Specific reccomendations? Having trouble finding what may not exist.

Hey fellow Marines, first time poster here.

I assume there is a lot of posts like this on the forums, so I apologize if this seems like the same thing you hear all the time.

I'm looking for megawads or episode replacements that are in very similar fashion as the original DOOM. I love the placing and level design of the original and prefer it over DOOM 2, but anything like DOOM 2 I'd look at as well.

I'm not a fan of bullet hells or much of the other wads out there that really push the limits of map design, I acknowledge them as being awesome and I love seeing the creativity people have, but right now I'm searching for something more like the original DOOM experience.

I know of the Doom the Way id Did wads and loved both of those. I assume there are other wads like those that are out there?

Any recommendations would be very much appreciated.

Thanks!

Have you looked at the Top 100 WADs from the 10 years of Doom on this site? A lot of the 90s and early 00s megawads are great at recreating the original DooM style.
Some of my favorites from the list that aren't TCs would be UAC_DEAD, Memento Mori, Memento Mori 2, Requiem, Hell Revealed (*), Crusades, Null Space, TVR! (aka Revolution), Alien Vendetta (*), Scythe, Kama Sutra (*), and some more that I'm too lazy to look up. The ones with stars after them are of much higher difficulty than the original levels, but I feel are still worth playing.
Not all of these are megawads by the way.

Welcome!

Based on your description, I'd say as long as it looks/feels oldschool and ain't super tough, that meets your criteria - is that right? Some of these are definitely going to be a little harder than the IWAD stuff, but certainly not slaughtermaps as we think of them today.

Some things that come to mind:

dtwid - https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom/megawads/dtwid
scythe - https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/megawads/scythe
hell revealed - https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/themes/hr/hr
memento mori - https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/themes/mm/mm_allup
1994 tune up - https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/megawads/1994tu
the devilzwork - https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/s-u/tdevil2 (shameless plug)
sinister seven - https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/s-u/sinseven (another shameless plug
coffee break - https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/a-c/cafebrk1
fava beans - https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom/0-9/01fava


I'm sure others can list more, but these are all quite oldschool in design and difficulty, relative to modern contemporaries.

Thanks for the warm welcome guys! Always been a doom fan but never actually interacted with the community, so this is a nice first impression.


Tosi: I have looked at those lists to some small degree but was honestly overwhelmed by the amount of wads there was to dig through. Thanks for the recommendations, I'll look through them

Use3D: Thank you!

Doomkid: Thank you taking that small extra step to make this easier for me by providing links. Looks/Feels oldschool sounds about right and the difficulty of the original is appealing to me but I don't mind something a bit tougher, so you're fairly right. I really enjoyed the architecture/layouts/puzzles in the original DOOM, so that's a big aspect I'm looking for. I'll take a look at your plugs too and let you know what I think, provided this thread sticks around :)


Many thanks for both the responses guys, I appreciate you sharing with me.

Looking at your post and Doomkid's list made me really jealous that I can't visit these wads for a first time again... damn you! haha :P
I don't know if I'd recommend Hell Revealed just yet though, it gets really hard.

Anyway, welcome, and enjoy!

Here are some relatively recent and quality wads taking a lot of inspiration from Doom 1:

Needs More Detail (Doom E1-E3)
ConC.E.R.Ned (Doom E1-E3)
Incineration (Doom E3)
Thy Flesh - Turned into a draft-excluder (Doom E4)
Oblivion (Doom E1)
Return to Hadron (Doom E1)

Base Ganymede by Khorus (bgcomp.wad) is another good Doom 1 megawad.

Eviltech

A while ago I dug a bit into idgames folders in a search for Doom style episode replacements and found the following of interest:

• CH Retro Episode (E1 replacement)
  
• Simply Phobos (E1 replacement)
  
• Phobos Revisited (E1 replacement)
  
• Deimos: Slight Return (E2 replacement)
  
• Phobos Outpost (E1 replacement)
  
• Back to Basics (E2 replacement)
  
• Wonderful Doom (E1-E4)

Rip It Tear It Smash It is a favorite of mine, for Episode 2. Its only real fault is being only two maps long: I wish it were a full episode.