Whats with the par time?

[DoOmEr4LiFe]

well , Ive heard many stories about how the par times for each level were put in to doom....whether it was slapped in there or the creators think the levels are that possible and what not...what is the true story behind it?

[Guest doomgod12345]

i think they are in there to see if u can beat the level in that time or less. or maybey they are times of the ID people.

[DoOmEr4LiFe]

yeah but have you noticed all times are rounded to the nearest "0" , I wish i could finish all my levels with an even #:#0 in the ones place...

[Linguica]

A John Romero interview at http://5years.doomworld.com/interviews/johnromero/page3.shtml :

"I set all the par times for DOOM 1 by starting the level, running to the exit as fast as possible, rounding off the resulting time, then adding 30 seconds for padding. I actually got those levels done faster than the par times."