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The First Ever Megawad?

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Just a quick question. What was the first ever megawad? I'm curious as I want to download it and play it as well as the latest megawad for Dooms birthday. Thanks in advance. :)

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Most early megawads were compilations of other people's maps or IWADs with the monsters and/or map order jumbled, so few of them found a home in the archive. You're probably looking for something like WADPAK1.WAD (7 May 1994), which I can upload if you want.

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Here you go - WADPAK1.ZIP. It includes most of the original text files for the maps.

Ragnor said:

I'd say he wants the first fully independent megawad, with all 32 levels replaced.

Earliest I've found so far in the archive is Illusions of Home, 3 episodes for Ultimate Doom from April 1995. I have an update for it on one of my shovelware CDs.

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vdgg said:

1995? Wasn't njdoom from 1994?

I believe it was, speaking of early megawads, wasn't BF_Thud from 1994?

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January 1995.

vdgg said:

1995? Wasn't njdoom from 1994?

Yep, November 1994. I was thrown by the upload date.

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So, njdoom seems to be the oldest (at least the oldest uploaded to idgames)? I know of njdoom. I presumed there would be one before that. I suppose most things would've been single maps or such...

EDIT

PS: Thanks for the WADPAK1 upload.

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EvilNed said:

How is njDoom? Got a bit curious.


NJDoom has its pluses and minuses. I just looked again at E1, and overall, the maps are too mazey and Wolfenstein-flat for my taste, with the exception of E1M4 which is an impressive sandbox map that I reckon still holds up well today. Incredibly, the author is still active in the Doom community. You may recognize his nick, Enjay.

Enjay did some things in these maps that were leading-edge at the time, such as skylights, and even one example of a map -- E1M6 -- exiting into the next in a visual way, which is only apparent from E1M7, looking back.

Just because the maps are from '94 doesn't mean they're a cakewalk. You're in for a tussle here. Maze maps are often difficult because of all the long corridors and tight turns, but IMO, they prove that "difficult" and "fun" are not always Doom synonyms. ;D Then again, some players like mazes more than I do. You also have to be careful of Enjay's frequently nasty traps.

Enjay converted some of these maps into Doom2 format for NJDoom2. E1M1 of NJDoom is Map01 of NJDoom2, and E2M1 is Map02. There's probably a lot more, maybe all of them were converted and rearranged.

Enjay also did new titlepics and sky textures. All in all, an impressive achievement that's worth a try.

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WADPAK1 - I remember levels in it such as FOREST.WAD, classic stuff. I know it's been done in another WAD pack, but someone should modernize these levels to add renewed appeal... the forest levels would make a good candidate, as well as some of the other ones. A few new texture resources, a few new monsters and a few new props and 2 new weapons... these levels could go places!

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TheMionicDonut said:

Doom2


What about Doom 1?

EDIT: Of course, I'm kidding with you!

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SteveD said:

NJDoom...

A fair summing up and probably kinder than I would have been about it. Thank you. :)

FWiW, the version on idgames probably isn't the earliest version (though it will be very close). The first version was uploaded to the CompuServe Action Games forum but has long since been lost.

The episodes were originally made in this order: 2, 1, 3 and it shows IMO. Episode 2 was done first because, at the time, making E2M1 replacements was the default way people used to comply with the id stipulation that add on WADs should only run with the the full game (IIRC, the -file parameter wasn't blocked with early versions of the shareware edition).

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Thanks for pointing out the NJDoom release. I am currently playing it and I am amazed how complete it is. It even has the episode and level name lumps, which is quite amazing for that time. If that was already included with the initial version, chapeau!

I am also impressed with the level design already after finishing episode 1 yesterday. Certainly, it's nothing compared to episodes released later on, but actually there are some really remarkable architectural ideas in there at some places already. Considering the time, I think this is very remarkable stuff, and it is a huge disappointment it wasn't even mentioned in the "Top 100 WADs of all Time". id could have bought this and just released it as a commercial addon back then, I am sure a lot of people would have played and enjoyed it. I still do and will keep this in my permanent collection for sure. ^^

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