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  • idgames Maintainer Ty Halderman Passes Away At 69


    Late last April, new files stopped appearing on the idgames archive, leading to mounting concern about maintainer Ty Halderman's well-being. The following month, in late May, a visit by a Doomer in Ty's native New Orleans confirmed that he was alive but hospitalized. That same month, Bill Koch (Bloodshedder) and Eric Baker (The Green Herring) were recruited as interim maintainers to keep the idgames archive running. Today on the forums, a close relative confirmed that Ty Halderman died on July 31, surrounded by his family. We have no reason to believe that this information is fabricated.

    As maintainer of the most important part of the Doom community, Ty Halderman was the reason over 20 years of custom levels and mods remain available today. As part of TeamTNT, he contributed to TNT: Evilution from the Final Doom package among other WADs, and was one of the main programmers of the source port Boom, which set a new standard for custom level design that remains today. Needless to say, Ty Halderman was not called an "essential pillar of the community" for nothing. For all of this and more, he received the Espi Award for Lifetime Achievement at the Cacowards just last year. The work he did for this community is immeasurable, and his loss devastating. We at Doomworld offer our condolences to Ty Halderman's family, and would like to thank him for his efforts in keeping the central archive of the Doom community alive. He will be missed by us all.


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    RIP Ty. Thank you for all of your contributions to Doom and its community. I still remember visiting and browsing the /idgames archive at ftp.cdrom.com and submitting some of my own WAD files there when I was younger. Those were the days.

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    Question, does anybody know Ty's birth month and date? This is kinda a serious question because I have determination to make my work in progress map a tribute to him as I need accurate detail for the textures so I do not mess up the year (1945 or 1946?).

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    Ty was always one of those forces that I think persist in the framework of this community, working without fail. Many of them I have never talked to, so if you are one of those pillar-people you have my thanks.

    And thank you Ty, you maintained Doom.

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    A community always feels the pain of its members. Ty was a constant in Doomworld, ever-present and always working. He truly was an essential pillar of the community. Thank you Ty.

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    I am... I have no words.

    I just read about it. I still can't believe it.

    We just exchanged messages a couple months ago, and his tone was as nice as ever...

    Rest In Peace, Ty. Thank You For Everything.

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    I just found out about this on Reddit. This is so sad. :-(

    Deepest condolences to his family and friends.

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    Stygian said:

    Goodbye, Ty. Going to download and play some WADs in honor of your contributions.

    That's exactly what I did when I heard the news. Ended up writing down my thoughts here (half-review and half-tribute to Ty) if anyone is interested.

    To Ty: thank you. I wish I'd known you personally, but it's impossible to turn anywhere in this community and not see your influence. You were in a class of your own.

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    I had just been in contact with him a year ago taking care of some idgames stuff .. you could tell he really cared about his work on the archive. RIP.

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    I have added a little tribute to Ty in one of the deathmatch maps of my upcoming Doomed Space Wars. One side of the room has a T and the other side of the room has a Y engraved into the floor.

    You served us well for so many years, made some great maps and maintained the archives. You will be missed, but your legacy will always live on!

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    So sad to hear this news. He was the backbone of this community for many years and his presence will be a loss to us all.

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    I was buried in PhD work the last 2 - 3 years and barely had time to even check newstuff. Now that I finally found some time I see these sad news. I wish I was able to do something about it, or would have been able earlier since some colleagues of mine also researched anti cancer treatments also for hardly operable brain tumors.
    So I can just stay with gratefulness for his work and respect for such an old DooMer. It is always sad to see the good people go.
    I wish a lot of strength and positiveness for his family now and the DooM community.

    *floats up hissing and shoots a salute Caco-fireball for Ty*

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    I'd been holding off replying to this because I have had a long enforced break from DOOM modding so haven't been in touch and all I'd heard was unsubstantiated rumors.

    But since now it is known to be true, well what can one say?

    A very BIG ":(", I guess. Ty contributed so much that without him there would have been no archives today and no BOOM either. Best wishes to his family. He will be remembered.

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    I didn't have any direct interaction with Mr. Halderman that I remember. But at some level that speaks to his professionalism and how smoothly he ran things. His service was part of the bedrock of this community, and I regret never thanking him for it. My sympathies to his friends and family.

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    I remember uploading one of my first released maps back in 1999, thanks to Ty for bringing it online. RIP Ty, you were an amazing person, and bastion for the doom community

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