IronEagle Competition 64: Castle of Evil (CASTEVIL)

Welcome to another month and the latest installment of the IronEagle competition, the ironman challenge that welcomes all comers, from the doe-eyed newcomer to the grizzled veteran. As long as you enjoy playing Doom, then come on in, the water's fine!

 

This month, participants will challenge themselves against Castle of Evil (also known as CASTEVIL.WAD), a single vanilla map for Doom made by Stanley "lordwlfie" Stasiak in 1994. In this map, the super secret military base on the other side of Phobos has warped into some sort of demon-infested castle. Your Marine platoon was sent to investigate, and you are the only surviving member. Being the only Marine still breathing, you now have to fight your way through the complex. This sprawling, non-linear map also has the distinction of being one of the largest maps made to that point (it was released when Doom was only just under 11 months old).

 

Participants must play these maps on complevel 3 or Doom(strict).

 

Download Castle of Evil here.

 

Castle of Evil starts at E2M5. Survival is finishing the map.

 

Enjoy!

 

Congratulations to this month's winners (further details are in the post below).

 

UV: @Horus (Runner-up: @joe-ilya)

HMP: @head_cannon (Runner-up: n/a)

HNTR: @SleepyVelvet (Runner-up: @Andromeda)

 

 

 

 

Rules:

The rules are basically the same as they have been. Either demos or streams are permissible. If you are creating a demo, post the demo. If you are streaming, post a video of the stream. Even if streaming, you can still submit a demo, if you want to.

The basic rule is that you submit a demo/stream played at a particular difficulty level (HNTR, HMP, or UV) and you play without saving and reloading, ending your run when you die (or survive).

 

The following are allowed (but not required):

• Freelook
• Crosshair
• Mods that are COSMETIC ONLY

 

The following are NOT allowed:

• Crouching
• Jumping
• Mods that change ANY aspect of base gameplay, including (but not limited to) enemy behavior, enemy speed, player abilities, player speed, weapon damage, ammo, and enemy drops.

 

Further, more specific, rules are listed below:

Any port is accepted provided it will actually run the mapset. There is no preference.
 

 

Category System:

• Category 1: Blind run.
  • This explains itself. You have no knowledge of the wad and have not played/seen it before. I'm willing to be somewhat lenient with this Category.
    • For example, if you die early in Map 01, and then decide to play again for your run, you can still call it Category 1.
• Category 2: Non-blind.
  • If you have played the wad before and/or possess significant foreknowledge, your run is non-blind. Basically, anything that is not Category 1 is Category 2.

 

If you're unhappy with your blind run, feel free to record a new run, and submit that run instead. (Just don't submit your first run.) If you want to submit your first run, no matter how you perform, by all means, go ahead and do it. You shouldn't feel that you HAVE to submit a run you're dissatisfied with, just to preserve a "Category 1" status. If you want to go back and submit a second run, you're welcome to do so, but, at this time, it won't be counted.

 

 

Difficulty System:

You may submit a demo/stream for only one of HNTR, HMP, or UV. Choose only one, because subsequent submissions will be rejected (i.e., if you submit a HMP demo, the HNTR demo you then submit will be rejected). We're not using the 1CC rule set here. Your first submission is what counts.

 

Only runs from the same difficulty will be pitted against each other. Each difficulty will be graded separately.

 

 

Submission:

When you submit your run, please the include the following information:

• The category (1 or 2)
• The difficulty
• If you survived, your time
• If you didn't survive, your time of death
• Kill count upon death
• The port you used (if you included a demo)
• A link to the stream/video (if you did a stream)

 

You may include a commentary about the maps or details about them, if you want to. If you do include specific information about the map (e.g., "The demon trap in Map 08 is rough"), please put it in a spoiler, so that people that want a completely blind experience won't be tipped off. If you're just putting in a general comment (e.g., "Pro tip: don't get hit"), then no need for a spoiler.

 

Attempting to max the maps is not necessary to win.
 

Ranking for this mapset will be determined by:

1. Survival
2. Time for survival
3. Kill count

 

If you die, please wait a few seconds before quitting.

 

 

Breaks:

Everyone gets tired. Sometimes people survive longer than they expected. Nature calls. Every now and then, there are family emergencies. Needing to take a break shouldn't necessarily end a promising run. While you should try to complete the run in a single setting, this isn't always possible. If you have to take a break, try to make it quick.

 

 

Happy Dooming!

 

 

 

Previous IronEagle Competitions

Edited April 7 by Pegleg : EDIT 1: Added monthly winners and runners up. EDIT 2: Replaced "Preacher" with "Castle of Evil" in "Preacher starts at E2M5."

Category: 2

Difficulty: HNTR

Survived in 52:26

 

Always a pleasure to replay this level, seems like every time I find new stuff in it!

 

ie_andromeda_castevil.zip

joe-ilya posted a run to the Ironman discord. Here are the details (and demo), for those who have not joined the Ironman Discord server.

 

Category:2

Difficulty: UV

Survived in: 40:16

Port: DSDA-Doom

 

doom.castevil_17.56.39.zip

Category 2

Difficulty UV

Survived in 7:11

 

A hugely impressive map for its time, insane to think this was built in 1994 with the rudimentary mapping tools they had back then.

 

 

0horus_ironeagle_2024_03.zip

cat 1 uv
160/482 kills
dead at 9:22

dsdadoom 0.27.5

 

ironeagle_2024_03_asbadagba.zip

 

commentary edition:

 

Category 1, UV

 

Survived in 1:00:42. Could've been around 20-25 minutes quicker if I wasn't really idiotic about finding one key - turns out I never even visited an area, but I thought I had because it was full on the automap. I love myself sometimes. Seriously impressive map for its age though.

 

ironeagle_mar24_naza.zip

Category: 2

Difficulty: UV
Survived in 1:02:38

 

DWIL_24-04_castevil_SCF.zip

 

It's cat2 because I did a failed attempt a week ago, but I honestly didn't remember anything past the first room. An impressive achievement for its time, but a nightmare to navigate, with all the teleporters and switches that have no obvious effect.

 My first Ironeagle competition, and first time really playing Doom in a few years. Great WAD from what I saw, might have to give it a better go on some lower difficulties. I know I can go for an easier difficulty, but I *really* want to get good at UV, and the way I did that in uDoom was to play UV until I cracked it. Probably gonna try pistol starting all of the DWMegaWADClub maps this month (or as many as I can).
 
 Anyway, hopefully I'll remember to be back next month for more :3 I might even remember to do an intro before cracking straight into the video... Only been doing this like 12+ years now
 
 Cat: 1
 Time (dead): 4:11
 Kills: 51
 Secrets: 0

 

Video:

 

 

DWIL_24-03_castevil_Craven.zip

Cat: 2
Difficulty: UV

Time (survived): 81:40

Kills: 467/482 [37/47 secrets]

Port: DSDA-Doom [-cl 3]

 

DWIL - Castle of Evil - FDA - UV - cl3_DSDA-Doom_castevil.zip

 

Been a long time since I played this (back in 2019 after seeing an odd recommendation or two), so I wanted to see if I could recall as many secrets as possible. Excellent adventure for its period, and a marvel of architecture and evolving layout. I had some close calls, particularly the baron pit since I didn't have a plasma gun yet, but managed to get myself out of trouble with quick thinking. Shout-outs to the turret lift that takes so damn long to complete its cycle.

Category: 1 (blind)

Difficulty: 2 (HNTR)

Time (survived): 45:04

Kills: 130/140

Port: DSDA-Doom 0.27.2 (complevel 2)

Demo: noisy_CASTEVIL_ironman.zip

 

https://youtu.be/4uLFO42b4Ks

 

Category 1 run on UV, starts at around 2:48:10. (DSDA-Doom, complevel 3)

 

"Good at Doom(TM)" with 283/482 monsters killed.

Category: 2

Difficulty: HNTR

Survived

Time: 1:06:15

Kills: 125/140

Port: PrBoom+ 2.5.1.4

 

ie_pegleg_castevil.zip

 

A survival every now and then is nice. I'm amazed by people that run through this behemoth so quickly. That's astounding to me. And for the people that don't remember mapping in the 90's, I want to share Stanley Stasiak's quote: "DEU still rulez! blah just try and load this in waded or edmap muhahaha! ;) ... although doomed might handle it.. when its out."

 

As for the Castle of Evil, it's too bad Stanley didn't release anything else, although maybe he figured after releasing a beast like this, he would have to release other sprawling maps and just didn't have the time to commit to the project. Or maybe, stuck on a set of 3.5" floppy disks in a dusty box on a shelf somewhere, there are segments of 7 or 8 other maps like this one that would have made an E2 replacement that he never finished because life happened.

 

By the way, if anyone watches the demo and wonders why occasionally I'm just standing there staring blankly at a wall and not moving, those were the times when I was looking at the automap, saying to myself, "How do I get to that place again?" or "Where was that locked door I remember passing?" or something like that.

Category: 1
Difficulty: UV
Died
Time: 31:10 (add -skipsec 1863 to see how it happened)

Kills: 266
Port: DSDA-Doom 0.27.5
castevil.zip

The map looks quite technical for 1994. The way I died is what I hate in Doom in general.

IEcastevilHMPhc.zip

Category: 1

Difficulty: HMP

Survived in 6:50

 

I went back after recording and spent an hour looking around the castle grounds. I respect how the player seems to be able to gain traction and get underway no matter which way they go from start, and how those tangled interconnected paths make each playthrough different. But once the initial adventure is over and the monsters are dead, it's really awkward to try to untangle and navigate those paths from place to place when double-checking for anything that was overlooked. The scale of the place was still impressive, especially for 1994.

Category 1, UV difficulty.

Survived in 42:35.

 

I took the scenic route on this one. With prior knowledge you could finish really quickly.

 

Video:

 

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/ldk04ctuo2hfpi6mrwzlw/dtcastevil.lmp?rlkey=9dgbd2ol2n5ia1o4kbkztkcjy&dl=1

 

It's a day late, sorry, I understand if you don't consider it

 

Cat 1 UV survival in just over an hour

 

It's like a 30 year old Monti map 

2 hours ago, dt_ said:

It's a day late, sorry, I understand if you don't consider it

 

I'm fairly flexible, and I'm generally fine with submissions until about 12 PM UTC, which was around 2 hours after your post. Don't worry, you got in just under the wire.

Thanks to everyone who came out this month and challenged themselves against Castle of Evil. I hope to see everyone back next month, and perhaps you can bring a few friends with you.

 

Without further ado, here are the final standings for IronEagle 64.

 

UV

1. Horus (Survived)
2. joe-ilya (Survived)
3. ginc (Survived)
4. NaZa (Survived)
5. dt_ (Survived)
6. SCF (Survived)
7. Pasokon Deacon (Survived)
8. Suitepee (59% kills)
9. Dimon12321 (55% kills)
10. Asbadagba (33% kills)
11. MxCraven (11% kills)

 

HMP

1. head_cannon (Survived)

 

HNTR

1. SleepyVelvet (Survived)
2. Andromeda (Survived)
3. Pegleg (Survived)