Wierd doom disc i found

[Venk]

So browsing an old thrift store i find this disc, old, red booklet labelled "demongate, over 600 new levels for doom and doom 2" so naturally i buy it. What is it, was it worth the dollar i paid, and if i install it can it be played with brutal doom? Or is it not a WAD file? Anyone have any idea?

[Jaxxoon R]

Congratulations.
You just bought a 90's shovelware PWAD CD-ROM Disc. Don't worry, only most of them are '94-esq messes. But, since they're all designed for Vanilla Doom, they shouldn't be incompatible with Brutal Doom in any way, unless of course they use a ridiculous amount of DeHackED patches.

I guess it might be worth a dollar.

[plums]

Yeah, if you like (or can tolerate) 90s wads, you've now got enough to keep you busy for awhile, so it's not a terrible purchase.

[GreyGhost]

What you have are 600+ vanilla Doom wads (in WADS1 folder) which have been fed through a level converter so they can also be played as Doom 2 wads (in WADS2 folder), with varying degrees of success. Demon Gate is one of the more common shovelware disks on eBay and almost all of its content is in the archive.

[schmerr]

for a dollar? yeah its worth it. they might all be crappy 90's wads, but some crappy 90's wads are vaguely interesting. I had one that was just a perfect rampage wad, wide open, demons everywhere, it was great. Just because the architecture isn't great doesn't mean the gameplay is crap. Have fun with it man.

[Doominator2]

Venk said:

over 600 new levels

600! Sounds like a really mediocre compilation in which case I would get bored after 50 levels.

[clamgor]

What's the bet that it's malware designed to corrupt Windows 95, but is practically harmless by today?

[Reisal]

You can find that and the other shovelware CDs on archive.org also: https://archive.org/details/doom-cds

[ETTiNGRiNDER]

I wish thrift stores in my area were that cool. I just end up with stuff like edutainment titles and crossword / card games.

As others have said, that disc is one of the most common ones, but getting it for a buck is cheaper than you'd find on eBay. But you'll have to like oldschool levels if you're going to like it.

And yeah, you could just download it off archive.org, but it's so much cooler to have the actual disc, yeah? And if you don't think so, why not sell it off on eBay or somewhere like that to someone who'll appreciate it. Might even turn a profit. ;)

[Venk]

I collect doom stuff so yeah disc rules xD

[Gez]

Venk said:

So browsing an old thrift store i find this disc, old, red booklet labelled "demongate, over 600 new levels for doom and doom 2" so naturally i buy it. What is it, was it worth the dollar i paid, and if i install it can it be played with brutal doom? Or is it not a WAD file? Anyone have any idea?

http://doomwiki.org/wiki/List_of_commercial_compilations

[GreyGhost]

Crasger said:

What's the bet that it's malware designed to corrupt Windows 95, but is practically harmless by today?

The worst you might find is a small utility that shut down LAN games and maybe wiped your Doom folder. Can't recall the details right now but it was intended to deter deathmatching on office networks during business hours.

[betabox]

Crasger said:

What's the bet that it's malware designed to corrupt Windows 95, but is practically harmless by today?

I know that one of the compilations contain some TPAI666 piece of malware that is only effective back in the DOS days. I think it was Doom 2 Mania. So it's not unlikely, that's for sure.

[Quasar]

The good news is you don't need to install anything. Just copy the wad folders off the disc to your hard drive for good access speed and you are ready to go.

Only if you are dead-set on the "1996 experience" do you need to install it. What it will do is copy the files, setup the EasyWAD launcher (a freely available program IIRC), and point it at your Doom install. You could do this inside DOSBox pretty easily.

[ETTiNGRiNDER]

buttspit said:

I know that one of the compilations contain some TPAI666 piece of malware that is only effective back in the DOS days. I think it was Doom 2 Mania. So it's not unlikely, that's for sure.

That's interesting. Anyone have further details on that? I collect these things and I do run them on an old computer that could be at risk from that sort of thing.

Do modern antiviruses detect "obsolete" threats still?

[clamgor]

ETTiNGRiNDER said:

Do modern antiviruses detect "obsolete" threats still?

Probably.

buttspit said:

I know that one of the compilations contain some TPAI666 piece of malware that is only effective back in the DOS days. I think it was Doom 2 Mania. So it's not unlikely, that's for sure.

Well that's rather interesting. This thing used to be a hit in offices. Man, it's been a long time. A cool office is an office that has a LAN DM to decide who pays for the takeout or settle a bet or something.