Nostalgia - now on idgames! [32 Maps] [Doom 2 format]

[myolden]

Just a quick bump to announce the release of RC3! Thanks to you all for playing/commenting. I'll be sure to credit anyone who reported bugs/issues when the WAD finally gets into idgames.

[Captain Keen]

@myolden Okay, I finished playing through all the levels. FANTASTIC. Might be my personal favorite Doom II megawad of this year, and there have been some really good ones so far in 2022. Just a wonderful mix of challenging but small and tight maps. Great traps, great use of stock assets (and also tweaks to assets). Beyond everything this is FUN to play. Just fantastic work all around. Can't wait to play it again. Map 32 reminded me of Go 2 It, really challenging the first time through in Ultra-Violence. Always nice to see some nazi v. Cyberdemon action, too.

Only 2 things I remember noticing, and these are admittedly MINOR things...

 

1) In Map 19, once you use the (red?) key, I feel like maybe there should be a gate blocking the exit until the Cyberdemon is killed? Or maybe add two Cyberdemons? I accidentally ran past him to the exit without even meaning to and ended the level. Two cybies would make it near impossible to do that, or some sort of gate until he is killed. Just a thought. This might be a me thing.

 

2) This is entirely cosmetic, but in map 30 the skull cubes sometimes clip right through the walls. Others come out of the hole in the Icon's head, but some come out of the middle of the wall. I do love this map, the idea of the 4 Icons on each wall, and when I no-clipped I saw the John Romero head is behind the first Icon you face as a player. I don't even know if it's fixable (or worth changing) with the way the demon spitter works, but it is one thing that stood out to me as looking "incomplete" in an otherwise amazingly well-polished and professional megawad.

 

Anyway... great work, thank you for sharing!

 

EDIT: Oh right, I played RC2, and upgraded to RC3, in the latest GZDoom with software rendering. Played on Ultra-Violence.

Edited August 13, 2022 by Captain Keen

[Shanoa]

Continued some more, just reached MAP12 when I realized there was a new version of the megawad and considering how MAP11 end it's timely! By the way, and it's just a small note, the intermission text after MAP11 got a typo in it, it says "Contratulations" but that's like...not even an issue, just worth pointing out.

 

But I gotta say, I love how you hide your secrets, they're not always obvious but that's the thing you have to pay reaaaaally close attention to the environment beyond just odd texturing. Like with MAP11 or MAP10 with the single blue torch. That first BFG secret made me go "duhh how did I not notice".

 

Again, need to reiterate but your levels are amazingly fun to explore and 100%, encounters are starting to become dangerous little by little. Now if you'll excuse me I got MAP12 to go see.

Edited August 22, 2022 by Shanoa

[myolden]

One final bump from me to let everyone know that the wad is now available on idgames! Check the OP for the link.

[EffinghamHuffnagel]

I noticed the wad date of the release version is 8/8/22, but you posted RC3 on 8/12/22. Was there a problem with MAP30 that made you revert back to RC2 for the final release?

[myolden]

12 minutes ago, EffinghamHuffnagel said:

I noticed the wad date of the release version is 8/8/22, but you posted RC3 on 8/12/22. Was there a problem with MAP30 that made you revert back to RC2 for the final release?

Nope, RC3 should be the idgames version. Not sure why the file shows the date as 8/8.

Edited August 23, 2022 by myolden

[ImOnThePoH]

Great work!

[myolden]

Double checked and it looks like I uploaded the wrong version to idgames. Whoops! Going to fix this ASAP.

[Gifty]

This looks like exactly my jam, can't wait to try it!

[Zaratul]

Completed this wad today, great stuff! This deserves a cacoward!

[Shepardus]

FWIW in the RC3 wad I have (dated 8/12, MD5 hash be653b842d85ba4924b7b3cf5285a4aa), one of the cyberdemons in MAP30 gets telefragged, despite the changelog saying that RC3 was supposed to fix that, but it doesn't happen with the version I downloaded from /idgames (dated 8/8, MD5 hash c41b6640e4aca844ed0bd6a65e75707a). Everything besides MAP30 is identical between the two WADs. I feel like there's been a confusion of which version's which.

Edited August 24, 2022 by Shepardus

[myolden]

1 hour ago, Shepardus said:

FWIW in the RC3 wad I have (dated 8/12, MD5 hash be653b842d85ba4924b7b3cf5285a4aa), one of the cyberdemons in MAP30 gets telefragged, despite the changelog saying that RC3 was supposed to fix that, but it doesn't happen with the version I downloaded from /idgames (dated 8/8, MD5 hash c41b6640e4aca844ed0bd6a65e75707a). Everything besides MAP30 is identical between the two WADs. I feel like there's been a confusion of which version's which.

 

Yeah I'm not exactly sure what happened. But I did manage to sort out the correct version and sent it to idgames just to be sure. I needed to add demos anyway.

[Shanoa]

Finished the mapset, definitely cacoward material. Great from start to finish, the hell maps can get tricky real fast but there's tons of fantastic encounters too. MAP16 is probably my favorite visually, it,s also filled with doom cute (like that tool shed). The crypt part was also a lot of fun to explore and battle through. I know it's on idgames now but in that map I saw some texture bleed in the area with all the former humans and archvile. Figured i'd report on it.

 

Spoiler

 

I'll need to play more of your maps, thanks again for this megawad.

[myolden]

22 minutes ago, Shanoa said:

Finished the mapset, definitely cacoward material. Great from start to finish, the hell maps can get tricky real fast but there's tons of fantastic encounters too. MAP16 is probably my favorite visually, it,s also filled with doom cute (like that tool shed). The crypt part was also a lot of fun to explore and battle through. I know it's on idgames now but in that map I saw some texture bleed in the area with all the former humans and archvile. Figured i'd report on it.

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

I'll need to play more of your maps, thanks again for this megawad.

 

That's a strange texture issue, which source port are you playing on?

[Shanoa]

8 minutes ago, myolden said:

 

That's a strange texture issue, which source port are you playing on?

LZDoom, could be an issue specific to this port. Not sure, not too knowledgeable with port stuff.

 

EDIT: Yeah, checked with Prboom+ and the issue is not present, @myolden.

Edited August 25, 2022 by Shanoa

[RHhe82]

Just downloaded it as I saw it on top of idGames list and played the first three maps... Looks great! It's mind-boggling when you state in the text file that the wad was made in "few months". It'd take me a few months just to do the first couple of maps :-D

 

Anyway, gonna play the rest now.

[myolden]

55 minutes ago, RHhe82 said:

Just downloaded it as I saw it on top of idGames list and played the first three maps... Looks great! It's mind-boggling when you state in the text file that the wad was made in "few months". It'd take me a few months just to do the first couple of maps :-D

 

Anyway, gonna play the rest now.

 

For the sake of total transparency I will say that I didn't exactly keep track of my build time, so it may have been a bit longer than "a few" months. This build time is simply an estimate. Although what is "a few" of anything? When I think of "a few months" I usually think of 3 to 4, but what about 5? At 6 you might say it's time to go with "half a year" but I think a convincing argument could be made that 6 months fits neatly into the overlapping circles of the Venn diagram detailing "a few" and "half a year". 

So I guess we can go with that. Less than 6 months, more than 3. I know for a fact that the project started in August of last year, but progress was made in bursts where I would let the wad sit and collect dust for a month or two every now and again. And of course there was also the time waiting to hear back from testers. I think in the future I should probably document this kind of stuff better, but I also know myself enough to predict that I probably won't.

[RHhe82]

9 minutes ago, myolden said:

Less than 6 months, more than 3

 

It's still amazingly fast from my point of view :-D

 

(I started thinking that for me, it might take a week to do one map. That's dedicating all my free time after sleeping and work. No movies, no playing wads, no exercise, no nothing. So, 32 weeks for a megawad. I guess that's only something like 8 months, but also it's very optimistic appraisal. Now, I know you're more experienced mapper than me (I've come across some of your maps previously), so the comparison is unfair for me... but whatever, I'm still standing in awe and admiration!).

[ryiron]

I'm probably going to regret this a few more maps in, but here's a playlist with UV-Maxes of maps 1-5 with fast monsters. 

 

 

[Stupid Bunny]

I'm a few maps in and I'm loving this so far.  The visual design is definitely a bit more hi-fi than the Nostalgia title would suggest (which isn't bad obviously), but gameplay-wise it's that nice crispy crunchy Doominess that we've been living since forever.  Lots of fun secrets to hunt, several of which still need to be found--I love that, <100% secrets means a mystery left to be uncovered.  I'm not gonna go too deep into impressions since I've only just started but definitely congratulations for making this happen.  I'm always in awe of anybody who can make even an episode of quality maps in a few months, let alone a full-size megawad.

[myolden]

The wad has been updated on idgames! The correct version this time, including all of the revisions listed in the OP. Apologies for any inconvenience.

Edited August 28, 2022 by myolden

[franckFRAG]

I just played the first ten maps, and it was fantastic !

Great work myolden !

 

However, I noticed a hom in the map08 :

 

Edited September 11, 2022 by franckFRAG

[myolden]

@franckFRAG Thank you, glad you're enjoying the set! Those pesky HoMs just seem to keep showing up, haha. 

[ryiron]

I've finished a UV-Fast playthrough of this wad, and had a lot of fun playing these maps. The blend of old school and new school in architecture, design and combat all works seamlessly. Routing the maps for UV-Fast was fun, especially from the middle of the wad onwards as the maps start getting more difficult. The combat is well balanced, and varied, and none of the fights ever feel too unfair. 

 

The map designs are great. They flow well, very rarely leaving the player wondering where to go, and have some clever reuse of space. I think I found most of the secrets, only having to check the editor for a small handful of them (shakes fist at fake walls). Some of the maps have a little bit too much style over substance for me, mostly in the city/office type maps, where the combat falls into peek-a-boo shooting from doors. However, maps like the subway station (map14) really make up for it cool style factor. 

 

The hell episode is my favourite, with some arena style fights like map26 that let you unleash chaos with in-fighting, and some awesome grand hellish architecture. I did find that the difficulty dropped off towards the end of the third episode, with maps 23 and 26 being the hardest for me, and the subsequent maps being fairly easy in comparison. 

 

Thanks for the nostalgic trip down memory lane, playing polished versions of myhouse.wad, graveyard, subway, and office themed maps, and some maps that would have slotted in nicely as replacements for downtown, the factory, etc.

 

Anyway, enjoy a video of me dying a bunch:

 

[myolden]

@ryiron Thanks for the videos! It's really cool to see how this set plays out with -fast enabled. 

[NightFright]

You wrote "limit removing" in the into text, but just to clearify: Which is the intended complevel for this? CL2 or CL9?

[myolden]

45 minutes ago, NightFright said:

You wrote "limit removing" in the into text, but just to clearify: Which is the intended complevel for this? CL2 or CL9?

 

My bad, I forgot to specify. CL2.

[NightFright]

Well, it was more or less implied by the "simpler geometry" part in your description, just wanted to make sure. Thanks!

[hakros]

Hi, awesome megawad, thanks for share it !
I will include it in my app at next release.
https://hakros.itch.io/hakros-doom-launcher
Greetings !

[Insaneprophet]

Truely enjoyed playing through this entire set. Top notch work. My only gripe, if it can be called a gripe 😋, i would have loved listening to midi versions of the map song titles while running around killing demons. On a side note, Morgoth, Odium and Morbid Angel, Domination ARE the perfect sound tracks to this game. Always have been, always will be 😀. Keep up the good work. This definately deserves a cacoaward in my book!