Endless

Hey everyone. I've been recently scouring through some of the shovelware discs of yore, and I've found myself discovering some highly obscure WADs that aren't even part of the /idgames archive. Granted, most of them are absolute trash but I still find it curious how there's actually a considerable amount of content out there that's very hard or near impossible to access. So that got me thinking, what are some ''lost WADs'' that we know of ? By this I mean: A WAD that we have some proof that, at some point in time, existed in someones PC. Either screenshots, threads, .txt mentions or incomplete alpha versions. It's currently unavailable for download and there's no traces or files to be found in the internet. I'm trying to create a list of such enigmatic WADs. Some of these have an urban-legend like status. I personally know of: WADs with visual proof: Waters of Lethe by Dr. Sleep. Supposedly the last WAD in the Cantos series, and with a building time of around 7 years but never saw the light of day, sadly. The original Chiron by Dr. Sleep. Initially, it was E4M7: And Hell Followed. Was part of the Inferno series, and was known as Chiron, but Dr. Sleep got to work for the id guys and Chiron was replaced, so we can only wonder if this Chiron WAD was either a whole level, or perhaps a more primitive version of E4M7. This particular area looks a lot like the one from MAP03: Virgil's Lead (Master Levels) so maybe they were both born out of Chiron? Joe Anderson WADs, found this one thanks to a thread that pointed how all of his WADs started being removed from the archives suddenly. Even trying to look up the author's name is hard. Some of the WADs did exist and where even reviewed on the ONEMANDOOM Blogpost. There's still some randomly preserved zip files, but I couldn't find more info as to why the sudden disappearance of the WADs and how many there actually are. NSFW: Alien Vindicta by @Andy Johnsen . Early 90s version of Alien Vendetta. Full 32-level megawad that never saw the light of day! The WIP - WADs in Progress website is probably full of lost WADs, so that's also a good place to search for, well, nothing I guess, other than vapor memories. Here's some of the WADs I couldn't find in any other place. While the website is preserved in the internet archive, the details and comments were lost. Grasp of Fresh Air by worrior The Lost World by Beth Untitled - Episode 1,2 and 3 by @Zemini (3 WADs in total, none to be found. Zemini name also doesn't show up on /idgames, but the author is around Doomworld, so perhaps there's hope?) Outpost 69 by Lorenzo Back to DooM - Unlimited Deathmatch Megawad by UnlimitedStar23 Elemental by GMan Retribution by Pebble Doom on Hell by Yamato Technobabel by sirtimberwolf Uac Base 51 by ShadowRunner Heretic: The battle of the Damned by Apocsoft Lonely Meadows by Lobo Doom X, a planned MegaWAD designed for Zdoom (and later GZDoom) that started off under the title The Last Marine. Supposedly 32 levels that never got released. Hellstorm: Dark Ascension, was one of these very ambitious partial conversions from the late nineties. ZD3K: The Conspiracy, The project was started in 2003/2004, and even back then purported to have over 50 levels, with all kinds of custom features and even a custom engine based on ZDoom. It promised the moon, and in mid-2004 was supposedly 95% complete. The Shores of ZDoom, the supposed sequel to Knee-Deep in ZDoom. Kama Sutra 2, the sequel to the iconic megawad, it had 10 completed maps out of 32, but was never finished nor released. Deimos: Anomaly Unleashed, by Christopher Lutz. It seems at least one level was finished, but the project never came to be. The Last Adventure, Here's a WAD called The Last Adventure. The homepage for this http://www.doommaster.prv.pl/ is one site I found, still cached by google but currently offline) was around a few years ago, and even had a download link available. Insomnia, a sequel to Cyberdreams, a celebrated and influential early puzzle wad, was in the works for a few years but never released. Other lost WADs: BEYOND - it's mentioned in description of another wad by it's author. I can't find BEYOND anywhere. Vile-Lab - mentioned in the KILL!Zone II .TXT but which I wasn't able to track down. DK.ZIP - Fortress level by Malcolm Sailor. Could be CHORD2. Compuserve files - Bob Evans teased having a backup of a bunch of Compuserve files around the time that he uploaded his holy grail ODESSA maps. 4play4.wad - is mentioned by the 90s author Harq - in many of his readmes, going back to '97. Doom Resurrection - an early ZDoom megawad, started around March/April 1998. Doom Episode 5 - started somewhere around September 1999, and died a death in September 2001 It looks like only 1 complete map was ever made for this, by Martin Schultz. Perfect - started around March 1999 as a project loosely inspired by the Darkening, and later morphed into an unofficial Darkening Episode 3 when Ola Bjorling joined the team to provide a brand new texture .wad Ultimate Invasion - total conversion by Paul "Moe" Fleschute under TeamTNT umbrella. Vile-Lab - Don Howard of Kill! Zone and Daedalus: Alien Defence fame released a single level Doom II level called Vile-Lab, mentioned in the KILL!Zone II The Deathmatch '95/UK Tournament WADs - Two of the PWADs mentioned on the DoomWiki's page, those are SEMFINAL.WAD and SEATLLE.WAD. Oneway2.wad and tun1.wad - Two other wads by Degrees Centigrade are still lost: Oneway2.wad and tun1.wad . Lost and Found: Risen Egypt by sitters DOOM 2.5 by Vegeta Mausoleum by Alberto Barsella Original Betray from Doom 3 Limited Collector's Edition Torment.wad by Karl Jackson /// /// /// What other lost WADs do you guys know? Perhaps we can tagged them here, and maybe even find them (the archivists at The Official 'Trying to Find a Specific WAD' Thread are gods at this!) but, even if the files themselves are never to be found, at least this gallery can work as a wall of solace to those lost.

This is an interesting question that interest me as an outsider. I just know the basics of the historical and political context of the US, but when I try to look at it in the hypothetical scenario of where I would like to leave if I was a US citizen, it's honestly probably any of the West States and the Four Corners, mostly because of the geographical landscape. I'm a big "outdoors fan" and I'm enamored with mountains. The US West, to me, is absolute heaven on Earth. I also like Arizona a lot, and I think I would actually enjoy living in Phoenix. I understand it is absolute hell due to the extremely high temperatures, but I'm very used to heat already, plus, Phoenix at least gets cold seasons every once in a while, and you can travel a few miles to the upper areas and there's already snow. Where I live, cold season is, at best, 18 Celsius, while the rest of the year mostly stays around 38 Celsius. When it comes to the political, cultural, social, economical, etc situations, honestly, when you live in a third world country, even the trash of the US looks like a peaceful ranch in comparison. Except Florida, fuck that. Also honorable mention to my favorite place in the entire world, a place I've never even been to lol: Lake Powell. So, best state? For me, either Arizona, or Washington. Worst one? Florida for me. It's pretty much the same compared to where I live, minus that many crocodiles and snakes.

PEACE-D3.WAD (New Peace for Doom 2) | Wolfgang Grassl Christian Hellmann | 1995 A small DM map designed for some brutal violence across peaceful geometry, literally peaceful because of the symbol. This is quite the big piece of shit. It is terrible in almost all sense of the word and doesn't seem to understand even the basics of what makes DM a multiplayer mode. It also includes a large number of monsters without any care in the world in SP, and good luck trying to kill them all in UV. Pass. The Kult v1.1 | Ravenwing | 1995 The antithesis to what a 90s map should be. This one is slow-paced, extremely easy at less than 15 enemies, feels atmospheric due to its very interesting usage of textures, and occult-like details. I'm quite fascinated by the simplistic style of it and how it tries to take things slow and heavy, with a sense of impeding dread looming over. It's probably because it feels so out of place when compared to the usual 90s /idgames crap that lies everywhere. It's not a ''YOU WON'T SURVIVE THIS MAP'' kind of deal, is just a map, it just is, and it is is pretty decent. I do find it to be quite boring in the gameplay deparment, but it is not often you find a map that, for once, doesn't try to be the hardestTM in the world. It is quite inspiring as a matter of fact. Why? I don't know, it's a feeling that seems to evoke what quietness can do.

Go to /idgames archive, press ''Random File'' and play whatever you get. There's no limit, no end in sight, no rest for the living, only the living end.

FUNHOUSE.WAD | Robert Payne | 1996 Contrary to the title of the WAD, this is not a very fun house. An extremely basic and dull level with pretty much nothing worthy to mention about. The only two positive things about this is that it is super easy and at least not broken. Pretty much a Wolf3D level in Doom engine. Ambush2 | MrBlonde | 1996 A nicely looking DM level from 1996 with some extra touches that add up to a rather enjoyable experience, at least when it comes to visuals. The map layout itself is circuit-like and flows well, for the most part. It has some interesting touches and paths to take, and while the BFG9000 area is a bit tricky to get into, the map seems pretty damn good, but could have had better item placement. DOY2.WAD | Doyoon Kim | 1996 Another DM map. This one has a few SS soldiers and HKs going around in singleplayer mode. The layout of the map is far too small for group fights, but could work in duel mode, although, the actual placement and the general geometry of the level is rather, eh, obtuse. Nothing particularly bad, but at least understands the most basic layout design philosophy. LOOE's First Level | Looe | 1994 A very generic level from 1994 that at least follows a basic concept and doesn't try to do anything particularly crazy that breaks the experience. Very simple in almost all aspects, but unlike the first WAD I played, this one has better texture work, design, geometry, and is not a flat Wolf3D recreation. Not bad, but then again, not much competition to begin with.

People are so fucking empty that they really are desperate to get fake internet points as fast as they can, that are not even points to begin with.

Haha my greatest bane. Thanks a lot for playing my map mate. Never crossed my mind I would see Technical Issues here reviewed again. I still consider it my beast, and def the one that I've enjoyed working on the most. Maybe I'll make a sequel someday :D Thanks for the review and kind words!

Thought it was worth mentioning since I think no one has yet. @Bob Evans came out of the blue almost a decade ago to release his lost Odessa series of maps to /idgames, and there in his thread he also mentioned having a CD-ROM with the entire WAD archive of the long-extinct CompuServe forums. He seemed eager to help with preserving the contents of the CD, but seems like due to both internet and personal reasons, he never got to do it. Hist last post was in 2014, and his last connection in 2015. Does anyone know if something happened to Bob, or is the CD lost for other reasons? Anyway, thought I mention it since this is probably a golden grail for old school WADs, including content from a variety of top mappers from the 90s era that have never been released. It's been years since the last update so I thought going back to it, even if just to remind people of the existence of the CD, would be worth posting about.

The problem with this is the way you have worded it it. Garbage is a strong word to describe what is considered an important age for Doom history. While it is true that the 90s had a lot of bad WADs, a similar thing can be said about modern times. There's still WADs coming out today that look like they were made 30 years ago. If you want to compare the quality of a good 1994 WAD with that of a good 2023 release, you are just being unfair and negligent of the historical context. As for why people have reverence for 90s stuff, here's some stuff I can think about: Nostalgia, the most simple factor to go for Simplicity, most maps were done with the essentials and still work and play good Innovation, people were new to mapping and even tools were quite rudimentary, you had to make due with what you had, and some people could be very creative Historical interest, I find myself in this one. There's something to be said that a game manages to survive for 30 years and you can go back to its premiering date and still play its earliest works as if you were digging some ancient dinosaur. I think it is awesome Vanilla, most WADs back then were created for the original .exe, and while source ports didn't took long to appear, people stuck with vanilla for years. Today, there's a lot of vanilla-lovers that find themselves attracted to old school WADs at some point because of the huge amount of vanilla maps that are from that era And heck, I even covered this with other 90s enthusiasts out there in my blog: Why Play 90s WADs?

One of my main duties in the Doom Wiki, is finding and playing WADs from the 90s to upload screenshots to their pages. While scouring the archives, I found out about TMP, a WAD with an unknown author. It is usually rare for such thing to be in the wiki, so that caught my attention. I went down a rabbit hole and read the .txt, finding that TMP was supposedly the winner of a magazine competition from PC Zone, and the author name is Gary McAndrew. I did more digging and managed to found the issues where the event happened! PC Zone 15 (where the event was announced) PC Zone 19 (where the winners were announced) It was an awesome find and I decided to preserve it our history and made an article for it on the Doom Wiki. This happened some months ago already. Today, I was able to find the compilation of the 25 finalist WADs, which to my surprise, were archived on /idgames. Sadly, the remaining submissions seem to have been lost, but according to the article, they existed as part of the compiling CD-ROM back when the event ended. Probably lost to time, but I think it is worth a shot asking if someone knows any of the remaining missing WADs, and maybe they can be somehow rescued. A total of 120 submissions were sent, but only the 25 finalist (plus the winner) were archived on /idgames. Anyway, hope you guys enjoy this little piece of forgotten Doom history. If you know of other similar events, would be awesome to read about them :)

Incredible! It does exist still. The .ISO files seems to have all the submissions sent to the PC Zone competition, plus a few hundred random zip files, and hundreds of other items for other games I assume. Here's Temple by David Harvey. E1L1 by David Moore Abraxis by Nick Lee Canals by M. Booth Searching his name in /idgames doesn't yield results, and the same goes for a lot of the WADs and authors for this competition. Either they are not on /idgames at all, or maybe under a different name or title. Is there any way to possibly upload these levels to /idgames? @Grazza I've always wondered exactly how the process goes for uploading lost-and-found levels. I think you've uploaded many throughout the years so you were the first person that came to mind.

Those are some considerable prize pools. First time I see this. I imagine that if this was just packed inside the D!Zone big boxes, then its reach would have probably been minimal compared to magazine like PC Gamer, for example.

Shady loopholes everywhere! Also the mention that Doom maps are ''two dimensional'', ouch.

Here's my attempt at cat 1: Dead at 6:46 114 total kills

Logo by @Nikoxenos So, what is Wadarcheology? Wadarcheology, from WAD (Where is All the Data?) and Archeology (To dig up, hehe) is a discipline that specializes in the exploration of old archives, websites and forums, for the purpose or rediscovering classic WADs that have been either forgotten to time or completely lost among an ocean of content. In other words: To dig up for lost maps that have a relevant value and/or historic background. First, we must stablish some factors as to what we would consider relevant and classic. Same way a real archeologist doesn’t go looking for dingo bones from 2019, a wadarcheologist don’t go looking for shitty autogenerated maps or Cacoward winners. For a WAD to be considered, reviewed and studied, the wadarcheologist must consider this: 1. It must be from 1994 (year that PWADs came to life) to 2004. 2. It must have a low popularity or relatively unknown origin. 3. A not so well-known author or obscure maker. 4. Mostly forgotten or with very little citations, or just hard to find. 5. And it must have some sort of relevancy that is worth its rediscovery: It must be fun and/or; Innovative; Visually pleasing for its age; Worth playing or; All of the above. If a WAD meets these prerequisites, then is more than worth it and should be dig up immediately. That’s wadarcheologist slang for reviewed. The purpose of this is in a similar path to that of the ER/iWA, to explore, discover and enjoy these Doom works, but in this case, with a special focus on particularly obscure and old WADs that have been mostly left to dust during all these years. The 1994 to 2004 range gives us an entire decade to rediscover, with the 1994-1999 era being one particularly obscure one, as there was no such a thing as a central repository of reviews, or a public roundup of writers (like the /Newstuff Chronicles that only came into being in 2000), so chances are, we’ll find some good, worthy and fun pieces of work from those times. And who knows, maybe the author is still active and would smile greatly as he sees his or her work being rediscovered. Especial thanks to @Arrowhead for joining me in this amazing enterprise! How can I become a Wadarcheologist? Easy, go and participate by following the rules stated above when digging up for WADs. Now, when it comes to reviewing, here’s some guidelines that I would strongly advice to follow correctly: 1. Use at least 100 words. 2. Use at least 2 screenshots for each review. 3. State year. 4. State the name of the author. 5. State the source-port you used. As for some optional things you can also employ: If you know more about the context or background of the WAD and/or author, please share it. You can use videos if you want. Or a demo. Keep your own archive or spreadsheet of your discoveries to keep track of your work done. So, if you’re interested in becoming a wadarcheologist, be my guest and join this enterprise! » /// The Wadarcheology Museum /// « Some places to look for old WADs: /idgames Doomshack WAD Archive Doom Level CD Collection Doomwiki PWADs by year /newstuff Chronicles Doom WAD Station Russian Community WAD List by @Dexiaz Multiple Old WADs Lists by @Catpho BIG Vanilla WAD Pack by @Doomkid Doom Shovelware CD Compilation by @xvertigox Wadmodder's Shovelware Compilation CD PWAD by @Wadmodder Shalton

Ew that wiki Well, it depends really on what you are looking for and what you enjoy playing. These weren't really expansion packs in the strict sense of the word, more like commercial compilations that used multiple WADs from across different sources, more often than not without proper permission. Maximum Doom is the only proper official commercial compilation that has ever been approved by the official id team back in 1995, and it received a rather bad reception during its release for being a massive mess of poor quality levels. @Maximum Matt and @Kes Gaming YT have actually played the entirety of Maximum Doom so they can tell you more about that insanity. Still, there are some very niche groups of people that enjoy these types of works, like myself. Shovelware tended to have a rather enigmatic and particular presence that makes it feel like something forbidden and out of this world, plus there's that fact that a lot of these WADs are not available anywhere else and were probably never archived in places like /idgames, so if you enjoy playing obscure stuff and near-lost media, these compilations are filled with them. And while it is generally agreed upon that most shovelware is very, VERY poor quality, there's still a few gems hidden here and there that might caught you by surprise. The fact that they can be found among tons of shitty maps makes them all the more incredible to find lol As for which one is actually worth playing, well, if you are more than willing to play one of these with all the previous foreknowledge that most suck and are terrible for modern standards, than I think D!Zone is probably the best of them. @Spectere is currently playing through all of it and his videos are a blast to watch, highly enjoyable. Funny how some of the worst maps ever end up being great material to spectate lol EDIT: oh, as for actual unofficial commercial packs, then Perdition's Gate and Hell To Pay. Those are actually pretty nice. Not sure about The Lost Episodes tho.

Awesome to hear that! Heretic support next? :P

Nice! This looks quite asombroso. Can I take the MAP02 slot? :D

Dynamo was a massacre this period. Some great articles and WADs that needed proper documentation. Also, pretty sure I'm closer to finishing my little goal of adding screenshots to every 1994 WAD article in the Doom Wiki :D

Warhammer was originally released in 1983. Warhammer 40k was released in 1987 (as Rogue Trader). WH fans are old as fuck, and the series is way older than Doom. EDIT: Lol ended up posting as the same time as @Smoothandz. The Emperor compels us.

MINES.WAD version 1.1 | Iikka "Fingers" Keränen | 1996 Man, I'm going to eat shit in the leaderboard, anyway lol Here we have Mines, by the legendary Iikka Keränen, a classic from 1996 made by one of the early legends from our community. This little piece of lovely landscape exposure already captured since the very first moment when you start inside a little hillside cave, and proceed to what seems like an outpost surrounded by a mountainous landscape and a nukage river. Just lovely already! As you might have guessed, the map mostly takes place around a series of connected tunnels inside a massive mine shaft with a central hub-like elevator that takes you to different levels of the mine to explore. Simple in nature, but great in execution. The visuals are particularly noteworthy due to its consistency and ''alive'' feel. While not necessarily realistic, it does succeed in replicating a more logical sense of being. It feels like the mines were used and people roamed around digging minerals and the like. I do wish it had a little more of exterior landscape goodness, but the little it has is pretty cool. It does get quite confusing once you get inside the mines due to the multilayered tunnels, but it's not as maze-y as other examples from the era. It does, however, have a very fucking stupid ending that I wasn't even sure how to properly finish. After you get the red key and find the red door, you'll end through a tunnel that leads you to a portal in puts you inside a tubular room... and you are trapped, I think. Either that or an intentional softlock, but honestly I'm not sure. I wasn't able to properly find the exit so I just nocliped and found that you are supposed to kill an IoS to finish the level. Either something is broken, or I missed some steps, but that was a big disappointment. Anyway, for the visuals alone, this is sweet, the gameplay? Eh, not really, but still, if you are interested in the annals of 90s history, go check it out.

Curious, but what source port do you use for Heretic?