Unofficial Doom expansion packs

[Matthias]

Hello Doomworld,

Back in 90s people didn't care about copyright that much, so it was possible to make some maps for Doom and sell them as unofficial expansion packs.

As it seems, there is a pretty big list of these expansion packs:

https://doom.fandom.com/wiki/Commercial_games

My question is - is any of them actally good and worth playing?

Of couse, I assume it's good idea to play the rather well-known unofficial commercial projects like Sigil, Peridion's Gate, Hell to Pay and Lost Episodes...

Is there anything else? Did you try to play any of them? What do you think of them? Some of them contain 1000 levels, which sounds too much - are they actual playable levels or just one room with exit switch? :D Anything you could recommend? Thanks!

[Endless]

^{Ew that wiki}

 

Well, it depends really on what you are looking for and what you enjoy playing. These weren't really expansion packs in the strict sense of the word, more like commercial compilations that used multiple WADs from across different sources, more often than not without proper permission.

 

Maximum Doom is the only proper official commercial compilation that has ever been approved by the official id team back in 1995, and it received a rather bad reception during its release for being a massive mess of poor quality levels. @Maximum Matt and @Kes Gaming YT have actually played the entirety of Maximum Doom so they can tell you more about that insanity.

 

Still, there are some very niche groups of people that enjoy these types of works, like myself. Shovelware tended to have a rather enigmatic and particular presence that makes it feel like something forbidden and out of this world, plus there's that fact that a lot of these WADs are not available anywhere else and were probably never archived in places like /idgames, so if you enjoy playing obscure stuff and near-lost media, these compilations are filled with them. And while it is generally agreed upon that most shovelware is very, VERY poor quality, there's still a few gems hidden here and there that might caught you by surprise. The fact that they can be found among tons of shitty maps makes them all the more incredible to find lol

 

As for which one is actually worth playing, well, if you are more than willing to play one of these with all the previous foreknowledge that most suck and are terrible for modern standards, than I think D!Zone is probably the best of them. @Spectere is currently playing through all of it and his videos are a blast to watch, highly enjoyable. Funny how some of the worst maps ever end up being great material to spectate lol

 

EDIT: oh, as for actual unofficial commercial packs, then Perdition's Gate and Hell To Pay. Those are actually pretty nice. Not sure about The Lost Episodes tho.

 

 

 

Edited September 6, 2023 by Endless

[Devalaous]

Perdition's Gate and Hell to Pay are absolutely worth playing, what they achieved back then would have wowed people had they been official expansions. The only flaw for me is that both run out of steam in the third episode and have short filler maps, presumably due to looming deadlines.

 

All other 'commercial' discs are only worth looking into for historical curiosity.

[AbeAwesome]

There's a pretty substantial difference between a commercially released WAD like Perdition's Gate and the compilation disks which make up the majority of the "unofficial commercial releases" for DOOM/II.

Having played a lot of the early-90s PWADs, there are certainly some levels there worth your time, but you can usually find most of them without having to resort to digging through the compilation disks. As mentioned above, @Maximum Matt played through some compilation disks, and he even has a nifty list of levels.

 

Also, can we please not link to Fandom? all they do is rip the Doom Wiki 1-to-1, and serve a shitload of ads.

[Cutman 999]

2 hours ago, Endless said:

@Maximum Matt and @Kes Gaming YT have actually played the entirety of Maximum Doom so they can tell you more about that insanity.

 

 

 

 

 

I remember @Tarnsman saying something about playing all of maximum doom some years ago. I think it was in one of the evolution of the wad streams.

Edited September 6, 2023 by Cutman 999

[TheRevenant212]

Man, Maximum Doom and D! Zone are such weird and oddly fascinating little rabbit holes. 

 

Also, please...

 

 

...never link to that wiki ever again.

[Maximum Matt]

In a funny coincidence, just yesterday I stumbled upon this guy who has the final three episodes of Tarnsman's Maximum Doom 2 series, that for some reason are missing from his Twitch account; this is his series where he went back to play the Doom I portion of Max Doom (so it's a prequel technically), and for some reason the last episodes are on this Youtube guy's vid list. 

Because I guess watching playthroughs of Max Doom chronologically has to be as convoluted as playing the thing itself.  

[Redneckerz]

It is shovelware.

 

Also linking that heinous wiki is wrong. One Lost Soul for you.

[Matthias]

16 hours ago, Endless said:

^{Ew that wiki}

Quote

Also, can we please not link to Fandom? all they do is rip the Doom Wiki 1-to-1, and serve a shitload of ads.

Quote

Also linking that heinous wiki is wrong. One Lost Soul for you.

Quote

...never link to that wiki ever again.

Ooops, sorry, ma bad.

 

Anyway, thanks for all replies :D

[Spectere]

Lost Episodes are kinda neat if you enjoy 90s weirdness (I've done full playthroughs of it on Ultra-Violence and Nightmare!, with the latter being particularly fun). I'm not sure I'd describe them as a commercial expansion, per se, given that most of the levels were freely available to download for free even at the time, but it's a neat little look at two above-average Doom WAD authors from back in the day, with the levels themselves ranging from average to pretty decent. In all honestly it's probably one of the weaker ones of the bunch, but I have a lot of nostalgia for it. :)

 

If anyone decides to play Lost Episodes, I highly recommend using @msx2plus's UMAPINFO (+graphics) pack for it if you're using a modern port.