Xymph

Ah... the memories... they're so hazy. :-) I was a VAX/VMS sysadmin from 1989 until 1997 on the 'big iron' machines of those days, and also programmed tools in DCL, TPU, and C. But all on classic green CRTs. I don't remember whether in later years there were also screens that could be capable of displaying something Doom-like, but it seems unlikely for that time, and given the multi-user purpose of those machines I don't think they'd be very good at running Doom anyhow despite being 'big'. But I'd love to see if it is possible. I did play Doom in 1994 at work during lunch breaks (and sometimes beyond ;) ), but of course on a bog-standard Pentium PC. :)

Aaand.... we're back. Phew :)

Every (rare) time gamers.org is unreachable for a few hours or a day, some poster somewhere panics that "idgames is going away!" ;-) So I figured I'd clarify that, no, it isn't. There's just an unknown technical hiccup and Kapi is travelling, so probably unable to look into it until his return this weekend. Please be patient. :)

https://x.com/romero/status/1807871679433249085 https://www.timeextension.com/news/2024/07/the-fps-that-paved-the-way-for-wolfenstein-3d-and-doom-is-getting-a-new-big-box-release (thanks Technopeasant1994)

Please remember to create the SR2 article (as intended quite long ago).

That's remarkable, hadn't even noticed that yet. Oh, nice "work" if you can get it. ;-)

Like clockwork, here is a new bi-monthly round-up of wiki happenings, yet it seemed the clock ticked a little slower this period, with the number of new articles and edits slackening especially in May, as shown on the chart site. But that's okay, several active editors took well-deserved wiki breathers or at least reduced their activity, and of course the Doom community (and the world at large) keeps on moving anyway. Still, a few notable data points are the number of map pages in need of soundtrack information dropping below 3,400; Gauss-ian walkthroughs getting added for (most of) Doom 2 Reloaded; and GF/NMM contributing secrets for another 30+ WADs. Did I forgot anything else worth mentioning? Entirely possible, so feel free to add a comment. Meanwhile, here is the (still sizable, due to April) list of new articles: Core Content 3D Game Alchemy Adding custom sounds ENDOOM Mapping Contest 2024 Game mode The Sentinel's Playground Tools CleanWAD Hexen Hack Editor SeHackEd Mods Alley Cat Artifact: Land of Cursed Behemoth (WAD) Bella Bermuda Triangle Brotherhood of Ruin: The Lost Temple Crimson Liberation DBP65: Sanguine Holy Land Deadliest Dem(o(li)ti)on Disrepair 2 DOOM PSX: Damnation of Eternity Doomed: By the Hour Elysion Endless Frontier Energy Control Fall of Triton The Fireworks Factory Hell Revealations I.C.T.O.A.N. Icerial 2 Junkfood 3: Wow Wow West Kill the Cybie Laitos MAP07 Deadly Sins Master Jumps Memorial The NEW DOOM OMGMAPS One Bloody Night One Week Contest Plutonia: The Way We Remember It Protoslayer React Real World Real World 2 Rebel Sky RJSpace31 RJSpace9f RJumpq Running Late Rust Point RustPoint Map2 Switcheroom Uroboros Vogel im Käfig Void Terra Firma Waste Vats What lies beneath titan-426 People Gregory Dick JD Herrera Jonathan Hoof (Hunter) Martin Howe Sven Huth (Dasa) IvanDobsky Benjamin Moir (The Zombie Killer) Monsieur E William Mull (Phoebus) PRO-RC Raddicted RHG45 RileyXY1 Ryan Mallon (ryiron) Ralf Schreivogel Scroton Frank Siebers (Jesus) Andrey Skochko (DRON12261) Frank Stajano SuperPecanMan Synami Blake Wilfong (The Wondersmith) Index of previous issues

One thing needing correction was using the forums post for the map/mapper list, resulting in the E2M5 discrepancy. The WAD itself (so its MAPINFO/DEHACKED and (C)WILV lumps) should be used as primary source, its .txt file(s) secondary, and only if neither provides (enough) information, a forum post. Also, secret exits don't need to marked if they're the defaults. Look again in the WAD, there aren't any.

Unfortunately my explanations were mostly ignored in that last edit - I've now brought the article up to wiki standards. Hopefully that helps to make SR2 creation a smoother process.

As noted above and before, XymphBot is just a bot account suitable for running scripted updates without cluttering Recent Changes - not an autonomous all-knowing entity. It does very little on WAD overview pages, only (if applicable) the built-in demos and speedrunning sections can be added to an existing, fleshed-out WAD page. I need a properly formatted levels list to create a .ini file for the project, and only then skeleton pages with a lot of basic info for all maps can be created through a series of scripts. subst:map_skel should NOT be used for multi-level WADs either, then, because existing partial pages can get in the way of those scripts. Valiant is too complex an example article to learn from, something comparable to SR1/2 like Congestion 1024 or Literalism works better. View the source (but don't change/submit it) to learn how to create a proper map list with the maplinkgen template (there are other ways, but for beginners that template minimizes the chance of mistakes). Also, the map authors should be listed with their full canonical names - wikilinked - on the first occurrence, and then the alias (or regular name, if no alias) - not wikilinked - can be used for their additional map contributions, if any. Redlinks on mapper names should be avoided. A soundtrack section should not be included if the WAD has no custom music. Map images are created via Omgifol from cropped levels that don't show monster caches and control sectors, so that should not be attempted until one understands all aspects of that process. I already prepared map images for SR1 & 2, anyway. Sure, you can create a complete draft in an editor first. Or enter wiki text in the page create form in multiple phases, but then repeatedly use Show preview until the page is complete and looks correct before submitting, to avoid spamming Recent Changes. We generally leave those in for a long time as open invitation and easy hooks for adding such info bits. DMMPST and dmmpstBot don't add that anyway if spots are absent.

But what about finishing it? A brief intro paragraph (which was already improved and expanded by Plerb) without levels list is not really an effective way to contribute to the wiki, I'm afraid.

If not excessive, that's okay too. But several editors use HexChat as IRC client, which is easy to set up, connect, and use. So that shouldn't be an obstacle.

I am by no means familiar with all WADs/CPs and their notability, nor a definitive voice on whether to add specific ones, so frequently chat about such topics with Dynamo, who has followed this much more throughout the years. We think adding those is all right - but not the Forgotten Maps for both. A couple of editors and admin Quasar hang out (ir)regularly in #doomwiki and that can be a quick way to chat about these and other wiki matters before hitting Central Processing. But it is of course more primitive than Discord.

I checked the maps covered on the wiki, and this one leads the ranks there too in those two stats, but its 35,566 sectors are second to the 35,747 sectors in MAP08: Runaway Terminate of Insanity Edged.

The ID range is not contiguous, deleted files leave gaps. Also, another portion are docs, prefabs, sources, utilities. $ find combos deathmatch graphics levels music skins sounds themes -type f -name '*.zip' | wc -l 16511