How do I play the Master Levels in ZDoom?

[Cthulhunicron]

I know this has been asked before, and yes, I searched and looked at some old threads and they weren't very helpful.

I understand how to drag .WAD over the ZDoom executable to play it. I've done this with Doom2, Evilution, and Plutonia Experiment, plus a couple WADs I downloaded, and the WADs in Maximum Doom.

On my Master Levels CD, there is a file marked "Master." In this folder there is a file called DEICE, a Windows Batch file marked INSTALL, a file called MASTER.1, a file called MASTER.2, and a DAT file called MASTER.DAT. I don't see any WAD files. I've tried dragging all these files onto the ZDoom executable and it just takes me to a prompt asking me which WAD I'd like to open, and it gives me a choice between Doom 2, Evilution, or Plutonia. If I select any of those three, it takes me to the selected WAD, but not to any of the Master Levels.

Maximum Doom works fine, as it's a folder full of WADs which I can open with ZDoom, except for the Doom 1 wads...for some reason, those won't open.

Can someone help? Thanks.

[GreyGhost]

The wads first have to be extracted from the DAT file.

Copy the "Master" folder's contents to a temporary folder on your PC, double-click on INSTALL and follow the on-screen instructions. If double-clicking doesn't work - open a command prompt, navigate to the folder, type INSTALL and hit Enter.

[Cthulhunicron]

If I double click it to install, it tells me that \??\C:\ProgramFiles\ZDoom\MASTER\DEICE.EXE is incompatible with Windows 7 64-bit. How do I open a command line?

[RestlessRodent]

Cthulhunicron said:

If I double click it to install, it tells me that \??\C:\ProgramFiles\ZDoom\MASTER\DEICE.EXE is incompatible with Windows 7 64-bit. How do I open a command line?

Download DosBox (http://www.dosbox.com/), and run DEICE in there. DEICE is an 8086 DOS executable so it won't work on long mode since it removes virtual 8086 support.

[Gez]

Cthulhunicron said:

I understand how to drag .WAD over the ZDoom executable to play it. I've done this with Doom2, Evilution, and Plutonia Experiment

You need to learn the difference between IWAD (Internal WAD) and PWAD (Patch WAD). Drag and drop is only needed for PWADs.

Here is the list of all IWADs supported by ZDoom. If you have them all, when you start ZDoom (either directly or by drag and dropping a file on it), you'll get an IWAD selection box asking you which game you want to play.

Cthulhunicron said:

Maximum Doom works fine, as it's a folder full of WADs which I can open with ZDoom, except for the Doom 1 wads...for some reason, those won't open.

Doom II levels are named MAP01, MAP02, MAP03, etc. up to MAP32. Doom 1 levels are named ExMy, with x the episode number (between 1 and 4 in The Ultimate Doom), and y the name number (between 1 and 9). So if you use Doom II or a Final Doom IWAD to play a Doom 1 map, you'll never get to play the map that's replaced. You could use the "map" console command to go to it anyway, but since there are some texture changes between Doom 1 and Doom 2, it's better to play Doom 1 mods with the Doom 1 IWAD.

[Devalaous]

Didn't Maximum Doom convert them to Doom 2 wads thus breaking them? Or was that something else on the disc?

Anyway, I like everyone else have issues with Master Levels. I got overambitious and tried to make a proper wad out of them :D

[Gez]

Ragnor said:

Anyway, I like everyone else have issues with Master Levels. I got overambitious and tried to make a proper wad out of them :D

Try this.

[Devalaous]

Gez said:

Try this.

Actually I have a working wad thanks to Super Jamie's help long ago, its just that I got overambitious and brought in similar levels from the same authors (notably the levels from Master Levels that were part of a series) to fill it to 32 maps, then used it as an excuse to put in map info to change the level names and make it much like its own iwad (inspiration from PSX Final Doom, which was for a long time the only way I could play any of them)

I got frustrated and rage quit many times, and this is why I play Doom, not edit it >_>

It'd be really nice to get a reissue of it or official modification of it just to clear up the TERRIBLE way it was released

[Gez]

There is such reissue in the Steam distribution... No need to deice it.

[Devalaous]

I mean one thats actually easy to use like every other Doom game and expansion. So we dont get nubs like me asking the same questions time and time again **

Maybe I should try finishing my wad.

[Gez]

What isn't simple? The master levels are just a bunch of pwads. Load them like any other pwad.

That said, Eternity has a built-in support for the master levels, if you tell it where they can be found.

[Graf Zahl]

Hasn't someone released a mod that allows easier management of these levels for ZDoom? I remember something like that was done recently.

[Gez]

Guess what I linked to earlier. :p

[Lila Feuer]

And if you fish around in [REMOVED] you'll find a couple of megawads made out of the Master Levels. Just so you know.

User losered to telling people where to get warez

[Dragonsbrethren]

If you're not deadset on using ZDoom, Eternity has a built in menu to select the Master Levels when playing Doom 2:

http://www.doomworld.com/vb/eternity/51437-native-support-for-master-levels/

It would be nice if other ports followed suit. I'm surprised it hadn't been done sooner, really.

[Quasar]

Dragonsbrethren said:

If you're not deadset on using ZDoom, Eternity has a built in menu to select the Master Levels when playing Doom 2:

http://www.doomworld.com/vb/eternity/51437-native-support-for-master-levels/

It would be nice if other ports followed suit. I'm surprised it hadn't been done sooner, really.

One reason they haven't is that the ability to load wads at runtime is a prerequisite to doing this efficiently (in other words, not just opening all the maps all the time whether or not they're going to be used, which would be a naive approach).

Another prerequisite, though less demanding, is generalization of the w_wad code to allow directories which are not merged into the main directory. The stock DOOM code always merges all directories and the W_ functions only work on that one main directory.

[Cthulhunicron]

Thanks so much for all your input. I'll try installing DOSBOX when I get home.

[Blzut3]

Graf Zahl said:

Hasn't someone released a mod that allows easier management of these levels for ZDoom? I remember something like that was done recently.

In addition to what Gez linked there's also my patch program.

[Cthulhunicron]

Success! Sort of. So, I have the WADs installed, thanks to DOS BOX. However, the only WAD that the ZDoom exe will let me play is Attack. If I try to load Black Tower or any of the other ones, it takes me to the first map of Doom 2.

Is there a way to load each Master Level in the actual game? I have something called ZDLMenu.pk3 downloaded into my ZDoom folder that's supposed to help with the map selecting process but I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do.

Sorry about all the noob questions, and thanks for helping me.

[Cthulhunicron]

Correction...some WADs work when I drag them to the ZDoom icon, and some take me to the Entryway.

[Gez]

Everything works.

However, not all the levels are in the MAP01 slot... For example, if you open blacktwr.txt, you will find that line after scrolling down some:

Level Replaced          : Map 25

That means that what happens is this:
1. Load file
2. Start new game
3. Behold normal Entryway and think it didn't work.

You have to use the idclev cheat, the -warp command line parameter, the map console command, etc. in order to go to MAP25 directly.

Or you can use this.

[Cthulhunicron]

I downloaded that and I can't figure out how to make it work. I have the ZDLMenu.pk3 file in my WAD folder (I'm not really sure where I'm supposed to put it) but I don't know what to do next. The written instructions in that link weren't very helpful.

[Maes]

You either play them as a True Master of Doom, or nothing.

[Gez]

Cthulhunicron said:

The written instructions in that link weren't very helpful.

I suppose if you do not have experience editing wad files, it can be confusing because it is written with the assumption people would be familiar with the jargon used and the tools needed.

[Cthulhunicron]

Well, it's not that big of a deal. I can now play the Master Levels, and that's all I really wanted in the first place, so thanks for all your help.

If someone is bored and doesn't mind giving me some pointers as to how I set up the in-game menu, that'd be cool, but it's not essential.

[Rohit_N]

If you get all of the WADs into some directory, just follow this tutorial.
http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/wiki/index.php/Id_Super_Pack

[EmZee712]

I'm surprised of all this hype over just trying to get Master Levels of Doom working, you know theres already a [REMOVED] right?

I mean, it would save you a lot of time and you can play it on ZDoom, but there wouldn't be a certain menu that lets you access the different levels, you'll just have to do it by "map map01-22"

User losered to telling people where to get warez

[Gez]

That is, it's there until somebody reports it as warez and it gets cleaned out; because the master levels are not freeware.

[Lila Feuer]

Personally, I took my (non-warez) Master Level PWADs and kept the ones I liked and secondly edited each one's MAP## to go in order one after the other, then tossed them into a PK3 and loaded it like a map set.

[Devalaous]

BurningCadavre said:

Personally, I took my (non-warez) Master Level PWADs and kept the ones I liked and secondly edited each one's MAP## to go in order one after the other, then tossed them into a PK3 and loaded it like a map set.

You would have to use MAPINFO, because two of them iirc use Map07 along with its special.