Known lost WADs of our history?

[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:

Spoiler

The Harris Levels

This is one is quite controversial but I guess it still counts as ''lost WADs''. There's actually a number of WADs that can still be found on the internet, but some WADs are still lost, either because they were never uploaded or perhaps were purged. These WADs are mentioned on the ENDOOM screen of uaclabs.WAD, the WADs are:

coolname

techout

outdoors

assault

thrasher

realdeth

tier (supposedly a 7-level episode)

realdoom

 

And yes, there's mention of a supposedly ''school level''. From my research, this is most likely just a legend, as none of the actual known WADs resemble a real school and there's no actual reference of a school on the .txt files.

 

 

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.

 

Edited November 25, 2022 by Endless : Added more lost WADs. Added found WADs.

[Nefelibeta]

Now come to think of it, B.P.R.D's doom website is somehow still running right now, and there are a few wads that he didn't bother to upload to /idgames. Seems like a good idea to save them before the site is down.

[Endless]

6 minutes ago, Nefelibeta said:

Now come to think of it, B.P.R.D's doom website is somehow still running right now, and there are a few wads that he didn't bother to upload to /idgames. Seems like a good idea to save them before the site is down.

The website: Doomonology

[Rykzeon]

1 hour ago, Endless said:

NSFW:

  Hide contents

The Harris Levels

This is one is quite controversial but I guess it still counts as ''lost WADs''. There's actually a number of WADs that can still be found on the internet, but some WADs are still lost, either because they were never uploaded or perhaps were purged. These WADs are mentioned on the ENDOOM screen of uaclabs.WAD, the WADs are:

coolname

techout

outdoors

assault

thrasher

realdeth

tier (supposedly a 7-level episode)

realdoom

 

And yes, there's mention of a supposedly ''school level''. From my research, this is most likely just a legend, as none of the actual known WADs resemble a real school and there's no actual reference of a school on the .txt files.

 

 

 

Spoiler

bricks
hockey
fightme
realdeth
killer
station

 

[CoolerDoomeR]

Doom 2.5 isn't available in the web?

I can't find it, if anyone has a link to the Doom 2.5 please give me the link.

[Dexiaz]

10 minutes ago, CoolerDoomeR said:

Doom 2.5 isn't available in the web?

I can't find it, if anyone has a link to the Doom 2.5 please give me the link.

 

This is the only link I can find. Here.

[SiFi270]

2 hours ago, Endless said:

Risen Egypt by sitters

Sounds like that became Hell on Egypt. There's also a video of an earlier version.

 

As I mentioned in my own thread, I'm hoping to see more levels by the Midway level designers and the combined Master Levels megawad that Tom Mustaine assembled shortly after the original was released.

[Lewonx]

Alien Vindicta - an early version of Alien Vendetta that was never released. Andy Johnsen still has it.

 

E1M1 if it was slaughterman - the link in the description doesn't work. I had asked the author about it, but he said that the laptop the wad was on is broken, but he will fix it and get the wad back.

 

BEYOND - it's mentioned in description of another wad by it's author. I can't find BEYOND anywhere.

[CoolerDoomeR]

1 hour ago, Dexiaz said:

 

This is the only link I can find. Here.

Thanks!

[DrRock]

3 hours ago, Endless said:

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.

 

  Reveal hidden contents

The Harris Levels

This is one is quite controversial but I guess it still counts as ''lost WADs''. There's actually a number of WADs that can still be found on the internet, but some WADs are still lost, either because they were never uploaded or perhaps were purged. These WADs are mentioned on the ENDOOM screen of uaclabs.WAD, the WADs are:

coolname

techout

outdoors

assault

thrasher

realdeth

tier (supposedly a 7-level episode)

realdoom

 

And yes, there's mention of a supposedly ''school level''. From my research, this is most likely just a legend, as none of the actual known WADs resemble a real school and there's no actual reference of a school on the .txt files

 

Like hypothesized in the linked thread, I assume he got cold feet after having his GameMaker projects ribbed on Gaming Garbage and deleted everything out there in a panic. The video(s) in question weren't even paticularly mean, but everybody reacts differently to that sort of response I suppose. Or perhaps he wasn't satisfied with his output and wanted to have some form of fresh start. Who knows.

TOT COMICS DOOM can still be found on Wad Archive and comes recommended. It's a simple, good natured map pack that is at approximately coffee break length. The MSPainted stuff here and there adds a bit of charm.

[Doomlover77]

What about the old skirmish4 compilations?I’m after Skirmish4b, Skirmish4c & Skirmish4e. I can’t find them anywhere. Can anyone help ? @Doomlover77

[Endless]

13 minutes ago, Lewonx said:

Alien Vindicta - an early version of Alien Vendetta that was never released. Andy Johnsen still has it.

 

E1M1 if it was slaughterman - the link in the description doesn't work. I had asked the author about it, but he said that the laptop the wad was on is broken, but he will fix it and get the wad back.

 

BEYOND - it's mentioned in description of another wad by it's author. I can't find BEYOND anywhere.

As a super fanboy of Alien Vendetta, hearing that there's a ''prequel''... with full 32 levels... from the 90s... !

 

Gosh I need it.

[dyshoria]

i whould say tear.wad a wad made by Eric Harris (yes that one) that never got released or got finished

[Lewonx]

Why wasn't E1M1 if it was a slaughtermap added to the list. It has video proof.

[Nefelibeta]

5 minutes ago, Lewonx said:

Why wasn't E1M1 if it was a slaughtermap added to the list. It has video proof.

It's more of a modern map, and it's just an edited version of E1M1.

[Nefelibeta]

1 hour ago, Endless said:

As a super fanboy of Alien Vendetta, hearing that there's a ''prequel''... with full 32 levels... from the 90s... !

 

Gosh I need it.

Really wish Anders Johnson could release, too.

 

Something that probably isn't too irrelevant, joshy once said that there is supposed to be another darkwave map for Speed of Doom in DWMC, but later rejected due to the feedback. How much do I hope he can release it.

[Gibbon]

7 minutes ago, Nefelibeta said:

Really wish Anders Johnson could release, too.

 

Something that probably isn't too irrelevant, joshy once said that there is supposed to be another darkwave map for Speed of Doom in DWMC, but later rejected due to the feedback. How much do I hope he can release it.

 

Don't see why he can't..  we can ask right?  I mean, it could be even pretty awesome, who knows?

[Doomkid]

The original version of Doomed 2 Die (dmd2die.wad) had a date modified of 1997, before apparently being updated once more in 2000. While I doubt much if anything noticeable is different, I sure would love to have that “exact version” of the wad, as it was the first custom wad I ever laid eyes on back in the late 90s.

[CoolerDoomeR]

9 hours ago, Endless said:

[mod edit: don't quote huge posts for no reason]

Hey man, the Doom 2.5 link isn't working for me.

How can i fix this?

[Endless]

15 minutes ago, Doomkid said:

The original version of Doomed 2 Die (dmd2die.wad) had a date modified of 1997, before apparently being updated once more in 2000. While I doubt much if anything noticeable is different, I sure would love to have that “exact version” of the wad, as it was the first custom wad I ever laid eyes on back in the late 90s.

If you have a link to either the WAD file with the .txt or something else, I can add it :)

 

12 minutes ago, CoolerDoomeR said:

Hey man, the Doom 2.5 link isn't working for me.

Is the exact same link you just used some hours ago.🤔

[TheMagicMushroomMan]

14 minutes ago, CoolerDoomeR said:

Hey man, the Doom 2.5 link isn't working for me.

How can i fix this?

 

Doom2.5.rar

[CoolerDoomeR]

4 minutes ago, TheMagicMushroomMan said:

 

Doom2.5.rar

Thank you!

[Biodegradable]

2 hours ago, Endless said:

As a super fanboy of Alien Vendetta, hearing that there's a ''prequel''... with full 32 levels... from the 90s... !

 

Gosh I need it.

 

55 minutes ago, Nefelibeta said:

Really wish Anders Johnson could release, too.

 

Hey @Andy Johnsen what do you reckon, mate? Fancy giving these kids an early Christmas present?

[Captain POLAND]

I think a lot of the WADs that Aquarius199 reviews on his channel are not archived anywhere... but those are mostly the type of WADs that no one would want to find.

[Doom_Dude]

Would be so nice to have a copy of Lethe. I was talking to Dr Sleep in email when he was first working on it, but I never saved any of those old emails, not that I had a copy of anything he was working on, but some of the stuff he had to say was interesting for sure. I wonder how much he got done on it.

 

I often wonder about the maps that must be out there that people have never released for various reasons.

[Doomlover77]

I am looking for some old wads for Doom2 by Scott McNutt namely Sym, Blitzkreig and Payback and Glory deathmatch by Darrell Esau. They are mentioned in Drednau8.txt. Can anyone please help me to find them @Doomlover77  

[slugger]

The wad itself is not lost, but afaik the author and provenance of YELLOW.WAD is a mystery.

[Scotty]

Dark Plutonia by death-destiny. Had screenshots of all 32 maps. Sadly i don't think this one will ever surface.

[deathz0r]

20 hours ago, Endless said:

Knee-Deep in KDiZD by esselfortium. A re(de)make of the original KDiZD. It showed some incredible potential for the vanilla lovers. It seems the project just stopped without notice, as far as I'm aware. The dev thread was pretty active and the maps seemed to be nearly complete from the screenshots .

 

I imagine that essel would still have the resources for this. I have the resource WAD, the DEH and Z1M1, Z1M4, Z1M7 and Z1M9 all from February 6th, 2008. That said, it's not my decision to release anything.

[Endless]

18 hours ago, deathz0r said:

I imagine that essel would still have the resources for this. I have the resource WAD, the DEH and Z1M1, Z1M4, Z1M7 and Z1M9 all from February 6th, 2008. That said, it's not my decision to release anything.

What happened that the project suddenly stopped ? From an outsider's POV, it looked great and like it was on a steady road!