damerell

E3M6 - very close in layout outside (apart from the three-armed building which is missing an arm), interiors of building a bit off. Missing one of the boxes in the lava (which isn't on a normal route to the exit, and contains some goodies, but isn't a formal secret). Monsters a bit off (particularly, the boxes tend to deliver a mixture of monsters on opening, not a sea of tomatoes as in the original). The arrangement of teleporters isn't quite right. I could not rocket launch myself into the secret exit; I think the author might want us to straferun down from the chainsaw? E3M9 - progression mostly correct (although the exit from the collapsing goo bridge emerges in the wrong room) until the end, where instead of being teleported into the room of sergeants unexpectedly, we can just walk in. However, the geometry is completely off, huge rooms made out of tiny ones. The BFG is missing from the goo the bridge collapses into. This level did have some pretty ugly warts (eg zero-width walls you can look at end-on, and the missing texture in the room of sergeants was on a much bigger surface) - the original levels weren't perfect, but this one was noticeably uglier in a way other levels in this WAD haven't been. E3M7 - right general layout around the central area and very close at the start, but large chunks missing (including most of the teleport closets) and the post-teleport-closet area is really not very similar. Fewer monsters than the original, even over and above the missing chunks. E3M8 - seems pretty close to me; maybe the lighting effects coming off the central room are new. Doom, like Star Wars, has only three episodes, so I'm done. Thanks to the designers.

E3M1 - remembers the general layout and standout points of the original level, but way off in places (particularly the goo secret where you get the shotgun). It's much easier for the pinkbeasts to get out the corridor of pinkbeasts, which makes it harder to punch them all out, but on the plus side it's a much shorter corridor. The initial infighting space is much smaller, and there are more imps, which means they do more than just tickle the tomatoes before dying. E3M2 - like Containment Area, hits some of the same general beats, bits of the original level pop up, but not much more. The beastie on the automap is nifty, and the arches look good, but did the author really remember those? Very short of health compared to the original (in particular, I'm pretty sure there's a berserk pack fairly readily available near the start on the original, which also means you can easily punch out pinkbeasts and invisibeasts). E3M3 - very close in parts, correct overall layout, never drastically different, but missing a lot of the secret corners and goodies that made the original easier. However, it's also missing almost all the monsters. This felt kind of like an unfinished version of the original. E3M4 - remembers the overall layout of the original and most of the big setpieces, but not too much more, and quite a few missing chunks. This again has a lot of detail (particularly these double-walled rooms) which I don't think anyone could reasonably think they remember from the original. A lot more monsters in some places, but also absolute buckets of ammo. At the start of the original, the rocket launcher is in the starting room, and the corridor runs straight and narrow for a little way from that. I know that because in '93 the chance of getting through a co-op run without someone saying "oops" and there being a short impromptu deathmatch was basically zero. E3M5 - close in appearance, especially in the central parts of the map (some of the side rooms are more vague), but the switch/key/teleporter progression is off, with many doors missing compared to the original.

Episode 2: E2M1 - layout spot on in some places, off in others. The goo tank outside the red keycard door is a weird shape, not being able to shoot the wave of pinkbeasts before the wall comes down, the red cross at the start all come to mind. Not as easy to lure monsters out of the plasma rifle secret as on the original. E2M2 - OK, this is the Doom 1 level I know best; it's also the one which least resembles the original so far. There's bits of E2M2 in here, but it's the first one which isn't really the original layout, or anything close to it. And yeah, there's a lot fewer shotgun shells, which doesn't bode well for... E2M3 - really cramped. The author's recollection is otherwise pretty close - one or two oddities around the rising squares room, like that the backpack's normally in the goo - but everything's a bit smaller than it should be, which makes them a bit more awkward. E2M4 - mostly just oddly proportioned, but becomes a bit more off in the north of the map - you can't run all the way around the big circle in the original, it's missing the crushing floor's corridor, etc. The berserk pack is not so conveniently positioned. E2M5 - very close early on (although some things are odd or missing - the pinkbeasts you're facing when you start don't awake until you get upstairs, and the secret behind them is gone) but later in the map it's much less close from around the time you pass the circular staircase. Looking at the maps it's very noticeable how iD's is folded together into a little square, and this one is generally missing those corners. E2M9 - this is much more spacious than the original level but otherwise much tougher. The original only has four barons and one of them often gets stuck in the star room, so the tomatoes do much better in the infighting. There's a blue armour just behind your starting spot, there's four medikits, and the soulsphere isn't hidden in a cupboard - and some of the weapons and ammo on this new version are sat in the goo. I wouldn't care to pistol start this new version (and I've pistol started the original on -fast...). E2M9 again (I forgot to save last night): the original barons don't have random dead stuff on their walls - they hate the tomatoes just like the tomatoes hate them. More seriously you can get stuck on the map geometry in the corners of the tomato room (where the rockets are), which is not true of the original and quite likely fatal. E2M6 - the start's close (although our friend the comedian returns with a crusher in the first tomato room) but later on a bit hit and miss; monster placement wonky, the switch/key progression is off, and the wood maze is much smaller (a relief since it's also much darker) and the stuff around the octagonal room is mostly missing. The fake exit ambush is, as others have noted, horrible. E2M7 - mostly very close, but some oddities - the rooms beyond the blue corridors are off in places, some monster placement is weird (a room beyond the blue door both has the layout odd and about a million extra sergeants). Close enough to run from memory. E2M8 - the ammo isn't evenly distributed between the rooms in the original, and the geometry is enough off that you can, say, fire rockets the full width of the map. I don't think there were any half-height pillars in the original. More generally I think things are off enough to throw my instincts a bit; Simon the Cyberdemon often wasn't where I expected him to be, and I took a rocket to the face but didn't die while blundering around with the screen red.

I just saw this. I have not played Doom for a while, and I thought I'd see how well my memory aligns with the WAD. I don't mean to imply criticism of the authors that aren't so close - after all, if one of these levels was an exact copy, what would be the point? Also, I only thought of this at E1M4, so the E1M1-M3 comments are, aha, from memory. E1M1 - bit off, mostly through losing the bend in the level, so when you go out to the supercharge through the secret you're much less exposed. E1M2 - also missing a corner; losing the hidden access to one of the ledges above the lift ambush is a nuisance, and the maze leading to the chainsaw is way off. E1M3 - perceptibly different shapes, but the only major difference is the secret with the invisibility, where you're put in a less exposed position. E1M9 - very close, perhaps some monster counts slightly off? A bit of detail (eg the central imp cage has pillars at the corners in the original). E1M4 - no difference I can see at all except maybe the goo suits in the round room are repositioned. E1M5 - some different geometry, especially in the area with rising pillars in the slime (where AFAIK the connection through to the pentagram room is missing altogether, and I got trapped in the pentagram room), but what really struck me was some of the pinkbeasts and invisibeasts seemed to be missing. E1M6 - geometry considerably off right from the start; more of a level with the same progression through areas than a copy, and sometimes I think the author has given into an urge to add a bit of detail that's very uncharacteristic of Doom '93 - this was the first point where I found myself asking, sure, Mandela Effect, but can you really remember _that_, or are you embellishing? Many more barrels than the original. Some textures I'm not sure were even _in_ Episode 1 - all the CEMENT. I died for the first time; the goo pit beyond the red keycard doors isn't how I expected, and I think the goo is spicier. E1M7 - well, someone's a comedian. This was the point at which it became more clear not every author was trying for complete authenticity. Finding the spots in the level where you can shoot a teleporting cyberdemon with impunity is not ideal (and immersion isn't quite the word, but this was the point where the sense that iD could have done this broke down), but that aside - layout perfect in parts, in other parts felt correct except slightly too large, in other parts geometry wrong (but right progression). Kept much of the opportunities to snipe monsters from afar before you can get into their areas. There's no tomatoes or lost souls in Episode 1, but after the cyberdemon that's a bit of a moot point. E1M8 - layout right, if dimensions odd, and some details of what's to pick up (like the items on the lift behind the initial barrels and pinkbeasts) off, but basically all there. I think the original has some invisibeasts in the points of the final pentagram behind you, so you can't just chaingun them all from the lift, which at least adds a little potential for comedy if you fire rockets at the barons.

It was only in the 2010s I did MAP01-29 (and 31-32) of Doom 2 on UV with no in-level saving, and even after doing that, I decided I could quite happily go to my grave without ever firing a rocket into that wall.

I've got this too. I just thought things had been quiet for a week - I'm not subscribed to much.

Au contraire; pitch-black mazes with spectres is the worst...

Only if I leave them turned on.

I'm going to believe you play both guitars _at once_ until someone tells me otherwise. :-)

Most of the time, when I want to play Doom, I want to play "Doom, but with more pixels and fewer bugs", not another FPS that's more or less like Doom. If it works in prboom, it's much more likely to be in the former category.

Er... wouldn't the people who refuse to play on HNTR be completely oblivious to the fact you'd done that? Only the people who are happy to try and find the right difficulty would be affected.

Although his death was not, frankly, a great loss to level design.

Some of us are still loading PWADs in source ports the same way as in vanilla Doom. :-)

Doesn't Satan have a bit of a conflict of interest here? I'm not sure I'd take his advice.

Ah. Well, I'm sorry to hear that, then.