Shovelware Society #13 - WAD.WAD Week

[Gibbon]

23 minutes ago, Andromeda said:

Hmm, is it Red Rock or Red Room?

Redroom 

 

curse the URL linking only red :)

[adamastor]

55 minutes ago, Gibbon said:

Well I thought it best to drop it here, since it is sort of shovelware.

 

Our wiki overlord @Redneckerz is a tad under the weather, so we will add another wad for this week:
https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom/p-r/redroom

Glad to see that you went ahead and shared this here. We have until Friday to play this all the same, in hopes of summoning Asmodeus and ask him to get Red back in tip top shape.

[Gibbon]

Done, redroom is a blast!  But surprisingly difficult.

 

I did it three times.  One on UV (died) another on HMP (died) and this time as fast as I could beat it (ITYTD).

 

Demo (on SRCD Doom - Vanilla compatible):

REDNECKERZFTW.zip

[adamastor]

5 hours ago, Gibbon said:

Demo (on SRCD Doom - Vanilla compatible):

REDNECKERZFTW.zip

Great demo, Gibs. That was almost a speedrun.

 

Here's my demo: REDRULES.7z

Played on DOSBox 0.74-3, in skill 4.

Got 49/ 56 kills, and only 1/4 secrets.

 

A pretty fun map. Ammo was really scarce on UV, at least for me, and I had to take down that Baron bit by bit, and get up and close to punching a few Pinkies and Spectres while berserkless.

The blue key, which is essential to progress, is somewhat placed as if it was a secret (nineties style), and there's a switch that gives way to the red keycard room which can only be shot to be activated (so it's essential to save bullets or shells for that, at least.

I really liked the titular red room, even if it's combat was pretty tame. But it had to, on account of the map's general ammo deprivation.

 

 

Really don't know where the rest of the monsters were hiding, but maybe I'll come across them next time.

All in all, good stuff.

 

And, most importantly, get well soon, @Redneckerz!

 

Here's the original zip, if anyone's interested to join in: redroom.zip

Edited February 16, 2022 by Mr. Kong

[Helm]

I ran through the school wad. My thoughts and criticism mostly in a long ramble at the end of this playthrough.
 

 

Edited February 18, 2022 by Helm

[adamastor]

Solid video, @Helm, and a very nice ramble, that definitely stands for a good review.

 

Glad to see you keep up with these adventures.

[Helm]

Thanks! I also did this one just to juxtapose with something a bit better. 

This one comes with some ancient but still murderous thrash metal that is era appropriate as a replacement to the stock music to get that total 'I am playing doom in 1994 and blasting my tape deck' simulated experience
 

 

[adamastor]

8 minutes ago, Helm said:

Thanks! I also did this one just to juxtapose with something a bit better. 

This one comes with some ancient but still murderous thrash metal that is era appropriate as a replacement to the stock music to get that total 'I am playing doom in 1994 and blasting my tape deck' simulated experience
 

 

Good stuff, bud. Glad to see you join in the Red Room.
Redneckerz thanks you for your service, marine.

 

Once again, that ramble doubles as a nice review. You could consider writing some of it down here, for future outings.

 

 

Also, that era appropriate Thrash Metal track was a very cool idea. What's the track called, by the way?

Edited February 18, 2022 by Mr. Kong

[Helm]

Three tracks, Morbid Saint - Lock Up Your Children, Demolition Hammer - Crippling Velocity and Devastation - Deliver the Suffering.

I concur I don't really expect people to watch a full weird playthrough of a wad just to get to final remarks, so if I do this more I'll be reiterating on the final points in text!

 

[adamastor]

The voting booths have closed.

 

And this week's winner is WINDOWS.WAD for DOOM II (MAP01), with four votes!

 

We now have until Friday to play through it and share our reviews, demos and videos on it right here on this thread.

 

If you want to join us on this one, you can get the WAD here: WINDOWS.7z

 

 

Last but not least, Redneckerz's still needs you, marine, so grab this here: redroom2.7z, and give him some well-deserved moral support.

Edited February 21, 2022 by Mr. Kong
Extra, Extra, WINDOWS.WAD wins the election!

[Thelokk]

1 hour ago, Mr. Kong said:

It's that time of the week, fellas.

This week's WADs were salvaged from a luscious tropical rainforest by our very own Gibbon so, if they suck, it's all on him:

 

FAFA.WAD (DOOM2)          -          Soulsphere

 

GERBILZ2.WAD (DOOM2)   -          Megasphere

 

PLAGUE.WAD (DOOM)        -          Partial Invisibility

 

WINDOWS.WAD (DOOM2)   -         Invulnerability

 

Also, I found out that there's a sequel to Red Room, aptly tilted redroom2, in Maximum Doom, so we'll also play that as a bonus, as our bud, Redneckerz, is still feeling a bit under the weather.

 

And that's that. Let's get voting.

 

A shovelware wad named Windows? Shovelware in my shovelware?

Edited February 20, 2022 by Thelokk

[adamastor]

4 minutes ago, Thelokk said:

 

A shovelware wad named Windows? Shovelware in my shovelware? 

Maybe we'll find a BGATES.WAD Partial Conversion, one of these days.

[Gibbon]

Come on team gerbilz XD

 

I have a scar on my pinky from my pet gerbil as a kid...  nasty things they are 

[Dusty_Rhodes]

Let's hope for Windoze 

 

Anyway, sorry I'm late on Redroom 1 and 2. Haven't had much time to play, much less record lately I'll try and record the videos tonight and upload in the morning. Even if I'm late it's better to do them.

[adamastor]

1 hour ago, Dusty_Rhodes said:

Anyway, sorry I'm late on Redroom 1 and 2. Haven't had much time to play, much less record lately I'll try and record the videos tonight and upload in the morning. Even if I'm late it's better to do them.

Don't worry about it, Dusty.

Join in at your own pace, bud.

[LadyMistDragon]

Windows sounds fascinating, but to be contrarian, I voted for the likely abortion of Plague:)

 

And here's the demo of Redroom by Jeff Gardner. Invisible walls are still dumb but there are some good rooms. I was half-expecting a random Cyberdemon in the little outdoor bit with baron/Cacodemon. Also felt those total '94 stinker vibes emitting from the fact that only oppsition in large red room was shotgun guys on large pillars.

 

 

redroom_pandora.zip

[adamastor]

45 minutes ago, LadyMistDragon said:

Windows sounds fascinating, but to be contrarian, I voted for the likely abortion of Plague:)

You know how it is, Lady. Windows and shovelware go together like peanut butter and jelly.

 

46 minutes ago, LadyMistDragon said:

And here's the demo of Redroom by Jeff Gardner. Invisible walls are still dumb but there are some good rooms. I was half-expecting a random Cyberdemon in the little outdoor bit with baron/Cacodemon. Also felt those total '94 stinker vibes emitting from the fact that only oppsition in large red room was shotgun guys on large pillars.

 

 

redroom_pandora.zip

Glad to see you joined in the Red Room too. You can expect it's sequel to be included on our itinerary for this week, so Redneckerz can grow even more poweful.

[adamastor]

This week's winner's WINDOWS.WAD, folks.

 

Let's get to it!

[Thelokk]

And here it comes!

Spoiler

GZDoom, HMP. Butter fingers, so it actually took me two tries!

 

Jeebes, that opening fight! attacked on all sides by a near-unfair number of hitscanners and cacos, you're bound to find out too late that you are given the necessary blender to make some tasty tobasco sauce. The author states that this map was first conceptualized as a DM map, and it shows: it's basically one huge octagon, one central room furnished with side alcoves from which one can snipe unwary opponents. The monster count is pretty low, and mostly concentrated in the first, wild ambush - run for cover as soon as you load in! Ammo is plenty as so is health, though you might have to spacebar your way around it in order to find it. 

Grab the two keys and get ready for some slightly more heavy duty opposition, but with the plasma gun provided you should be golden. A bit of a letdown ending, to be honest, given how wild the early seconds were.

Not much more to say, really. Windows I was promised, and windows I was given. At least there were no blue screens of death...

 

(If only I knew beforehand...)

 

 

Edited February 21, 2022 by Thelokk

[Helm]

Here's Windows, first the blind playthrough (including the few deaths alongside the winning run). Once again, era-appropriate heavy metal blasting in my tape deck behind the map because we do not need more d_runnin, do we? A couple of tracks from Windham Hell's obscure neoclassical but deathly album appropriately named 'Window of Souls'.
 

short review: fun and reasonably hectic little coffee break challenge. For its vintage I'm pretty sure the difficulty in the opening situation is more the result of making a deathmatch map and then saying 'how do I make it hard for single player?' as an afterthought, and for this sort of situation I think it plays out well, feels a bit modern for all the different ways you get attacked and how you have to establish a foothold in the open space. Map very generous with guns, ammo and health so it's mostly about getting out of the initial bit of trouble and then you systematically take everything else apart.

Weird door textures made me deprioritize getting into some rooms I should have gotten into way earlier. Mean shallow elevators taking you up to 2-3 sergeants makes it a roll of the dice if you're going to survive the first time around before you know to health and armor up before you go meet the fellas. No idea why the pits teleport you back up immediately, I'd have made them just do 20% damage and give a few miserable seconds for the player to ponder the error of their ways before restarting. 

Died a few times trying to bully enemies I shouldn't be bullying like the spider momma, was surprised she actually gets crushed in this map since there's definitely ammo to rush her along to her inevitable demise.

The dark bits of corridor are mean. I appreciate them but I probably wouldn't do something like this exactly, it feels a bit tacky in a modern sense for 'you can't see shit' to be a gimmick to add difficulty to an encounter. But it's such a short map, it's fine.

I had fun! 

[adamastor]

Got the chance to play through WINDOWS.WAD, by Joe Curry, today.

 

 

Here's my demo: WINDOWS_Kong.7z

Played on DOSBox 0.74-3, in UV.

I got all 66 kills, and found the map's only secret (guess what the secret is...).

 

And my humble review's in the spoiler below:

Spoiler

This one really has a hot start on UV, but if you grab that Big Fucking Gun and strafe the hell outta Dodge, you'll be fine.

After that, the combat occurs mainly in a kind of windows that circle the big arena, hence the title, I assume, where certain monsters lie, mostly Arachnos (which are a solid choice for automated turret type enemies), some Chaingunners and Shotgunners.

As you deal with that, you'll come across a handy skull switch (in my case, it was accidental) that activates a crusher that deals with the map's Mastermind (in a nice DOOM II reference), so you don't have to.

 

 

The map's secret is the red keycard, which is essential for the map's progression, and which I eventually stumbled upon while searching every nook and cranny.

 

 

After that and some Agitating Skeletons joining the party, and obtaining the blue keycard, I became a little lost, and it took me a while to head on to the locked blue door, which was on me.

The ending has a couple of Fatsos guarding it, and it's not anything worth writing home about.

So the standouts, for me, really were the initial, chaotic, escape, and the ability to deal with the boss in two ways, as both are perfectly doable.

 

All in all, it was pretty fun, even though it does seem really though of for DM, as countless shovelware WADs were.

Good stuff.

 

Next up: redroom2.wad!

[Helm]

Also, here's redroom2 for good measure. Music on top by Kreator, Atrocity, Cemetary and At the Gates, all songs to do with viscus, sanguine humours, crimson bloody red, red red, because why not?

Blind playthrough over here. 
 

Short review: better than redroom1 by a margin. Always exciting to see mappers learn as they go. Mapper is trying to do some linedef trigger progression and I got the hang of it eventually but I did get confused about how I was supposed to lower that blue key flesh platform. On review I realize now I just didn't press the very obvious switch, my bad, I get confused very often, especially when I'm talking and playing. Need more braincells to pull that off convincingly. A minor idclip sojourn aside, managed to get through this one feeling 'this is almost a good level', which, by shovelware standards is pretty good!

Main criticism involves the use of a cyberdemon in a cramped room including a side tunnel that's basically a death trap. The sensible thing is to kill the cyber from outside his arena, camping a door, which means something went wrong on the mapping side imo. The spider momma is nearly a non-issue, but connected with narrow walkways over hurtfloor and a big ol' red door-with-HP in makes for a little bit of actual tension so I'm not gonna say one more useless mastermind. I'd have it crushed after opening the HP door, though.

Most upsetting thing about the map is the uneven rising staircase, to be honest. Actually, hold on, the biggest annoyance is plasma not going over the little ledge to hit the mommy spider. 

Most fun had was that sneaky vile, but I kind of had to make my own fun, there.

Warranted placement of a computer map at the right juncture as one might start to get frustrated with the invisible triggers and hidden walls. As an automap enthusiast I commend any early effort that uses that pickup well. Even lightamp goggles are correctly used!

On the bug side you can finish the level early by interacting with a random side of that flesh platform that the blue key is on. It could be DSDADoom, I don't know with these old maps. I did -complevel 2 in any case.

Edited February 21, 2022 by Helm

[adamastor]

2 hours ago, Thelokk said:

And here it comes!

  Reveal hidden contents

Nice review, lokk. I agree with your take on the map's ending.

And that screenshot that showcases the aftermath of your rampage is pretty cool.

 

2 hours ago, Thelokk said:

At least there were no blue screens of death...

Nice one.

 

 

 

 

1 hour ago, Helm said:

Here's Windows, first the blind playthrough (including the few deaths alongside the winning run). Once again, era-appropriate heavy metal blasting in my tape deck behind the map because we do not need more d_runnin, do we? A couple of tracks from Windham Hell's obscure neoclassical but deathly album appropriately named 'Window of Souls'.
 

short review: fun and reasonably hectic little coffee break challenge. For its vintage I'm pretty sure the difficulty in the opening situation is more the result of making a deathmatch map and then saying 'how do I make it hard for single player?' as an afterthought, and for this sort of situation I think it plays out well, feels a bit modern for all the different ways you get attacked and how you have to establish a foothold in the open space. Map very generous with guns, ammo and health so it's mostly about getting out of the initial bit of trouble and then you systematically take everything else apart.

Weird door textures made me deprioritize getting into some rooms I should have gotten into way earlier. Mean shallow elevators taking you up to 2-3 sergeants makes it a roll of the dice if you're going to survive the first time around before you know to health and armor up before you go meet the fellas. No idea why the pits teleport you back up immediately, I'd have made them just do 20% damage and give a few miserable seconds for the player to ponder the error of their ways before restarting. 

Died a few times trying to bully enemies I shouldn't be bullying like the spider momma, was surprised she actually gets crushed in this map since there's definitely ammo to rush her along to her inevitable demise.

The dark bits of corridor are mean. I appreciate them but I probably wouldn't do something like this exactly, it feels a bit tacky in a modern sense for 'you can't see shit' to be a gimmick to add difficulty to an encounter. But it's such a short map, it's fine.

I had fun!  

Great video and review, Helm. I'm glad to see you share your thoughts in writing here on the thread as well.

That track that's blasting on the background was, once again, a good choice, and the commentary is pretty well-done.

 

I also agree with the low light thing being gimmicky, but you know how nineties mapping was.

And yeah, the hot start really is this maps greatest selling point.

 

Edit: you already did redroom2 as well, I see. You're a machine, man.

I'll read the review and check out the video later, after I have a go at it as well.

Edited February 21, 2022 by Mr. Kong

[adamastor]

Also managed to play redroom2.wad today. There's no textfile to match the WAD in the Maximum Doom CD but, if it really is a "sequel" to the one we played last week, than it's author could be Jeff Gardner too.

 

Anyway, here's my demo: redroom2_kong.7z

 

And a small review on the spoiler below:

Spoiler

Played on DOSBox 0.74-3, on skill 4, and I got 90/ 91 kills. There's no secrets to be found on this map.

This map really feels like a sequel to Red Room. It's much more expansive, and tougher combat, even with a low body count, some nasty ambushes, non confusing progression or key placement, and a great aesthetic overall.

 

 

It features not only a Mastermind (granted, it's a little ineffective on account of how she is placed), as well as a very nasty Cybie.

My favourite encounters though were the shootout in the dark hallway dotted with colourful torches, the close quarters fight with the map's sole Vile, and, of course, the final bout against the Cybie, which can get even more complicated due to a misleading Blursphere that lies close by.

 

 

The only thing I found slightly weird was the gang of blind and/ or deaf Imps that guarded the exit, though that could be intended as a stress release for the player.

All in all, this one's top-shelf shovelware. Good stuff, indeed.

 

[LadyMistDragon]

Windows by Joe Curry

 

Oh 90s shovelware. Don't you just love it? What seems like a typical sort of fort becomes something entirely different in the outer rings, not to mention several overly-dark rooms that are dark for zero reason, far as I can tell. But this was probably a surprisingly solid deathmatch, other than the whole offensive (and mostly tech) ugliness of the outer regions. Putting the red key in an essentially invisible closet was exactly what you'd expect though. And for seemingly the 50th time, I kill a Spidermastermind without realizing there was a crusher that could've done the job just as well.

 

This is actually the best map I've played for C:\Pandora so far. Enemy placement gets a touch haphazard, and the traps seem to be all random monster groupings. But quite engaging to those honing their skills through deathmatch I'm sure. Like would we have Exquisite Corpse is it wasn't for folks making maps like this? I don't think so.

demo windows.zip

[Gibbon]

Windows...  by Joe Curry

Note: Videos were uploaded at 30FPS as I forgot to enable 60FPS recording on my new machine..  oops!

 

Spoiler

Well, I certainly dislike the name and the theme.  The 'Windows' being nothing more than a heightened floor sector and a lowered ceiling sector.  No transparent textures here!

 

The level layout is somewhat interesting, but the key that can be used to activate the central crusher is too open.  I didn't use Ultra Violence for this, but being able to crush the Spider Mastermind without much effort kind of defeats the difficulty spike in UV runs.

 

The Red and Blue key doors are apparently just for show as the level doesn't contain them (at least I couldn't find them).  Mr Curry also appears to like hidden monsters and tons of powerups, health and ammo.

 

The starting location could have been changed a bit as the central hub would have been better as a penultimate frag fest rather than a spawn location.  On UV with fastmonsters enabled, you get cut down in seconds..

 

Overall, you can clearly tell that it is a DM level first and a SP level second.  It doesn't gel with me at all.

 

Summary: the level shares its name with the Operating System; crude, ugly and barely functional.

 

 

Since I wanted gerbilz I did a playthrough of that too

Spoiler

Gerbilz...  by someone unknown.

 

To be honest, I'd want to be unknown too if I made a WAD like that in 1996.  I don't know where the name came from (perhaps the author also had an evil pet gerbil that gave them a scar?) but I do know that it is a mess of mismatched, textured rooms that push you into a central courtyard where you must navigate a maze of skulls to find hidden rooms behind a middle linedef that serve no purpose (other than to exit the level).  There is no README so I don't know if this is another DM level made to be SP..

 

I was looking forward to some Gerbils, but all I got was a pie in the face.  Goodnight Gerbilz, this run is done.

 

 

[adamastor]

8 hours ago, LadyMistDragon said:

This is actually the best map I've played for C:\Pandora so far.

Glad you think so, milady. Solid review too: short, concise and to the point.

 

 

 

18 minutes ago, Gibbon said:

 

Summary: the level shares its name with the Operating System; crude, ugly and barely functional.

That sums up your take on WINDOWS.WAD pretty well, Gibs.

 

19 minutes ago, Gibbon said:

I was looking forward to some Gerbils, but all I got was a pie in the face.

Poor Gibs. May you find your mortal enemy on another WAD, friend.

[xdude_gamer]

Quote

Summary: the level shares its name with the Operating System; crude, ugly and barely functional.

Lol

[LadyMistDragon]

Red Room II by Anonymous

 

Not the same map as another one with the same name in the archives, this one has some rather interesting details to say the least. Like how stepping anywhere combat armor happens to be both in the opening room and the following one will lower something so that you can proceed. Or the series of skull switches on the blue wall (among other details) that makes it seem someone got a little carelss with DEU. Or something that was just flat out-stupid.

 

Quote

Spoiler

Using an Arch-vile jump to reach a platform that you're just short of, especially when you need to find the exact angle was just a shitty move, I don't care.

 

Progression is rather non-confusing, although you should be on the hunt for unconventional detailing if you want to get anywhere. The fleshy blue key room was hilariously apocalyptic though. A Cyberdemon and his gridiron chaingunner gang accompany far, far more rockets than you'll ever need, as if that was the problem with putting a cybie in a tight-ass room (in all senses) such as this. Lastly, the Imps at the exit not waking up until you fire at them was just hilarious.

 

 

redrrom2_demo.zip

[adamastor]

1 hour ago, LadyMistDragon said:

Lastly, the Imps at the exit not waking up until you fire at them was just hilarious.

The cherry on top.