The DWmegawad Club plays: (Ultimate) DOOM

[dobu gabu maru]

What is the DWmegawad Club?
This is a place where we settle down, have a cup of tea (or drink of your choice) and take a month to play through a megawad on our own, together! Any keen observations, criticisms, or frustrated ranting about it goes here in the discussion. As long as you want to say something about what you've played, feel free to speak your mind.

Can I join?
Sure. The only rule is that you have to play at least some of the levels in our monthly megawad to contribute, but you're generally encouraged to finish the whole thing, even if you've played it before.

What levels am I allowed to post about?
We're playing this an episode per week this time, so anything from e#m1-e#m9 is fine to post about up until Sunday of the following week. This means we’ll be done on the 29th.

Do I have to post an entry every day?
Nope, not at all. This is only for our more enthusiastic members. As long as you play through it with us you’re part of the club.

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The megawad we are playing through is Ultimate Doom

December 10th, 1993. id Software. Doom. ‘Nuff said.

(Read more at the Doom wiki entry)

Author and maplist for Ultimate Doom:

Quote

E1M1- “Hangar” by John Romero
E1M2- “Nuclear Plant” by John Romero
E1M3- “Toxin Refinery”by John Romero
E1M4- “Command Control” by Tom Hall & John Romero
E1M5- “Phobos Lab” by John Romero
E1M6- “Central Processing” by John Romero
E1M7- “Computer Station” by John Romero
E1M8- “Phobos Anomaly” by Sandy Petersen & Tom Hall
E1M9- “Military Base” by John Romero

E2M1- “Deimos Anomaly” by Tom Hall & Sandy Petersen
E2M2- “Containment Area” by Tom Hall & Sandy Petersen
E2M3- “Refinery” by Tom Hall & Sandy Petersen
E2M4- “Deimos Lab” by Tom Hall & Sandy Petersen
E2M5- “Command Center” by Sandy Petersen
E2M6- “Halls of the Damned” by Sandy Petersen
E2M7- “Spawning Vats” by Tom Hall & Sandy Petersen
E2M8- “Tower of Babel” by Sandy Petersen
E2M9- “Fortress of Mystery” by Sandy Petersen

E3M1- “Hell Keep” by Sandy Petersen
E3M2- “Slough of Despair” by Sandy Petersen
E3M3- “Pandemonium” by Tom Hall & Sandy Petersen
E3M4- “House of Pain” by Sandy Petersen
E3M5- “Unholy Cathedral” by Sandy Petersen
E3M6- “Mt. Erebus” by Sandy Petersen
E3M7- “Limbo” by Tom Hall & Sandy Petersen
E3M8- “Dis” by Sandy Petersen
E3M9- “Warrens” by Sandy Petersen

E4M1- “Hell Beneath” by American McGee
E4M2- “Perfect Hatred” by John Romero
E4M3- “Sever the Wicked” by Shawn Green
E4M4- “Unruly Evil” by American McGee
E4M5- “They Will Repent” by Tim Willits
E4M6- “Against Thee Wickedly” by John Romero
E4M7- “And Hell Followed” by John Anderson
E4M8- “Unto the Cruel” by Shawn Green
E4M9- “Fear” by Tim Willits

“But Dobu!” you groan, “I know Ultimate Doom so well! I don't want to play on Nightmare but this will be too easy for me otherwise!” Well, have I got a task for you!



What is the Challenge of Dobu? Simple. No strafing. No running. No quicksaving. No dying. The idea is to limit yourself as much as possible in order to inflate the standard difficulty. Running can only be used when needed (over gaps or damaging sectors), just as saving can only be used if you’re stopping for a time being. If you die you must forfeit your run for that episode; for example if you kick the bucket on E3M1, your Inferno run is over and you aren’t allowed to post about the other levels. One chance is all you get. Good luck marine.

(I have no idea if this is even possible; have fun!)

BONUS CHALLENGES
-Pistol start
-Go for max kills OR stay within a minute of par time
-Fast monsters
-Every enemy and item is replaced with a baron of hell (lolololololol)

BONUS CONTENT
DSDA archives
KingDime's E1 dobu challenge Part 1
Where's all the Data?'s playthrough: 1 2 3
----------
OLD THREADS
BF_THUD!
Community Chest 4
Jenesis
MAYhem 2012
Memento Mori
Interception
2002: A Doom Odyssey
Hadephobia
Coffee Break & Fava Beans & Double Impact
HYMN
Stardate 20X6 & Monochrome Mapping Project
Realm of Chaos
Back to Saturn X E1 & Favillesco E1
Kama Sutra
Unholy Realms & Zone 300
Vile Flesh
Ultimate Doom
Whitemare & Sacrament
Scythe
Epic 2
Whitemare 2

Edited May 9, 2023 by dobu gabu maru

[Cynical]

Funny that this comes now; I was watching a youtube vid yesterday with someone playing E1M1. It took him about 6 minutes. I was wondering "wtf is taking this guy so long?", and set about to see how quickly I could do it; after several tries, I was finally able to get my UV-MAX time under 1 minute (what exactly triggers that secret lift to lower, anyways? Not the imp ledge, but the other secret that was added in Ultimate?), and a UV-Speed to 12 seconds (lol I suck).

Anyways, yeah, E1M1:
Obviously, if you're just playing normally, this won't provide any challenge at all. If you're trying to get fast times, though, those Sergeants can fuck you up surprisingly hard while you try to run past them, since you can't grab any armor or health. Also, uh, be sure to shoot that one barrel before you run too far into the darkened room, if you don't want to have a really stupid feeling moment when a Zombieboy shoots it while you stand next to it.

I always feel like there should be random guys milling around the open area in the first room, instead of them all being over by the green armor. Also, I always feel like there should be a Chaingunner on the imps platform, which is totally inexplicable, since they're not even in this game.

I will not be partaking in the dobu challenge, because I suck. Besides, it's been years since I last played an IWAD (although this was the last one I played, interestingly enough), and I barely know these levels at all.

[Superluigieth1]

Love Playing DOOM 1. Playing on HMP, with DOSBox.

Time : 01:38. Half of the time I was trying to get the secret lift.

Kills : 100%. Well, you know.

Items : 32%. I forgot to get the health points at the start. :\.

Secrets : 100%. I was trying to get the secret lift half of the time.

Overall, pretty good map.

EDIT: I am not doing the Dobu challenge.

[Devalaous]

Since there are still a few outliers who have yet to finish Ultimate Doom, I approve of this idea.

[plums]

I highly recommend pistol start for those that haven't played the IWAD levels this way. As most levels were tested that way, you could argue it's how they were meant to be played.

I'm considering the Challenge of Dobu. I might play with a joystick even!

[cannonball]

Hello, I shall join in this month, shouldn't be any issues with keeping up.
E1M1 - Hangar
100% kills/94% items/100% secrets
no deaths 102/200 H/A
Playing like I did the first time, just using default setup + forgetting how to strafe :P
Not sure how the challenge works, do I do the entire episode in one go I think is what you mean.
The map, it's hangar, frankly I find the music track to be the weakest in the episode to be honest. I just don't dig it that much.

[plums]

OK, let's do it like this:

• no strafing
  
• no running
  
• no quicksaving
  
• pistol starts
  
• dying is allowed
  
• chocolate doom
  
• UV of course
  
• and playing with this thing:

The "no dying" aspect is interesting but I'm not sure I want to play that way. I'll see how many times I die. I'm sure it will be more than once.

E1M1: This map is like an old favourite song you've been listening to for most of your life. You almost don't notice it while it's playing, you don't even know if it's good or not, but it was a fundamental part of your formative years and you could play it all day.

Playing with a joystick, and poking along without running or strafing was interesting at least. Took more than a few shotgun blasts to the face. I don't think I've ever played Doom without run/strafe, those of us that played Wolf3D beforehand knew how to control Doomguy well enough.

I did used to play with a Gravis Gamepad, back when I first played Doom, and while I actually have one still I've got no game port to use it with. This big fighting stick will have to do.

[Dragonsbrethren]

I don't think I'll do the challenge (E4M1-2 scare me too much), but I'll keyboard it. Or maybe pseudo-Gravis Gamepad it in Chocolate Doom with just a d-pad and four buttons (so silly how one of the button assignments can't be weapon change, so you gotta use the keyboard).

[Veinen]

Alright, lets do this. Gonna do that stroller challenge thingy on UV, along with pistol starts and maxkills. It's been a while since I last played Ultimate Doom and I don't think I've ever even pistol started anything beyond the first episode. I remember E1 very well, but after that it gets kind of hazy for me.

E1M1: Hangar - 100/something/100

The classic Hangar. I don't think there's much else to be said about the map itself really. Even if it's a cakewalk of a map with a simple design and a music track which has been heard too many times already, I just can't not like it. The nostalgic factor is simply too powerful with this one.

Strolling through the set will be interesting, I don't think I haven't had always run enabled since playing the shareware version back in god knows when. I remember playing it keyboard only back then but I think that would be a bit too hardcore for me now that I'm accustomed to the mouse.

[fabian]

plums said:I did used to play with a Gravis Gamepad, back when I first played Doom, and while I actually have one still I've got no game port to use it with. This big fighting stick will have to do. [/B]

You could try one of those, they work surprisingly well:

http://www.ebay.de/sch/?_nkw=buffalo%20snes%20usb

[Memfis]

That maplist in the first post is like someone had a bad habit of writing Peretson instead of Petersen, he almost got rid of it and even got it right the first time but after that was like AAAAARGH I CAN'T DO IT AFTER ALL and went back to his favorite spelling.

[joe-ilya]

E1M1 - Easy, short and to THE point! E1M1 is just one of those E1 maps where there's some nukage and the walls are mostly green, but trust me,that's not the only level.
There's a window in almost every room which makes this map good for deathmatch, and inspired someone to make greenwars.wad
The ending room is a regualar elevator you see in most of the maps (maybe even all of them) the zigzag bridge is a classic.

[Avoozl]

I feel like playing UDOOM with -fast mode and 100% on all stats but not so much the main challenge due to the lack of strafe and run.

Map: E1M1 Hangar / Kills: 100% / Items: 100% / Secrets: 100% / Time: 3:00

Okay so the starting map of Knee Deep in the Dead, it's perfectly simple and an excellent introduction to the game.

[Jayextee]

Oh god, I love this wad. It was one of the first I ever played! ;)

Alright, I'm giving this a shot with Doom Forever since I fancy changing it up a bit and already beat Ultimate Doom with Brutal.

UV, pistol starts, max kills (though not sweating it too much if I miss).

E1M1 - 100k/78i/100s - 1:45

What I like most about this map is that it's so fun just to run around. It has its detractors when it comes to the Ultimate Doom addition of the alternate way outside (indeed, it renders the 'secret' a bit weird as it's triggered when leaving the area; Romero should've instead made the sector surrounding the pool as a secret one), but it makes for creative play, and a quicker way around when playing Nightmare! setting. Not that I am now.

Forever's faster pistol made the dash up to green armour a breeze, and my acquisition of the all-important shotgun. I got a few shots out of it before my first second-pistol collection, so ran with that for a while gunning down things until the exit room. Killed the imp, backtracked to tackle the outdoors shotgunners and grab the armour, killing the now-lowered ledge imps en route. Then back inside to get the shotgunner in the secret (and ride the lift as I do).

Dash to the exit. EDGE's lack of midi playback is painfully-conspicuous at this point, so I think I shall look into preparing a music .wad to go with this for the rest of the club.

A great starter level, completeable in about 15 seconds if you know your shit; longer if you know you're shit. And great in deathmatch, but that's beside the point.

[NuMetalManiak]

I'm back!

To hell with YOUR challenge, I play my way!

Playing Ultimate Doom with a more modern feel, using an old version of Beautiful Doom mod in an old version of GZDOOM with vanilla compatibility. Also prjdoom.wad for music. UV, continuous AND pistol starts (a first), normal ammo settings instead of double ammo flags. Attempting 100% kills, secrets, AND items. No reality runs this time, will try to simply play without hurting my brain too much.

(I bet some of you wanted me to go through with that last one didn't you? :))

E1M1 Hangar

It can't be argued, this is the most memorable DOOM level. Not even the zombies at the beginning of Entryway or the Berserk pickup in System Control can argue with it. Hangar just so happens to be the most copied DOOM level too, even Duke: Nuclear Winter had a portion of Hangar.

Hangar was actually the first map that taught me to not shoot every barrel on every map. I played DOOM II prior to this and I shot every barrel I came across. But since the very first barrel I see in Hangar, I have learned to keep some barrels alive, only to shoot just in case someone is near them. This goes for the rest of the episode too. Suffice to say, the room before the exit room is where I'd shoot barrels only, and it helped to kill some rascals.

Also, I remember the first time I played the map on UV, seeing shotgun guys right next to that lovely armor, and going shiiiiiiit, they're already here?

[EvilNed]

dobu gabu maru said:

E1M1- “Hanger” by John Romero

This isn't Doom 95, you know. ;)

[NuMetalManiak]

Lol, just noticed that typo. HangEr is MAP05 of Evilution, while HangAr is E1M1.

(Notice I capitalized those vowels for a reason)

[Steve D]

Ah, here’s my heaven-sent opportunity to actually play every map of Ultimate Doom. I’ve never done it in all these years, though I’ve played most of the maps.

Of course, we start out with my favorite Doom episode of all time, Romero’s masterpiece Knee Deep In The Dead. To digress a bit, some of you may have heard of Lyndon LaRouche, world-champion conspiracy theorist, and his acolyte, Anton Chaitkin. LaRouche peddles an interesting conspiracy theory wherein The Queen of England runs the international drug trade and her minions in British Intelligence concoct schemes of grandiose mind control to, essentially, have the military of the USA act as enforcers for the Queen.

So how does Doom enter into this picture? Well, it seems that John Romero is the son of an Air Force officer, and while John was a teenage computer whiz, his father was stationed at an air base in England. At said air base, the British had a very advanced simulator, and as the story goes, at least according to Anton Chaitkin, John was not only given access to this simulator, but was given advanced programming instruction by, if memory serves, intelligence officers from MI6!

To Anglophobes like LaRouche and Chaitkin, only the most barbaric, dire machinations are possible in a scenario like this! So the MI6 intelligence officers are “handlers” who, with dastardly cleverness, trained John Romero to produce Doom with the intent of turning American kids into slobbering serial killers through these “murder simulators,” and with the happy side effect of numbing the morality of American youth to a point where they’d become happy, paid killers in the US military in service to the Queen! Seriously, I am not making this up! :D

Meanwhile, back on Planet Earth, all the plans of the Queen and MI6 have come to nought, as the violence of American youth has actually declined since the release of Doom and its many imitators.

That said, there’s a map to play. For this special occasion, I’m playing in GZDoom, UV, complevel-9 as usual (I think), frequent save/reload, taking my goddamned time, with fast monsters (on this map, at least) and, as always, keyboard only. Pistol starts all the way through Knee Deep.

E1M1 – Hangar. Kills – 100, Items – 85, Secrets – 100. Time – 4:18. End Health – 73, Armor 150. Death Count – Zero

It’s been said before and I’ll say it again, this map is a classic. Meant to show off the 3D aspects of the game, and doing so brilliantly, it’s a kind, gentle intro to Doom, even on UV, though for first-timers, it may well have been a shocking horror fest of endless death.

The Sergeants guarding the Green Armor pop off right away with –fast enabled. Had to do some wall-hugging just to survive the start. ;D Knowing what awaited me elsewhere, I opted to take the alternate path to the Blue Armor since that exposed me to fewer shotguns, and allowed me to loop back through the weaker end of the big computer room. And allow me to say that Romero’s technique of the hanging Planet1 panels is a winner I copy to this day.

Once the computer room was conquered, and barrels exploded near the exit, it was just a matter of getting all the secrets. This accomplished, I went on my merry way to the exit.

This is really a glorious map, however easy it is. As mentioned before, all the big windows giving outside views, showing the revolutionary sky texture, and allowing for shooting all the way across the map from other indoor locations – wee, this is just awesome! The secrets are both clever and fun, as opposed to clever and frustrating. And then there’s the zigzag bridge.

I also strongly disagree with cannonball about the music track. This pumper makes me want to go out and kill monsters, a pity there weren’t more to slaughter, but oh well. So yes, a fun time was had by all!

[BaronOfStuff]

A fine choice and way to recognise the 20th anniversary. I don't need much time to get through this one, so I'll do it.

However, I'm not accepting Dobu's challenge, because:
1) No running or strafing? Aha, I wouldn't be able to manage that, not now.
2) I am going to set my own dumb challenge up!

By using this "Permadeath" modified ZDoom port and playing only one point below nightmare on these extra difficulties that I've thrown together on a whim, I won't be able to savescum, cheat, or play recklessly at all. I encourage others to try this too, because... well, why not?

Just don't try Nightmare! with that skillset. It's deliberately unfair to the point of being impossible.

(Regarding the difficulty, I'm going to be taking 2.5x damage from everything, and the monsters will be 1.8x more aggressive; should be fun, or horribly frustrating.)


Thy Flesh Consumed will not stop me.

[dobu gabu maru]

Memfis said:

That maplist in the first post is like someone had a bad habit of writing Peretson instead of Petersen, he almost got rid of it and even got it right the first time but after that was like AAAAARGH I CAN'T DO IT AFTER ALL and went back to his favorite spelling.

Not gonna lie I was copy pasting his name because of how frequently it pops up.

Glad to see mostly everyone undertaking their own challenge to spice things up—mine was just a way to incentivize people to play differently so it's cool to see others messing around with that.

[Dime]

Challenge accepted Dobu

[Jayextee]

Doing another one to kill some Sunday time, I guess.

E1M2 - 100k/95i/100s - 6:01

This was less a run and more a lesuirely stroll; I swear, the only thing keeping me enjoying the computer maze in any way was Doom Forever's ambient computer buzzing making the whole thing seem more claustrophobic.

Anywho, I usually tackle this map at a much higher speed, so before and after my tackling the maze was precisely that; a mad dash forward to get an extra pistol from one of the guys at the other side of the initial structure (is this supposed to be some control booth for the plant?) and the green armour carelessly left by some UAC douchebag at a computer terminal.

I'm trying to check my Phobosbook and here's a big green metal vest. Secret switch and backpack, and aside from barrel-ing a couple of stragglers, I'm pretty done here.

Red key climb, always from the right hand door, always blow the barrel and then the guy near the window. Head out and get my first shotgun from a man in black; which I shall hold and treasure and use forever. Or until the level's out, at least - chaingun be damned. I always liked this outdoor area, even if I feel it should be rocky. Then again, the sky should be space and these peanut-headed morons should be suffocating.

After the computer maze is a quick climb through some fodder, bizarre secret looking to the chainsaw bit I already did, then the side of the penultimate area, raining shotgun death from above. The occasional barrel makes this fun.

Exit room can be annoying. It's that one imp who can't decide whether s/he is up or down that lift, you know?

[BaronOfStuff]

The Ultimate DOOM
Here we go!

E1M1:
What's left to say? A classic in its own right with more influence from/tributes to its design than any other level from any other game in the genre... perhaps even any genre. This is where the craze for mad FPS action really began.

But that's enough (expected) praise.

Even with an increased difficulty, this one still possesses no real challenge once a Shotgun is acquired. However, I'm only seconds into the map and a moderately painful greeting from one of the bastards in the 'zig-zag' room across the courtyard (scoring a pretty fucking scary 37% damage) tells me to forget trying anything clever when it comes to dealing with hitscanners. I have a feeling that I'll be taking a lot of the game a fair bit slower than usual, this time around.


E1M2:
Nothing to really mention with this one. Being armed with a Shotgun helps clear out the initial rabble, and knowing the map inside-out and back-to-front makes dealing with the rest of the inhabitants a trivial affair, although going for the Soulsphere/Chaingun combo turned into a round of "Duck & Cover" every time a Shotgun Guy decided to stumble around the corner; one false move when dealing with these trigger-happy dickheads and I'm probably going to be greeted with a screen not too different from this one. Not looking forward to any future close-up fighting with these things at all.

The secret maze area could be described as reasonably tense, knowing that even the weakest stray hit would leave a mark. It was almost like playing the map for the first time, checking all around for wandering loners and would-be assassins lurking in the dark. Surprisingly enough, the final few rooms didn't result in any damage being taken for once, which is nice.

So far, so good. Going to be very wary of Shotgun Guys throughout the rest of this episode though.

[plums]

SteveD said:

For this special occasion, I’m playing in GZDoom, UV, complevel-9 as usual (I think), frequent save/reload, taking my goddamned time, with fast monsters (on this map, at least) and, as always, keyboard only. Pistol starts all the way through Knee Deep.

GZDoom doesn't exactly have complevels, at least not the same way Boom & co do - the nearest equivalent would be setting your compatibility options to "Boom (Strict)".

dobu gabu maru said:

Glad to see mostly everyone undertaking their own challenge to spice things up—mine was just a way to incentivize people to play differently so it's cool to see others messing around with that.

If I manage to beat UD without dying I'm going to retroactively claim victory on your challenge rules. ;) The only thing I'm not doing is forfeiting the episode if I die, I'll do my best to stay alive but as I got below 40% health just on E1M1 I feel like it's not going to happen all the time.

[Jaws In Space]

The Ultimate Doom E1M1: UV, Pistol Start

I have no doubt that Doom was meant to be played starting off on HMP. On HMP brand new players who had never seen anything like Doom before could really get a feel for the controls & what barrels & pickups could do right in the first room. For those who had played Wolfenstein prior to Doom, they could see how much more advanced it was right at the start. There was an outside area, differentiation in floor & ceiling height, & walls at non 90 degree angles. John Romero had to sell Doom on with the very first map, & I believe he did so extremely well, look at how tricky it is to access some of the secrets. This map truly wanted you to play it multiple times even though it is the first in the episode.

I was first introduced to Doom by my dad in 1995. I would always watch him play on our old Macintosh computer, which could barley handle Doom. Interestingly I only vaguely remember this map from those first playthroughs, so it never really had a big impression on me.

Anyways how does it really stand up to 20 years of aging. I'd say fairly well, it is pretty easy to 100% on everything, but really after 20 years is that really a big surprise? Back in 1993 UV may have been challenging, but nowadays it's quite simple, especially with the switch that completely changes the layout of the map that was introduced in The Ultimate Doom, it really doesn't seem to have been properly tested for single player. Other than that my only real complaint is the rather sloppy texture misalignments throughout the map. Also I love the music for this map.

[dobu gabu maru]

Sounds good plums, the permadeath thing is there to just add a high risk. I'm interested in seeing if anyone will post videos of the aforementioned challenge.

Ironically, I will not be accepting my own gauntlet since I tried it on E2M8 to make sure it's doable and had a hell of a hard time (the cyber becomes insta-death at close range). That and I'm confident E4 will be damn near impossible. I haven't pistol started any of the original IWADs so I'll be doing that instead for the first time, along with no saving.

E1M1: Yup, it's Doom. Iconic music, starting room, secrets, etc. I got whittled down to a dangerous 7% but still managed to pull through. It's going to be a ton of fun looking at this game now that I'm acquainted with the editor, considering that I know the textures almost like the back of my hand (which is honestly a weird colloquialism considering that I don't think anyone stares at their hand often enough to have it embedded onto their memory).

[Dragonsbrethren]

Good luck to everyone doing challenges, but I'm gonna do something else: Play on HNTR, maybe HMP if I have time/feel like it, and analyze how id balanced the lower difficulty in their maps. I'll still play keyboard only or keyboard + gamepad.

Also I'm going to analyze version differences if I feel like it, because why not?

[Demon of the Well]

Maybe a bit of a cop-out from me, but I'm also declining the challenge at large. The truth is, I've already completed all of Ultimate Doom on Nightmare! skill level before (ironically E1 is the most difficult episode on this setting, outside of certain extremely nasty parts of E4), and back when I first began playing DooM all those years ago I often forgot to run and almost never used the strafe function, because it just seemed like too much to keep track of at once, heh. I've also beaten all of the maps from pistol-start, although that was something I did MUCH later in my Dooming career (first IWAD I ever did that with in full was doom2.wad). Long story short, I'm just going to play like I normally do, UV pistol-starts. Though it has been years since I've played this IWAD in full (though I have played individual maps from it since then) I'm pretty confident I won't die until at least E4 (if then), but if I do I'm considering honoring the one-chance rule, just to put something at stake. In a more general spirit of 'newness', I reckon I'll also try deviating from my 'usual' route in maps that allow it, just to see how things go.

E1M1 -- Hangar - 100% Kills / 100% Secrets
Well, everybody knows this map, although I'm not sure whether I'd say that it's this or 'Entryway' that is really the most iconic IWAD map of all time. So many of DooM's more ephemeral virtues--vast draw distance, interwoven traversal secrets, barrel-kills, etc.--are introduced here, at the time it really set DooM apart as a game like none before. Over time I've also kind of come to appreciate that it's not a particularly ominous map--there are some shadowy interiors, but there's lots of light outside, and the BGM is toned to make the player feel like a capable one-man army. Saving the more eerie/tense moments for other part of the episode/game was the right move, I think--pacing in mood is as important as pacing in combat and the like, I think. Despite its popularity with a later generation of DooMers, I'd say this is really one of PSX DooM's weak points--it pretty much tries to play the 'creepy' angle the whole way through, nonstop. All that being said, I'm actually somewhat critical of the thing placement in this map, particularly on UV skill--the encounters all work well enough, sure, but it's never seemed right to me that the first shotgun you get on UV comes from the first guy you kill (would've seemed more proper for the secret-only shotgun from HMP/lower to remain the status quo), or that the first ever encounter with an imp is as a distant ledge-sniper that can't physically reach the player unless ignored for a while.

E1M2 -- Nuclear Plant - 100% Kills / 100% Secrets
The three things that define this map for me are the barrel-palooza in the start area (that one monster-blocking line has always kind of bugged me, though), the secrets-within-secrets, and of course, the blinking server maze, absolutely one of the most iconic constructs in the history of DooM. The chaingun also makes its debut, assuming of course that you can find some of those secrets. Continuing on with what I was saying about use of different moods throughout the episode, this is a more sedate and atmospheric affair than M1, that works more on tension and a deliberate pace after the fast-paced violence of the opening area. Of course, at this late date we all know that there's nothing but zombiemen and a handful of imps in the server maze, and so the likelihood of being killed in there is relatively low unless you go in mortally wounded, but the irregular lighting and blind turns make it a very intimidating place for a first-timer. Early in my DooMing career, I remember being spooked enough here that I used to fire the chaingun blindly going around corners, just in case. Now that I think of it, I think the aspect of the DooM engine that this segment really brings to the fore is the monster 'hunting' sound behavior--you know stuff is out there looking for you, you just don't know where they are. After being away so long I'm also pleasantly reminded of just how visually sharp a lot of Romero's maps in the IWAD are, largely a function of fine lighting choices but also of a relatively high degree of tidiness in terms of texture alignment and whatnot (UDooM is much sharper than DooM II in a lot of ways in this regard, to whit), although there is one colorful alignment snafu opposite the shootable wall in the server maze that I've never noticed before in all of these years. Funny how that goes.

[HK!D]

I'm actually glad that the month I get a chance to join in, we're playing this.

E1M1 - Hangar
100% Kills/100%Items/100% Secrets (Don't remember my time)

I saw my cousin playing this game with his friends. It looked so cool to me. When I finally downloaded the free version, my stepdad got mad at me for playing a violent game without asking him first. I was mad too, but my parents soon let me play. I loved the music, the feel of killing my first monster, completing the level and enjoying the rest of Doom. It's an experience I'll never forget.

[NuMetalManiak]

E1M2 Nuclear Plant

Continuous and pistol start were both easy. There's two green armors, one behind the zombieman at the start and one in the secret that accesses the chaingun. This was pretty easy with the only shotgun guys being in the outside area with the chaingun, and they were quite far apart from each other to be a possible threat. That optional maze at the southern part was a fucking nightmare for those trying to get 100% items though.

Behind the green armor visible at the start, I cheated into the sector it's on and found, possibly the first HOM to find?



(hint: look at the blade of the chainsaw)