Doom Deathmatch history & Great Players [Megathread]

[Doomkid]

With help from some other community members such as @Hatred, @dew, @Andy Johnsen, @HumanBones, @Ralphis and all/any other people with knowledge of Doom's multiplayer history, I'd really like to get a megathread made up that has all the most pertinent info in one easy spot. Hopefully you guys like this idea - Karl Jobst recently pointed out how hard it is for any outsiders to find info about the history of Doom's multiplayer scene, and frankly he's totally correct.

 

What I want to do in this thread is just build a pool of basic information about the following, which can be used to create a "visual timelime". I want to have 1993 - 2020 on a graph, and have various layers that show different aspects over time:

 

• What deathmatchers/duelers are/were some of the best to touch Doom? For what years are/were they active?

..A lot of names come to mind here.. but I need some old MP gurus to tell me the whens and wheres for each elite player! Everyone from Eric Yick Leung, Ocelot, Sslasher, Galiu, DemonSphere, JKist, DevastatioN.. I know that's just a tiny sampler but that's where my need for help comes in!

 

• What different sub-communities dedicated to multiplayer Doom were/are there?

..Dwango was it's own thing for example and even within Dwango there were different servers, after Dwango there was stuff like DoomServ (which I know very little about), then of course there was Doom Connector, and each source port - CSDoom, ZDaemon, Skulltag/Zandronum and Odamex - each with their own sub communities.. that's just a small selection.. and on that topic:

 

• What different ports have been developed for multiplayer, when did development start for each, and when did it cease (on the ones no longer active)?

..Probably one of the easier questions to answer, but I still think having it represented on a visual chart would be helpful for people looking back to know instantly what was and was not "in and out of vogue" at any time in Doom multiplayer history. (For example, from my own experience, I can safely say that halfway through 2002 or so, CSDoom's popularity in MP had well and truly fallen off a cliff.)

 

I think having a "source ports over time, sub-communities over time and players over time" visual chart will be amazing for historical purposes and will serve as a great launchpad into a full blown video about the topic, which HateDaddy mentioned just recently in that thread about Karl's latest video.

 

I think various popular multiplayer wads and mapsets over the years would of course warrant a mention - maybe paying some lip service to the top wads over the years like Dwango5, the UDM series, All the classic duel maps/zddl&duel40 turf, Toke's maps, Exec, various Cacoward winners.. but the actual "wadding" side of things is one area where Doom's multiplayer history is actually pretty damn well documented, unlike the other facets, so I think it's fair if that side of things isn't focused on too hard for the moment.

 

It's late and I'm about wrapping it up for the night, but I just wanted to get this thread started here so that anyone and everyone interested in Doom multiplayer history can dump whatever knowledge they may have in the pool!

 

^{EDIT: I'd also like to do something similar for CTF history, but other than being around since 1998, and having loads of fun wads over the years, and a period in 2004/2005/2006 where CTF was ALL the rage, it's a topic I have far less knowledge about than DM and duel history.}

 

EDIT 2: Just dumping some useful references and links here for the time being:

http://doom2.net/history/history.html

https://doomwiki.org/wiki/Deathmatch_'95

https://doomwiki.org/wiki/Deathmatch_'95/UK_tournament_results

 

Videos of note:

Doom 2 1996 Tournament! Sslasher vs Galiu 1

QuakeCon 2013: Doom II Grand Final + Ceremony Jkist3 vs Devastation

QuakeCon 2013: Doom II Bronze Final (DemonSphere vs Devastation)

DevastatioN vs JKist3, Doom II 1v1 QuakeCon 2019 BYOC final

 

Also, Decino's huge multiplayer event on Odamex which broke the world record for "most Doomers in an FFA server at one time" with over 140 players! Not related to the competition side of things so much, but it's such a motable landmark in MP history that I think it bears mention.

 

Edited October 23, 2020 by Doomkid

[Hatred]

Great post! 
 

I think one interesting way to help narrow down the history of dueling is to highlight players by maps they were known for as well.

 

for example, badfish was a great d5m1 player during his peak but what few may know now is that he really pushed dweller map11 to the forefront - I’m not saying he “discovered it” by any stretch, but he was known as the original dweller player. He also was more or less one of the first players to really abuse the bfg on ledge play in d5m1, something some of the greatest players absorbed and morphed it into their own styles (JKist3 comes to mind here). 
 

there were also lots of absurdly good players outside of the “known.” 
 

for example, Turska rarely gets mentioned as a top time duelist but between 2011-2014, that’s the best I’ve seen any player ever look during any era across several game modes. Finland had lots of great players too, heck you can keep it in Turskas family - his brother Tuomio (I’m butchering the spelling) was pretty good. Then you had the likes of Atomi, Nosturi, and obviously ocelot. 
 

this has become rambling. I’m gonna stop. 

[Ralphis]

9 hours ago, Doomkid said:

What different ports have been developed for multiplayer, when did development start for each, and when did it cease (on the ones no longer active)?

..Probably one of the easier questions to answer, but I still think having it represented on a visual chart would be helpful for people looking back to know instantly what was and was not "in and out of vogue" at any time in Doom multiplayer history. (For example, from my own experience, I can safely say that halfway through 2002 or so, CSDoom's popularity in MP had well and truly fallen off a cliff.)

 

 

I'll probably respond to this post in pieces over time. In terms of what platforms people were using for multiplayer (at significant levels), this chart probably represents it pretty well. MSN Zone was never widely used but the #nightmare crew did play on it until it's death. I think the 2006 date on that is accurate though @DevastatioN can likely chime in. Anything with lightened colors indicates that it was around but probably not widely used and/or falling out of vogue at that point (Doom Connector). I know DC existed longer than 05, but it was basically a non-factor by '05 and was eventually just folded into Skulltag for the rest of its (significantly used) life.

 

Edited October 24, 2020 by Ralphis

[Doomkid]

Thank you so much Ralphis, that sort of chart is 100% what I was looking for.

[xvertigox]

Having a dwango emulator or even server browser that looks like it would be so dope.

 

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