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.

so funny hahahahahahahahahaha

Cover design by @Nikoxenos Straight out of the pits of hell, Wadazine #23 comes, a herald of doom, bringing with it a collection of awesome WAD reviews, in-depth articles and analysis, an awesome piece of fanfic, and more! It's been a while since our last issue but we hope this one helps you quench that thirst for more Doom, but, of course, we all are Doom addicts here, the thirst never ends! This issue comes with a retrospective review of the infamous Brutal Doom mod, covering its origins, its popularity, and its lasting impact. We also have two special articles for the console-port enthusiasts out there, covering some interesting enhancements that have been done for the many console releases out there that you can't find nowhere else, as well as article that explores the renaissance of console Doom into the PC fanbase. If you enjoy some spooky, ultra-violent doomy stories for your daily read goal, Eternal Descent is an awesome short story of sci-fi horror, with some sprinkled references here and there that are fun to catch. And, of course, our blood and essence, WADs! This time we've reviewed five total WADs that are sure to bring you some good, gooood Doom fun. Vanilla bias present, reject modernity, embrace visplane overflow. Enjoy! Get your dose here: »» Wadazine #23 «« And you can also find us on:  The Doomshack --» https://doomshack.org/wadazine/ Chris Hansen's DOOM page --» https://windward.dk/TDR/?page_id=991 Ryath's web digitaleidoscope --» https://www.digitaleidoscope.com/wadazine/ Special thanks to our graphic warlocks: @Nikoxenos, @4MaTC and @TheEvilGrin, the WZ is not without thou! And to our writers, contributors and helpers: @LadyMistDragon @Immorpher @Zoyahu @Chris McAuley @taufan99 To our hosts: @Doomkid, @Chris Hansen, @scwiba And special thanks to all the community for supporting us. And as usual, remember: » Join our Discord Server for the Doom Master Wadazine: https://discord.gg/Q2RKn4J The central HUB for everything and anything Wadazine related and Doom WADs! A great community to hang out with! » Contributions and help are always, always welcome! Especially regarding graphic design.   » If you want to participate, either by writing an article or creating a review, PM me or join the Discord, you are most welcome! » Any questions, ask them and I'll try to answer them. » Leave a comment and share! » And have a good day, doomer! :D

Pretty much. Back when I started I used to focus on the big releases, but every once in a while the community gets high on cocaine and starts releasing quality and quantity at the same time. Megawads being released daily is quite a lot of maps to catch up to! So I now, personally, review the lesser and smaller stuff, trying to get some good less-known works into the spotlight, but the Wadazine is an open-door effort, so anyone can contribute, no matter the WAD.

Happy to hear someone from the old days coming back and retrieving a bit of their lost history! Hopefully some of the most savvy doomers around here will find more copies of your work.

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

I remember when Doom 2016 was announced people were scared that it was going to be a sort of Call of Duty clone. The previous leaks and showcases were mixed, to say the least. However, the private demo that was shown during QuakeCon was quite well received and people got super hyped for that. The classic fanbase was pretty excited because there was talks of Doom returning to its ''roots'', and it certainly did in some aspects. Also Romero was releasing new maps so that was pretty huge.

// WELCOME TO // // THE ULTIMATE MASTER // // WADs GUIDE // So, you just stepped into the fascinating and enormous world of Doom WADs but you don't know where to start? It seems to you that there is too much content and you wish you could play it all but you are intimidated by the enormous amount? Don't worry, this guide is for you and anyone else who wants to find more WADs to add to their playlist! Here you will find WADs organized in section and specially categorized, alongside some small descriptions about the maps itself, the difficulty and extras. This list is not a ''top ten'' of sorts, but more like a helpful guide that you newcomers might find useful when getting into Doom WADs. Take into account that this guide assumes you are already into the basics of Doom, this meaning that you know how to set a source-port, IWAD or a launcher. If not, check this awesome introductory guide to classic Doom by @Doomkid 1. Single Maps 2. Map Sets 3. Megawads 4. Classic WADs 5. WAD Series 6. Slaughterwads 7. Joke Wads 8. Total Conversions 9. Miscellaneous 10. Deathmatch 11. Capture the Flag Notes: Just like the name implies, single-levels that possess some really good traits and quite the good welcoming experience to both worlds of skill level. Map sets means all WADs that have at least 3+ maps. In theory, a megawad is also a map set but there’s a separate list for that. This is for WADs that have 3+ maps but still not enough to be megawads. Doomwiki states that a megawad is any map-set that has more than 15 maps on its repertoire. All megawads here have plus that and some extra goodies, ranging from well-known classics to some legendary megawads. When I refer to Classic, I mean fundamental WADs of Doom history that were part of the foundations of the community, becoming pillars that hold up a part of Doom history. These are relevant and fun WADs of yore that you can enjoy on a little journey into the past. Most of the WADs here are vanilla-compatible but there are also some groundbreaking/experimental WADs for you to enjoy. Like the name implies, these are WADs that are part of an ongoing or already finished series that pumps some great map-sets from all types and genres. This list encapsulates speedmapping sessions, monthly events, yearly events and some other events. Slaughtermap is a term that has some polemic behind it, but the general consensus qualifies it as: Medium to huge, hard-hitting maps that use absurd amounts of enemies in different spaces to present the player with the ultimate possible challenge. Pretty much the masochistic branch of the community. From the Doomwiki: A joke WAD is a WAD file which is made as a joke. In some cases, a level may be so bad that it is hard to tell whether it is merely badly designed or a joke WAD of some sort, such is the case for wow.wad. In other words, it’s supposed to be funny, silly or just so dumb that it's good. A total conversion is a special term among the Doom community to describe any kind of WAD that replaces the entirety of the original Doom assets by reintroducing something new that can even change the core gameplay of the game. This is just an extra section of bonus goodies that are still relevant and worth checking out for different features that some of you may enjoy. Not a quintessential gallery, but more of an obscure section of different works with various themes and styles. Deathmatch is the de facto multiplayer gamemode. Frag your brains out with friends, or enemies! 1 on 1 or Free-for-all, there's enough ammo for everyone! Here you'll find some of the coolest DM WADs out there. The chad gamemode for the intellectuals out there that enjoy toxicity teamwork. In CTF, two (or more) teams go against each other while capturing the opponent flag and scoring points. It's a nice combination of both DM skills and team tactics, with a greater emphasis on balanced maps and teamwork. THE END OF THE LIST. // // // This was my Ultimate Master WAD list, a good/solid-enough WAD-guide for both incoming Doom fans and even some Doomer boomers that might find something interesting here. Remember, this is not a ''top ten'' nor a ''best of'' and not a ''ranking'' list of any kind. This is mostly a, you guessed it, guide of mine that I believe works well as an introductory step into the wonderful Doom world of WADs. My favorite world. Hope you guys find this list useful! And now, go on, play the fuck out of Doom. WANT MORE DOOM? Save these links for your future WAD browsing: The Doom Master Wadazine, a magazine focused on Doom and WADs. All the Cacowards, a helpful curated list of the best WADs that the community has to offer. Notable WADs, Doomwiki list of relevant WADs out there. Compendium - Classic Megawad Compilation, a curated compilation of great classics from 1994 to 2005. The Doomshack, a WAD repository and helpful website with other useful stuff like guides and tutorials. Doomkid's BIG Vanilla WAD Pack, a massive WAD pack all 100% vanill flavour. /idgames archive, the oldest and most reliable WAD archive. ONEMANDOOM Blogpost, a useful and massive WAD in-depth reviews anthology. WAD Archive, a cool WAD archive with screenshots and nice directories. Doomworld Community Top WADs of All Time, a massive list of up to 360+ WADs picked and voted by Doomworld users. Not Jabba’s WAD reviews corner, perfect place for reading some nice reviews about some obscure/cool WADs. Not Jabba’s Heretic recommendations , Heretic WADs listed by difficulty. Xvertigox WADs for skill improvement, a cool list for reaching maximum Doom skills. Vorpal's 2019 WAD picks & 2020 WAD picks, a long and curated list of noteworthy WADs from each year. Endless’s WAD reviews, my own hub of WAD reviews of all kind. Thanks for reading and I hope some of you find this useful and informative! Have a great Doom session. Also, any feedback and comment is accepted! While I don't want to make this list even bigger, I would be willing to accept some bonus or change some titles; or just share your opinion about this list! This world awaits you. Go DOOM.

My heart goes out. May he rest in peace. Every time an old veteran doomer inevitable passes away, it feels like losing a piece of our history, so it is important to remember their legacy.

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 :)

Bringing new blood to the arena!

Eh, I don't think so. It could easily be abused by creating bots or fake accounts and spamming the like option. Plus, a lot of the WADs in the browser either don't work correctly or are stolen. Even the official add-ons had to be tinkered before being uploaded so that they worked fully with Unity, I think the same would be needed with the new port.

Just a question and apologies if it has already been answered: Is the Official Add-On system now defunct? With the release of Bethesda upload system, does that mean we will no longer have the curated selection of community WADs like we did with Unity?

ZDaemon has been routinely hosting several survival and coop sessions for years now.

A smidge of: and a bit of:

Incredible expansion and was a joy to play for the first time. It was one of the first early signs that Doom still had life in it (meaning official support). We have to remember there was a considerable Doom drought between the release of Doom 3 and Doom 2016. Almost a decade of dead silence without any glints of hope in the future. So, having a full new episode being officially released was quite the bombastic experience. It is also a really solid and enjoyable set of maps. MAP01 and MAP04 are my favorites. Particularly enjoy the progression of MAP04, starting in an exterior canyon, making your way inside a marble fortress and fighting hordes of demons in a challenging yet enjoyable way.

Different strokes for different folks The community is large and old enough that there's distinctive schools of thought about how they enjoy Doom the most. Each source port has different features and limitations that cater to different fields. GZDoom is the most advanced one and the best one for mods, and it's also pretty easy to setup so people naturally start with that one most of the time. It is also the one with the most compatibility, it will basically play anything. DSDA is the new go-to option for more pro players looking for speedrunning or challenging themselves. Crispy and derivatives are for those looking for a more retro experience that feels close to the original without the limitations and bugs. And Chocolate is for the hardcore retro enjoyers that want to experience Doom as it was in the 90s. The more you play the more you'll start to branch out and look for different options. There's TONS of them and that's the great thing because you can experiment until you find your sweet spot. My go-to is Doom Retro because it achieves a great balance between retro goodness with modern QoL features.

Hey guys, just wanted to let you know that I fully updated the museum/archive for all the rediscovered WADs that you've been posting about. Some notes: I decided to skip a few after trying them out and finding that they lacked sufficient quality or notability to be included, also skipped vfx or sound files just to keep things more organized and focused, but most of the WADs have been posted. Also added a stats page for those curious about what we have gathered: IWADs PWADs # DOOM 2 193 DOOM 1 82 HERETIC 7 HEXEN 1 Compat PWADs # Vanilla 266 Boom 6 ZDoom 4 Legacy 2 MBF 1 Year Range PWADs # 1994 65 1995 73 1996 35 1997 33 1998 20 1999 15 2000 14 2001 6 2002 3 2003 5 2004 10 Unknown Authors: 10 Wadarcheologists PWADs found # Arrowhead 148 Endless 34 Argenteo 3 Chris Hansen 1 thestarrover 17 Jaccident 1 TheGreenZap 1 VisionThing 1 Omniarch 1 LadyMistDragon 26 Optimus 1 ducon 1 Roofi 14 Wavy 1 Rakuen 1 Walter Confetti 20 Kokoro Hane 1 beast 2 Sena 1 Dynamo 3 Redneckerz 1

It seems the new WAD/mod upload system has turned into a massive mess of unaccredited and stolen works. All un-moderated download systems are bound to suffer this. Already saw like four different copies of famous WADs uploaded by complete randoms with not even the .txt copy-pasted to at least show some courtesy lol Another similar download system is the Steam workshop, which suffers massively from this. People constantly re-upload shit without giving proper credit, at the worst times they will lie and say they made it themselves. Communities are forced to auto-moderate themselves like this. EDIT: Terrywads and shitty jokewads are now part of the mods page. Slowly but surely.

Sadly this is bound to happen whenever a new WAD upload/archive/repository is made, especially on a place like Steam. The game has 3 decade worth of backlog content, people are going to rush to upload classic popular WADs without giving credit to get that sweet ''karma'' juice. You could try to report it. It's not the workshop at least (I see map/mod stealing left and righ all the time on Steam, the Left 4 Dead 2 community is riddled with people stealing credit)

This update quietly dropping bringing so much new content to the community, a SP and MP megawad, and all that unreleased material, it is freaking awesome. One of the coolest things that has happened so far with the official port. I am extremely impressed by all the unreleased content they decided to share, lots of stuff that we have never seen before, not even through the many leaks by Romero. Great day to be a doomer.

Just gonna chime in say that I'm one of the biggest DR fans out there... and one of my long fantasies is to see Heretic support in Doom Retro. I remember you mentioning like a year ago that while you have no plans for it, you would also consider it at some point once you are satisfied with DR status. Have you thought about Heretic support in the near future? I would make you cake if you do ;)

An awesome find. Looks like my jam. Where did you find it?