WadAuthor is Freeware

[Phileosophos]

I know, I know, I'm practically a ghost, an irrelevant voice from the past, as probably is my editor, WadAuthor, these days. But for anybody who cares, I'm offering a freeware license to WadAuthor until such time comes as I can actually get it building with all the latest tools, at which point I still intend to release the source to the community. Anyone interested should visit my almost entirely useless web site.

[42PercentHealth]

Will the source code be released, or is there any way to run it on Linux?

 

Thanks.

[Voros]

For a second there, I thought this was a source release.

[42PercentHealth]

Just now, Voros said:

For a second there, I thought this was a source release.

Wouldn't it be lovely?

[ReX]

On 5/2/2017 at 0:12 PM, Phileosophos said:

..... until such time comes as I can actually get it building with all the latest tools....

There are a handful of old-timers that still rely on WadAuthor as their primary map-building tool. It would be great to bring the utility up to modern-day standards.

[joepallai]

this is great news!   Thank you.

[Vorpal]

I started using wadauthor as a dorky preteen in the mid 90's and continued until the mid 2000's. So thanks for the tool, and sorry for being a freeloading bastard. Currently I use doombuilder2 because linedef "drawing" is like cheatmode for design, but wadauthor still has some desirable functions that db2 doesn't (maybe plugins do, or gzdb does, but I can't be arsed to look). Namely, nice statistics for stroking one's ego,  very fast creation of symmetrical geometric shapes, and its error checking can catch some weird stuff that db2 won't. So yes I do keep a copy handy even in 2017! Legendary tool sir

[Doomkid]

I made my first real maps in WadAuthor way back in 2001, it was hands down the best at the time! Thanks for this, WadAuthor with some kind of 3D mode could potentially be a hit with certain mappers!

[ETTiNGRiNDER]

This is good news, I had thought WA had been abandoned forever.  Sure there are editors with lots of nicer stuff nowadays, but every now and again I like to hack away at Doom stuff natively on an old machine that just can't run the newer programs.

[Ed]

My second map editor, after Waded v1.8.  I just fired it up and that marble splash screen was such a nostalgia trigger.

 

I'm sorry, I too was a freeloading bastard.  I blame myself, but also the general fear of spending money on the internet that was prevalent at the time.

[Sporku]

WadAuthor was my first Doom map editor, and still holds a lot of sentimental value to me. I don't think I would have gotten into Doom editing in the way that I did if it weren't for your editor. I think there's a lot of value to be had in preserving old tools like these, so I'm thankful that you're willing to provide a freeware license after all this time. Here's hoping you're able to make the source code co-operate with modern tools; I'm sure there's several people in the community that'd love to tinker with it!

[geo]

On 5/2/2017 at 11:12 AM, Phileosophos said:

I know, I know, I'm practically a ghost, an irrelevant voice from the past, as probably is my editor, WadAuthor, these days. But for anybody who cares, I'm offering a freeware license to WadAuthor until such time comes as I can actually get it building with all the latest tools, at which point I still intend to release the source to the community. Anyone interested should visit my almost entirely useless web site.

Perk up. Do you need a hug or something? I remember WadAuthor from 20 years ago if I'm not mistaken. People will appreciate this and you will bring up fond memories for your product.

[Nine Inch Heels]

On 2.5.2017 at 6:19 PM, 42PercentHealth said:

Will the source code be released

 

On 2.5.2017 at 6:29 PM, Voros said:

For a second there, I thought this was a source release.

 

On 2.5.2017 at 6:12 PM, Phileosophos said:

But for anybody who cares, I'm offering a freeware license to WadAuthor until such time comes as I can actually get it building with all the latest tools, at which point I still intend to release the source to the community.

Good things come to those who wait, or so the saying goes...

[blod]

WadAuthor was my tool of choise for years (after some unhappy usage of DoomCAD). It possessed sleek GUI, all essential feats and great texture browser that I miss nowadays... It seems someone needs a session of retroediting.

[Reisal]

I never really used WadAuthor but I'll get a copy for archive's sake. And @Phileosophos, consider uploading this onto /idgames/ next to the uploaded version of the program so it will always be available elsewhere as well.

[Jayextee]

WadAuthor was (and I'm talking early '00s here) THE Wad editor of choice, pretty instrumental as one of the few to support Hexen/ACS in the ZDoom boom. This is an awesome post.

[Xaser]

I was never a WadAuthor user myself, but it's fantastic seeing the creator of a pivotal tool come out of the woodwork and make an important piece of history* available again. Super-kudos!

 

 

[*Disclaimer: not intending the word "history" to mean "it's old hat, nothing more" or anything. Perhaps some enterprising dev takes the source post-release and runs with it. ;]

[Dravencour]

Wadauthor was the first major map editor I got serious with, and was responsible for my only major map released into the wild. It's definitely good to see an old face again.

[MegaZzZeux]

Hmm what good timing for me to see this...WadAuthor was the first level editor where I could finally make doors/switches work right. (Thought I still had plenty of fun with Waded, and the one that came with one of the old Doom 2 strategy guides back in the day...), So unlike many others this is my primary source of wad-making, especially if I stick around this time...

[Gentlepoke]

Anything like this is always good news, especially from the historical aspect of the level editor.

[Jon]

On 5/2/2017 at 5:12 PM, Phileosophos said:

I know, I know, I'm practically a ghost, an irrelevant voice from the past, as probably is my editor, WadAuthor, these days. But for anybody who cares, I'm offering a freeware license to WadAuthor until such time comes as I can actually get it building with all the latest tools, at which point I still intend to release the source to the community. Anyone interested should visit my almost entirely useless web site.

 

Hey thanks for this. This is a great step in the right direction. I have a licensed version of WA via my copy of '3D Game Alchemy', but non-the-less I'm pleased to see some movement here.

 

I'd just like to encourage you to consider releasing the source as-is, rather than trying to fix it up with modern build tools first, for several reasons

 

• you may find that the community are able to help you with the tooling side of things and get it done faster
• the present state of the source may be historically interesting in ways that are hard to predict now: consider how the LinuxDoom source was released after someone tried to fix it up for building on Linux, and in the process some interesting historic behaviour was lost