John Romero makes first new Doom map in 21 years

[Patrol1985]

Having finished the map I must say I enjoyed it very much!

Had it been included in the original doom.wad though it would have meant a MASSIVE difficulty spike... and perhaps rightly so, given that it's the final map of the episode :>

[Salt-Man Z]

(GZDoom/UV/keyboard) Man, that opening ambush was just brutal; simply getting a foothold was the hardest part of this map. Eventually I just ran into the second room (after killing the shotgunners in my way and taking their guns) and hid behind that central pillar to pick off the rest of the rabble. Shame about the inescapable exit area; I was in it before I realized what was happening, and missed 90% of the secrets and 10 baddies somewhere. I suppose I coulda clipped out, but whatevs. Sweet level.

[schwerpunk]

I think I may be the only one who actually liked the damaging cracks.

Would love to see more EXMX levels in this vein. Limit removing and brutal!

[VGA]

Patrol1985 said:

Having finished the map I must say I enjoyed it very much!

Had it been included in the original doom.wad though it would have meant a MASSIVE difficulty spike... and perhaps rightly so, given that it's the final map of the episode :>

This was obviously balanced for modern mouse+keyb players, you can't compare the difficulty to the originals.

I think Romero was testing these in a modern source port, probably Doomsday, and made it extra difficult since most of the hardcore doomers are better players then him, so it would be a challenge!

Hey, now he can do an interview where he plays his new map and talks about how the source ports, the map editors and mapping in general has changed in two decades :D While promoting his new game, whatever it is!

It'd be cool if he made a Doom clone. A gritty arcade FPS, no holds barred...

[schwerpunk]

VGA said:

I think Romero was testing these in a modern source port, probably Doomsday, and made it extra difficult since most of the hardcore doomers are better players then him, so it would be a challenge!

e1m8b.txt said:

Tested With : ZDoom 2.7.1, Crispy

Sounds like ZDoom for gameplay testing, and Crispy for old school flavour, maybe? It's usually a good idea to test in multiple ports if you care about aesthetics (which he obviously does). I should get into this habit.

[Touchdown]

I don't think this map is a good closure for the episode. It's more like a Computer Station replacement in that regard, like the real ending is still up ahead.

[ibm5155]

So long I don't join this fórum...
Well guys I hope you like my two gameplay vídeos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlsVqgvD7MI
- MS-DOS DOOM playing with wavetable music (no freelook or jump)
-Also, the recording was me playing for the first time the map, so expect alot of fails.
-It's using the MBFDOOM port.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEc-SwisjMI
- This one I was a bit more experienced and I figure out how to complete the map in a legit way xD.
-Doom Legacy using the glide render heh, also running on a voodoo 3 3000 agp.
-The game was much easier with the "higher resolution" and with the mouse freelook + autorun.
-For changing a bit, I enabled the fm synth for music on the second vídeo, while the first one is running from the wavetable isa sound card.

Have fun :p

[Patrol1985]

VGA said:

This was obviously balanced for modern mouse+keyb players, you can't compare the difficulty to the originals.

That's true. I reckon it was supposed to be more or less as difficult as the originals were before people learned to use a mouse to control aiming etc.

[Doom_Dude]

Holy mackeral how did I miss this thread. That's so damned cool, Romero designing a Doom map after all these years. I wish somebody would resurrect DR Sleep and get him to finish that map he was working on a few years ago before he went into the void, or wherever he sneaked off to.

Anyhow I beat the level on UV and died so many times. Much fun was had. Thanks Romero.

[VGA]

Interesting choice of ports, fellow paleontologist :D

But jumping over the lava cracks isn't what I would call legit haha!

[Zorjo]

Soundblock said:

Hit the keys "idclev18" once you've started an episode and chosen difficulty level.

Thanks!!! Awesome level. ¡I juts finished it! Romero still rocks!!

[schwerpunk]

Touchdown said:

I don't think this map is a good closure for the episode. It's more like a Computer Station replacement in that regard, like the real ending is still up ahead.

I think it depends how you look at it. The original is just a corridor leading to a bossfight, whereas this 'b' version is a like a long map culminating in a bossfight. Probably best thought of as two maps mushed together.

[RestlessRodent]

Maybe the community can convince him to give it to Freedoom.

[Gez]

GhostlyDeath said:

Maybe the community can convince him to give it to Freedoom.

No.

1. If you read his text file, you'll notice he used the "may NOT" version of the boilerplate for modification and reuse.
2. It's a limit-removing level, and Freedoom is going vanilla.

[Reisal]

Zorjo said:

Thanks!!! Awesome level. ¡I juts finished it! Romero still rocks!!

You're only scratching the surface of custom Doom maps, good sir.

[Bauul]

Just finished it on Hurt Me Plenty on my second try: it wasn't quite as hard as I was worried it would be (compared to some modern Doom maps anyway!)

Really enjoyable, it just FELT like fun to play. I've not really played custom maps to know the difference between the "modern" style and the "old-school" style, but it did hit me just how compact everything is. Absolutely no wasted space in between rooms.

I really liked the way you could find secret doors that simply showed you where a secret was, but wouldn't actually let you reach it. Most devious!

[pagb]

Not Romero's best at all, but it's like playing a custom wad from '95 (and one of the good ones) all over again. The portals look rad.

[Touchdown]

schwerpunk said:

I think it depends how you look at it. The original is just a corridor leading to a bossfight, whereas this 'b' version is a like a long map culminating in a bossfight. Probably best thought of as two maps mushed together.

It doesn't work for me that way. It's a regular level with an obligatory 'Bruiser Brothers' section. The main portion of the map doesn't feel like a build-up to something important and the final encounter really isn't a worthy conclusion. While the map itself is fine, the ending doesn't work for me at all. You've got this gigantic room with huge portals so when those two tiny Barons come out of them, it packs no punch at all. If we had had two Cybers there maybe with some support, it would have been a different story (not fitting E1 but still).

[colBoh]

Just finished on HMP. A blast from the past. Love the aesthetic with the Hell cracks and the Bruiser Brothers "portal", but it looks like everyone thought the same way I did.

My only complaint is how cramped the map could be, but whatever, maybe I'm just too spoiled by fanmade WADs.

[Chubzdoomer]

For some reason it didn't even hit me until just now that here we are, in 2016, playing a brand new DOOM level from John Romero. I guess I was so shocked by it yesterday that it didn't really sink in. Now that it has, though... man, it's strange.

And let me be clear: despite my negative early impressions, the level really is very good overall. We can only hope that the new DOOM game's level design is even half as good as this.

[Chezza]

After sometime to reflect.

While we all praise Romero and his Maps like God giving us Lamb I will play bit of the Devil's Avocado (lol). The Visuals and design of this map is sufficient but it is with its flaws. I bet Romero would be a harsh judge on his work. And dare I say, possibly a bit self conscious of releasing a map in modern times with so many killer mappers making gold.

Let's not forget, this is a warm up map. He wanted to explore new features and functions of modern source-ports and mix it with his classic style of mapping. He made a Solid map and its design sparked some nostalgia that no one can truly mimic effectively. But the beginning ambush and unexpected high damage cracks is generally an issue we would bring up to any other mapper sharing their work. The final encounter was good but could of been handled a bit better imo. Also I personally found the map a little bit of a Maze at times, which isn't my thing. But he is still the best at making them enjoyable.

Now don't hate on me for this post, like I said before this is a good solid map. Romero still has it! But if you love this map I bet you're in for a treat if he releases another.

[wheresthebeef]

I really don't get people's complaints about the detailing of the map.
Other than the cracks, the level plays amazingly.
Gameplay>Crap like texture alignment

[pcorf]

This was enough to suck me back into the forums. I think this is a beautiful abstract map with an E1 feel. Very tough map and we know how bloody tough those shotgun guys are. Substantially more detail than Romero's original maps, loved the ending!. Great stuff!

[RTC_Marine]

Wonderful level, please do e1m4 next John!

[Nick Perrin]

Except for the intro ambush where I nearly choked, crushed it on UV.

Very cool to be back in a zone created by the man himself. A kind of videogame historical revisionism. Otherwise, not exactly some kind of masterpiece, but if this means he's going to be active in making new maps from now, that would be very very cool.

I was listening to a late 00's interview with John and it really made me wonder what it must be like for so much of your life to be defined by one game, and for that community to still be going so strong and keep you in the loop (this goes for anyone of course who had one single great, marked, massively popular/influential accomplishment and has been a part of that legacy ever since, and perhaps nothing else ever living up to it afterwards). I wonder if he's acknowledging that Doom is kind of his virtual home by coming back to creating inside of it. It's cool that this is bringing some oldies back to the forum too (I haven't been here myself in ages).

[hetdegon]

That was a fun map! Played it both in pistol start (pretty tough) and doing the entire episode with it as finale. Worked both ways.
Some say it doesn't fit E1, but I thought it worked pretty well. Just a bit bigger and tougher than you'd expect, but not too much.

Would love some more. Romero should totally make a megawad :D

EDIT: Romero replied right after me, I am never washing my post again.

[Romero]

Thanks so much for all the feedback, both positive and negative, although I really don't count any of it as truly negative. I've been lurking on this thread to see the reactions of the actual core community, the real mappers and players.

I know it's not perfect. I haven't made any kind of map for any game since 1996. This was just a warm-up. I'm going to be doing a lot more mapping hopefully soon.

I plan on writing up everything I can about the creation of this map in the coming days and posting it. Thanks, Ling!

[Fonze]

That's cool to hear that you've been paying attention to the feedback here and I really look forward to what's to come! Except the being your bitch part, but after that first level I'm feeling pretty confident ^^

[Use]

More Doom levels??? :D :D :D Can I say that I love you??

[Csonicgo]

Romero said:

I'm going to be doing a lot more mapping

hooray!