Doom Wadarcheology - To dig, rediscover and enjoy the classics.

[FEDEX]

Well, i don't have it :/

[ducon]

15 minutes ago, thestarrover said:

???

 

 

It’s a secret message in the Wadarcheology section of Wadazine #14.

[thestarrover]

2 minutes ago, FEDEX said:

Well, i don't have it :/

post updated

[Wavy]

Canyon

^{Author: slaytan}

^{Date: 09/02/95}

^{Port used: Russian Doom v4.7.1}

^{Skill used: Hurt me Plenty!}

^{Note: These screenshots were taken with monsters disabled.}

 

These rocky Hellscapes are certainly one of my favourite map themes, and the author (slaytan) pulled it off very well here. One thing you may notice through these screenshots is that it's red — very red. You need to use the -warp parameter or IDCLEV to MAP21 as that's what the map starts at, probably to get the Hellish sky texture without the need of messing with TEXTUREx or custom textures, which isn't too uncommon for these sorts of WADs. Map starts off by giving you a Super Shotgun, while also throwing a Hell Knight right in front of you. After falling down the left and fighting some Imps and Hell Knights, you arrive to the most anticipated part, the canyon! From then on, it's a pretty standard Hell map. You go into a few dark caves, go into a tech area, and such. You even face off with a hoard of Pinkies nearing the end. Only thing I disliked was a fairly boring fight with a line of Barons with a Plasma Gun and invulnerability which was somewhat dull/annoying and an unmarked red key switch. But overall, very solid map here. This map isn't too hard/challenging — similar to a regular Doom or Doom 2 IWAD map when it comes to general difficulty — but still a lot of fun to play.

 

Here's the demo for my initial playthough on HMP: CANYON-Wadarcheology_Demo.zip

Edited September 18, 2021 by Wavy

[Roofi]

Some 1994 favs from me  (Reviews are copy-pasted from Endless Random Adventure).

 

Wad 1) REoL TOUGH: TOTAL WAR III: Land of Weirdness by  George Fiffy

 

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ABOUT THE TOTAL WAR III EXPERIENCE: To play the new level, type REoLDOOM to start total chaos! This is probably one of the weirdest DOOM levels you may ever had played! There are soooo many weird effects and illusions you may have thought would be IMPOSSIBLE to do (if you're a DOOM level maker your- self)! The effects you will see start right in the beginning! A door in the middle of the starting area! You'll also see doors coming out of the sky, dark rooms you can see fine in (it doesn't make sense at all, doesn't it? Well, it was done. You'll be suprised!), and get this, INVISABLE BUILDINGS! You may see the doors (sometimes), and maybe the windows, but you don't see a building attatched! The "pancake syndrome" is also cleared up (flat outer retaining walls, and unflattened entry- ways can be seen BEYOND the walls, to show thickness, unlike E3M1). Some "flatness" is around, but that's because there are invisable buildings around. Invisable doors leave "slices" or voids in the wall, or the top of the wall. One neat DOOM effect is the Hall Of Mirrors. One room has this effect in it's windows. This is NO screw-up. It's done on PURPOSE! The "teleporting theory" found in the real E3M7 is also in here, but with a different twist. All I'm going to say is that it's harder to do (heh, heh, heh!). Also, be carefull of a few nasty areas! There are five areas where you'll be fighting very hard! You won't be fighting as hard as in TOTAL WAR II, E1M2, but it's quite a nasty brawl!

 

This is the prehistory of slaughtermaps. Forget Go2it, forget HR2, forget Sunder, Georges Fiffy delivered in 1994 an Ultimate Doom map with more than 600 monsters in a compact map.

 

This level replaces E3M7 and takes up some of the gimmick of "Limbo" with the teleporters surrounded by dangerous liquid and the numerous switches to activate to unlock them.

 

This map is nothing but a concentrate of fun and combat. The mapper literally floods you with ammunition and health in order to defeat all those little teleporting monsters.  You have no bfg or plasmagun but only a shotgun and a RL obtained later.

 

Aesthetically, it's obviously very rudimentary. However, I appreciate this particular style, especially the doors strangely embedded in the sky or the mix of blue and grey textures. It is not very beautiful, but it is not uninteresting.

 

Wad 2) ALAIN.WAD by Alain ARRAULT (2004)

 

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New design, great space, full ammos and lot of monsters. Not so difficult to end but be carefull. Feedback should be appreciated.

 

An old map from 1994 uploaded on idgames 10 years later. Naming your wad with your first name is an extremely underrated practice. Anyway, Alain is a kind of strange mixture between "Trick and Traps" from Doom 2 and "Tower of Babel" from Doom 1.

 

Indeed, you start on the top of a kind of pyramid located at the middle of the central outdoors courtyard. You have to explore 6 triangular areas to find three keys in a determined order. Each place consists of a small test which are more or less dangerous. The worst part has several fast crushers.

 

After completing the first part , which strangely look like to the jewish star with 6 branches , you are transported to giant outdoors where you have to confront a single cyberdemon a few foes. Extremly easy part due to the fact , you have the BFG and many cells.

 

Great map with good aesthetics. I think it definitely fits in Wadarcheleogy.

 

Wad 3) Wizard's Rage II (optimized version of WIZDOOM2.WAD) by Anthony "Wizard" Marino ( Ernest Anthony Marino ) and Sal "Washee" Gonzalez

 

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his mission takes us to a far outpost, known as Octa-Gamma, located in the Octa-Major quadrant. The forces of the dark side have taken over the same and transformed it into a nightmarish environment. Your mission, Jim...Ooops! wrong show, sorry! That's about it trooper, as you know, all the weapons are in the base, your buds took 'em all. So remember, use the force Luke, Ooops! nevermind! ;>

This is an optimized version of the original WIZDOOM2.WAD. It has been optimized for speed, thereby reducing graphic slow-down. Many thanks to RMB v2.0 by Jens Hykkelbjerg and Steve Benner for making this possible.

 

A 1994 map which had been updated in 2006.

 

The first thing I have to say is how lenghty is this level compared to many wads released in the 94's era. Indeed , I already played it years ago and I took more than 1 hour in my first attempt. Today , I took 45 minutes even while vaguely knowing the map. The layout consists to a huge grid composed of wide octogonal room and long corridors to link them as well as many teleporters which are quite confusing to use. You start in a star-shaped room located at the center, which acts as a hub containg all teleporters leading to those octogonal rooms. 

 

The level contains almost no linearity because you are dropped somewhere randomly and you have to find 3 keys that are mostly hidden behind dissimulated doors. This task is not so difficult because it is possible to get a computer map.

 

To be honest, despite I find this level technically pretty impressive, the gameplay is too repetitive and dull to justify such a long level. Indeed, depending on the teleport you take at the beginning, you may get the good weapons very late and therefore remain restricted to the shotgun for a long time. However, this is not the biggest problem. The level just clearly lacks challenge and a few effective traps, which is not uncommon in the 94 maps.

 

Aesthetically , it's not that bad but really nothing outstanding. It's large but it feels empty.

 

An old ambitious 1994 map that is not really worth playing nowadays.

[Endless]

Glad to see you here @Roofi! Your experience at the ER/iWA is insanely big so I'm pretty sure you have a lot more of classic hidden gems up your sleeve.

[Arrowhead]

4 hours ago, thestarrover said:

 

This is awesome. So they were all the same person? Makes sense. Thanks so much for compiling all this for us. :)

Edited September 18, 2021 by Arrowhead

[thestarrover]

2 hours ago, Arrowhead said:

This is awesome. So they were all the same person? Makes sense. Thanks so much for compiling all this for us. :)

It was fun to read the text files and try to find his works on different sites. And I took the opportunity to add a couple of wads to my collection ;)

[thestarrover]

Bleeder by DeadEye, 01/6/1995  GZDOOM

 

Bleeder is a one level wad for Doom II and replaces Map01. Altough the design is quite simple, with medium and wide areas/rooms textured with only the original doom II assets (no new music or textures is provided), I think it is adequate and well done.The main purpose of the map is to survive and you don’t have the time to look around. Every room is full of monsters (the strongest ones) and you have to fight them all together and at the same time: imps, Barons Of Hell, Cacodemons and Demons will surround you immediately. Luckily the rooms are quite large and you have enough room to move and avoid their attacks. Except for the Hell Knights and the Spiderdemon, all the Doom II monsters are in the map and in a couple of rooms there are also the Wolfenstein SS. All the keys are required but while the yellow key is very easy to find, a different thing is finding the other two keys.The red key is hidden behind a wall which can be opened only by the monsters from the inside and a bit of strategy is required to grab it; the blue key instead is located in one of the last rooms and it is surrounded by toxic water and you'll have to fight a large number of monsters (all together of course)  to obtain it. In total there are 119 monsters and no secrets in the map

It is a dynamic and enjoyable map to play and it is quite hard even for 1995. If you like maps full of action this is for you.

 

Screenshots

 

Download

[Arrowhead]

3 minutes ago, thestarrover said:

Bleeder by DeadEye, 01/6/1995  GZDOOM

Screenshots

Some weird looking detailing in this one - I especially like the 'Shane' embedded in the floor -  always love kitschy stuff like that lol. Will definitely be taking a look at this one. Nice review! :)

[thestarrover]

Let me know what you think! :)

[Arrowhead]

TCSAS.wad - 11/28/1995 - played via GZDOOM 4.1.2

 

TCSAS.wad is an enjoyable WAD created by TomCat. This is TomCat's only single-player release on /idgames. I don't know if this was TomCat's first WAD, or not, but what's here is good. You will enjoy this map, if you appreciate a slower kind of combat. Much of the gameplay involves clearing out hitscanners. These hitscanners are often positioned at numerous different heights, which means standing in the open in this map a bad idea. The only other monsters present in this WAD, (other than hitscanners) are a few pinkies, and a 'boss' archvile.

 

This map is set in a large concrete 'vac' complex. I'm not sure what 'vac' is in this context - I assume it has something to do w/ space, though? Sounds like some kind of sci-fi type thing. I wish the author provided more context, all they say is this: " A large vac storage facility has been overrun by terrorists. "

 

There are around 125 enemies in this map, and there are no secrets. There are many custom assets in this WAD, but none of them are textures - this WAD entirely uses stock Doom2 textures and flats. The WAD includes quite a few custom assets, including a custom titlepic, a customized 'credits' page, (I included a screenshot, as credits alterations are quite rare, even now) a custom MIDI, and many custom sounds. I like the sound of the teleporter, and the sergeants that yell 'Freeze!'.

 

Texturing is pretty good in this map - very few visual anomalies. You still see the occasional misaligned texture near a staircase, but things are pretty clean other than that. Much of the map is concrete / silver textures. I think it looks quite good, though. Definitely nice for the time, no doubt there.

 

Combat is eerily similar to Kurt Kesler's style of combat - many groups of monsters are released elsewhere in the map, and slowly make their way to you. I like this style of combat - it feels oddly natural, and the area that the monsters can roam is quite expansive. You'll often have enemies coming up behind you, simply because they decided to walk the other way around a building from their start point. Makes for fun, surprising encounters. This map will be difficult if you don't take your time. It can be easy to die from errant chaingunner fire, or shotgun blasts.

 

I really like the presentation in this WAD. The only small complaints I have, is that the blue doors aren't marked, and there are no 'official' secrets. Fun map, though!

 

Check it out. Recommended for fans of slower paced combat - traps are nearly nonexistent in this map, but the author makes up for it in other clever ways. :)

 

Spoiler

 

 

Download link: https://bit.ly/3tTOk5s

Edited September 20, 2021 by Arrowhead

[Arrowhead]

Haslam's Book Store of Doom [Doom1 version] - 5/30/1995 - played via GZDOOM 4.1.2

 

Haslam's Book Store of Doom is a Doom1 WAD created by Andrew Haslam. From what I understand, there are 3 different versions of this WAD floating around. The first, being this one - the second being the Doom2 version on /idgames, and the third being a "manly", (more difficult?) version of the Doom2 WAD hosted on the author's website. I believe the Doom1 version to be more obscure than the Doom2 version, as I could only find it hosted on the author's website. The Doom1 version is dated '95, the Doom2 version '96, and the "manly" version is from '97.

 

The WAD comes packaged w/ a batch file that overwrites your Doom.wad w/ new graphics. I highly recommend you make a back-up of your Doom.wad if you plan on importing the new thing sprites the author selected. There are 3 new sprites in this game: 2 different types of trees, and a book display. I ended up playing without them - you don't end up missing much, as much of the level's atmosphere is accomplished through new textures, than new things. I didn't want to risk messing up my Doom.wad - the only difference really being that there are the usual exploding barrels in place of the book display graphic. The use of exploding barrels might have made the level slightly more easy, than if I had just imported the graphics.

 

I swear I've seen this sky graphic somewhere before, but the author makes no mention of its origin. Anyway, the new graphics and new sky really ground this map as a real place. There are multiple black placards around the map w/ book genres on each - I'm pretty sure the bookshelves are a new graphic, too.

 

Fights in this map are a lot of fun, but are not especially difficult - the first half of the map consists of clearing out the outdoors area first, and then the inner rooms of the book store, one by one. Once you kill all visible enemies, you may be stuck on where to find the red key. The red key is hidden in an unmarked secret - that may sound awful, I know - but it really wasn't that bad. If you take a glance at your automap, there's really only a few places it could be. I don't like to recommend maps that have progression flaws like this usually, but what's here is really worth experiencing.

 

Once you find the red key, you will trigger an awesome teleporter ambush, where the entire map is essentially repopulated. You'll find new enemies in many areas of the map that you'd visited earlier. This is my favorite part of the map - it is fun revisiting and clearing out familiar areas.

 

The map culminates in a final showdown against a mastermind. This had the potential to be a difficult fight, as there is little cover available in the outdoors area. This fight can be cheesed a little bit, if you can get the baron and mastermind to in-fight. This will allow you to snag the plasma rifle and go to town on the spidermomma.

 

This map takes maybe 12-15 minutes to play. It is definitely worth it to see the early homemade textures - this map is reminiscent of 'Photon' by Steve Mavronis. It has a similar vibe for sure. Very cool map based on a real place.

 

Spoiler

 

 

Download link: https://bit.ly/3EJm22J

Edited September 24, 2021 by Arrowhead

[Endless]

Damn, I need to visit that store.

[Arrowhead]

Just now, Endless said:

Damn, I need to visit that store.

I know, I was super surprised that they have 300,000+ books. I could spend a year in there. XD

[LadyMistDragon]

Demon's Revenge (by DoomMBoy) 02/19/04(because I wanna push the limits here)

 

DooMBoy claims in the text that this was his first wad. Honestly, I have to say other than a few little niggles here and there (the idiotic rocket launcher placement) I would have never guessed.

 

Just look at the amount of detail in the opening section. Torches on platforms, bloody platforms closest to you, and cages that will continue to fill up with Imps for quite some time. The passage behind the blue door has quite a snug feeling I rather like, though one might say it was a noob thing.

 

In any case, you might want to wait on killing the Imps because ammo here is tight. As in, might wanna think about punching Barons tight. Maybe you'll have a slightly easier time if you spotted the shells at the start unlike dumb 'ol me, but there's one Arch-vile whose placement is absolutely begging for a punching. The cells you see scattered around suggest a hidden plasma rifle, but meh.

 

As you might expect though, you'll want to trigger infighting wherever you can but due to the tight-ass corridors, that'll usually be more trouble than it's worth. At least you're given a berserk pack fairly early on. The rocket launcher room is kind of a cool visage, but placing it behind hell knights ranks among the dumbest placing decisions ever made. If you're a Doom god or something, maybe you'd be able to run around and grab this most of the time, but I reloaded this many, many times before I was successful.

 

Even after this, there are Arch-viles. Oh shot, there are Arch-viles. Granted, you can kill a decent chunk of them with your shotgun. When you get to the pair guarding the yellow key though, you may well end up running out of ammo, prompting the necessity to switch to your fists.

 

Once you pick up the red key, you do engage in some rather annoying backtracking because before you enter the door you have to hit a switch.

 

For a first map, this is quite hard, given that the enemy count's below 80 (with 20 or so of them being the Imps in the starting cages). All the same, I would recommend it. The combat is overly sadistic I suppose, but there is something about a map which challenges in with ammo and maneuverability that convinced me to shout this out. The combination of well-used vanilla textures with ammo starvation will always produce a strongly worthwhile map.

 

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Edited September 23, 2021 by LadyMistDragon

[Arrowhead]

Tricky Steps - 11/18/1995 - played via GZDOOM 4.1.2

 

Tricky Steps is a fun old school map w/ 'puzzle' elements created by Knut Andreas Ruud. Ruud only produced two maps, w/ this map being the second of the two. The author's other map, Black Lodge, also looks quite interesting - I may check that out at a future date. Much of this map feels quite dated in design - there are only 2 traps, (for the blue and red keys) but no trap for the final key, which is an odd choice.

 

The main attraction of this map is the 'tricky steps' puzzle - a series of raised platforms over lava that you need to navigate across correctly to open a series of walls that will allow you to continue to the next room.This pattern you need to follow flashes periodically on the roof - although I had difficulty in understanding the order in which I was supposed to access the platforms. I eventually just ran willy-nilly across the grid of platforms, and the doors eventually opened. I kind of cheesed the puzzle, but I still think if I had gone about it correctly, I would have gotten it done sooner than the way I had done it.

I don't think the puzzle is poorly designed - as the correct way to open the doors is undoubtedly faster than randomly running around. I included two screenies of this puzzle to demonstrate its design.

 

Texturing is above average for 1995, and I don't recall seeing any obvious mistakes / errors.

 

The combat in this map is a little peculiar, as you only keep Doom1 weapons for most of the map. The SSG makes an appearance in a secret, once you've killed about 80% of the baddies. It feels like the author wanted to make encounters w/ medium class monsters more meaningful, and so decided to keep the SSG use to a bare minimum. There is an instance where you have to shotgun a baron, but there's only one - so its not too bad.

 

Nothing in this map was particularly difficult to figure out - progression was very straight forward, w/ minimal backtracking. I really enjoyed my time w/ this map. I enjoyed that the author tried to evenly balance their puzzle elements w/ their combat elements. I think this one turned out quite nicely, despite some occasional odd choices in the encounter design.

 

Give it a try if you like puzzly, old-school maps!

 

Spoiler

 

Download link: https://bit.ly/3zCG6jB

[Arrowhead]

Dreams of Insanity - 05/12/1997 - played via GZDOOM 4.1.2

 

Dreams of Insanity is a woefully underrated minisode created by Magnus Ander. Ander also created a self-titled WAD in 1999, which seems to be the entirety of his  output. This 4 map pack starts on map slot MAP14 - that is because the author wanted to utilize the secret exit on MAP15. I was unable to find the secret exit in normal play, so I idclev'd to MAP31. Secrets in general are difficult to find in this WAD - there are plenty, but expect to spend quite a bit of time to figure them out. Another thing to get out of the way, is that there are some immaculately annoying custom sound effects in this minisode. The lost soul now emits a shrill bloodcurdling scream when it does its attack, and you can hear zombiemen laughing their asses off through the walls. This was a little bit grating at first, but I eventually got used to it. You could very easily cut the custom sounds out of this WAD w/ Slade, but I didn't get around to doing that.

 

Map14 sets you in a '2-storey' house - this is one of those 'old-fashioned' attempts at a two-storey house, where the author simply uses teleports to bring you to the next 'floor'. It's quite a believable house, replete w/ furniture, and monsters. Much of the initial action is from hitscanners shooting through little slats in the bottom of the walls - this can make you feel like a fish in a barrel, if you don't send them back to Hell quickly enough. I recommend searching the first floor thoroughly - you may miss the only shotgunner - this'll leave you w/ little weaponry to take out the bigger monsters upstairs. There is a good use of texturing, and a lot of Doomcute - including a dainty little kitchen, that I included in a screenshot. For some reason, there are two SS Guards at the top of the staircase - they don't appear anywhere else in the WAD, (that I remember) so its kind of an odd choice to include them here.

 

Map15 is a large mostly indoors stone complex. The author compares this location to an 'ancient civilization', but I don't really see the resemblance. There is a very interesting telporter / lowering bars puzzle, where you have to quickly swap between rooms after pressing switches to lower the bars... Getting the timing right can be a little bit difficult - I had to try it a few separate times. This map also features a little bit of Doom platforming - it can be tricky, but isn't especially cruel. I didn't really like the aesthetic of this level. It is supposed to resemble an ancient civilization, but the textures used more resemble 'modern' bricks, than 'ancient' bricks. This map features the most secrets in the WAD - it has 8.

 

Map16, technically the final map, is a large castle complex. You start outside of the massive castle, and you really can get a sense of its scale. It looks absolutely huge for a map from 1997. Almost all of the action takes place indoors, though. You rarely get to appreciate the size of the castle, other than the initial shot you are provided when you spawn. This map has some mazelike attributes, it can be easy to get lost - or turned around. I liked this map, and thought it was a worthy cap to the episode, but there was one thing that kind of annoyed me. I found it quite difficult to distinguish elevators from normal textures in this map - this made for some head-scratching. Once you figure out what the author likes to use as an elevator texture, the map becomes a lot easier to navigate.

 

Map31, the secret map, is quite unique. Map31 is probably my favorite in the pack, w/ the house level coming in closely second. Map31 predominately consists of a series of lowering hexagonal pillars. These pillars all have enemies housed in them, and so the areas quickly become very dangerous turret gauntlets. I ran through much of this level, (it almost seems designed for this purpose) stopping only to kill the many monsters teleporting in front of me. This is really the only level that has what we consider 'traps'. The map gets hectic quickly, w/ areas getting oppressively crowded as you attempt to survive. The only qualm I have w/ this map is that it is a little hard on the eyes. The map is mostly one floor texture, and one wall texture. There is next to no visual variance. I could see this bothering a few people, but it didn't bother me, as the gameplay is easily the best in the entire WAD.

 

There is also a super cool 'Doom movie' in one of the maps. Was cool to see an animated texture like that in a WAD this old. I'm not sure of what vanilla tricks were used here, but it looks really neat.

 

Great little pack, if you can ignore / get used to the obnoxious sound effects. :)

 

Spoiler

 

Download link: https://bit.ly/3i7mgH2

[LadyMistDragon]

Might as well copy and paste this one....

Tab 28 - Michael Contorno - (Eternity) 1997

 

Michael Contorno seems to have made all of his wads as being part of his "TAB" series throughout 1997. While it definitely feels a little amateurish, it's definitely far more playable than what I initially expected.

 

Now Contorno claims this map is set in Hell but the sandstone walls and metal fort aren't exactly suggestive of that initially. Entering the fort leads to some valuable goodies, a silver crusher that's definitely not hellish and a switch that opens a structure on the right side of the fort from the start with a Cacodemon and a Hell Knight that I suppose is a tomb of sorts because an underground passage is revealed when you hit it. Go down here a bit, end up in a sandstone cave and press a switch that raises a pair of bridges over a lava moat to the line fort from which all the Imps have been firing at you. By now, you'll have plenty of rockets so lob them at them when they cluster then chaingun the remainder. Accessing the line fort leads to a much larger open area from which you can see a Manicubi firing at you from far on the left. Explore where you are a little more for a switch that raises a bridge to a ledge across from you. First, you'll have to drop in the lava, grab the rad suit, take care of the imp that appears in front of you. When you get close to the manicubus He is across a curious whirlpool-esque location. Pick up the blue key, return to the ledge the bridge was raised, press the bars and walk shortly through a cave to find yourself in a land of red brick and a Cyberdemon surrounded by yellow bars.

 

Some exploring led to to a room with a giant slimefall and some Imps that can be freely rocketed. Check the building here and you'll find the red key, along with some closets on the sides with a hell knight each that teleport outside immediately.

 

At a certain point, you'll happen upon a BFG which you can use to dispose of the Cyberdemon forthwith...unless you're me and you die for basically no good reason. Not like there's much else, ultimately - just a Revenant and so other weaker enemies at the top of the stairs behind the Cyber.

 

The amount of cell ammo and other powerups is arguably excessive, and the combat's flow is a bit stuttery in spots, but this was still fairly fun and showed some creative design in spots.

 

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Edited October 4, 2021 by LadyMistDragon

[Arrowhead]

18 minutes ago, LadyMistDragon said:

 

Love the TAB series. I recently played through them all. Makes me want to jump into the other WADs Contorno made. :)

[Arrowhead]

Gray.wad - 04/17/2001 - played via GZDOOM 4.1.2

 

Gray.wad is an interesting 'challenge' map by Lucifer "Diablo" Kaminsky. This map is linear, you essentially progress down a single hallway to the end of the map, w/ little interruption. There are only 15 monsters in this map on UV - but they are presented in such a way that the map never feels empty. The map is also very cramped, which makes some of the combat - the baron SSG fight, especially - a bit difficult. The map never feels unfair, and a reasonably skilled doomer should have no issue with it.

 

There is one fight w/ a hellknight and an archvile in a tiny room that is a little bit difficult - but it shouldn't cause anybody too much problems. You'll find that much of the 15 monsters in this map are arranged as 'set-piece' fights - you'll rarely see more than 2 monsters at a time in this WAD. The author obviously understood the Doom2 roster quite well. The archvile fight certainly demonstrates that.

 

There is one slightly confusing part to this map. Just remember to think to yourself: "Why does that one lift go so high?" - and you should be able to figure it out. I give this hint, as I didn't notice how to proceed the first time, and it took me a little while to progress past that point. The author does a fairly good job of indicating this type of obscure progression to the player - you will see this, if you play the WAD.

 

This map was certainly more difficult to the average Doom player in the past. The Doomwadstation review definitely indicates that. I don't think this WAD is that difficult - it was actually fairly easy.

 

If you're looking for a well-detailed, sub five minute map, this should certainly fit the bill! :)

 

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Download link: https://bit.ly/2WjRqDs

Edited September 28, 2021 by Arrowhead

[Rakuen]

Towers of Anguish
^{1996
By Marc J.S.
Played on Crispy Doom}

 

 

First of all, let's talk about the author. According to /idgames, Marc J.S. released six "maps" between March and December of 1996, though one of them, Sky Lab, is actually a minisode of 5. Towers of Anguish and Offspring are his earlier entries, both dated 03/09/96.

 

The former's title is deceiving: there're no towers and only some anguish. Aesthetic-wise, while it's a DOOM II wad, the style is rooted on the original's E2 green marble. This choice of textures, the year it was released, and the name that doesn't fit creates a compelling backdrop as to why and how this map was conceived. Remember that Master Levels for DOOM II was released just a year prior. That Marc J.S. was trying to channel his inner Black Tower (Kvernmo, 1995) but quit midway is very likely. Nonetheless, this map is very far from even being a recognizable tribute. It's the portrait of the artist as a young man, as Joyce would say, with all that it entails.

 

I've labeled many maps as claustrophobic before, but this one takes the cake. You'll spend most of your time on rectangular, 128x128-or-smaller corridors. Nonetheless, the map flows nicely: the different sections are linked in a way that's not a hassle to travel between them—except for a damn lift that takes years to come down. Imp teem here, and the cramped but long corridors gives them an edge but not overly so. You get both the shotgun and the chaingun early, as well as plenty of ammunition. Thanks to this, coupled with the lack of hitscanners, pressure never really rises. The most memorable moment is the Cyberdemon room, a guaranteed "what the fuck?" moment. The exit room is quite the thematic shift.

 

This map had potential to be much better, but it still comes out as fun. More enemy variety—only imps, hell nobles, and spectres are regulars—would have certainly helped.

 

Edited October 2, 2021 by Rakuen

[Arrowhead]

The Grid... - 04/20/1996 - played via GZDOOM 4.1.2

 

The Grid is an arena-styled map designed by Michael Daniels. The map consists primarily of four disparate arenas linked together by teleporters. The fights are intelligently crafted, and are each challenging in their own ways. The map culminates w/ a fight against a teleporting cybie. Multi-teleporting enemies have never really been my cup of tea, but this fight has changed my opinion on that - it really is quite technically sound.

 

The idea of the final fight is to stun the cybie w/ the plasmagun as much as you can, as to prevent the cybie from crossing over any of the two dozen or so teleporting lines in this arena.This fight is extremely nerve-wracking, as an errant teleport from the cybie can mean an instant face-rocket.

 

The other arenas are no push-overs, either. All of the arenas in this map are fairly difficult in their own right. From the 'long corridor' arena, to the opening room's arena - you're sure to have some fun. The only arena one might not like, is the extremely long corridor arena. The combat is still fun, its just a little bit tedious to have to navigate the same architecture over and over. The corridor arena is probably my least favorite of the four arenas, but that's not to say it's bad.

 

The only issue I have w/ this map, is that maybe the megasphere is given too early at the beginning - it kind of dampens some of the later fights a little. Also, the secrets are quite hard to find, I looked in a few places, but was not able to find any of the three.

 

Very fun map, feels like you're progressing through little 'mini-stages', as opposed to just feeling like a single map. Definitely worth checking out.

 

Spoiler

 

 

Download link: https://bit.ly/3B0Z0lv

Edited September 30, 2021 by Arrowhead

[princetontiger]

Nice work everyone... I'm enjoying the september wadazine 

[Walter confetti]

Really great stuff guys!

21 hours ago, Arrowhead said:

The Grid...

At first, i thought you was going to talk about this map with the same name made back in 1994...

[Arrowhead]

Escape from 22ventry - 08/02/1995 - played via GZDOOM 4.1.2

 

Escape from 22ventry is a charming level from 1995 w/ a lot of custom assets. The map was developed by David J. Singer for Doom1 - this appears to have been a 'team' effort , though, as many of the custom assets in the game are derived from pictures of Singer's friends. The author claims the sprites were created in this fashion: "Live "actors" were photographed in all the required sprite positions and the resultant pictures scanned on an Aries flatbed scanner and retouched using Picture Publisher." I think it would be cool to see a 'modern' attempt at custom sprites using real people - could be a neat project.

 

The custom sprites in this game are respectable - some are intentionally goofy, but they never look awful. Contrasted with, say, Laura Beyer's Doom - a WAD that used a similar style of sprites - all of the sprites in Beyer's Doom are horribly colored, whereas in this WAD - it seems like special care was made to make these sprites fit the pallet of Doom. The pinky, cybie, and caco all have new sprites - w/ the caco being my personal cheesy favorite. There is also a custom titlepic, custom difficulties, and a custom MIDI - although, I think the MIDI doesn't really fit here, it's a bit too gothic sounding for this level.

 

This level is mostly a techbase - although there is a dungeon area too. The map is really huge - there are massive arenas where you fight against a spidermomma, and another where you duel a custom cyberdemon. My favorite architectural feature is probably the cute little sector rocket in the cybie room, but there are many areas of this map I enjoyed. Texturing is way above average for the time. I counted very few visual errors in this map.

 

Combat is honestly fairly easy - don't play this WAD if you're expecting some kind of back-breaking challenge. Play this if you want a light-hearted time - I certainly enjoyed myself. Probably one of the more technically sound maps I've played for this project thus far, considering its age. :)

 

Spoiler

 

 

Download link: https://bit.ly/3zYhFx6

Edited October 2, 2021 by Arrowhead

[LadyMistDragon]

Solar96 - Nick Anderson (7/20/96), Eternity

 

Here we have a 4-map set where the maps all require some relatively involved puzzle solving. There's nothing as obscure as some of Jim Flynn's Enigma and Eternal maps, but observation of surroundings and of heights is strongly required. Two other things to note: you can walk through most barred windows, and teleporters are marked by a silver floor texture instead of the usual default red quasi-pentagram.

 

The texturing can be easily dismissed as beginner mishmash-itis, and to be fair, these maps don't have the visual consistency of Flynn maps, but there is a certain flow to the unlike textures that is best experienced. The story is normally unimportant, but it's apparently inspired by the BBC sitcom (which starred Monty Python alum and current 'cancel culture' basher John Cleese)  Fawlty Towers. Let's just say that many of the structures here do have the shape and landscaping of such places, if not the form. I think the staired hallway in Map 01 can be thought of as a sort of maintenance area. It's largely techbase with some medieval stuff, but hellish textures do manage to infiltrate the last map.

 

Progress is again, quite tricky. You really have to pay attention to your surroundings to get the red key in Map 01, and it's still quite difficult to acquire. As a general rule, if you're willing to put up with switches often not having any immediately visible effect, you'll eventually find the solution. I do feel compelled to point out what I think may be a broken yellow door in Map 02, a blue key door that doesn't even seem to require the blue key in Map 03, and a red door that seems to softlock you in Map 04, cutting you off from the exit. Then again, I think I could've missed something in the last map because certain areas are needlessly dark.

 

Combat is something that had the potential to be good. The problem is that weapon placement for pistol-starters was given ill-consideration, but you're still overloaded with ammo to such a degree that you can BFG quite a bit before running out. Too bad really, because monster placement does hint at challenging gameplay (something like Map 03 where the map will lead you to a series of fights on the way to the blue key).

 

Still kind of a cool artifact of 90s wadding. Better summary, classic puzzle map with some striking uses of visuals and some well-staged fights makes a fun way you can get that classic wad itch.

 

Download

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Edited October 7, 2021 by LadyMistDragon

[Arrowhead]

SUPER - 05/03/1996 - played via GZDOOM 4.1.2

 

SUPER is a creative WAD by Joao Carlos Martins. This map starts off w/ a fight between you, and a baron and an archvile. This is an exceedingly interesting arena fight. Why? You need to complete multiple successful archvile jumps - to even receive your weapons. This is done by giving you an invulnerability sphere - that may not sound very difficult, invuln spheres in 90s maps are usually a bad sign... but this fight is still challenging, because you effectively need to stop the baron and archvile from infighting - if the baron kills the archvile, you won't be able to retrieve all your weapons from the elevated corners of the arena. If you accidentally kill the baron, well, the archvile will just revive him, and then you'll be low on ammo the rest of the map. This makes this a constant balancing act, as you don't have much time to jump into all four corners... If you don't get the weapons quickly enough, then the invuln will wear off, and you'll be left defenceless. This isn't a super difficult area - but it certainly is a unique one - one that forces you to fight / interact w/ the monsters in a way that is unusual.

 

If you for some reason miss the super-shotgun, it can be picked up later next to a swarm of pinkies - its probably a better idea to try to grab the first one via the archvile-jump - it's easier. The map has about 220 monsters - and a lot of these are medium-class demons. Combat is hectic - w/ each area as fun as the next. Make sure to kill the zombies on the upper walls of the northern area prior to fighting the horde in the courtyard below - you'll avid getting picked off by chaingunners that way.

 

I love the room w/ the word 'DEATH' emboldened on the floor. I took a screenshot of it, as it is probably my favorite part of the map architecturally. Visually, this map is adequate - the author did a good job of making each area unique. I'm not really a fan of the texturing in some places - it isn't shoddy, it's just odd. The author's focus seemed to be gameplay, and not so much visual aesthetics.

 

There is also a custom MIDI of the Mission Impossible theme, which can get grating on occasion..

 

Great map w/ an experimental opening fight. Give it a shot, if you want about 20-25 minutes of old-school dooming!

 

Spoiler

 

 

Download link: https://bit.ly/3ldffq5

Edited October 5, 2021 by Arrowhead

[LadyMistDragon]

I assume everything in the Hobbes OS2 archive other than XMAS SONGS are deathmatch maps?

[Arrowhead]

16 minutes ago, LadyMistDragon said:

I assume everything in the Hobbes OS2 archive other than XMAS SONGS are deathmatch maps?

Other than 'massive.wad' - I don't think any others are single-player, but I admittedly haven't opened every single one. All the ones w/ month titles are deathmatch maps, I know that much for sure. I did a review on 'massive.wad' earlier in the review cycle - it was that weird map I had to edit because it included an unedited rip of TNT Evilution's map01, lol

 

Boxed-In, Base5, Dweller, P, Trideth, and Vortpak are all DM I think, too.

Edited October 7, 2021 by Arrowhead