Quake Freed Book: call for content

[quakefreed]

Hi all,

I am a masters student writing a history book called Quake Freed. The book will look at the history of all the id-tech games and pay specific attention to hacking and modding, as well as the open-source releases.

I hope to fund the book on kickstarter.

Of course, I need your help. I am of the generation that was very young when doom was released, however the first game I played was a wolfenstein clone on an ancient computer and I have been in love with FPS ever since.

The help I would be grateful to receive from this forum is:
1. Doom mods that are of historical interest (name your own, don't be shy)

2. Stories about your first time playing doom/quake etc and anything that will help me capture that golden era of PC gaming.

Below is the first of a series of videos that I am making to raise the profile and also to start research.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhBIKgorhQg

Look forward to working with the community.

[scifista42]

quakefreed said:

1. Doom mods that are of historical interest

I hope you consider maps/mapsets too:
http://doomwiki.org/wiki/List_of_notable_WADs Notable wads for being known as "classics": Memento Mori 1&2, Hell Revealed 1&2, Requiem, wads by TeamTNT, Alien Vendetta, Scythe...
http://www.doomworld.com/10years/bestwads/ (1994-2003)
http://www.doomworld.com/cacowards/ (2004+)
If not maps, then the notable historical Doom mods (TCs) are: Batman Doom, HacX, The Sky May Be...

[raymoohawk]

talk about freedoom :)

https://freedoom.github.io/

[Havoc Crow]

quakefreed said:

2. Stories about your first time playing doom/quake etc and anything that will help me capture that golden era of PC gaming.

http://www.doomworld.com/vb/doom-general/45909-how-did-you-find-out-about-doom/
http://www.doomworld.com/vb/doom-general/23273-how-long-have-you-been-playing-doom/
http://www.doomworld.com/vb/doom-general/13678-when-did-you-first-play-doom/
http://www.doomworld.com/vb/doom-general/548-your-newbie-days/
http://www.doomworld.com/vb/doom-general/52717-first-time-you-played-doom/
http://www.doomworld.com/vb/doom-general/71599-old-doom-comparative-first-impressions/
http://www.doomworld.com/vb/doom-general/59506-first-wad-you-have-ever-played/
http://www.doomworld.com/vb/doom-general/66287-whats-your-first-doom-memory-when-did-you-first-hear-about-doom/
http://www.doomworld.com/vb/doom-general/71646-what-is-your-earliest-memory-of-doom/
http://www.doomworld.com/vb/doom-general/72570-where-did-you-get-your-wads-from-back-in-the-day/
http://www.doomworld.com/vb/doom-general/42223-what-doom-do-you-have-and-whered-you-get-it/

EDIT: http://www.doomworld.com/vb/doom-general/48711-whats-your-doom-origin/
EDIT2: http://doomworld.com/vb/doom-general/18094-first-time-you-played-doom

[VGA]

Find contemporary reviews of the games.

[Clonehunter]

ANd make more than one post.


With that said, the Quake Shareware disc was a funny kind of disaster.

[quakefreed]

scifista42 said:

I hope you consider maps/mapsets too:/B]

Certainly. Very much interested in the architecture of id games. (I studied architecture.)

VGA said:

Find contemporary reviews of the games.

Yep, trying to track some down.

raymoohawk said:

talk about freedoom :)

https://freedoom.github.io/

Definitely :)

JudgeDeadd said:

Great post

Clonehunter said:

ANd make more than one post.


With that said, the Quake Shareware disc was a funny kind of disaster.

Yeah it was mentioned in Masters of Doom.

[Havoc Crow]

quakefreed said:

Yep, trying to track some [contemporary reviews] down.

Obligatory relevant thread links:
http://www.doomworld.com/vb/doom-general/70960-doom-reviews-from-the-old-days/
http://www.doomworld.com/vb/doom-general/33664-a-treat-scans-of-magazine-review-of-doom-2-from-1994/
http://www.doomworld.com/vb/doom-general/66525-pc-master-pc-games-special-1994-doom-doom-ii-review/
http://www.doomworld.com/vb/doom-general/68362-old-previews-and-reviews/

Some more stuff I found after a cursory search:

Doom
Computer Gaming World (preview, July 1993)
PC Gamer (May/June 1994)
Edge (April 1994) (also includes November review of Doom II)
bunch of tiny fragments of random articles gathered by Kotaku

Doom II
GameSpot (1996)
PC Gamer (Dec 1994)
Next Generation (Jan 1995)

The Ultimate Doom
GameSpot (1996)

Stuff from Poland
http://www.doomworld.com/vb/doom-general/71236-an-old-scan-from-a-polish-gaming-magazine/
http://www.doomworld.com/vb/doom-general/59394-an-old-polish-article-from-94/
And here's a bunch of translated articles I once sent to a guy writing this book about Doom. Note that it's been a few years ago and I don't have the original magazine scans at the moment. The language of the translation is a bit rough at times, but it should be accurate. Don't hesitate to ask me if you have even minor questions about the matter.

There also was at least one Polish article devoted to Doom modding, which isn't in the above zip, I'll try and look for it some time later.

EDIT. In case someone from the future stumbles upon this post:
https://doomwiki.org/wiki/Press_articles_about_Doom
https://doomwiki.org/wiki/Reviews,_awards_and_rankings

[Jon]

scifista42 said:If not maps, then the notable historical Doom mods (TCs) are: Batman Doom, HacX, The Sky May Be... [/B]

If I had to pick just one doom mod that was the most notorious, the most incredible (at the time), the most controversial, etc. - it would *have* to be Aliens TC, no question. Really interesting that this didn't make your shortlist :)

[Vorpal]

If we're talking historically significant, I've got to agree with Jon that Aliens TC is extremely important. It was cheesey and cobbled together, but it got the ball rolling with doom modding, IMO. It's probably not the "first" extensive mod for Doom, but it was the first that most users would encounter, and therefore, opened their eyes to the extent to which Doom is mod-able.

Also worth noting, is that id was at one point intending to make an Aliens game, but something happened (maybe others can elaborate?) and we got Doom instead. But still there was a culture deep void for an Aliens first person experience, which modders promptly delivered, and a massive number of players embraced (well into the late 90's). So it speaks to something about the impact of a single film on a decade of culture and technology.