Anders Johnsen, he who inherited Doom

[MajorRawne]

Does anyone know if Anders Johnsen still visits the forum or has anything to do with Doom? I'm sure I tried to contact him a few years ago, but literally cannot remember. He is the fething Elvis of Doom. It's my opinion that Johnsen inherited the title of Master of Doom from John Romero.

When I think of Doom, those of you who are sick of hearing from me will know that I think of PlayStation Doom. It's the version I played first and has the kind of atmosphere I like. I was not that keen on PC Doom for a long time, until I figured out how to get custom wads working and I eventually heard about an exciting project called Alien Vendetta.

I'd already been enthralled by Requiem, played in Doom Legacy on split screen co-op, but was utterly, totally blown away by Alien Vendetta. When I think of Doom, I think of PlayStation Doom; but when I think of PC Doom, I think of Alien Vendetta.

Anyone else got an opinion on Johnsen's work?

[jmickle66666666]

fascinating

[dew]

[2014-04-12 00:20:13] <Johnsen> theres nothing wrong in some furry luve.

He has other interests now.

[gemini09]

MajorRawne said:

When I think of Doom, those of you who are sick of hearing from me will know that I think of PlayStation Doom.

I sincerely am, and I hope you will stop soon if not already.

I think it's really cool that you regard Anders in that way. The first I saw of him were DM demos of him vs Henning, I believe. They had the aliases Speedy Gonzales and something else that I can't remember, but I remember thinking how appropriate that alias came across as, from the demos. The matches were freaking fierce indeed.

I had the chance to work with them both on the Plutonia demopack prior to AV, and at that point I didn't know that he also designed levels. I regarded him as among the world's absolute best players, so when I learned that he was also an adept mapper I was honestly really impressed.

[Obsidian]

Did he used to go by Schepe or was that a different Anders?

And yeah, he made some excellent stuff for AV: it's quite amazing how much detail he could fit into a vanilla map.

[NuMetalManiak]

I remember the thread that talked about Kim Malde passing away, that was made by Anders I'm pretty sure. probably his most recent interaction here.

he's a great mapper too. Lake Poison fucking rules.

[j4rio]

Weren't you preaching the exact same thing over a decade ago? I'm glad you have moved on, onto bigger things.

Just so thread doesn't go on and devolve into your casual daily worship thread without arguments, I find Johnsen to be overrated as a mapper and sp player (I don't care about dm). I also didn't really dig his attitude when he appeared last time with a demo, he seemed rather unpleasant to me, but whatever. And I never really liked av THAT much, it's a great wad but never really grew on me to such extreme. It was one of first pwads I've ever played so there's supposed to be some nostalgia factor or something, but isn't, instead I remember it as that one wad everyone loves which I didn't really like much at first. Hypothetically, I'd prefer new Chrozoron map over new Johnsen map.

[ella guro]

Anders Johnsen is a good map designer, and there's a lot of interesting stuff in AV. the whole mod kind of blew me away at the time it came out, but i'm a sucker for big, creative, well-themed environments. some of that is as much some of the other designers, like Kim Malde, though.

i think saying he "inherited Doom" is a bit silly. AV's popularity makes sense given how much it sat apart from other stuff at the time, but it is a bit of the obvious choice and there are plenty of good wads that have come since then. there are also plenty of interesting Doom mappers out there, and a lot of people have different favorites because they value different things. that's one of the things i like about the Doom community, how much variety there actually is out there. my favorite mapper is Kolybenko "Azamael" Michailo because of how imaginative his maps are but i doubt there are that many people who care much about him. sometimes that fact frustrates me, but everyone's obviously different.

[Quasar]

Obsidian said:

Did he used to go by Schepe or was that a different Anders?

schepe == Anders Åstrand

[Obsidian]

Quasar said:

schepe == Anders Åstrand

Ah, thanks for that.

[Waffenak]

Fascinating, never heard of him before but is nice to know him now

[Xegethra]

He did Alien Vendetta?

I always knew about that WAD but I had never played or knew who made it. I was never much into custom WADS up until about say...two or three years ago when I started to co-op a few WADS with a friend of mine. And even then I was never massively into them, me being a total Norbert at the time found it difficult to do and didn't really understand sourceports so I skipped out on playing a lot of WADS. I hadden't even played the PC version of Doom until recently either. Like MajorRawne, I grew up on old PSX Doom and even went a few years thinking that PSX Doom was the only Doom....however I still love the game and will still play it.

But now I'm more aware of it all, however I have not yet played a lot of popular WADS....I'm like that in life in general, the popular bands, TV shows, films, even other games....just haven't gained much interest in. Doom is one of the few popular games I play among a small few others. I don't even do a lot of un-popular stuff either....just don't do stuff.

However that's not to say I will never play these WADS, I may someday.

[T-Rex]

Anders Johnsen is without a doubt one of my favourite Doom mappers of all time. While he may not have "inherited Doom," he is a talented mapper, though with AV, Mutator is the one who made the most beautiful maps to date, easily being the successor to Sverre Kvernmo as a Norwegian mapper.

In my vote, Anders deserved as much credit as Kim Malde, cause while Kim excelled in visuals, Anders made fun maps which range from the quick run n gun action of early Alien Vendetta, to the giant slaughtermaps of E3. I am a huge fan of Anders Johnsen. To me, he is the Father of Doom Mapping. I only wish he could return to the forums, as I would like him to release his AV outtake Valley of Echoes as a single map.

[ReFracture]

I think I remember reading at some point that he said he needed to move on from Doom as it was just consuming way too much of his life.

[MajorRawne]

Right, let me qualify a few things.

Anders spearheaded the AV project and worked on many of the maps, so to me he has Romero status. He's quite simply the king of hell - his hell-themed maps are still among the best in the business.

I actually wanted to get in touch with him to ask if I can modify one of his maps for a personal project I've got in mind. Didn't want to just do it without permission, although he probably wouldn't mind too much.

The contributions of Brad Spencer (Vorpal), Kim Malde and the others are definitely not overlooked by me, no way at all, Vorpal built maps that were particularly brutal and Malde created extraordinarily impressive maps. Adam Windsor was a personal favourite of mine from back in the day for his short, extremely exciting maps.

Weren't you preaching the exact same thing over a decade ago? I'm glad you have moved on, onto bigger things.

When a megawad strikes me as more immersive and impressive, then maybe I'll move on. But I wonder what kind of man stops loving something just because he's loved it for a while. Maybe that's why divorce rates are so high?

[Deleted_Account]

I like Alien Vendetta, but my heart is with Requiem.

[ella guro]

Piper Maru said:

I like Alien Vendetta, but my heart is with Requiem.

i agree. <3 Iikka Keranen. tho the set is pretty evenly good across the board (which probably makes it more impressive to me).

[Pirx]

ella guro said:

i agree. <3 Iikka Keranen. tho the set is pretty evenly good across the board (which probably makes it more impressive to me).

iikka ftw. granted, mapping has evolved since requiem was released, but when i played that wad, i couldn't believe my eyes. was that a 3d bridge i just walked under? in doom? wow. also his enemies in very close quarters, where i had to move very controlled to keep them in check, not just circle strafe (map 08, 13).

[MajorRawne]

I think Requiem was the first megawad I played. I loved the city levels and was amazed at the new textures.

[Marcaek]

I must be one of the few who think Keranen's Requiem maps are some of the weakest in the set. They're needlessly claustrophobic and have a lot of "high tier monster in a tight space for you to door camp to death" and blocking lines that detract from the interconnectivity.

He pulled off some of the coolest visual tricks at least, and Map03 is a fun little romp for the most part.

[dew]

He established a whole new level of visual awesomeness in Doom and he brutally exploited the engine for quirky tricks before it was cool, but gameplay-wise, some of his maps are problematic. His designs follow inescapable rails far too much and he does overuse the 1on1-with-a-dangerous-HP-sponge-in-a-cramped-room routine. I'd say he needs to be viewed in the context of his era - revolutionary then, dated nowadays, because the craft has evolved far beyond.

[MajorRawne]

That is sort of a good epitaph for Requiem. It was perhaps the first megawad to give us a glimpse of what Doom would become, but just the like original FEAR on the Xbox 360, or Die Hard Trilogy on the PSX, it hasn't aged well (visually).

[Clonehunter]

I don't even know who the fuck he is. Bite me.

[MajorRawne]

Clonehunter said:

I don't even know who the fuck he is. Bite me.

I'm not putting any part of you in my mouth. It would only taste of ignorance: the special ignorance of one who has never played Alien Vendetta. Trust me, play it. Your life will improve in ways you cannot yet comprehend. And you'll probably get more tuppy from the girls.

[Clonehunter]

Oh, AV. Yah, I played some of that. It was ok, but nothing that would make me suck his dick or want to bask in some kind "Anders Essence (TM)" or anything like that. Granted it's been pure years since I've played it, so maybe it's time for a revisit.

[MajorRawne]

You'll enjoy it, it is the best balance of adventure and slaughter. Kind of like a less monster spammy version of Speed of Doom, which is also well worth checking out.