Endless Random /idgames WAD Adventures #076

^{(logo by @4MaTC)}

 

ICID, what the hell is this now?

Endless Random /idgames WAD Adventures is a small project of exploration, interaction, entertainment and reviews where we meet once every two weeks to select random WADs in search of hidden treasures, lost promises, or our worst nightmares! We use the /idgames archive’s special feature that lets us search for random files. Of course, sometimes the results are resources or unplayable stuff, so we focus on looking for WADs. 

 

So, what do we do here?

1. Play at least one random WAD in a two-week period of time. WADs are selected using the Random File feature on /idgames or from the list below.
2. Post a review of whatever you play.
3. Always provide the name of the WAD, the name of the author, and a link to the file.
4. Play however you want, on any skill level, and with any source port, as long as you play the WAD as intended/in working shape.
5. Be respectful. It's okay to criticize a map, but remember that many mappers read these review threads and behave accordingly. Also, please don't tag mappers into a negative review of their work. 

What kind of WADs are we looking for?

Any file on /idgames is fair game, but most of us choose to stick to singleplayer Doom or Heretic WADs that work in our sourceport(s) of choice. If you're worried about finding Terrywads or broken files, I also pull at least five random WADs for the event. Feel free to play them with me if you wish, or look for your own! The point of the event is to encourage you to explore this vast, random world.

Recommendations for reviewing:

Endless Random /idgames WAD Adventures of this event:

1. Fearless
2. Lucifer's Gate
3. Corporate Nightmare
4. Mano Laikas: A road to Gamzatti
5. NOVA III

Join the Doom Master Wadazine community for more events like this! » https://discord.gg/Q2RKn4J

And check the Doom wiki for the full list of past adventures.

Quake (1995) by Gene Spinks (Crispy Doom)

So-called because one room with some overhanging arches bears some slight resemblance to a screenshot of Quake released in August '95. There are some other areas like the graveyard and the large room with the yellow key that might be called Quake-like but that's only a concidence and the map soon gives way to generic and rather ugly mid 90s Doom maps. For instance, there's an outdoor area that would fit better in Level 8 of Turok with its starkness and hints of technology that doesn't translate well in vanilla Doom texturing. There's also an entirely unmarked lift that's probably going to be discovered through wall-humping in the very same area and it was only because a hell knight rode it down that we didn't have to go round it another time. There are plenty of other puzzles that just feel like Gene was testing the editor out in ways that don't exactly benefit playability (for instance, press an entirely random section of stair to reveal an Arachnotron and switch in a particular room)  

 Combat doesn't depend on large groups but it also feels oddly undisciplined and random and the backtracking for the red key didn't really make any sense at all, less so than computer station! But it doesn't last too long and it's really quite painless 4/10

Brick | 3 wads | 3 maps

Fearless (1994) by James Wilson (aka Shade). 1 SP map for vanilla Doom.

Despite the later upload date this is a much older map and it shows. One of the review speaks highly of the mapper but I don't think I've heard of him before. The map itself is a mixture of some experimental and original ideas and some poor mapping that makes for a strange experience. Most of the rooms and hallways are blocky and flat, with bland texturing and some truly hilarious misalignments (check out those poor deformed computers; in case you're wondering yes, there are stairs up there). But there's also some surprisingly inventive design, including many death traps for the unwary. Barrels are everywhere and are the biggest danger (all my deaths were due to them) but they are also great instruments of destruction of wielded properly. There's even a timed gauntlet room and you can see how much time you have by watching the crushers inexorably get closer to the barrels that will ignite the whole room. Misalignments aside, the design of that computer room with both levels is pretty creative for the time. The final room makes good use of barrels and crushers to simulate blowing up the device (from the text backstory) and then running for the exit while the structure collapses. It's not the best 1994 has but it has shades of that era's experimentation and wild energy.

Lucifer's Gate (1996) by Jeremy L Wagner. 1 SP map for vanilla Ultimate Doom.

This one's an E4M1 replacement but frankly with not much to recommend. It does a really good job of avoiding right angles, almost everything is curved and it makes for a nice effect, but the texturing is pretty bland. Combat is a drag, it's just the shotgun against a small army of imps and demons (and one caco on UV). The only real danger is an oversight that makes it very easy to trigger a wall closing in front of you without crossing it, which is an immediate softlock because there's no way to open it. The path forward is very linear, there's almost no deviation and the one secret has nothing on it. It's not awful but it's pretty mediocre.

Corporate Nightmare (2021) by smeghammer. 1 SP map for Doom II in GZDoom.

This is a fun map that uses the gamut of GZDoom features: transparent glass, mirrors, 3D floors, portals, and a bunch of Decorate enemies and props taken from realm667. Despite the plethora of assets they all fit rather well. The decorations look nice and have the architecture around them designed to fit them tastefully. The enemies include possessed scientists, I expected them to be civilians at first and got a rude awakening when one stabbed me in the back (literally). There are also all sorts of humanoids, including a more vicious chaingunner with dual-wielding chainguns, a zombie with a flamethrower who is a delight when it comes to infighting, an imp that shoots single plasma rounds... despite the variety the map is definitely a hitscan hell, most of my damage was from enemy shotguns and chainguns. Progressions sends you back and forth around the building but since it's not a very large map it's not a problem, and creates some sort of familiarity with the place eventually, it's quite fun going up and down the stairs to the various levels. The map's architecture is the star of the show, it really looks the part of corporate headquarters with all the special effects. The glass facade looks really cool, acting as a mirror from the outside and allowing to see through when inside, but it also has some strategic value when you can see where all your enemies are being funnelled and plan accordingly. The breakable glass is entertaining and I'd be lying if I denied breaking some just for fun. The map's big setpiece is the final fight, with some baron variants that can cause quite a bit of hurting. I had not heard of @smeghammer before but had a lot of fun with the map, despite all the assets thrown in it manages a consistent look and gameplay and clearly had a lot of work put into it to make everything fit together well.

Wait, why didn't ICID take the points from these maps i played 2 days ago in the previous thread? Are the reviews too short? Sorry for being pedantic here...

7 hours ago, Walter confetti said:

Wait, why didn't ICID take the points from these maps i played 2 days ago in the previous thread? Are the reviews too short? Sorry for being pedantic here...

No apology necessary! Reviews of any length are counted as long as they meet all requirements, which yours did. I must have just scrolled too quickly and missed them or something.

Your score should be correct now, thank you for keeping me honest.

I was wondering about the scores too, I thought it was a New Year's tax for all of us XD

Maybe my missing points are my penalty for failing to take screenshots of Tech Gone Bad, a truly heinous crime where no punishment is disproportionate.

(or more likely I'm stupid and missed a requirement somewhere)

Hide in One Of 4 Toilets Or Die (1997) by Ante Smolcic - Smolca (Crispy Doom)

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This WAD is based on a true story. One day I've had a terrible rush finding a good public toillet. I ran from one toillet to another and I realized how important they can be in true life.

You'll find four toillets in the corners of the main room in wich you'll just have to hide. I put a lot of health so the game shouldn't slow down for loading when they kill you.

There is also two secret rooms. One of them is filled with goodies but I think you can do without them. The other is not so secret but you'll have to enter in, if you want 100% secrets.

Putting aside the creepypasta BS, the toilets are basically only there to give supplies because there are other places to hide from the central Arch-vile here. This sort of feels a bit deathmatch-y from all the fast and frantic dodging around and several not insubstantial enemies at certain points. Too bad a particular hallway leading to a berserk pack is needlessly pitch-black and said hallway is also accessed through a fake wall and let's not get into the awfulness of fake walls in general. There's also a Cyberdemon that can't really be accessed until the very end, and it's recommended that one take an Invulberbility from a side cage with some Revenants, but he's far enough away there won't be much of a window of safety, even when all the enemies in the hallway leading to him are killed. I still somehow was able dispatch him, but not without dying at the same time. He's irrelevant though because you can just walk down a blue-carpeted hallway to the exit. The lack of rockets really leads to some grindiness in any case 4/10

1 hour ago, brick said:

I was wondering about the scores too, I thought it was a New Year's tax for all of us XD

So I think what I did, in my infinite wisdom, was forget to go to the second page of the thread. An embarrassing mistake - but everything should be correct now! Truly sorry, everyone.

1 hour ago, brick said:

more likely I'm stupid and missed a requirement somewhere

You didn't. As a refresher, the requirements that invalidate a review are:

1. Not providing the WAD name, author name, and a link to the file
2. Playing the WAD in a format that blatantly breaks it
   • (To clarify: playing an old wad in GZDoom with mouselook and stuff? Fine. Playing a WAD with Brutal Doom or other gameplay modifiers? Also fine; Endless used to do this, just say that you did so. Playing a Boom wad in complevel 2 and complaining that it's broken? Not fine; you did not play the WAD in good faith.)
3. Personal attacks on a mapper
4. Tagging a mapper into a negative review of their work

So far no one has lost points for these under my tenure as Keeper of the ER/iWA. Occasionally a newcomer will break rule 1 and I'll ask them to edit their post, but they always have. Rule 2 has never happened. For rule 3 we've had some people get up to the line and receive a warning, but no one has gone over it. And rule 4 was only implemented for the first time a few months ago; since then no one has broken it.

If any of you do the above you'll hear it from me personally, so if you're missing points and you haven't heard from me that just means I fucked up.

2 minutes ago, ICID said:

Tagging a mapper into a negative review of their work

Should be worth clarifying that this is specifically for destructively negative reviews, write ups that do not contribute to the experience and betterment of the mapper/author, and are just plainly shitting on someone's work.

I think the only other times a review score would be invalidated, is if you don't do a review at all of any kind and just post the WAD without any comments, opinions, or at least some proof like a video that you played it. So someone just posting ''Today I played randomly Origwad, STONES.WAD, and Scythe X" doesn't cut it. Not saying anyone has done that here so far, but just an example.

Well said on both points.

been a bit but i decided to pop in and do this again

All the Little Emperors by Paul Budd (aka Chipper35) /idg link

3-map episode. GZDoom is recommended by the file.

Landed on an adorable learning project. VERY simple startan rooms with hitscanners, lost souls, and almost no height variation. there really isn't much to talk about here (other than the cute names for each map) but there's nothing to haze either; it's someone's My First Wad Dot Wad. As the .txt says, he's just a regular-type dude bro!

Map 1: Small Cafe

Map 2: Larger Big Stuff

Map 3: The Conclusion

AOL Girls Museum (1998) by Capone (Crispy Doom)

Here we have the kind of map that had gone entirely out of fashion at this point in time: a depiction of a real-world location containing some goofy sound effects (for the pistol and shotgun) that are entirely unnecessary. Didn't bother exploring the front too much, but really, the focus is on the pictures of several women on the walls, along with the incidental discovery of some closets behind some of them. A Mancubus is one of the enemies at the end. I'm sure that's not meant to be commentary on anything at all. The little gift shop before that is kind of nice though. 5/10

Mad Mushroom Salad with Disgusting Salad (2011) by Vaporizer (From Doom with Love)

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A quick and experimental level. MAP07 is the primary map, MAP32, which is one of my eariler levels was added later as an extra. This was originally supposed to be for vanilla Doom, but ended up being for Boom.

Experimental I suppose because of that annoying area where one has to stand in damage floor for a bit before downing a particular Mancubus surrounded by a wall of skulls. The ideas all dry up after that though and it just ends up as an Icon of Sin rehash in....then the second has what almost might be a vanilla ripoff of the starting room of Holding Area from Doom 64, cum simplified Containment Center cum some random COMPBLU hallway...without a shotgun! There are the seeds of good ideas in 07 but there's just not much map here, despite the presence of those worshipped 666 tags 2/10

World of Monsters (2014) by Nambona890 (GZ Doom)

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You received a transmission from your commander and he informed you that he lost contact with the Mars Base and he asked you to check it out. After you got prepared, you were transported in a space ship all the way to the Mars Base.

Oh hey, it's that one guy who made Terry wads. The script at the beginning sounds straight-forward enough but there's a twist. See, Imps will continue to pour out from a teleporter outside the base and that comprises the overwhelming majority of the monster total. What's more, there's no spare ammo beyond what you might pick up from shotgunners. Basically 'give ammo' but this is such a fucking waste of time it doesn't even matter. 0/10

Well, I don't know if this is the first time I'm joining this or not, so hey, there's nothing to lose by trying.

Yule Time Doom (2006) by Ian Cunnings (Zandronum)

Well, you can say that we are looking at a map that is located on a base located in a very cold place, as if this base were in Alaska or Antarctica. However, the facilities inside are not very large or complex, and the selection of enemies used here is decently distributed, providing a good and playable difficulty in regards to exploration and key collection. The map is a little small, so it won't be difficult to know where to go, and perhaps the only problem I would have here is the fact that there isn't much management of first aid kits, but otherwise it's passable. The reason why this Wad has a certain downgrade on the page is because this single map feels more like it belongs to the first Doom and not exactly the second, clearly removing some enemies from the second game and therefore the total absence of the SSG, it could well have simply been a map intended for this IWAD. I really liked the setting of this map, and it would catch my attention to see many maps focused on snowy/frozen places.

Incarnate (2013) by Jeff 'Netherstorm' Wormald (Zandronum)

In this single map, it could be said that it looks precisely like your conventional technological area very much taken from the second episode of Doom 1, or also from some areas seen in Doom 2, the truth here is that there is precisely not much notable in the environment, except maybe the part where the barrel marine teleports to a place where he fights a single Pinky, gets some green armor, and teleports somewhere else, and the area near the end where there are walls of flesh and blood liquid coming out of it. a wall. Another thing to say is the fact that there is a fight with the two main bosses of the saga, with the SpiderMaster Mind being found in the middle of the route and the Cyberdemon in another part. A challenging and entertaining map, although a little unfair because it has one boss halfway through, and the other... well, you better see it for yourself.

Surrounded! (2005) by Jim Flynn (Zandronum)

I can only summarize this map in one thing...
"1vs1 between the Cyberdemon and the marine."
Why do I say this? Basically it's a map that replaces E2M8 from Doom 1 with something else where everything is sealed behind 4 walls, there are cubes with the image of the IOS and as a weapon there is only the plasma gun... Nothing notable here.

Paranoia 1.1 (1995) by Philippe Lafontaine (Zandronum)

Well, this map for Doom 1 has actually been an interesting experience, because it only consists of a single map, it has actually lasted a considerable length, and apart from that, it has become confusing at times. Without needing much construction work, this map could very well be one of those labyrinths where one can easily get totally lost, however, aesthetically there is not much to say, they are the resources of a lifetime in maps from the 90's, however, This made me use my head a lot to know where else to go to explore, because if there were areas that left me wandering several times, and the use of chemical waste was well used here, at least I can say that the map is really solid in its gameplay and the only strange thing I saw here was only finding the Spidermaster Mind in a corridor, but other than that, I liked the map for being certainly accurate in the map designs of the first episode of Doom 1.

Nightwalk (2019) by Adahn (GZDoom)

This map is... quite interesting, it is really something very interesting what this creator has done with his creation and the combination of various styles of environments that this person has managed to place here, but in general you could say that the Marine arrived to a kind of private island or something like that where he is involved in a kind of caverns and technological areas that make up that place, as well as, the marine witnesses very infernal environments such as finding places made of meat and seeing corpses or sacrifices placed in few places, but after that, everything else looks very tropical and technological, so I don't think I can describe much more apart from seeing the abundance of water in the area and some lava pits that hide a secret that is difficult to find. The strong point of this Wad itself is the use of very varied enemies in some areas, as well as noticing that the marine's arsenal was completely changed by new things to enjoy, from a pistol that is aimed from the far left, to the SSG that reloads without showing the reload animation like in Doom 64, simply crazy, although ironically, there are weapons that seem to have also changed such as the Rocket Launcher and the Plasma Gun but there is no trace of these weapons on the map, and the BFG 9000 doesn't seem to have had any changes at all. The map was entertaining, although... maybe some enemies could be a little nerfed by the kind of attacks they make.

Year 2 Month 10 Day 03

I play until I die or intentionally stop. I don't comment the wad where I died/stopped.

[1] Break-in by Bob Minnick (2004)

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Break In. Simply put, you've been sent on a mission to Break into Monster HQ. Your goal? Get out alive! Slugfest galore!

A typical underground base mostly made of marble designed in 1994 with no care about mixing the different themes in a consistent way. The overall visuals are tolerable for 1994, I've seen worse.

The layout obliges you to cross several cramped staircases and corridors and those prove to be quite heavily populated by low-tiers enemies, specifically imps and shotgunners. Constantly pumping enemies in Doom usually makes me feel relaxed in but my favourite part resides in the section located just before the exit. You take a teleporter which transports you to a supply room full of ammo, powerful weapons and power-ups. The latter allow you to blast the several Masterminds and the cyberdemon preventing you from reaching the exit.

Despite the hectic encounters, "Break-in" lacks in every aspect like a standard map made in 1994 afterall. The level design isn't insufferable as the doors are clearly marked for instance but it definitely fails at grabbing your attention.

Grade : C- (8/20)

I took a teleporter and appeared in a room full of barrels in "Untitled" DOOM ][ WAD

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Chess, Hades Style (1995) by Maciak Sakredja (Octahedron the Unwise) (Crispy Doom)

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Your pal Satan invited you and fifteen of your closest friends over for a friendly game of chess. Not trusting him one bit, you took along quite an arsenal. As you arrive at Satan's door, you are whisked away to a huge arena. Alas, as your compadres see the terrors before them, most (or all, depending on how many players you're using) die of fear. Some even implode. Now it's up to you to checkmate Satan.

I don't get it. Satan isn't here and the monsters just end up checkmating themselves far more than you're doing to them. Awful and avoid. The best part is probably the cheesy plasma sound/ 1/10

Parkour (2012)  by @Xaser (GZ Doom)

A weapons mod that keeps all the default weapons adds reloading but at the same time provides a serious increase to the average firing speed so the trade-off is really quite minimal once we get a handle on how the mod works. Press the parkour button to perform a sudden dash and also the jump button near walls to quite literally run up them! Gore is also vastly increased as a concession to Brutal Doom fans seemingly but there's nothing overly goofy here. Even the silly replacement messages don't feel terribly ridiculous this time. Granted, this is still quite basic when compared much of the more sophisticated stuff that the ZDoom forums were probably releasing even at the time, but as just something to give Doomguy a little bit extra juice, it's fine. 6.5/10

Czechbox (2020) by Various (GZ Doom)

We have what appears to be a speedy sort of megawad created by members of the Czech and Slovak Doom communities that I've come across mention of at least once. I played only around 5 maps (because I adopted Roofi rules here) but it's quite clear that Gusta's influence wore quite deep. It's not like anyone tried to mimic his layouts in the early maps at least, but several of his tropes such as random slimefalls, evidence of natural spaces and the architecture to a lesser degree are quite evident here. Now on to the maps.

01: Supposedly, there are 3 secrets in this tiny tech box of a map but I'll be damned to tell you where they are. No matter, it's a good opener by Mattias 

02: A little more complicated structure wise, the first sign of the outdoors can be seen here. It's really quite nice, but this hardly takes any more time

03: Someone's taking their Requiem/Kama Sutra influences too far. Basically, an outdoor area with random pairs of barrels and a couple of well, excavated surfaces. This culminates in a marble temple and battle with some nobles that can't exactly be called difficult but at least represents a step up combat wise.

04: And speaking of Requiem, here comes Mark Klem's "Midnight Call" (it's not from that wad nerds, but you're ruining my point!) to pair up with a sort of city map like something out of Iikka Keranen, but less claustrophobic and some actual combat escalation/room to move!

05: Immediately, we lost the hidden Megasphere we'd found in the last map after somewhat carelessly charging out and getting surrounded by Demons and spectres but it's a bs situation anyway so who cares. Successfully, we were able to hold on for much of the remaining section of the map, at least until we found the windows in the hallway leading to the red key door were apparently too narrow for rockets because a mass of Lost Souls had appeared after we found the said red key. A chaingunner in the next room finished us off about as soon as we stepped foot in it.

It kind of lacks the biting challenge of Kama Sutra at first, but it's pretty well-designed all the same. 7/10 feels appropriate.

Brick | 1 wad | 32 maps
Adventure | 4 wads | 35 maps

Mano Laikas: A road to Gamzatti (2016) by Nicolas Monti. 32 SP maps for vanilla Doom II. Played with GZDoom on HNTR.
Even when he's making Doom II wads Nicolas can't stop his love of Ultimate Doom bases from shining through. The map aesthetics and designs are pretty eclectic but they're bases one way or the other, whether Phobos or Deimos inspired (though with little of the corruption showing), but the majority are inspired by the Doom alpha, a Monti favourite (there are also a few maps he categorizes as "heteroclite"; I guess he means they borrow a bit of everything). I hate it to admit this because I really like a lot of his other wads, but I did not like this one as much. The maps are not very big and the enemy count is deceptively low, but the positioning and composition of the fights is finely balanced for maximum pain. My problem is that I found too little variation in the setups and the repetition got tedious after so many maps. I swear I've never seen so many cyberdemons and archviles in maps with barely 60 enemies. There are lots of monster teleport lines, too many at times. Secrets abound, but the vast majority are accessible by shooting a switch through a window (a switch far far away in the darkness) or crossing a linedef two rooms away to lower a lift, the setups are almost duplicated so many times. And much as I like Nicolas's map design in general, once in a while he puts in maddening backtracking that sends you literally in circles all over the map, as happens in a handful of maps here. There are also a couple of instances where I didn't run far enough into a dead end and missed a walkover linedef, then spent a long time running in circles. I think this is often a problem with one-person megawads, 32 maps is a lot and keeping things fresh and unique gets harder with every one. I persevered hoping to see more originality later, and while this didn't quite pan out I don't regret my decision because there are things to like about the wad. Despite the repetitiveness there are still some unique features in some maps that really stand out, the secret levels in particular have a lot of doomcute both in detailing and in architecture, some of it impressive for running on the original exe. Another impressive feat is just how well Nicolas does height variations, once again the secret levels are very good at this but so are many others and it makes progression very clever. It wasn't my favourite but I think others will enjoy the wad, if you like low-count tough combat with a lot of verticality and can live with the aesthetics (I don't mind the alpha assets but I know some people hate them; and you have got to be willing to ignore texture misalignments, they are everywhere) then this might be a fun challenge. And those skies are beautiful!

Let's see if I have the stamina for Nova III and another 32-map megawad.

13 hours ago, LadyMistDragon said:

Chess, Hades Style (1995) by Maciak Sakredja

Oh, Is that map. Nothing too impressive to see, expect the Beatles tributing that i never get. Played this a pair of years ago.

INSANE.WAD (1994) by Jim Leonard (Crispy Doom)

Wait, did Xit Vono actually upload a map when he was 13? Nay, don't ask! Regardless, this is yet one more examples of merely using an editor to make what amounts to scribbles. Most sections are physically linked together though(with the key word being most). It's not exactly long but these hallways sprawl on and on and holy hell, is texturing just so god damn random between rooms. Seriously, we go from a mainframe room in one room to a marble hallway in the other and there's no marks of transition in between. Also, it's impossible to teleport back when you reach the exit room so good luck exploring anywhere else if you want! Granted, there's not much to speak of really so maybe it doesn't matter. Btw, maybe put rad suits in easier to reach locations in the heat tunnels 1/10

FLIP (1995) by Patrick Chee (Crispy Doom)

Series of white hallways and ammo and other needless supplies behind anonymous walls, enough to kill cyberdemons perhaps but who cares. Only cool thing is how certain walls lower slowly at certain points but this can be completed in around 45 seconds 1/10

The Blessed Engine 1.9 (1997) by Doug the Eagle and Kansam 

A way to run The Sky May Be outside of the Ultimate Doom executable. Seeing as how I don't have access to either Windows 95 or want to bother with DosBox, The Sky May be will have to be saved for another times.

Year 2 Month 10 Day 04

I play until I die or intentionally stop. I don't comment the wad where I died/stopped.

[1] The City of Great Gattle by @Ruba (2008)

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A really good looking city level with a new burning city sky. Hell is breaking loose and you must destroy the bad guys in this city. If you dont escape a spider will jump down and scare the living daylights out of you.

I don't think "City" is an appropriated word for 4 building gathered around a small fountain. This is a tiny singleplayer map which is actually not more substantial than a populated Deathmatch map. Your goal consists to press 4 switches located in the building in order to unlock the exit. So, there's no key to find or other elements which would obligate the player to take a certain direction. The encounters can be a little spicy if you don't find the blue armor masked by a small wall.

Anyway, this level didn't leave a big mark to me. The addition of a new hellish sky is welcome but I would also liked a custom music as well.

Grade : C (9/20)

[2] NITRO2.WAD BY Nigel Wright (alias NiTrO) (1994)

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My Second WAD. Designed for single player, multiple player or Deathmatch modes (has 5 start points). All creatures appear in all dificulty levels.

Just the typical map made in 1994 you can imagine with its garbage visuals, lack of theme, severe navigation issues with the ceiling stairs which allow you to go down but prevent you to go up for instance, plenty of tutti-fruttis and above all my favourite : the blue key's trap which plunge almost all sectors into the darkness.

However, NITRO2 isn't a map I totally dislike despite its countless flaws. There's quite a lot of action thanks to the numerous enemies to shoot or punch with the berserk, the scarcity of medkits create a sense of danger I rarely feel in such old wads. Moreover, I can appreciate this overall abstraction and quirkiness with the comically large doors or the totally hidden doors I sometimes manage to find by accident. As I mentioned just above, the blue key's trap was an attempt from the author at creating a sort of elaborated trap : picking the blue key turns off the light of the room and open a large monster closet full of enemies. The problem here is that the action affect all the sectors of the map because Nitro forgot to type a tag number.

Overall, it's objectivelly a very mediocre map but I recognize a certain creativity on the part of its author that unfortunately quickly reached its limits.

Grade : D (6/20)

I stop here for today.

Ok, here's the last hit from yesterday!

The SpawnSQwad 2000 (2000) by Various, compiled by Sqonkomatic (Crispy Doom)

Basically, we've got 32 deathmatch maps that had all largely fallen into disuse by this point compiled and repurposed as a sort of primitive endless wave shooter in part, regardless of how well-suited these maps might be for that. That doesn't change the fact that save for the ones that are basically just detailed open fields (Marine Doom being a prominent example) these are all shockingly well-made deathmatch maps, albeit without some of the modern expectations of flow and such that people want more so these days. It would be too tiresome to list them all or go into any details but safe to say that at the very least Map 04 (d2mdm1.wad) has quite a bit of thought and care applied to it and Squankamatic didn't even know who was responsible. Known names like Doug Merrill, Belch, and Dave Davidson all have maps used, though most of them aren't going to be among the best here. There are shockingly few DWANGO maps in the collection, but hardly any of them can really be called lazy or low-effort, though perhaps the ones that are just courtyards with a tower on each side are just kind of boring. easy 7/10 though

Year 2 Month 10 Day 05

I play until I die or intentionally stop. I don't comment the wad where I died/stopped.

[1] ROT_E2M1.WAD by Russ Walsh (1994)

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An underground bunker involving multiple unmatching themes which doesn't evoke much impression at first sight but I ended up thinking ROT_E2M1 figures among the more polished wads from 1994 on several aspects.

First of all, ROT_E2M1 includes several resources. No new music, no custom sprite or silly sounds but just a few textures which serve to create occasional gags or wizardry. For instance, you'll notice a sign indicating who is the demon of the year or the word "Vengeance" written big on a wall for no actually reason. The map seems to not have any plot as it takes place in an abstract base. However, my favourite texture in this map will always be the "bridge" with the sign preventing you from passing under it. Such trickery probably makes more laugh than impress nowadays, but this attempt at creating  pseudo-3D floor matches all the avant-garde stuff I love to find in some of the old wads.

Another thing I appreciate is the blue mountainous skybox you can only see when you come out of a specific warehouse. It whould have done wonders in a natural-themed outdoors map but unfortunately, 90% of the map takes place without daylight. The large Texas flag featured in one of the rooms acts as a signature and, coupled with the sky, seems to indicate that the map is set in the state.

The map tends to be unchallenging due to the overload of ammo and health but the navigation is smooth enough that I felt like playing a map from E1 , mindlessly killing small gangs of zombies, imps and other weak foes. It allows you to let off steam effortlessly.

I don't think ROT_E2M1's level design is sensational enough to make it into a "Top X of my favorite 1994 maps", but it's still a little gem for me, mainly because of its new textures and its "bridge", which I'm quite obsessed with.

Grade : B (14/20)

[2] Doomguy's FORCED and PAINFUL Chocolate Shotgun. by @Maes, @phi108 (2011)

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Doomguy gains a special attack by using special super laxative pills, which cause his behind to violently erupt with the power of 4 SSG blasts, at the cost of some of his health. Great as a closer quarters surprise weapon! Compatible with all Doom games (using ZDoom 2.5.0 and later).

If, one day, you wondered why Doomguy and countless other video games' characters never go to toilet, it's probably they just suffer of extreme constipation. This is unfortunately the case for our marine and that's why Maes and phi designed this hi-tech technology. The laxative pill takes the shape and the colors of a shotgun shell and it's so powerful that taking a dose reduces health points. However, it's better to lose a few health points than to die of an intestinal obstruction!

[3] 2 Music Videos by @Doomguy 2000 (2013)

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This is just another one of those cool ideas I came up with. It's not perfect, but in it's own way still cool. This is 2 different music videos converted to the Doom engine the best way I could do it.

The first one is fanmade and the second one is official. I was going to do a third music video, but due to the lack of interest and slow progress of this experiment, I have decided to abandon the idea of having a third video. This third video I was thinking of was Gangsta Paradise by Coolio. Anyways have fun watching these 2 videos I have presented for you guys. It's recommended that you run this wad in the software render because the videos will run smoother.

Why watching videos on youtube in high-quality when you can just do it in gzdoom with a limited palette and an atrocious framerate? Thhis concept is brought to you by Terry's alter-ego. The first music video is "Black" by Pearl Jam and the second one is "Take on Me" by a-ha.

The only advantage you may find is the absence of annoying ads but this is a heavy file and for some reasons my computer fans started acting like crazy.

I stop here for today.

Year 2 Month 10 Day 06

I play until I die or intentionally stop. I don't comment the wad where I died/stopped.

[1] NAZI COMPUTER AND COMUNICATIONS BASE by ANDREW BURCHILL (1999)

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Your mission is to penatrate the Nazi computer and communications base and press a switch deep inside the base that will give you access to a secret self destruct computer.

A rudimentary bunker guarded by nazis I already explored in Year 2 Month 07 Day 02 (5th September 2023). Here's my past review :

"It looks the author liked capital letters, MEIN LEBEN ! "NAZI COMPUTER AND COMUNICATIONS BASE" abreviated as "COMBASE" has the apparence of a jokemap since , beside the presence of soldiers in blue uniforms has nothing in common with a Nazi-themed map. Indeed, the level can be divided into three distinct parts :

- the first one consists to a bland brown castle made of bricks and mostly populated with imps

- the silver underground techbase which only houses nazis. Not gonna lie, it's the prettiest area of the map thanks to the computer panels glowing in the darkness.

- the canyon (brown again) near the end which serves decorative purpose.

I suppose the nazis are just here to add a dose of quirkiness. Why not, I enjoyed blasting small groups of them with my RL. Apart from that, it's a fairly mundane map with no really major flaws, but nothing transcendent either. I expected way worse by reading the title.

Grade : C  (9/20)"

Nothing else to add except that I played this map on prboom+ this time in order to max it. This map has 98 monsters but 0 secret. The replay value equals zero.

Grade : C  (9/20)

I tried to progress in The Tyrell Corporation but ammo was missing.

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Epic (1994) by Thomas Subias (Crispy Doom)

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"Epic, being my first playable level and such, has no definite theme. At first I was thinking of setting it inside a spacecraft but the level soon got out of hand. So don't waste your time trying to discern a unifying meaning; it isn't there. Also, for those curious about the title, it isn't a reflection on what I think about the size of the level. I generally name my levels after a song. Come to think of it, maybe I should have named it Room a Thousand Years Wide. One more note. On the difficulty settings, Ultra-Violent is meant to be played with god mode. Easy is easy and medium is ok but UV exists strictly to work out frustrations without going to jail."

I think "Land of Sunshine" would've been a great title personally. Anyway this is one of the last '94 maps to be uploaded,  a truly vintage wad with constantly changing themes, a pointless maze, keys being hidden behind anonymous walls and the general need to hit literally every switch, though not in truth. Got killed once by a Cyberdemon while entering some cells. There's a massive blue room with some crushers and a Mastermind on one side that's kind of pointless to enter and will be blocked off at one hallway if you enter the anonymous room with the yellow key. Then two stupid Cyberdemons are sprung once we reach the exit, with a switch we can easily press. Though we didn't have the BFG at this point, and honestly, going back for it was probably a bad idea. A fairly entertaining map but enemy placement was just plain weird in spots. 5/10

PS Something important I forgot to mention earlier, progression actually turns out to be quite linear, despite the stupid pit hub at the beginning, but at the same time, it's extremely easy to miss things (the BFG or the stairwell leading down into the blue-carpeted factory) that make things easier!

Brick | 1 wad | 32 maps
Adventure | 5 wads | 67 maps

NOVA III (2020) by Nova 3 Team. 32 SP maps for Doom II in Boom. Played with GZDoom on HNTR.
It's quite funny that ICID rolled this one for us to play in ER/IWA, and two days later a thread pops up out of nowhere to start development on Nova IV.

The concept behind the Nova CPs is that they predominantly encourage beginner mappers, not necessarily first-timers but ones that have maybe a handful of solo maps and have not worked on or as part of a bigger project. The wad went through a long development phase lasting several years, so ironically by the time it got its final release many of its contributors had become established and some had even won awards. What's immediately clear is that the quality of the wad is very high. It draws from a whole bunch of community packs for its textures, there's a huge variety but each episode is thematically consistent, and the sights are often breathtaking (I had to be selective with the screenshots I posted; I had over 20). Music is from all over, some from IWADs, some from well-known PWADs, some from other games, but always very fitting. The original compositions may be few but they're just s high quality as everything else. As with many CPs it has to deal with Magnum Opus Syndrome, with a handful of maps trying to outshine all the others and wanting to be That One Map that everyone will remember, though the project leader(s) did a great job with pacing, sneaking in smaller and shorter maps (sometimes with enemy count in the teens) strategically to break up strings of long maps. The variety between maps is great, some are modern combat fests with arenas that lock you in (and where you then have to find the series of hidden switches to get out; not my favourite design), there's the tiny pocket combats that can be inventive, there are adventure maps, and some with a more classical balance between combat and exploration; in other words, something for everyone. There's even a monsterless puzzle box in one of the secret slots (and it's one of my favourite maps here). Owing to my personal preferences, I wasn't as enamoured with the more modern-school maps and their tendency to lock me in and restrict movement while flooding the space with nasties. There are strange balancing decisions in some maps, such as having 3 cybderdemons on all difficulties but the RL, plasma rifle and BFG are all not tagged for the easy difficulty (is it assumed we'd be playing continuous?). My favourite stretch was probably the first half of the Earth episode, with its beautiful ancient ruins to explore, but even less-liked maps had some enjoyable segments, one or more cool tricks that made me nod appreciatively, and always some beautiful architecture to be wowed by. When I reached the lunar base I thought I was getting megawad fatigue as some maps started wearing me down but no, I kept finding others that I loved all the way to the end. Hard to believe that so many of these mappers were newcomers when there's so much quality on display!

3 Ring Circus by NoyzRulz - Vanilla Doom 2, DM, 1 map, 1995, played with zandronum 3.1 and bots

A slightly large arena map sets in 3 different circular arenas that, despite the usual early years style of DM play, is a fun play mostly concentrated on RL carnage. The "Search and Destroy" midi rendition is pretty hideous, but nonetheless it's a fun map as i wrote above, could be a map taken from a old Dwango compilation. It's cool.

aloha808 by Alamain - Vanilla Doom 2, SP, 1 map, 2009, played with zandronum 3.1

I hope you like stairs, because in this map you will see a LOT of them.

A part of the long running wad series Aloha, a series of hard maps that was around from 1994, this one is set in a medieval\tech structure that looks bland despite some detailing in certain areas, also the puzzles aren't that bad, but everything looks so same-y and boring that made me think of some sort of texture limitations chosen by the author and "Running from Evil" blasting all the time sure doesn't help. A big puzzle-y map that aren't that great to fully enjoy.

Superfast Mapping: Domination Edition by Combinebobnt, Argentum, Dranzer, [IFOC]75, Razgriz/Strangle, Gustavo6046 - Zandronum, Doom 2, DM, 32 maps (5 played), 2016, played with zandronum 3.1 and bots

Played just some maps of this megawad and... i don't get how "Domination" playstyle works. So, you're just looking around for other bots to beat out and... boom, other team won and map ends. Rinse and repeat. What the hell is this thing? What just happened? Too bad, because the maps looks pretty good, got some Gothic DM vibes from the little i played of it.

Fearless by James Wilson (Shade) - Vanilla Doom, SP, 1 map, 1994 but uploaded in 2004, played with DSDA-Doom 0.27.4

A explosive (quite literally) and fast-paced action map by from one of the future map authors of Blood, this 1994 map contains all the traits of that era (square layouts, pitch black tunnels, simple traps using monster closets, a maze), but it's pretty fun to play and the map despite it's simplicity is good looking. A pretty cool map!

Escape from Natas (1997) by Chris Christenson (Crispy Doom)

Hey, I didn't know a teacher I used to know was the dad of my ex-boss! Nah, but considering the dumbass name (oooo, it's Satan spelled backwards! Fucking kill me), I was expecting something kind of shitty. But instead, we've got a well-designed Eternal Doom-type map, probably on the more difficult end of things but with layouts that demand you pick them apart if you want any chance of progressing at certain points. This initially seems like a standard Hell fortress that just happens to contain a little slime station in the middle of a hexagon?-shaped room. The 'puzzles' genuinely make plenty of sense and aren't really of the 'tromp across half the map to find what it opened' variety. Of course, there is a hidden hallway with a Megasphere that I believe connects to a nearby platform with a cell box but I didn't really have the time to check it out! See, these puzzles aren't really hard, but it's easy to overlook things that should be criminally obvious. The path leading to the red key is a great example of this.

Anyways, we're mostly traipsing through Heretic-like environments of mossy gray brick, evading Cyberdemons in the lower halls before we end up outside and lowering a barrier that leads to a....house in the middle of a lake? Not like the pool that's in the middle of said house though, containing a swarm of Cacodemons and a lake you can drop into and drown in! It's always cool to see these sorts of details!

The area with the yellow key seems to be another marble hallway, at least until a base is revealed, with a demonic chapel containing a Spider Mastermind and the skull key at the end of this! 

The difficulty takes a sharp turn toward the end when we're confronted by slaughter-sized masses of Barons that we don't really have enough ammo for! Thankfully, a nearby teleporter will shorten the trip to the blue key hallway and thereby, the exit! The Barons do appear to follow us, so maybe spend a little more time searching for secrets.'

The second map in the set has monster pictures on the walls, basically because this is kind of a monster factory! Oh my god, what are they doing herrrrrrrree? What's with the names of these other bases! No matter, hit the switches to reach the other end, walk on a stupid narrow platform around and exit! It's quite a nice looking place, other than the weird teleport symbols at the end.

This was in the end quite a solid sort of map, with great execution and largely visual and monster tricks that aged well. Secrets will probably make the last bit near the blue key at least somewhat easier though and not everything can be said to be pulled off without a hitch and the large monster hordes just feel weird.. Regardless, it's an easy 8/10

TSUNAMI1.WAD | Orin Flaharty | 1996

A single-level deatmatch arena designed for duels. Nothing extraordinaire or impressive, but still a good and decent-enough effort that actually shows at least some thought behind its creation. It is a little too cramped at times and feels more like an empty single-player level than an actual deathmatch map, but I can still see it work despite the rather tight scenery. What's more interesting about this map is the fact that it was created using DEEP, a rather obscure map editor that was sold commercially, but the latest version is actually free to get on idgames if you are curious. Apparently, it was a very well-done and robust map editor from back then, and to be honest, I think the results are quite solid. The map does feel more polished than your average level from 1996.

SargeBaldy Speedmapping Compilation #20 | Various | 2008

Just three speedmaps made by Nuxius, Memfis, and Karthik, names that are mostly part of history now. A rather simple and very rudimentary speedmapping project, it doesn't really hold much weight and while the maps are essentially made in just 100 minutes, I would still expect a little bit more creativity rather than just boxy layouts with generic texturing. The best and most creative map is probably the last one, which manages to be its own little thing and uses its limitations for its own good. Overall, quite forgettable, very short, but at least works.

Ok.....here's another hit from yesterday. Might do more later, idk.

Wolfenstein Tribute WAD (1994) by John R. Chapman

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This is a rework of the classic first level of Wolfenstein 3D. (e.g You've been captured. You start out in a dungeon cell, next to the still warm corpse of a guard. However, this time it's a key instead of a gun that you start with. (Made more sense.) From there, it plays like WOLF3D. (I hope.) One thing to keep in mind, however: If you're playing cooperative mode, you're the only one with a key, so you really should let your buds out. :-)

--> Please play through on one of the other skill levels (preferably 'Bring em on') before playing through on Ultra-Violence. The lower skill levels are the Wolf tribute, and UV is my... twist on it. :^) Good luck, and I'd appreciate it if you'd drop me a line with any comments.

Exactly what it says. Just don't be expecting Wolfenstein textures and enemies because this ain't Map 31 of Doom II, which basically means tons and tons of pea-soup marble in addition to wood. Apparently, this is just a re-creation of E1M1 on lower skill levels. But on UV, the exit proves to be fake and we've got to spend some time heading back through the map, coming across a random slime pit and hopping in a back stage teleporter to return to the one section that had the dog food in the original Wolfenstein, to then head into a massive underdetailed outdoor courtyard, with enemies scattered ridiculously far apart before heading through a crimson brick hallway to end up on the ledge behind the actual exit where a platform is raised that should have also lowered, but due to the particular action set used, it can't be lowered! Oh well, it's still an easy 5/10!

SPACE MARINE GOES SLEEPING (2004) by Susan Kumpalainin "Jimi" @TwinBeast (Doomsday)

Jimi (sic because her later activity too well known to general Doom players, I assume) will probably be known to people who've played Congestion 1024 as well as Community Chest 2 where she contributed to one of the best maps in the latter third of that wad, plus maybe 1 other thing I could be forgetting. Anyways, here is a Limbo remake, done in Doomsday and containing some light visual storytelling elements, most obviously in the bookend maps but can certainly be seen in the main act too, not the least of reasons because of the random and crazy-looking pits in the middle of stages. If the combat has any problems, they're probably just that the issues with the Doom 1 roster will lead to fighting off far too many masses of pinkies that anyone should have to bother with. More troublingly is that newer versions of Doomsday change some things more radically than newer versions of Z/GZDoom and as a result, a few switches will basically not work at all, or maybe 5 percent of the time if you're lucky. Shame, TwinBeast simplifies things greatly, other than the stupid blood maze that curves around far more often for some reason. I literally just downloaded Doomsday for this and while I might try looking for older versions next time, this sits between 6.5 and 7 out of 10. I dunno if I should be glad that no one makes maps in Doomsday anymore. At the very least, everything renders perfectly, unlike Remilia Scarlet's first released wad which....has some issues, but if the Doom community has proven anything, it's that they're not really fans of pseudo 3D. It's better than Risen, but ah.....

Brick | 1 wad | 9 maps
Adventure | 6 wads | 76 maps

Visions of Eternity (2013) by Tobias Münch. 9 SP maps for The Ultimate Doom in ZDoom. Played with GZDoom on HNTR.
The name sounded familiar but I couldn't place him, looking him up Tobias seems to have been part of the circle inspired by and collaborating with Pablo Dictter (who IMO is very underrated). The episode has the typical Phobos-Deimos-Hell progression, but instead of each level falling neatly into one of the categories, the transition can happen slowly within one, so a map can start as a clean Phobos techbase and start showing signs of corruption, but it's not until halfway into the next one that you're in full corrupted Deimos base theme, I really enjoyed this slow burn thematic development. Despite the requirement for ZDoom the maps themselves are in vanilla Doom format, I have a feeling the wad could be made to work in modern limit-removing ports with little work, although mouselook is required in a couple of maps. The classic map building goes well with the traditional themes, I got some The Way id Did vibes despite Tobias having his own style. One thing he likes to do is place health and armor bonuses everywhere, there are literally hundreds in each map. I gained appreciation for their ability to let me recover from a mistake or a more intense fight in small doses, it really encourages exploration to keep health and armor topped up, and I can't deny the fun in picking them all up Pacman style. Most of the maps are not large with one exception that was also my favourite, Descent is a longer excursion as it goes through valleys, a cemetary and then the crypt beyond it going down into the depths, there's a great sense of playing a classic adventure map in this one. It's a great wad overall with beautiful architecture, not very difficult but well paced and with a very well done focus on exploration.