Shovelware Society #43 - JON31.WAD & DOOMFIRE.WAD (and also QUAKE! if anyone seriously wants to check out E1M3

[LadyMistDragon]

Ok, Gibbon picked the wads this time. Here they are! We'll give voting until, say Wednesday evening.

 

CYBERDNCE.WAD (Doom 2) - Soulsphere

SUDDEN.WAD (Doom 2) - Megasphere

ONE.WAD (Doom 1) - Blursphere

TRITON.WAD (DOOM 1) - Invulnerbility

 

[LadyMistDragon]

Guess Cyberdnce is the winner...unless @sandwedge wants to make it a tie. Description will be updated later, but that's no reason to wait!

 

 

[LadyMistDragon]

CYBERDNCE.WAD

by Al Cowski

 

Oh boy, classic shovelware, though it's quite painless but maybe not. I don't think you can replicate the door-opening effect showcased by a few doors here in Doom Builder. Too bad, it looks so wonderfully janky. At the least, the color scheme remains fairly consistent throughout. You gotta love the pointless Invulnerbility Spheres though. And the hallway with the hidden BFG is the most needlessly backtracking aspect I've come across thus far. Oh yeah, and there's an arrow pointing at a wall to the side of the entrance to the rk room. I don't know if you have to go there to do anything, but it does result in an utterly desultroy battle with a cyberdemon and 2 Barons that's entirely skippable. Which I guess is on par for the course. It's definitely not hard to get the yellow key though! Anyone else just love the chaingunner traps? The one in the inviswall was such BS, noping was the only option.

 

PS Sorry for the delay. I was too busy playing a good ZDoom mod.

lmd_pandora_dance.zip

Edited July 26, 2022 by LadyMistDragon

[Walter confetti]

I remember this, at least the weird title/file name! Was part of one of the CDs i own, i recall some sort of brown brick throne room with a cyberdemon in it, it's there?

[BigBoy91]

Now here's some shovelware. Definitely way too much space and too few enemies. Gotta love when you can completely skip battles too. Took me a minute to figure out the SR50 trick to get the yellow key, because I had a few too many beers on Saturday. The chaingunner traps took me by surprise the first time. Lots of soulspheres and megaspheres in areas that don't really warrant them. The only challenge in this map was navigating it.

[EnrichedUranium]

CYBERDNCE.WAD

 

Way, way, way fewer Cyberdemons than I expected.  A whole one!  I skipped a ton of fights and ended up bumbling back into them looking for monsters.  Almost rocketed myself to death after i jumped into the large hole and got surrounded by pinkies and a revenant.  The maps were huge with way too few monsters.  There was a variety of textures used. 

 

A totally passable, if boring piece of shovelware. 

[LadyMistDragon]

Ok, here are this week's wads. Choose wisely. Will @Luleta return this week? Will we finally get Coffin2.wad? Who knows!

 

Supercharge: ODYSSEY.WAD (DOOM II, 7 maps)

Megasphere: OHFUN.WAD (DOOM II)

Invulnerbility: MADNESS.WAD (DOOM)

Invisibility: FACE.WAD (DOOM II)

 

get on it!

 

[FEDEX]

I thought Odyssey.wad did have 5 levels.. its the same .wad? Or its another 'odyssey'?

[EnrichedUranium]

It says Oh Fun right in the name, it's gotta be great.

[Luleta]

CYBRDNCE.WAD

better late than never :^3

 

voted this one expecting fun cyberdemon shenanigans tad disappointed but it's fine c,:

 

a bunch of square-ish rooms connected by halls and a main hub.

i'd say the most notable things about this are the cute door experiments which are quite amusing and the Doomsday at UAC inspired letters (as said on the text file)

also on the text file it's mentioned where this map gets it's name. it says a cyberdemon may get loose upon hitting the wrong switch forcing you to "dance" with it.

this didn't happen in my playthrough but with the amount of plasma in the level i doubt i'd have to "dance" for too long.

 

other than that kinda boring.

[LadyMistDragon]

Anyone else gonna vote?

[LadyMistDragon]

Heh, I guess ODYSSEY.WAD seems to have won. Title will shortly be updated!

[LadyMistDragon]

ODYSSEY.WAD

By Robert Chapman

 

This was actually shockingly good, although 2 things 1) They're not made for pistol-starting and 2) there are only minor signs of shovelware charm ultimately, like the enemies surrounded by barrels for no reason in Maps 5 and 6, the narrow space you start Map 01 in, and the ridiculous arrow pointing at a exit switch that could've easily been placed adjacent to the entrance of said room  in Map 06. It does provide a healthy challenge if you're playing keyboard-only, which I wasn't. I did die a few times (more than a few in Maps 2 and 3 because I pistol-started: BAD IDEA). Visually and layout-wise, it's quite 90s but there really aren't many egregious sins here. Maybe the elevator in Map 05 was pretty stupid, and the (limited) Arch-vile placement was a little bit all over the map. There are some rather nasty traps that will kill first-timers, and I spent kind of long trying to tackle a little fortress bit in Map 06 with chaingunners in the windows and a Pain Elemental in the sewer. And design's actually fairly impressive, in a sort of real-world Doom sort of way. First map is either a school or some kind of factory, though the slime pool in the middle is quite head-scratching. 2nd map seems to have an opening hallway like a Tenements homage, Map 05 is like some industrial place, Map 04 is like a brewery or something (I've been inside a few, btw) and Map 07 is an idon'tknow that I didn't finish because I I couldn't find a red key. Nearly 2-shotted the Cyber though with BFG but decided it wasn't worth the effort to waste any more.

 

 

 

lmd_odyssey.zip

[LadyMistDragon]

I'll give it another day or so just in case everybody hasn't had the time. I'm trying to play this by ear, but it's hard to know if people are apathetic or not when nothing is said(:

 

Edit: I feel I should establish a firm deadline so how about 48 hours?

Edited August 7, 2022 by LadyMistDragon

[United VirusX]

I'm good with that deadline gives me a chance to upload all the vids I have for Odyssey

Edited August 7, 2022 by United VirusX

[Dusty_Rhodes]

No video this time, it would take forever to upload lol. However, we were digging for crap and found a nugget of gold imo. This little set was really well made surprisingly. The texturing was consistent and good - looking, the traps kept me awake (especially the Pain Elemental ones, screw those guys), the regular combat was decent, and the layouts were much more than just boxes. Map01 has a really great looking (for the 90s) outdoor section and Map02 has excellent height variation and layout design in the canyon sections. Good work voting friends, this one was solid.

[Dusty_Rhodes]

11 hours ago, LadyMistDragon said:

I'll give it another day or so just in case everybody hasn't had the time. I'm trying to play this by ear, but it's hard to know if people are apathetic or not when nothing is said(:

 

Edit: I feel I should establish a firm deadline so how about 48 hours?

Would you still want me to pick some wads? Or should I wait.

[LadyMistDragon]

Yes please!

[United VirusX]

I was pleasantly surprised at how good this wad is the first two maps were nice start maps not at all difficult around map03 the wad started to amp up the difficulty with some nasty ambushes map04 was not very memorable to me think the only thing that really caught my attention was the blue key ambush map05 was probably my least fav map all cuz of that slow as molasses central elevator map06 was pretty straight forward nothing that caught my eye and the final map was not a dead simple reimagining lol I liked how the Icon of sin was used since the area wasn't a kill the Icon fight more of a get the hell out of there quick fight.

Edited August 8, 2022 by United VirusX

[United VirusX]

got around to doing a recorded playthrough of all the maps rest of the videos should be up by Sunday this week

 

 

[BigBoy91]

Played through a few of these maps, but couldn't bring myself to record a D2All. The fact that it wasn't designed for pistol start kinda overwhelmed me a bit. Fun mapset nonetheless! 😋

Edited August 13, 2022 by BigBoy91

[LadyMistDragon]

Ok, Dusty suffered an injury on his landscaping job so he'll be out. However, it seems like I can pick some wads again. (Luleta can probably do it next time). So here goes! I did have to sort out some deathmatch junk however

 

NETBEAST (Doom 1) - Supercharge

COFFIN2.WAD (Doom 2) - Megasphere

3DAYPASS.WAD (Doom 2) - Invisibility

NAPALM.WAD (Doom 2) - Invulnerbility

 

We'll give it until Saturday morning!

 

[Pegleg]

On 8/18/2022 at 7:23 PM, LadyMistDragon said:

NAPALM.WAD (Doom 2) - Invulnerbility

 

NAPALM is a Deathmatch map. I mean, there's no gameplay for single player. It looks like it could make a halfway decent map for single player if it was populated with enemies, but it's empty (unless I'm looking at the wrong NAPLAM.WAD--I found one from February 1995).

[LadyMistDragon]

6 minutes ago, Pegleg said:

 

NAPALM is a Deathmatch map. I mean, there's no gameplay for single player. It looks like it could make a halfway decent map for single player if it was populated with enemies, but it's empty (unless I'm looking at the wrong NAPLAM.WAD--I found one from February 1995).

Ok, I don't know why I did that because it had a text file that says it  but anyways we got a tie, so let's try again!

 

NETBEAST (DOOM 1) - SUPERCHARGE

COFFIN2.WAD (Doom 2) - Megasphere

3DAYPASS.WAD (Doom 2) - Invisibility

OUTBACK.WAD (Doom 2) - Invulnerbility

[United VirusX]

My vote goes to 3daypass

[Dusty_Rhodes]

OUTBACK.WAD - I want some steak!

[LadyMistDragon]

3DAYPASS has won! Description will be updated momentarily. Let's give it until Saturday evening!

Edited August 21, 2022 by LadyMistDragon

[United VirusX]

The map feels very familiar like I've played it before anyway I can definitely see 3DAYPASS being on a shovelware disk the map feels like someone's first attempt at making a DOOM map its short not at all difficult the map does have an odd see-through wall that blocks off the exit first time around I was confused thinking it was a door but nope just a mid texture that blocks the player.

 

 

 

Edited August 23, 2022 by United VirusX

[LadyMistDragon]

3DAYPASS.WAD By Doctor Bombay aka AgX

 

Ok, this is more like it! While lacking the schizophrenic, yet strangely bland quality of Fred2, lots of ideas are thrown into the blender without any regard for consistency, although some of the texture choices seem to indicate this may be the location of some unearthed ruins. Although I have to chuckle at all the shotgun guys in the opening library. They're all quite upset you didn't turn in your pass on time. But of course, there are invisible doors, incredibly inconsistent damaging floors (did you know someone decided to place Megaarmor in the middle of a tire fire? I didn't), zero texture alignment, and enemy placement with basically zero thought. Also, if you don't have the red key, you can get softlocked and be unable to proceed. The red key's location, incidentally, may not be behind a nondescript wall but is one of the most idiotic and obscure locations imaginable. Placing the exit in SHAWN of all things behind a previously inaccessible barrier just shows such a lack of taste.

lmd_pandora_3day.zip

[Luleta]

3DAYPASS.WAD

 

all the shovelware charms we love to see, one of those maps where it seems like the creator just stitched a bunch of different rooms together experimenting with doom mechanics.

 

the first lift traps surprised me until i realized they featured only shotgunners which are already present everywhere on the level.

i hope you like shotgunners, im not surprised this wad used to be called "sargent2.wad".

the text file provides some backstory which may explain the amount of shotgunners, but gameplay-wise it's a lot of very open rooms with hitscanners which gets kinda dull.

 

weirdly shaped rooms make a comeback as it's tradition with random inconsistent texturing, again, like a bunch of random rooms stitched together.

"in this one we have lift traps, in this one a cage, in this one fire that hurts you, etc..."

 

only 1 of the 3 keys present in the level is required to exit for some reason. i feel like the creator was like "yeah we gotta have all keys in the level for it to be good"

invincibility for fighting one boss enemy is also present because we HAVE to have an epic fight in the end, but we also can't really kill a cybie because its TOO HARDDDDDD.

 

shotouts to the teleporter "puzzle" at the end that is required to be taken in a different way for it to actually take you to the exit. 

i'm glad i just happened to try it, i think it's quite a common 90s wad trope, not my favorite.

 

i did die at the cybie because i wasn't expecting him to shoot me through those tiny gaps, i was actually asking out loud "can he shoot me through that?"

yes, yes he can.

i did take revenge on my next try by two-shoting him so all is forgiven >:)

 

luleta_pandora_3dp.zip

Edited August 25, 2022 by Luleta