drygnfyre

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.

But yet on the other side of the map, you can see outside but can't get there. (The little alcove with the shotgun). There was also no way to get past that yellow door cage and go outside on E1M3. In both cases, I would have just made them enclosed rooms.

E1M3 secret exit

In the "Visit to id Software" video from November 1993, E1M1 had a slightly different exit room, with a second exit door (that didn't open) on the other side of the room. The idea was the switch being triggered was some kind of air lock, allowing the player to safely leave the Hangar and enter the Nuclear Plant. This little bit of decoration was removed from the final release. Got me thinking. From a story perspective, how does exiting a map work? Most maps don't even have the exit switch around the perimeter, but rather deep within the map. Does the player somehow get teleported from one map to another? That would make sense when the actual exit is indeed a teleporting pad, or those empty pits seen in Episode 4 and Doom 2. But then you've got maps like E1M3 where an exit switch is just in the middle of the map, in a standard room.

I've always liked Warrens. Easily my favorite secret map of Doom. The first time I played it, I was fooled. I was wondering if there was some kind of glitch that caused Hell Keep to load up again. But with the different music, I did suspect there might be something more to the map. Then, of course, you reach the exit. Conceptually, I loved it. Not too many other officially sanctioned maps do that, which makes it unique.

I've still got my boxed copy of Doom II somewhere, complete with the floppies it came on. But never bought Doom until it was packaged as part of Collector's Edition. Only boxed copy of Doom I have in any capacity is the GBA port.

Oddly enough, I came across a floppy in my closet containing the Doom shareware. Unable to verify the version or even run it (I don't think I have a USB floppy drive), but it seems to be from early 1994 so it has to be an early version.