idgames template

[cybermind]

idgames template file structure haven't been changed since early 1994 releases. Does somebody know who was the author of this format and where it was first used?

[Linguica]

From some quick research I found https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/alt.games.doom/wad$20authoring$20template%7Csort:relevance/alt.games.doom/S864K3uVYdY/cQgL_YYyMhIJ from April 1994 which looks like it was created by Steve Bareman, who was involved with the creation of the DEU editor.

Spoiler

Xref: gmd.de alt.games.doom:15473 comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action:30856

Newsgroups: alt.games.doom,comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

Path: gmd.de!newsserver.jvnc.net!yale.edu!yale!gumby!smaug!news

From: bar...@hope.cit.hope.edu

Subject: WAD Authoring Template V1.0

Message-ID: <1994Apr8.161831.4423@cs.hope.edu>

Sender: @cs.hope.edu

Organization: DEU Drop Inn

X-Newsreader: 

Date: Fri, 8 Apr 1994 16:18:31 GMT

Lines: 34



WAD Authoring Template V1.0   (Clip this line)
================================================================
Title			: xxxx.WAD   
Author			: Your name here
Email Address		: 
Misc. Author Info	: 

Description		: Set the mood here.

Additional Credits to	: 
================================================================

* Play Information *

Episode and Level #	: ExMx (,ExMx,...)
Single Player		: Yes/No
Cooperative 2-4 Player	: Yes/No
Deathmatch 2-4 Player	: Yes/No
Difficulty Settings	: Yes/Not implemented


* Construction *

Base			: New level from scratch/Modified ExMx/xxx.WAD
Build Time		:  
Editor(s) used		: 
Known Bugs		: 


* Copyright / Permissions *

Authors (May/May NOT) use this level as a base to build additional
levels. 

There's another post here with the following commentary:

Xref: gmd.de alt.games.doom:15474 comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action:30857
Newsgroups: alt.games.doom,comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action
Path: gmd.de!newsserver.jvnc.net!yale.edu!yale!gumby!smaug!news
From: bar...@hope.cit.hope.edu
Subject: Followup (WAD Authoring Template V1.0)
Message-ID: <1994Apr8.162637.4590@cs.hope.edu>
Sender: @cs.hope.edu
Organization: DEU Drop Inn
X-Newsreader: 
Date: Fri, 8 Apr 1994 16:26:37 GMT
Lines: 25

Sorry folks, my newsreader jumped the gun and posted that
before I could add any comments...

The WAD Authoring Template is meant to be a tool for
describing your wad file creations when you post them on 
the net.

This should help provide information to users of your wad
and hopefully save you a few questions.

WAD_AUTH.TXT  should be included with DEU5.1 (sometime within
the next week) but I thought I'd post it up here now since
there are so many wads out there.

(Thank you! To the author of DAEMON2.WAD, I got many ideas
from the .TXT you included.  Good Job!)

Any and All editor creators are welcome to include WAD_AUTH.TXT
along with their distributions.

If I left anything VERY important out of WAD_AUTH V1.0 please
let me know and I'll fix it up for the next version.

-Steve Bareman
bar...@hope.cit.hope.edu

v1.1 came a few days later, and v1.2 a few weeks after that. Another guy named Steve created an edited v2.0 in December 1994 which (largely) became standard.

And here's the DAEMON2.TXT he mentions as inspiration.