Polri

I think I got myself softlocked in map 23. I played the ID Games version with GZDoom 4.2.4. In the outside area with the two cyberdemons, I squeezed between the crates and pillars, and managed to get the red key before before opening the yellow key section. After doing that, pillars rose, blocking the way towards the yellow key section. I couldn't open the red door either, because the section which with the switch that lowers the pillars in front of the red door, didn't open.

While most iwad Romero levels are abstract places with random names assigned to them ("tenements", "industrial zone", "phobos lab"...), "the abandoned mines" actually feels like a mine with narrow passages, elevators that bring you to lower levels and off course the yellow key area (and the mancubus secret) where the mines connect with the rocky area above them in a quasi-realistic way.

Why did a grizzly bear wander into a doom level?

What do you get if you arrange 4 arachnotrons of different colors in a row?

Love the doomcute alligators!

Nice work! Could it be that you mean map 25 "Beginner's end" as being the most conceptual map wit the right backtrack: "to know the end, find the beginning"?

A few ideas: - have a few dedicated threads for general discussions about the iwads ("Doom 1: general discussion", "TNT Evilution: general discussion", "Monsters: general discussion" etc), and encourage people to post in those threads instead of starting new threads to ask: "who else thinks Downtown should have an SSG?". - in the same vein: if released wads get their separate subsection, it should be ok to bump these threads whenever you have something to say or ask about them. So instead of starting a new thread to discuss "finding the secret exit in map 15 of Ancient Aliens", just post it in the Ancient Aliens release thread. (bumping dead or dormant progress threads is something completely else, stay away from those if you just want to ask: "any progress on btsx ep-3? :) " - maybe a dedicated subsection for review threads (endless, not jabba, dean of doom companion thread...)?

Romero had a rule, that if you can see outside, you should be able to reach it. So in doom 2 map 29, there should have been a secret way to get "outside" of the cave and reach that spot in the northwest where the imps shoot you from.

Sunlust, Valiant & Plutonia Revisited Community Project.

Xaser's "Enigma Helix" in Plutonia Revisited Community Project was an epic adventure, and finally reaching the exit felt like a big achievement. Never figured out how you're supposed to reach the secret exit, though.

Maybe I'm being pedantic here, but the beautifully detailed, realistic settings in Lost Civilisation are way too refined to still be classified as "doomcute" in my opinion. :)

Knee-deep-in-Zdoom, sort off, in the final level.

Doom was made by the same designers as commander Keen, which had tons of optional content (including many optional levels) and quite a lot of obscure secrets and easter eggs, like having the ice cannon shoot you to the secret exit teleporter in Keen 1, or collecting the yellow worms to find the way to the secret pyramid in Goodbye Galaxy. And off course Keen "mooning" when standing idle long enough on the crescents in the Pyramid of the moon. :) I'm happy that they carried some of those tropes over to Doom, but I agree that they could have done even a bit more in that respect.

Sure, but like I said, Doom was designed for replayability. It wasn't the makers' intention to optimise the game for getting 100% secrets/kills on your first go. From the point of view of replayability it's actually a cool secret, as you will probably only discover it on later playthroughs, for instance by trying to see how the level plays if you visit the northern area first before collecting the key in the library area. I remember spending many hours replaying the levels and discovering obscure secrets (like the mega-armor in Downtown) and alternative routes (like the one in Gotcha! where you skip the Mastermind/Cybie fight). Or watching a friend killing the Cybedemon on map 10 from behind with an invuln, asking him how he got there, and him replying: "I have no idea, I was fighting those zombies and shotgunners and suddenly I was here". And then trying to figure it out together.

When doom and doom 2 were released, most people didn't have internet at home, had no acces to custom wads, en were basically replaying the same levels over and over again. I guess the authors were aware of that, and tried to maximise their replay value by providing difficulty settings, adding optional areas and alternative progression routes, and hiding a lot of secrets in the maps, including some very obscure ones like that room in monster condo or the rocket-jump secret exit in Mount Erebus. I remember the excitement as a kid when I discovered a new secret or shortcut in my 15th playthrough of a map. Today there are so many wads around, that authors usually design them to be fun and completable on a first playthrough, but it was a different context in 1994. So, to sum it up: this secret frustrated you, because you wanted to complete the game with 100% kills/secrets on your first playthrough, but that's not how people played it back then.