Who is Drake O'Brien?

[Kyka]

Now Drake O'Brien is the guy who designed maps 20, 21 and 27 from TNT Evilution. This we know.

These three maps just happen to be the most epic maps in tnt. (That said, there are probably some others that are better designed, but just for sheer uniqueness and grandeur of style, these three are hard to beat.)

Now has Mr O'Brien ever done any other maps, or been involved with the Doom community beyond his contributions to tnt evilution? Or was he a bit of a dooming Zorro? (You know, a 'did three maps, rode off into the sunset' kind of deal...)

I ask just out of interest, because these three maps, along with map 23 (Mill) are my favorite tnt maps. Not necessarily always the prettiest maps, but my favs, so I was just curious.

[Tristan]

KiiiYiiiKiiiA said:

Now Drake O'Brien is the guy who designed maps 20, 21 and 27 from TNT Evilution. This we know.

These three maps just happen to be the most epic maps in tnt. (That said, there are probably some others that are better designed, but just for sheer uniqueness and grandeur of style, these three are hard to beat.)

Now has Mr O'Brien ever done any other maps, or been involved with the Doom community beyond his contributions to tnt evilution? Or was he a bit of a dooming Zorro? (You know, a 'did three maps, rode off into the sunset' kind of deal...)

I ask just out of interest, because these three maps, along with map 23 (Mill) are my favorite tnt maps. Not necessarily always the prettiest maps, but my favs, so I was just curious.

MAP23 was LMP. Mill was 18.
To answer your question, it seems he was a Dooming Zorro. At least, that's how the Doom Wiki sees it.

Of course, there are probably other things he may have done that don't show up in this category, since they don't have the Doom Wiki page or are uncategorised, so they don't appear in that list.

[Guest]

Eris Falling said:

MAP23 was LMP. Mill was 18.
To answer your question, it seems he was a Dooming Zorro. At least, that's how the Doom Wiki sees it.

Of course, there are probably other things he may have done that don't show up in this category, since they don't have the Doom Wiki page or are uncategorised, so they don't appear in that list.

Ooops. Yeah. Mill is map 18, of course. Mill II from TNT2 is in mapslot 23, and obviously I got them the wrong way around. My bad.

And yeah, I have read the wiki, it's where I stumbled upon Mr. O'Brien in the first place. I was just wondering if there was any 'off the radar stuff'. Seeing as we are still graced with several original tnt members, if anyone would perhaps know, these guys would know.

[qoncept]

Did MAP21 have chaingunners perched above hidden arch viles?

[Gez]

KiiiYiiiKiiiA said:

Now has Mr O'Brien ever done any other maps, or been involved with the Doom community beyond his contributions to tnt evilution?

He was giving technical advices on mapmaking on usenet back in the days (you know, problems of a bygone era such as "how do I unpack sidedefs" and the like). He also reported some problems in the unofficial specs.

A google search on "drake o'brien" + doom will give you these, as well as what was then his email address: a13231@mindlink bc ca. (I strongly doubt this address still works.) From there, you can do further searches if you want.

Only mention of him I could find in the archive was this where he is credited for playtesting, bug reports, fine-tuning, and the chandelier graphics.

[Rizera]

qoncept said:

Did MAP21 have chaingunners perched above hidden arch viles?

No, thats Plutonia MAP15 and 27.

[Devalaous]

Im not surprised you like 20 and 21, those two together are my main favourites in TNT as well. 20 is my go-to TNT map for its atmosphere, music and design. Which one is 27? I dont remember most Doom maps by level number alone

[tempun]

Ragnor said:

Which one is 27? I dont remember most Doom maps by level number alone

Mount Pain

[Devalaous]

Aha! I loved that one. The lost soul mountain (ie Mount Pain itself) made me remember that level forever...just not the exact slot. I was thinking Heck was 27 instead..

Didnt help that when I first owned Final Doom, I got stuck on this level for ages, so getting to the end was even more memorable.

[Xaser]

For sake of pitching in (sorta), I'm not particularly a fan of the work presented -- MAP20's got some merit but I don't care for 21 (really filler-y; end area coulda been done better) and I find the non-titular-mountain part of 27 to be pretty much garbage, what with the nukage maze and the square architectureless hallways and all. Aside from that one cool mountain effect, there's no redeeming qualities about it.

As for the man himself, can't say I know a thing aside from what I've gleaned from this thread presently. :P

[kristus]

Not a fan of any of the maps.

[elic]

Map20 is one of my favorite TNT maps.

Never really cared for Map21.

Map27 sort of sucks but it's still a classic.

[Clonehunter]

I thought Drake O'Brian was the host of The Drake Show?

[Acid]

He's obviously a double agent Doom mapper.

[Avoozl]

I started to like MAP20 just a few weeks ago and I kind of like the outdoor area with the weirdish barbed wire fence, with MAP21 I only really like the outdoor area and a few of the indoor areas, and I kind of like MAP27 except for certain parts of it like the underground part mainly because of the weird crappy brown texture.

[Foodles]

Processingcontrol said:

Map27 sort of sucks but it's still a classic.

That doesn't really make sense, MAP27 was quite poor in my opinion, the only decent part was that fire mountain at the end and the music

[glenzinho]

I love the Drake