Best PSX Doom wads in 2021?

[MajorRawne]

Greetings all. Since PSX Doom modding seems to have taken off in recent years I'm wondering what the best wads and mods are today. I have played:

 

The Lost Levels - pretty sure I was supposed to be credited for playing all the maps and feeding back on each one years ago, pretty sure I haven't been!

Threshold of Pain - surely the pinnacle of PSX Doom-inspired mapping, except that it would never have run on a Playstation, but who cares, it's amazing. An adventure, a journey, full of creepy tricks and memorable moments.

Fall of Triton - only just found out about this, but the mapper really gets the meaning of PSX Doom, he knows it's supposed to be simple, frightening and foreboding. And as a special bonus, he understands the journey into hell should be savoured.

GEC Master Doom - haven't done anything about this yet but this is looking like the one - I am on the verge of soiling my underwear about new, authentic PSX maps RUNNING ON AN ACTUAL PSX.

 

Is there anything else??

[Salt-Man Z]

22 minutes ago, MajorRawne said:

Fall of Triton - ... he understands the journey into hell should be savoured.

Absolutely this. What impressed me about Triton is that it was loooong, and though it maybe started feel overlong in the later goings, it still managed to never feel boring or repetitive.

 

Are you avoiding sequels in your list? There is of course the incomplete (but still fantastic) ToP2. And there were two spin-offs of Triton: a short sequel (Vortex Catastrophe) and a remaster (Triton II by BeeWen).

[MajorRawne]

2 minutes ago, Salt-Man Z said:

Absolutely this. What impressed me about Triton is that it was loooong, and though it maybe started feel overlong in the later goings, it still managed to never feel boring or repetitive.

 

Are you avoiding sequels in your list? There is of course the incomplete (but still fantastic) ToP2. And there were two spin-offs of Triton: a short sequel (Vortex Catastrophe) and a remaster (Triton II by BeeWen).

Thank you mate, I haven't heard of most of those! I will probably play the remaster some other time, as from what I've seen and heard it's over-long, over-complex and has ammo balance issues. With full respect to BeeWen's amazing skill, it's like a PC player's idea of what PSX Doom should have been!

 

Does the original Triton have ammo balance issues too, as I have heard it mentioned once or twice?

 

As for the others, thank you so much, I'll play them as well as replaying Threshold of Pain!

[Salt-Man Z]

I don't remember any ammo issues with the first Triton (on UV/continuous/saves). I do remember some ammo tightness in Triton II, but the bigger issue is your speed being slowed once you've fallen below 50% health (the newest version changes it to <%25 health) which was enough to render mandatory platforming sections impossible, and forced me to quit at MAP12. I'll probably give it another try on HMP at some point; it was really good up until then.

[jazzmaster9]

Gonna do some shameless plugging here and recommend Innocence X1, X2 and X3 here. Very PSX Doom inspired mapsets.

[MajorRawne]

Thanks Jazzmaster, I will check those out too!

 

Am on map 13 of Triton. I have noticed some issues regarding monster deployment, it's really bad as the monsters are always just there in easily-destroyed crowds. Also, the music and visuals are scary, but the maps so far have been so open and brightly-lit it detracts from the cramped, frightening feel PSX Doom is supposed to have. There's no sneakiness or meanness to the fights in most maps, with one or two exceptions, and when you get to the hell levels, many of them feel more like a remake of PSX Doom than a new megawad. Still, I'm enjoying it overall and am hoping the maps get tougher.

 

EDIT: Exactly 30 seconds after posting this, map 13 hit me with a suprisingly vicious fight which almost proved fatal. More like this please!

Edited April 9, 2021 by MajorRawne

[scalliano]

On 4/8/2021 at 6:33 PM, MajorRawne said:

...except that it would never have run on a Playstation...

 

 ToP was made at a time when not many in the community really gave a toss about PSX Doom, with a lot of the PC purists being like, "wtf is this shit?" The whole idea behind ToP was a kind of "PSX Doom without limits" - taking the aesthetic and applying it to the kind of advanced wads that I was playing at the time. "PSX ZDoom", if you will.

 

ToP2 is about 4/5 done - there are several maps completed that weren't released before IRL got in the way and I began struggling to get a rhythm going again, but the first six* maps are available to play in the meantime.

 

Spoiler

*seven

 

Edited April 9, 2021 by scalliano

[Devalaous]

22 minutes ago, scalliano said:

 

 ToP was made at a time when not many in the community really gave a toss about PSX Doom, with a lot of the PC purists being like, "wtf is this shit?" The whole idea behind ToP was a kind of "PSX Doom without limits" - taking the aesthetic and applying it to the kind of advanced wads that I was playing at the time. "PSX ZDoom", if you will.

 

ToP2 is about 4/5 done - there are several maps completed that weren't released before IRL got in the way and I began struggling to get a rhythm going again, but the first six* maps are available to play in the meantime.

 

  Reveal hidden contents

*seven

 

 

Thanks for the update on ToP II, been wondering if it was still alive for a while.

[Isolation]

There is never enough PSX inspired levels.  The maps you mentioned plus the innocence X series is pretty much it. There are a couple of other standalone levels that have PSX sounds and music and that is it. 

 

Thanks for the kind words on Fall of Triton. Yes there probably is a slight issue with the ammo, something I have noted for the next project. I have been planning the sequel. The levels will be similar to Threshold of Pain, not able to work on actual PS1 but should still have the PSX & Doom 64 atmosphere.

 

 

[out_of_service]

PSX Doom wads are my jam! Threshold of Pain is my favorite. 

[Somniac]

This thread reminded me that I never actually played TOP before. Have started on it and it seems to really nail that oppressive PSX Doom feel while being as smooth as the PC version. 

 

I assume there's some kind of dedicated mapping resource pack that people use for PSX style WADs, or are they more disparate elements (ie separate sound/texture packs) that get pulled together? I kindof want to try this myself and get down with the bleakness. 

[MajorRawne]

17 hours ago, RHG 45 said:

There is never enough PSX inspired levels.  The maps you mentioned plus the innocence X series is pretty much it. There are a couple of other standalone levels that have PSX sounds and music and that is it. 

 

Thanks for the kind words on Fall of Triton. Yes there probably is a slight issue with the ammo, something I have noted for the next project. I have been planning the sequel. The levels will be similar to Threshold of Pain, not able to work on actual PS1 but should still have the PSX & Doom 64 atmosphere.

 

 

Hi, sorry for spamming your videos with comments but there is always so much to say after watching/playing your maps! I love the atmosphere and visuals of your megawad and still believe that you should revisit them to change a few details, although to be fair, with so many maps this would be a hideous amount of work. By "change a few details" I mean make the maps a bit more shadowy (not too much though as GZDoom makes lower lighting seem ridiculously dark), maybe make some of the wide open corridors narrower and have some monsters spawn in, or come out of monster closets that are positioned in a way that will pincer the player.

 

I'm on map 20 and not finding any ammo problems, though I wouldn't like to play the maps from a pistol start! Doing so would make this megawad far more challenging, it would be fun to see someone do it.

 

I've learned to appreciate what Williams actually managed to do. They produced 59 levels plus 30 in Final Doom while being limited to a smaller number of monsters and textures per map, not to mention the other hard limits, and yet made the game feel varied and challenging even though you spend 75% of the time battling weaker monsters.

[scalliano]

19 hours ago, VisionThing said:

This thread reminded me that I never actually played TOP before. Have started on it and it seems to really nail that oppressive PSX Doom feel while being as smooth as the PC version. 

 

I assume there's some kind of dedicated mapping resource pack that people use for PSX style WADs, or are they more disparate elements (ie separate sound/texture packs) that get pulled together? I kindof want to try this myself and get down with the bleakness. 

ToP 1 and 2 both use custom textures based on stock PC assets, along with a small handful of the unique textures from PSX and Jag Doom. If you're looking for a full set of PSX resources, there are the various PSX total conversions by the likes of GEC and Dragonsbrethren that you can nab them from.

[MajorRawne]

Sorry for the necrobump. I finally finished Fall of Triton, which was generally great fun to play (although fighting 500 pink demons and nightmare spectres per map isn't the best) and it definitely felt like PSX Doom. I tried Triton 2 but it's too soon to go through the maps all over again even if they are changed.

 

I am just playing through Innocence X. It is a bit Doom 64 for me (heavily scripted, hit a switch, monsters appear), but it is scarier and MUCH harder than Triton. Is there something I missed in map 5? You end up on a narrow ledge with a wall in front of you that is too high and close to shoot rockets/plasma over, but you need to kill a Spider Demon on the other side of it, who can happily shoot you in the face. I had 17 shotgun shells, 250 bullets, a handful of rockets and maybe 200 plasma. Thing is I had to cheat here: if you kill the Mastermind, which I didn't have the health or ammo to do hence cheating, it spawns loads of Barons while a pit full of Spectres rises up behind you. And in Innocence X, Barons are faster and far more dangerous than normal. What am I doing wrong here, as I cannot get past this part without IDDQD and IDCLIP, it's ****ing impossible.

 

EDIT: I had to leave some enemies alive on the previous map as I was worried about running out of ammo. I'm playing on UV.

 

Some feedback for people making PSX Doom style maps. At no point in PSX Doom do you ever have 2 bullets left, that's not Doom, that's Resident Evil!!

Edited May 2, 2021 by MajorRawne