ("lethally simple")

Heh, that's what my second example was :P

[GreyGhost]

ellmo said:

It used to have a floppy with some kind of editor (can't recall what it was exactly, for the love of... Doom Construction Kit? Was there ever anything with this name?)

Yep - there was

[b0rsuk]

I remember at one point SS said with irritation they don't want any more snail mail telling them how to beat the boss in DooM II. Pure gold.

As for how the myth came to be, my bet is on ignorance. They may have even written the review before finishing DooM normally, they were only able to reach the level with cheats. Unable to find the way, after an hour of killing monsters aimlessly, they chalked it down to cheat protection. It's not completely insane - remember, DooM doesn't allow cheats on Nightmare skill.

[NiTROACTiVE]

This article is interesting and shows a lot of nice screenshots on the page. I like how there's a close up of the Pain Elemental with a Super Shotty in it's face.