drygnfyre

The ban on the secret Doom 2 maps was lifted recently, last I checked.

If that's the case, the alphas and demos are also interesting because you see the gradual move away from arcade mentality. Score was removed, as was various collectable items. Soul sphere originally gave you another life, before lives were also removed. IGN had a E1 play-through with John Romero about a decade ago, and it was really interesting because Romero talks a lot about how he made the E1 maps, and the overall design goals of the game.

I always thought it was interesting that the alphas/demos were playing with the idea of swapping Episodes 2 and 3. I think the idea of going to Hell, then returning only to find Hell has followed you, is a better design idea. And I think that's what Doom 3 did. In classic Doom, it would also have made the cyber-demon the final fight, which is probably a better battle than against the spider mastermind.

The only difference amongst the original three episodes I know of is the E1M1 change that was made for better deathmatch play. Otherwise Ultimate Doom is the same, but adds Episode 4.

Episode 2 maps. The combination of tech base and Hell works very well.

Something I learned recently was that the GBA port of Doom was originally going to utilize a custom engine. According to the developer, the engine was about 95% complete, but then Romero and the publisher found the Jaguar Doom source code and had the developers use that as the basis for the GBA port. However, the GBA port of Doom II does use a custom engine, and it's believed that it might be the one the original developers were working on.

Warrens is my favorite. Really liked the concept of re-using old maps but adding more and more surprise elements.

My problem with Sigil is the overuse of the eye switch and the way every map ends. There's nothing wrong with using the environment to hide a switch, but when every map does it, it takes away any real sense of exploration. With every map, if I'm missing a secret, I know to go back and just look for the eye switch I missed. Compare that to some of the earlier episodes where secrets felt a bit more organic in a way. Likewise, every map basically ends with a big room with barons. Fine, but again, starts to feel a bit stale. And I much prefer the MIDI to the Buckethead music.

Is the Sigil SKYBOX unique? Looks like the Doom 2 sky.

Is it possible for idclev and idmus to work with Sigil?

Much prefer the MIDI to the Buckethead music.

My favorite 1991 song about a 1994 level.

Yes, Romero has mentioned a few times he didn't do areas that were outdoors unless you could get there. Violated in a few places (one spot in E1M1 you can't visit, the area beyond the yellow door cage in E1M3) but for the most part this was consistent.

Given what he says at the very beginning about making the middle of the game "less interesting," I feel that explains a lot about Episode 4's odd downward bell curve of difficulty. (Granted, he didn't design a lot of those maps). Make those first maps visually appealing to the player, or telegraph that the episode (in this case) isn't going to be easy.

Doomworld. Seriously. Was too young for Usenet and didn't use the Internet much at all until the early 2000s or so.