Modernizing/reimagining old/random wads

[yourlocalchef]

Hey all,

 

After some hiatus I decided to attempt making a couple maps over the past few days. After running into the standard creativity block as a result I thought it might be more exciting to find old firstwad.wad-type maps and fixing them up. I did a couple google searches to see if this was a thing. I quite like the idea of finding objectively terrible wads that are otherwise unplayable or boring and effectively doing some houseflipping: tearing down walls, repainting, ripping up old floorboards, building an addition, detailing, better monster placements, ammo etc. Then comparing before and after. Is this a thing? Is it encouraged/shunned? Does anyone have first attempt wads that could get a remodel? Anyone else interested in doing this or am I a lonely old sack?

 

This is the wad I found right now and am working at sprucing it up

and in its description:

Primary purpose         : for you to play for 5 seconds and then delete and
              vow never to play again!

 

Apologies to butter_pat_head, the mapset creator from 2003, I am myself a novice at mapmaking and by no means am capable of passing judgement, but the first map in this is godawful.

6lev.zip

[Hitboi]

I remember 1994 tune-up community project having the same idea, And then no wad did the same idea ever again.
Also, You mean credits to and not apologies to.

[baja blast rd.]

It is not exactly common, but it's not shunned. Whole mapsets exist around the concept. It's fine as long as the wad's text file gives permission, like: 

 

Quote

 

* Copyright / Permissions *

Authors MAY use the contents of this file as a base for
modification or reuse.  Permissions have been obtained from original 
authors for any of their resources modified or included in this file.

 

 

22 minutes ago, yourlocalchef said:

objectively terrible wads that are otherwise unplayable or boring

 

22 minutes ago, yourlocalchef said:

but the first map in this is godawful

 

A thing I see being an issue, after reading this, is people might get annoyed if you insult the wads you are 'tuning up' every time -- that is some salty-sounding phrasing lol. You have to take responsibility for the finished product instead of having a convenient "hey this might be shitty, but the wad I started with was super shitty" sort of excuse. 

Edited October 18, 2020 by ‹rd›

[yourlocalchef]

Thanks for the links, was just curious about the existence of this sort of thing. And yeah I suppose in my head I was thinking that most of the maps I would find would have poor ratings on idgames anyhow and be from 15+ years ago however apologies for my brazen remarks.

[TheMagicMushroomMan]

I had an idea of doing this, was shunned, 3/10 would not attempt again.

 

In seriousness, most people told me it was a waste of time that could be used making new things, which I agree with.

[Hitboi]

5 minutes ago, TheMagicMushroomMan said:

I had an idea of doing this, was shunned, 3/10 would not attempt again.

 

In seriousness, most people told me it was a waste of time that could be used making new things, which I agree with.

But it's a troll wad, Read the main post correctly and you'll understand

[maxmanium]

I've had the idea to modernize wads by fixing shit with ZDoom resources but I'm not sure if it'd be worth it either.

[TheMagicMushroomMan]

5 minutes ago, HitBoi64 said:

But it's a troll wad, Read the main post correctly and you'll understand

Oh, I see, he's talking about Doom 2!

[Hitboi]

1 minute ago, TheMagicMushroomMan said:

Oh, I see, he's talking about Doom 2!

Yeah he 100% is.

Edited October 18, 2020 by HitBoi64

[TheMagicMushroomMan]

8 minutes ago, HitBoi64 said:

Wut

Yeah, Doom 2. It was a troll wad released in 2003 by some dude named butter_pat_head, trying to capitalize on the fact that there was an old game called Doom that came out in 1993 by some dude named John Roberto, or something like that. Very obscure game, not many people know about it.

 

 

In other words, I didn't read through the whole post. In my opinion, modernizing a wad that is considered to be pretty much worthless would be a waste of time, unless it showed a concept with great potential that was ruined by poor execution or something.

Edited October 18, 2020 by TheMagicMushroomMan

[Hitboi]

9 minutes ago, TheMagicMushroomMan said:

In other words, I didn't read through the whole post. In my opinion, modernizing a wad that is considered to be pretty much worthless would be a waste of time, unless it showed a concept with great potential that was ruined by poor execution or something.

Agreed, But sometimes reimagining something very worthless can be good, For an example: 1994 tune-up's map32 (Cyberpie) is based on a dumb troll wad named pie, And makes it completely serious and enjoyable becuase it's differently tuned-up, But still uses the original concept

[DynamiteKaitorn]

Well I was (sort of) successful in finishing the maps presented (had to cheat for some of the middle maps since they lacked health for HMP difficulty).

 

Yeah it's definitely a pile of troll maps...