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Map22 UV-Max in 1:02 Map24 UV-Max in 4:05 Map29 UV-Max in 3:51 lv22m102.zip lv24m405.zip lv29m351.zip

"does it hold up?" is not even a real question because everyone's sensibilities and tastes are different. I don't play any new games at all, the closest thing being doom wads, so my tastes are very different to a lot of people, but old wads are just as good as new ones, they're just in different genres. Comparing a game from 1995 to 2024 with expectations attached is just silly. It's fine to prefer a genre to another one, but a lot of the time these discussions fall into the feigned "objectively, it's bad because-" hand-wringing that the internet likes to promote in general. Taking in to account the history of an art is a crucial and mandatory exercise for truly understanding that piece of art, and without it, you're missing a ton of information. I regularly play new(to me) 1994 and 1995 wads and most people would call them bad, but when you take into account these are the first things people produced in an entire industry of fan-made fps levels, it's amazing what people were doing so quickly.

As the latest addition to the Supplice team, I´ll take you guys through the frozen caves and underground bases of Triton

A while ago, my daughter Penny was bored of her usual Minecraft and Dreamlight Valley favourites and asked if there was something new we could play together. I suggested that she could try playing Doom with me, and she breathed in, stood up tall, and bravely and dramatically said "...I knew this day would come." So I set her up on my desktop computer and I joined in on my laptop - here are some things I observed! Content If it were still the early 90s I probably wouldn't have let a seven year old play Doom (so okay, Dad, you were right). But she'd never been bothered by it when glancing at it over my shoulder, even eagerly asking me to "do the fountain again" which I would come to realize meant the voluminous gushing effect when a Cacodemon is killed with the Deadmarine effects - and I felt that the bloody effects were far enough removed from realistic these days that it wouldn't disturb her. And I also feel that it's important to note that she and all her friends love things that are absolutely bloody terrifying anyway - Poppy Playtime with its demented Sesame Street monster with a mouth full of needle-teeth, the horrors of Freddy Fazbear and his chain of possessed restaurants, and even Minecraft is pretty horrifying when you first see the weirdly proportioned dark Enderman out of the corner of your eye (followed by it stabbing you in the face). She got through episode 1 on the easiest difficulty setting with no deaths at all, which is impressive even bearing in mind I was around to help her through some of the bigger encounters. She did get a bit panicky once we went up a difficulty level and entered episode 2, though, so now she prefers to play Chex Quest instead. Other than that, there were only a couple of things that disturbed her: The player's dead face on 0 health. I'd never even thought of this as particularly disturbing because he doesn't look distressed to me, just sort of tired - meanwhile, the Ouch face still shocks the hell out of me whenever it pops up. "I don't like how you can move the bodies". I didn't understand this one at first, imagining she was seeing the weird movement of corpses bouncing down (or even up) stairs when they're killed with some momentum. But I later worked out that she meant how the corpse graphics only have one direction and always face you when you turn around - that's another thing that I'd never really considered, but that I can see might be strange to someone who doesn't understand that they're just rendered as a single sprite. Graphics I'm honestly really proud that Penny isn't a graphics snob like I expected most children to be. I think that nowadays, the games industry race to shun "old"-looking graphics in favour of new ones has more or less stopped, and we're at a point where games can be 2D, 3D, flat-shaded, pixelly or realistic and they all coexist. As a result, Penny doesn't really have a concept of old/new graphics - for her, a game looks how it chooses to look and it's as simple as that. Apart from the issue with the corpses above, the only graphics-related thing that tripped her up was that your appearance doesn't change based on what you have equipped or what you're wearing. In Minecraft, these are always visible to other players - they'll be able to see the four possible pieces of armour in the appropriate places, and the item that you have equipped is visible in your hand. As we know, Doom doesn't do this - the player always stays the same colour they started with even if they picked up blue or green armour, and will appear to be firing a little rifle no matter whether you have a pistol, rocket launcher or just your fist equipped. Having all these sprite variations would have been a bit much in the early 90s, but having the appearance change is a logical expectation that we didn't really have back then. Mechanics The mechanics of Doom are simple enough - collect things, point weapons at demons, shoot them and get to the exit - so this was all very straightforward for her to grasp. She preferred avoiding the mouse and keyboard controls and instead used the Playstation 2 controller that I've had attached to my computer for the last twenty years, because she's got very used to navigating first-person games with dual analogue sticks - this is a skill that I had to learn much later in life and I'm still not good at it! She had some difficulty with precision because you're just so enormously fast in Doom, but over her lifetime it's been pretty incredible to have seen her evolve from barely being able to walk a character in a straight line to having precise control over what she's doing. She had a small panic when running away and finding more health, because she assumed that all the medikits and potion bottles she was picking up were going into an inventory that she didn't know how to use. I'm struggling to think if there's anything similar in her other games - the only thing in Minecraft that you 'use' immediately on pickup are the little orbs that represent experience, so she didn't have a lot of context here. The only other things she didn't immediately understand were things in the game that she reasonably has no idea about - she doesn't know what shells are and identified the sprite as batteries instead, which works equally well as a concept for fuelling something. But the most surprising revelation I learned from playing Doom with Penny is… Doom is a game about building things! Obviously it's about shooting demons, of course, but she made me realize that that's been pretty secondary for a couple of decades now. Through what Penny's seen in my interactions with it, Doom is really about people building these big techbases or caves or castles and setting up challenges for other players in them, just as much as it is about actually playing those creations. She's seen me going around adjusting things in UDB, and it took her a bit of time to understand that editing the game happens in a separate environment from playing it. In Minecraft, if you want to build or move around freely, you can just flip the game into creative/spectator mode without having to exit and change things around externally - and she saw me zooming through the same Doom worlds in an editor 3D preview and in the game, so why shouldn't she assume that they were the same thing? And now that I'm thinking about it, it's not impossible these days to imagine some combined editor/Doom source port that would allow you to modify a Doom level while it's being played, just one step beyond the 3D previews that we never had in the 90s. I hope we get to play more - and hopefully she'll be interested in trying Ultimate Doom Builder for herself quite soon :)

Just to throw a shallow comment out there on the topic: I really hate how it feels when something that I once absolutely loved does not pass the test of time, either personally or broadly. :( A number of games, bands, movies and shows I once really enjoyed fall into that category, and although I feel like it's a relatively minor example of this on the whole, it's how I feel about MM. I was always a fan, granted casually so compared to diehards such as valkiriforce or vdgg. (I always adored the MIDIs and custom assets in particular though, and honestly I feel all of those still hold up.) I have to say though that I agree with most of MtPain's opinions on it, it makes sense to me that someone coming to it now wouldn't have much fun, and if it's being judged on fun/entertainment factor, it then makes sense for it to not do too well. In the current Doom Wad landscape, it just doesn't hit the same way it did in 2000 or so when I first payed it - and since the pool of comparison was so much smaller, this was bound to happen to old classics occasionally. In my experience, not every wad suffers from this degradation, which to me further demonstrates that it's fair to be a little harsh on stuff that aged poorly. OSIRIS, Plutonia, HellRun2 and some others from the same era honestly still hit about as good as they did back in the day, so I do think it's fair to rank MM a little low despite ample nostalgia and inspiration derived from it in the past. On the other hand, I do think it's worth acknowledging that it was a crucial stepping stone which I have to assume got so many of us out there into mapping in the first place, the way it did for me - I know seeing MM was one of the experiences that got me further interested in learning to map upon seeing what the authors were capable of. I think how influential it was is a different topic than how fun it is though, so ultimately it wouldn't effect my grade were I to do a review show in a similar vein, at least that's my perspective on it as of now. Interesting thread, definitely a topic worth discussing imo. I think Marnetmar summed it up really concisely, but it's fun to blather sometimes lol

Random selfies from the other day. My hair was a mess but I like the photos.

As far as I'm concerned, critiquing a work based on its community/cultural impact is more of an exercise in history/sociology than criticism proper.

I was testing one of MFG's Custom Palettes on my maps, and it looks awesome in my opinion, go and give them a look.

I agree. When I read a retrospective review for a film, for example, I expect that it should be held to a modern standard in most aspects, at least in terms of how the core experience holds up. As long as it's fair - I wouldn't criticize a film from 1962 for having fight choreography and special effects that are below a modern standard, since it's the result of a technical limitation. I also wouldn't criticize such a film for having grainy and flat audio. But I could understand someone criticizing, let's say, the non-linear approach of Pulp Fiction (as long as they are capable of describing why it doesn't work for them). It was innovative, but it's no longer impressive if viewed purely through a modern lens. You can still applaud a piece of work for the innovation it brought forth while recognizing that it's been surpassed or doesn't quite hold up. Whenever I play an old game or watch an old film, I try to put myself in the mindset of the time when it was released as best as I can, but there will inevitably be times where you say to yourself "damn, I'm glad we've moved past this shit!". But it all depends on what kind of review the reviewer presents it as. Just be straightforward about whether your review is intended to go over the quality of the work when it was released or not. People will understand what you're saying as long as you're honest and fair.

D64 Deep One, credits to DrDoctor and Midway

newcomer "band are so fucking BADASS" amateur "band's music is very of-its-era, quickly to be surpassed by groups of higher intensity and by general improvements in music technology. You could claim band represent an interesting period piece if you're in search of genre's historical context but, to modern ears, much of their ouvre seems regrettable and even obsolete." expert "band are so fucking BADASS" when you exist in a microgenre or scene where everyone involved hears everything, critical checklist comparison dude is your worst enemy. like you must have noticed by now that there's several well-known authors on these forums or on the discords that ate them and when you try to justify your taste in one thing by hammering another, they hear the hammering and feel like shit. imo just don't grade stuff unless the grade is A* this owns every time modern / old-school perspective doesn't even come into it imo it's more like a shut the fuck up thing edit: i used to make this mistake when I was involved in chiptune stuff and when I think about all the pointless criticism I handed out it makes me feel like a scumbag, no idea who i hurt or how bad

Alright, hopefully the last revision here (gee, that sure sounds familiar)! RC5 contains a plethora of tweaks and fixes, mostly to polish and provide some better balance as well as add some punch and refinement to the more difficult maps. Download it here! Changelog: At this point, I probably won't fix little things that are found, but if my sleep-deprived ass has screwed up anything major, I'll fix that and that's it. I'm thrilled with the positive reception this has gotten so far, including from some streamers, Youtubers, speedrunners, and other content creators. Huge thanks to them for their encouraging words and feedback, as well as the OG playtest crew.

I'm sorry, but this nonsense has to stop. Not just in this thread, but in the community at large. It is a phenomenon that causes problems for numerous community members under the guise of being non-toxic, especially in recent times with Doom's popularity having increased so much since 2020. The person who hosted this project very clearly does not have what it takes to run a community project and I'm not going to let other mappers sign up just to waste their precious, limited time on this Earth mapping for a project that was a sinking ship before it started without saying my piece. This isn't to be "mean" or "toxic" or anything to @AuroraFox, who clearly means no harm. In fact, it is doing them the favor of NOT becoming a pariah for the "crime" of starting a community project when you're inexperienced, thus wasting the fucking time of every mapper who contributes when it inevitably falls apart. I have observed numerous times now that when things play out that way, it sometimes causes the starter of the project to be way more depressed/conflicted about the whole thing than if they had just been given a helpful reality check and the project was halted at the gate. Has everyone seriously already forgotten what happened with Johnny Cruelty? Is it really a "positive, non-toxic" thing to do the mapping project equivalent of letting a person walk into traffic blindfolded, lol? Personally, I don't think so.. Roadworx was 100% correct in all they said with these posts, even if it was maybe (a miniscule amount) too harsh: I'm not comfortable with this very helpful advice being framed as toxicity, drama chasing, schadenfreude - no, as someone who tried to start my first community project alllllll the way back in late 2003, this is sage advice. Plain and simple. I sometimes see the complaint bandied about that DW suffers from "toxic positivity", and usually it's total bullshit - but the one area I see some truth to it, is people sometimes being discouraged from giving harsh-but-helpful advice under the guise that doing so is "too mean". No, what's too mean is dogpiling with pointless memes and "omg this thread sux" posts with no meaningful content, and I'm glad those were removed. However, what's even worse? Allowing people to waste 10+ hours making a map for a project that is inevitably going to end up incomplete/in total shambles just because we didn't want to offend the OP despite them OPENLY STATING they have NO EXPERIENCE in the wadmaking category. This is the phenomenon I was referring to that has to stop - or, more accurately, people being discouraged from stating the harsh but super-helpful truth about such projects. I'm not going to say such projects should be disallowed, but not letting people point out the absurdity/let people know the mess they're in for is basically a sanctioned slap in the face to mappers who simply don't realize they've tied themselves to a sinking ship. Is it really worth it for that tradeoff? I don't think so, but I could be missing something, so feel free to tell me if you think I am. Oh, come on. It's a dumbass "NotSee" pun.. If someone posts some heinous or offensive shit, of course appropriate action will be taken, lol.

Trying to loosely design a more decent looking zombie than my prior Hexen Zombie design. So rather than trying to redesign, I'm going for a ground up approach. This guy has components from other common zombies, though i cant quite put my finger on the head. Any ideas on an improvement? 3/4/24 Edit:Adjustments made, skin is now darker in line with hexen corpse models, though the bald head remains to keep him separate. Teeth yellowed with a spot of mold. Main effort is to make a better baseline, which can be edited with gore points in the future, such as broken off spikes or hooks caught in its skin. The Imp/Strife model is just too tiny for my tastes. However this guy using Daggerfall torso bits may be too beefy. Im sure the goldline is somewhere inbetween. as always if someone gets a better design give me a shoutout! Even if just a A1 image. Also slapped a quick edit using my ghoul ribs. (for your pleasure) Im just gonna go with the far right design as the operative model. Slapped a Dishonored style punishment mask on the zombie. if i could make it work I would love for a magic emblem to be on the blank mask, but I cannot make it look decent.

Map13's got a new sweet corner...

Hi, Been quite inspired lately from replaying Doom 1 and 2, and I wanted to do some 3D models as tribute (and as 3D printables!) Working through every enemy currently. I'll post progress here periodically. I wanted to be around 80% faithful to the original designs, making changes here and there (like the Imp not being noseless) The prints and raw model files (with pbr textures) will be available on my Gumroad. https://doomspoons.gumroad.com/ Feel free to give feedback/ideas!

Unnamed FFA Pack 1: MAP??: Flooded Complex: I made this today on a whim - was going to use AquaTex, but I changed my mind halfway through to 32-in-24-15tex! This will likely be paired w/ the 'Offworld Villa' map, after I re-texture it... :)

Well, as someone who has been reviewing other stuff unrelated to doom for half a decade, I have to tell a review will never be "completely objective trademark", and if your perspective doesn't represent a "historical overview" of any given product you review, then you are in your own right to give whatever angle you want to your reviews. Historical importance not always lines with quality, it's really rare when it does actually. You as a reviewer, want to give your own perspective, thought in your own way to think about what you are reviewing, following your own consistent criteria, in the most honest way possible. If people disagree because they have their own perspective and a different way to view that product, is right to do so, like is right for you to have that perspective. That's why I think is pretty valid for someone to say "this aged poorly" since like people said above, new people experiencing things from 30+ years ago have their own way to see things because of what they want from a product. Memento Mori can be enyojable for people that may play it in its years of prevalence in the early 00's and late 90's, but in your fresh perspective that is not influenced by that way of thinking, having seen a lot of stuff that surpassed it in a way or another, even stuff that tried to emulate it and had better results than that product, you have your right to say if you consider it "bad" or not, and explain why it is the case.

It's been brought to my attention that this texture pack is very likely AI-gen. How I didn't know / realize this, at first, is beyond me... I will likely not be using it going forward, and will likely re-tex this current map - the layout itself is fine... People really need to learn that they EXPLICITLY need to mention things are AI-gen in their posts... It's not fair to other users to assume things are made in good faith, and then have the rug pulled out from under you... Whatever, I'm glad I've only textured the 1 map w/ it! :P

Finally, SLADE for macOS has been updated (thanks to @sirjuddington), now it's possible to do mapping :)

Story: You're on a walk through a hellish landscape. As the story often goes, the ground gives in and you fall into some sort of hellish cave. Fortunately there's a Super Shotgun waiting for you. Better find your way back to the surface. Map Info: A map set inside caverns, with a hellish theme. Lots of fire and brimstone, essentially. Not a techbase texture in sight. This map went through multiple iterations for it's ending; the original ended with a huge battle, but it felt rough and unpolished so I remade the entire thing. Now, you work your way towards the surface. The original boss encounters have been separated and placed individually in their own arenas. This is another map where I've started to work in different difficulties. Playing on UV can be brutal, but that's the intended experience. Game: Doom 2 Replaces: MAP22. Single Player: Designed for Difficulties: Yes Tested with: GZDoom Map Format: Doom 2 (limit removing) Freelook: Yes Jumping: No Crouching: No Download: Hellcave.zip Screenshots:

MAP29 Pacifist in 0:18.86 mm29p018.zip

DOOM Retro v5.3 has been released! Please visit www.doomretro.com for the full list of changes and to download. Thanks again to everyone's support!

Hakros, not to be a jerk, or anything to you - and maybe I just didn't see it... but if this is AI made, why the hell wouldn't you mention that? I got a feeling as I went further and further into the set... I should have known after the Doom Awards fiasco, I had actually forgotten that was you who had used AI then too. I have no problem with AI related stuff, but it ABSOLUTELY has to be mentioned in your post. I know I still could make something with these, but... I feel like a bit of a fool, now, tbh... :P

Just don't give low grades to anything and everyone will be happy. Be like IGN.

Man, this wad's logo looks pretty nice

Cherub clawing attack frames.

Inspired by a certain TNT map...

Took a long time to get the midtex to be a different light level than the floor & ceiling.

You're not sure what you expected to see as the aftermath of a cataclysmic traffic accident, but it certainly wasn't this. A simple investigation of a curious event has turned into a fight for survival. What are these... things? Where did they come from? Amidst your panicked driving, not caring if you accidentally ran over some still-alive civilians, the car runs out of gas at the outskirts of a relatively unscathed city. With fear of death fueling your adrenaline rush, you step out into the eerie silence...

Welcome to another month and the latest installment of the IronEagle competition, the ironman challenge that welcomes all comers, from the doe-eyed newcomer to the grizzled veteran. As long as you enjoy playing Doom, then come on in, the water's fine! This month, participants will challenge themselves against Castle of Evil (also known as CASTEVIL.WAD), a single vanilla map for Doom made by Stanley "lordwlfie" Stasiak in 1994. In this map, the super secret military base on the other side of Phobos has warped into some sort of demon-infested castle. Your Marine platoon was sent to investigate, and you are the only surviving member. Being the only Marine still breathing, you now have to fight your way through the complex. This sprawling, non-linear map also has the distinction of being one of the largest maps made to that point (it was released when Doom was only just under 11 months old). Participants must play these maps on complevel 3 or Doom(strict). Download Castle of Evil here. Castle of Evil starts at E2M5. Survival is finishing the map. Enjoy! Congratulations to this month's winners (further details are in the post below). UV: @Horus (Runner-up: @joe-ilya) HMP: @head_cannon (Runner-up: n/a) HNTR: @SleepyVelvet (Runner-up: @Andromeda) Rules: The rules are basically the same as they have been. Either demos or streams are permissible. If you are creating a demo, post the demo. If you are streaming, post a video of the stream. Even if streaming, you can still submit a demo, if you want to. The basic rule is that you submit a demo/stream played at a particular difficulty level (HNTR, HMP, or UV) and you play without saving and reloading, ending your run when you die (or survive). The following are allowed (but not required): Freelook Crosshair Mods that are COSMETIC ONLY The following are NOT allowed: Crouching Jumping Mods that change ANY aspect of base gameplay, including (but not limited to) enemy behavior, enemy speed, player abilities, player speed, weapon damage, ammo, and enemy drops. Further, more specific, rules are listed below: Any port is accepted provided it will actually run the mapset. There is no preference. Category System: Category 1: Blind run. This explains itself. You have no knowledge of the wad and have not played/seen it before. I'm willing to be somewhat lenient with this Category. For example, if you die early in Map 01, and then decide to play again for your run, you can still call it Category 1. Category 2: Non-blind. If you have played the wad before and/or possess significant foreknowledge, your run is non-blind. Basically, anything that is not Category 1 is Category 2. If you're unhappy with your blind run, feel free to record a new run, and submit that run instead. (Just don't submit your first run.) If you want to submit your first run, no matter how you perform, by all means, go ahead and do it. You shouldn't feel that you HAVE to submit a run you're dissatisfied with, just to preserve a "Category 1" status. If you want to go back and submit a second run, you're welcome to do so, but, at this time, it won't be counted. Difficulty System: You may submit a demo/stream for only one of HNTR, HMP, or UV. Choose only one, because subsequent submissions will be rejected (i.e., if you submit a HMP demo, the HNTR demo you then submit will be rejected). We're not using the 1CC rule set here. Your first submission is what counts. Only runs from the same difficulty will be pitted against each other. Each difficulty will be graded separately. Submission: When you submit your run, please the include the following information: The category (1 or 2) The difficulty If you survived, your time If you didn't survive, your time of death Kill count upon death The port you used (if you included a demo) A link to the stream/video (if you did a stream) You may include a commentary about the maps or details about them, if you want to. If you do include specific information about the map (e.g., "The demon trap in Map 08 is rough"), please put it in a spoiler, so that people that want a completely blind experience won't be tipped off. If you're just putting in a general comment (e.g., "Pro tip: don't get hit"), then no need for a spoiler. Attempting to max the maps is not necessary to win. Ranking for this mapset will be determined by: Survival Time for survival Kill count If you die, please wait a few seconds before quitting. Breaks: Everyone gets tired. Sometimes people survive longer than they expected. Nature calls. Every now and then, there are family emergencies. Needing to take a break shouldn't necessarily end a promising run. While you should try to complete the run in a single setting, this isn't always possible. If you have to take a break, try to make it quick. Happy Dooming! Previous IronEagle Competitions

March, 2024 pic is from Onemandoom > The yearly standings > The Ironman Discord Server Standard Leaderboard [2] SURVIVED (2:03:36): joe-ilya - [3] SURVIVED (2:21:10): NaZa - Could almost hear the train horn while inspecting the Bush. Almost. [1] SURVIVED (3:04:54): Vytaan - [1] SURVIVED (3:11:53): Vince Vega - The tip-toeing tango seems to have worked as Vince scores 2/2 so far this year. [1] SURVIVED (3:23:39): Beginner - *The Bush winks back.* [1] MAP10: dt_ - [1] MAP09: Suitepee - [1] MAP09: Andromeda - Was so focused on the cyberdemon, even the arachnotrons (and the funky music!) couldn't break the focus. [1] MAP08: Bertt91 - [1] MAP07: LadyMistDragon - Bangs head on SUPPORT2. The red key would've been the real SUPPORT, TOO. Unlucky. (DNF) [1] MAP06: SCF - In Croatia we have a saying that goes "Who dares to fly high, falls low." I think that could be applied here. [1] MAP05: RedBoule - Maybe he didn't deliver the killing blow, but hot damn, that central hell knight was a sniper. Even after dying. [1] MAP05: signaturereverie - [1] MAP05: Li'l devil - Don't Turn Your Back to the Revenant. (-cl 9) [1] MAP04: Asbadagba - Those revenants ought to be christened. [1] MAP04: ClumsyCryptid - Finds a grate on the other end of the tube. Doesn't find the deadly punch so grate. [1] MAP04: Hebonky - Went to slay thugs, stayed for the hugs. [1] MAP04: Darth_wiader [1] MAP03: Horus - Mistakes fire for a solid barrier. [1] MAP01: Austinado - "It literally says I cannot go there, right?" [1] MAP01: MxCraven - Prepared Leaderboard ... What is the Doomworld Ironman League? The DWIronman League is a monthly competition in which participants aim to survive for as many levels as possible in the given map set, preferably in one sitting. Click the spoiler tag at the bottom of the post for a detailed list of rules. Players of all levels of ability are welcome. It could change the way you play Doom! In March 2024 the DWIronman League dies to ICAR2015 (-complevel 2), an 11-map episode made by Eternal. According to DoomWiki, it is a set whose maps "reprise the themes and designs from the first set of Icarus: Alien Vanguard [...]" ... and, as such, many of you who've played Icarus might feel a slight deja vu. Unless you're yours truly, who never played Icarus. It is, also, not the only set Eternal themed around a TeamTNT set, though; some veterans of the league might recall 2018, when TNT: Renascence was played. One of the sets with a higher survival rate that year, as well. Either way, good luck, marine! Essential Info Doom II (doom2.wad) + Icarus: Alien Vanguard loaded (ICARUS.WAD). ICARUS HAS TO BE LOADED BEFORE ICAR2015, otherwise you'll be playing Icarus. The best way to check which 11 maps loaded is to type LISTMAPS in the console if you're using ZDoom, or remember how the first room of ICAR2015 looks (you're on an elevator, and there are no flashing lights on it) before comitting to a run if using other source ports. In any case, the command line noted below is correct. Compatibility level 2, or "Doom (strict)" for ZDoom derivative ports. 11 maps Time estimate (if survival): 2 - 4 hours > Download ICAR2015 > Download Icarus: Alien Vanguard (NECESSARY TO LOAD ICAR2015) prboom-plus.exe -iwad doom2.wad -file ICARUS.WAD ICAR2015.wad -complevel 2 -skill 4 -record demo_name.lmp -warp Rules: Previous threads:

This is a topic that I was thinking about just recently and wanted to discuss about. I also wasn't sure if I should post it here or Everything Else, since this is not just related to reviewing Doom wads, but also reviewing video games in general as well. So we all know MtPain27. Anyone who watches him has noted that he has graded the old classic wads (Such as MM1, Requiem, Icarus, HR etc.) on the lower spectrum being (below B-) for all these wads. And to be honest, if I were in his place, I likely would have given similar views since I don't think their gameplay has aged as well and there are plenty of modern wads (not just high profile ones, but also not so popular ones) that generally surpass these classics in polish and gameplay. But whenever he gave a classic a low grade, there have always been some folks who did not agree with the way the Dean reviewed them since it feels that giving them a low grade undermines their classic status and the innovations they introduced. Which is a fair take imho. MM1 is probably the most notable example of a wad which might have been the most absolute best and polished community megawad at the time of its release (it was made before even TNT: Evilution), but since it's gameplay does not hold up, it ended up getting a D+ from the Dean. Now this doesn't just extend to Doom wads but also to other video games as well. There have been games that introduced groundbreaking mechanics at their time, but also have some elements in their level design or gameplay which haven't aged exactly well imo. I will give two examples here: Marathon (Bungie's 1994 FPS). I am specifically talking about the first game. This game introduced dual wielding (true dual wielding, not the fake ROTT style), grenade jumping, freelook, friendly AI, terminals rich with story elements, a cool eerie atmosphere and much more. That said, the game is not an easy game to get into. Some of the graphics are amateurish, the level design quality is on average a little better than the better maps of Maximum Doom and the pattern buffers (save points) aspect of the game further make it hard to recommend to most players. That said I still recommend to give it a shot, but it is not an easy recommendation. Terminator: Future Shock (Bethesda's 1995 fps). This game was so ahead of its time, it's ridiculous. Polygonal enemies and 3D environments before Quake, big levels with indoor/outdoor segments, drivable vehicles which includes a flying one, dedicated grenade button. That said, the game is also very janky and buggy in true Bethesda fashion. For this reason, I recommend to watch a review or video playthrough of the game rather than playing it. Also whenever I review a game, I like to take the modding scene of a game into consideration. I know it might not be exactly fair to do this, but one of the reasons why I highly recommend Doom to non-Doom fps players is because it has such a strong and flourishing modding scene. More content that can last ones lifetime and easy to use editors. If Doom didn't had this modding scene, I likely wouldn't have been playing Doom, let alone recommending others to try it out. While most reviews do tend to focus on the aspects of a game's innovations or how a game aged, almost no reviewer tends to take the modding scene of a game into consideration which I wish they did. In the end, I realize that there is no "objectively correct (tm)" way to review anything since all reviews tend to be subjective opinions of the reviewer at the time of the writing. But I still want to hear your opinions. How much weight should be given to a mod/game's innovations vs how that game managed to age with the passage of time. Also how much weight should be given to the game's modding scene.

MAP01: Dragonaut & MAP02: Under the Surface Overall not much to say, liked 'em for being simple wooden techbases--wood being one of my favorite aesthetics. Space is kept to the minimum and reused where possible. Could appear on an article about zen and/or minimalism in Doom. The E1M1 tribute with the green armor being on a high pedestal reacheable by steps to the left was cool.

Just techbase, or Doom 2 Techbase.

Yes, I can play this one. Nostalgia.wad - Nostalgia - Alex "Myolden" Decker: Another new mapset of short, simple, classic maps, something that is always refreshing to play for guys like me, that likes simple stuff more than highly overwhelming wads, that require a longer time to play through. Myolden takes his effort to make a full 32-MAP set with classic layouts, combined with modern challenges that are already usual for today standards. The idea, as the name of the wad implies, is to give you a nice throwback to those 90's days, it may be more of the same, something that is not risky to make, but for me, it is always effective. MAP01 - Dragonaut - (100%K/I/S): A short, entryway map that felt a bit reminiscent to the first map of my WIP mapset, Trial To Hell (I'll finish it someday, I swear). Because of the setup and some of its layout, but with less variants. Short, simple, and good looking. Hit this switch, get the key, exit. This is why I choose to play this month, I don't expect so many long maps. Also I LOVE blue sky textures. MAP02 - Under the Surface - (100%K/95%I/50%S): The usage of textures here, I have to give it to Myolden, is really nice. It has a great choice of brown, but not boring, set of textures here, that naturally packs together not to make it feel like we are playing through D2ISO again, and thanks a lot for that. Another simple map, that luckly makes me feel that I should play more of this. Naturally, MAP02 becomes more complex than the first one, with a less clear goal than MAP01, but still simple enough. Difficulty here raises a bit, but thanks to that secret soulsphere I passed through this one with no hurry. Likeable map. (UV - Playthrough/Crispy Doom) Order of Preference: After Eviternity II and 10x10, I needed this.

I have similar view. If I am introducing an old wad to a newcomer, I tend to focus less on the historic context and more on how it hold up (in my perspective of course). I am a frim believer that when reviewing anything, one should be honest about their experience. Don't sugarcoat if the experience was rough, just don't pass the opinion as an objective fact and don't attack the creator for it.

My view: If we're still recommending these old wads to new Doom players, then they should totally be reviewed under the modern lens. New players are going to review these wads in a modern light anyway, whether it's a "historical classic" or not. Historical context is important totally, but it's annoying when it's used as an excuse to justify something being bad. Classics aren't immune to critique, you're allowed to not like them.

This is an insecurity I often feel when talking about older wads. I didn't grow up with Doom, in fact I discovered it together with the modding scene quite recently. I don't want to be seen as an outsider, who comes in and criticises beloved classics. But it doesn't change the fact I played them for the first time in 2020s and most just don't stand the test of time (Plutonia is the sole exception). I can acknowledge how they compare to other works released at the same time, but the ultimate question will always be "is this entertaining in 2024?".

This thingamajig is now on /idgames! Well, it's been on /idgames for a few days now, but I waited a little bit on announcing it because I noticed I accidentally put "difficulty settings: Not Implemented" in the text file at some point. It's fixed now though, so I'm alright with saying it's out! Bonus fun facts: "Grejsimojs" is a Swedish equivalent to words like "thingamajig" and "doohickey" The title screen music choice was originally gonna be a different midi, but due to the duration of Doom 1's title screen being way shorter than doom 2 (nearly half as long), I ended up not going for it. The dastardly George became a little bit of an in-joke among my friends, and as a result he has made a cameo appearance in a project which happened to release before this one. I've still yet to play it for myself, but from what I've seen it looks like a jolly good time! :D I am bothered by airplanes flying overhead more times per night than I'd like (a number greater than 0 and less than 1, but still!)

2 letters, 2 words. AI

e4m4 pacifist in 32.66 p4m43266.zip

Unnamed Duel Pack #1: MAP01: Offworld Villa: I've started a new duel project, it uses HakrosTex. I've got no idea how many maps will be in this pack - but I'll likely make 4-6. :)

JP LeBreton (of Bioshock, Arcadia Demade, lots of other things) has a page regarding Tourism in video games, with "tourism" being defined as exploring a game without any intention of participating in the game's conflict systems, whether that be by disengaging from it, cheating past it, or disabling it (via the game's own built-in systems, difficulty settings, or modifying the game to remove these aspects). There are quite a few games nowadays that implement something I'd call a "super easy" mode, in which case the conflict is still present but heavily neutered, rather than cut out entirely. This is to be expected, though. After all, games are a kinetic medium. Most people expect some sort of standard gameplay loop, whether that loop is a very short and repetitive one (room-clearing roguelikes come to mind), or a long and complex one (strategy games come to mind). Stripping that core functionality from the game can leave you not only with a shell of a game, but a potentially dissonant one, where any threads that were linked between gameplay, world, narrative, and/or any other angles, no longer connect. Doom is one of those games where the vast majority of people who play it are playing it because they like how it feels on a basic level, whether or not they mod the hell out of it to make it more enjoyable to their specific taste. They like to shoot demons. When they load up a PWAD, they expect there to be things to kill. From a mapping angle, you make rooms that you like, and then you put monsters in them to fill the space and give the player an objective, a threat to engage with, something to do. Sometimes you even construct the room a certain way because of the composition of monsters and geometry that popped into your head. However, Doom also has a -nomonsters parameter. The TNTEM and IDCLIP cheat codes exist. You can turn any given map into a purely exploratory experience. This might even improve an experience that would otherwise have been negative for you: Hate slaughter, but love grand architecture? Bored to tears by IWAD tribute gameplay? Mapper spam too many Archviles? Just like the way Doom feels to run around in with no inhibiting factors? You can remove everything and take a walk. I like to do this, I think video games are a really awesome thing because of the worlds that are constructed in them that you can move around in. There are more Doom WADs than any reasonable person could ever play through in existence right now, and the number only gets larger as the days go by. You can tour spaces built in Doom, probably for the rest of your life, and you will never stop finding new worlds, whether that is another E1 tech-base in someone else's eyes, a slaughter map with seizure-inducing lighting scripts, a larger-than-life magnum opus jammed into a random community project, etc. Some things I have enjoyed through this lens of tourism: - Lost Civilization // It is too pretty and greenery-filled to let the lackluster combat bring it down. It is a world in and of itself. - Liminal Doom // This one might not be too surprising, considering the basis of the wad is "liminal spaces". Sometimes the silence is better, especially in a room with so many waterfalls. - Gravity // Eternal is not bad at Doom combat, but walking around in Map02 of this WAD is like being shrunk down and given free play inside of a diorama. - Boaty McBoatWAD // Consider it a trip to the world's most unhinged boat museum. - El Viaje de Diciembre // A world deep in the autumn of its life, letting out a tremendous sigh. There's also this part of a quote that I read a long time ago that has stuck with me, with key points highlighted: "[...] Any notion of humanity left in Sunlust's world is actively malignant-- MAP29 for example, "Go Fuck Yourself", is uniquely human to the player in design, architecture, and title. The Archvile Carousel is too purposeless, too vexatious to be designed by any thing but a human. Yet, like with most challenge maps, it's made to be bested, but only by those willing to buy in and mortify themselves to gitting gud. In fact, this idea of mortification, of purity through rigid self-discipline, is an idea that permeates not just in Sunlust but in the discourse of 'difficulty' in video games as a whole. For every new completion of Sunlust, there's a DOOMer out there who will remind you that you haven't really 'completed' Sunlust until you've done it with no savescumming, and there's a DOOMer above them that will remind you that only pistol start UV counts as completion, and so on and so on. Anyone who had the unfortunate luck to witness Souls "summoning discourse" can also attest to similar convos. It's eerily similar to where this mortification discourse actually comes from--Medieval Christianity. You aren't really free of sin until you've abstained from something important, until you've fasted, until you've lived ascetically, until you've self-flagellated, etc. And while the merits and foibles of mortification are too big for this review, the takeaway shouldn't be to do away with the ideas of purity or self-discipline, but to take a more personal, existential approach to them. Play Sunlust, but don't feel the need to surrender to it's weight of difficulty or of being one of the GOAT WADs or anything else. noclip to admire the architecture, throw on godmode, try a UV run, make a save for the Cathedral fight to replay forever, do whatever--just make it challenging and purifying to you, and see where you land. [...]" - SimonDedalus My referencing of this writing is not an invitation to discuss whether your playstyle is more or less valid than any other, nor is it a request for another tired save/saveless, mods/modless competition to determine who has the most fulfilling Doom experience or whatever. Not only can you make the weights lighter (play on a lower difficulty), you can take the weights off entirely. You can explore the spaces, free of stress, and maybe that will make all of the difference for you. What I would like is to hear about anybody else who just likes to walk around in spaces like these, and if you don't, then try it! Try it with your favorite WADs! Try it with something that has gameplay you consider horrifically difficult or boring! Try it with something you've never played before! Just go explore something in its most minimal form, and have fun with it.

This is a new sample level I finished today for an upcoming full episode for Doom 2. I have a working title called "Blood Season" but if anyone has suggestions on better names please leave it in the comments. (Its meant to be a spiritual sequel to TNT: Evilution's "Open Season" and shares the same music. Game: Doom 2 IWAD: doom2.wad Source Port: Limit removing Level: Map06 Get the file here https://drive.google.com/file/d/1m7gv4d_2l27F7uD-nDvi8vHOiWEOgkQ5/view?usp=sharing

Maybe try color matching from the hanged corpses so it looks consistent with them?

Ahh, immersion. Something that I lost through Doom mapping and coming of age, and I wish I could have back. When I first played Sunlust, literally a week after playing Doom for the first time, I was very deeply immersed in Sunlust's world. But thanks to Doom mapping, all I see in maps now is textures, flats, sectors, and linedefs. I can see all the misaligned textures in Half-Life 1 and GTA: San Andreas now. dear god it hurts can i go back pls

Adoring Fan Navi Tingle Fi (original version) Roman Bellic Ashley Graham (original version) Preston Garvey Daikatana companions You know, the classics.

And here's the progress so far. If your map has been sent but it's not in these screenshots, tag me and send it again, if you can. From my count, we're only missing 14 boxes, and 7 are above and I just don't know which ones they are.