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I had forgotten about the COMM1 version of the map. I'm more familiar with the MAP21 version, which has Doom 2 monsters and the like. Funny thing, that later version is also full of Doom 1 textures that don't exist in Doom 2, like ASHWALL and SKULWAL3. So I went and had a closer look at COMM1, and I think it's a Sandy Petersen map. The overall architecture and room shapes look more like something you'd see in The Shores of Hell, like with E2M5 or E2M6. If it's indeed a Petersen map, it must have been one of the first maps he made for the game upon joining id Software, since most of the score items were removed after the Press Beta version. I suppose the name "COMM1" means "Commercial 1", considering COMM2 in the same folder for unused maps, is what eventually became MAP10 in "Commercial Doom" AKA Doom 2. Yeah, I'll definitely ask him. Thing is, this is probably a thing that Romero would be a better fit for. Although like I said above, this really looks like a Petersen map. Here, have a look and compare:

Well, I guess that's a thing I just learned about Doom lol.

Well, in reality, I think it's more complicated than just "accidental". Alphas were meant to be sent to industry professionals or certain gameplay testers approved by id Software back then, not public release. So yes, I suppose they just built the game with all the assets they had, which included that map. Thing is, I'm mostly saying because all the evidence points at the level being made when a different texture set was available for the game at the time, due to those textures correctly coinciding with "hellish" textures in alpha v0.4, which also perfectly match with what you can see in Doom Builder in the final version of the IWAD. I remember asking Tom Hall directly about some of these details many years ago, but not precisely about this map in particular. I'd have to probably go digging for those emails, but might as well just go and ask him again. I have no idea if that early version of Spirit World is a Tom Hall map. It could be, since it sort of matches his style, including how you can almost perfectly encircle the entire map into a squarish shape, and the overall level lacks verticality and is mostly comprised of 90-degree walls, as well as placement of bonus items in what appears to be treasure caches. However, it lacks something that's very important for a Tom Hall map, and it's the attempt at using sector lighting to create "realistic" light sources. If it is a Tom Hall map, then it was definitely meant for Doom 1, and almost certainly supposed to be a hell level. If not, then it's almost certain (to me, at least) that it was always intended for Doom 2. No idea how the levels were supposed to be ordered, and considering Sandy changed the names for most of the maps, it's probably just a coincidence.. although I think the people developing the PS1 version of Doom were onto something here lol. Well, if Hall was indeed the author of that map, then I guess it's the best candidate for the slot. Remember they came up with those names even before they made any maps for the game.

Yeah, what I said is that that very early E2M1 references textures that don't exist in the build it came in, so it displays crates and unrelated stuff. That's why I said it was included in alpha v0.5 probably by accident.

I think Sandy may have misremembered here, and it was probably the SSG. I say "probably" because yes, the normal shotgun was there from the very beginning of development, but the SSG was at least hinted at even before the game started development, although it was never included in Doom 1: (Source). Him having the SSG become a thing in game is just my speculation, though. Also, on the topic of level names, that's absolutely true. They mostly had the list of levels they wanted for Doom 1, but they didn't have the levels. What you see in Doom 1 is levels they made, but with names they assigned as development went along. Originally they had started making certain levels to fit with specific previously decided level names, but most of them were just moved around and renamed for the final version. You can see most of the levels in some form in the alpha versions of the game: "Hangar Two": Became E2M7. "Supply Depot Two": Became E2M2. "Waste Processing": Became E2M3. "Enlisted Quarters": Became Doom 2's MAP10. You can see the earliest version of this map in the v0.5 alpha. "Tower": Became E1M6. "Recreation and Training Center": Became E1M4. In alpha v0.4 the map is mostly recognizable, and it even has its own rough layout for a movie theater where the yellow key is in the released version, but you need to edit the executable so you can climb tall ledges to get to that room (see below). "Mess": Never made as a map, AFAIK. "Officers' Quarters": Same as above. "Personal Storage": Where the "second, more powerful shotgun" would be found, but never made it as a map either. "Control Center": Became E3M3. "Power Plant": Became E1M2. "Lab": Became E2M4. "Observatory": Was briefly seen as E1M10 in alpha v0.4, a small map made up of 2 rooms, but then it was quickly removed and never seen again. "Supply Depot One": Appears in alpha v0.4 as E1M11, and it's a huge level that's mostly empty, and features lots of mazes that lead nowhere. Infamously described by possibly either Hall or Romero as "devoid of real levelness". "Anomaly": Became E1M8. "Main Hangar": Was never made, AFAIK. On the topic of "Recreation and Training Center", here's some screenshots of the rough movie theater room, just because I find this pretty fascinating: This is the same area in the released map, for comparison: You're both right and wrong. This is only a thing in deathz0r's conversions of those maps for ZDoom. Can't fault him on that one, because the alphas' map format was extremely different. A couple years ago I reverse-engineered the map format for study purposes, and the reason the wrong assumption happened was because in the alphas, the textures on walls are not named, but instead referenced by id numbers. The first-ever version of what we know now as "Limbo" appeared on alpha v0.5 as E2M1, possibly as an accident. The level was originally mostly covered by what eventually became the REDWALL texture, and you could be able to see it in the alpha if it wasn't because the game crashes when you try to load it, because alpha v0.5 is built different and it crashes if literally any texture in a one-sided linedef is missing. In this case, the corridor to the left requires some textures that don't exist in the game anymore, and the rest of the map points to the texture ids to textures that look like crates and make no sense given the context. Inserting the map into alpha v0.4, however lets you see the map, since that version doesn't care if the textures are missing as long as you're not looking at them. I added all this info to the wiki a couple years ago, but here you have the screenshots if you're curious: And, also if you're curious, this very early texturing can still be found in the released version of E3M7. Just load the map in Doom Builder, and see the back side of most 2-sided linedefs: And, as an extra fun fact, it's safe to assume this level was originally created to be "Entrance To The Dying God". Tom Hall originally envisioned episode 2 to be hell, and already had a list of names for all the possible levels, although most of these were dropped almost immediately: "Entrance To The Dying God" "Belly of The Beast" "Heart of Darkness" "The Mind of God" "Gates of Dis" "Fleshalls" [sic] "Temple of The Summoner" "The Unholy Shrine" "Castle of The Dukes" "Magma Deeps" "Hell Hole" "Spirit Drains" "Shadow Walk" "Darkaan Tower" I guess they thought Sandy's names for the levels sounded a lot cooler (because they do lol). If you look at the original drawing for the map, you can see that the episode 3 overworld map in the released version is directly based on it. Dropping the "Dale of The Evil God" entirely, most of the original names correlate to what you see in "Inferno" and also make a bit more sense as well. "Gates of Dis" becomes "Hell Keep", "Castle of The Dukes" becomes "Pandemonium", "Temple of The Summoner" becomes "House of Pain"/"Mt. Erebus", "Unholy Shrine" becomes "Slough of Despair", "Magma Deeps" becomes "Unholy Cathedral" (which explains why it's covered in lava), "Hell Hole"/"Shadow Walk" become "Gate To Limbo", and "Darkaan Tower" becomes "Dis". I think it's also really interesting that, as late as the Press Release beta version, hell was still episode 2. They only changed it around around when Doom v0.99 was released.

But ripping through multiple enemies while doing puny damage just removes its utility entirely. The Railgun was originally balanced around doing a ton of damage, which is why it's so slow. At this point it's likely the lowest DPS weapon in the game, barring the Blaster. Besides, what I said about the Machinegun being an understandable change makes even more sense now that you mentioned controllers. It's a pretty complex situation all-around. But the Railgun's damage logic was a very simple and straightforward game mode check. Doesn't make any sense to remove that, considering all the other weapons I mentioned hadn't had their unique SP behaviors removed or altered, especially the BFG. Makes the Railgun even more useless now that pretty much all enemies are more intelligent and aggressive.

But isn't this what was always the point of the Railgun? The Chaingun, the HyperBlaster and the BFG also have unique SP behavior, but they were left as is. Is it because it's pretty much impossible to do stealth damage with them?

I'm not asking for a mod, and I was already aware of Unmastered. I'm asking for the developers' rationale. Besides, mods are useless for people who play on console.

So, I don't know if I'm even going to get a response from the devs, but what's the rationale for this? void weapon_railgun_fire(edict_t *ent) { int damage = 100; int kick = 200; ... } It seems extremely arbitrary to me to nerf one of the game's super weapons in single player, considering the BFG stayed completely unchanged. Is it because the BFG is now meant to be the only super weapon? I get that in deathmatch it made sense for the Railgun originally to do 100 damage because 150 damage is too much against another player. But why this change? It feels worthless now, since the Super Shotgun does more damage pretty much all the time. Now, I know other people have complained about the lack of Machinegun climb-up, and I understand the omission since it's stated in the comments for the source code that it was because of the changed internal ticrate making it really difficult to port over. I fully get that reason. But what I don't get are the comments that also imply that it wasn't even worth a try because apparently no one wants it? It's kind of like Doom 3 BFG Edition removing the flashlight because people supposedly hated it. The Blaster doing 15 damage instead of 10 on SP makes perfect sense, considering the enemies now are smarter and more agile, so I understand it's for balancing, and it feels much better the way it's now. I just find it puzzling that most of the other weapons stayed completely unchanged. I'm sorry if this sounds like I'm complaining or bashing this release. I'm not trying to. I'm just trying to understand what was the reasoning for the changes, because they feel pretty arbitrary.

But I never said GOG games come with DRM? Maybe I used the wrong word, but what I meant is that it's basically a marketing line that doesn't mean much if their services can only be used in Windows and macOS lol. And, sure, I know I can keep the Windows installers of the games I buy, and I can run the Windows versions of said games through Wine or derived builds, but you have to give up everything else, like play time, achievements, cloud saves, etc. Yes, I know there's things you can do on your own for all of the above, such as using third-party launchers, Syncthing, etc, but why do we have to? Besides, it seems pretty dumb to me personally that they don't give a shit about targetting the Steam Deck as well, even if it's a device made by a competitor. Massive missed oportunity. I personally don't have a problem with their aggressiveness, but the ground pound attack is outright impossible to dodge. I know it's not really damaging, but reacting fast enough and being able to move a mile away from it, only for it to still hit you and send you flying nonetheless feels like bullshit. It really feels like the splash range is infinite.

This doesn't seem to have anything to do with DRM lol. Besides, GOG is shit. They use the claim that the games they sell don't come with DRM as a marketing gimmick, but if you use Linux, fuck you. This didn't work, in vanilla because the weapons weren't fully modeled or textured, or whatever. If you chose left hand for weapon position, the game would just mirror the model, because the other side was never supposed to be seen. It's also why you're not allowed to see them centered, or it would break the illusion. Not sure why they chose to keep it this way in this release, though.

They didn't fix the Lower Palace missing enemy teleport bug :( For more info: https://github.com/yquake2/yquake2/issues/674

If you use the IDMUS cheat at all in Doom 1 (post Doom 2 launch), the game crashes. This wasn't fixed until the official release of The Ultimate Doom. Even in Doom v1.9 Special Edition (the work-in-progress leak of Ultimate), the game still crashes.

There's a lot of problems with that one corridor in E3M9 that aren't present in E3M1, which makes me suspect it was based on an earlier version of the latter. In fact, E3M9 itself has other weird problems that E3M1 doesn't. Regarding that corridor in E3M1, it is made up of multiple sectors, which helps separate it from the surrounding areas by changing the heights: There's a small ledge sector to the left that separates it from the outside area with the crumbling bridge, which helps the floor flat transition from FLAT5_4 to FLOOR6_2 more seamlessly, by adding a ledge with STEP3 (yes, I was using cheats for the screenshots): You can see that the ceiling height of that part of the corridor is lower than the open sky area (the corridor's ceiling is at 80, whereas the sky is at 88). Now, see how E3M9 looks: The entire corridor is a single sector with a ceiling height of 128, which creates all sorts of issues, ranging from the floor flat transition looking pretty bad, but most notably, the sky being lower than the ceiling of the inside corridor: Here's a view from the inside of the corridor looking out, in E3M1: And in E3M9: There's also the issue of the door leading into this corridor from the starting area being very tall, leading to a possible softlock, because the player can press the close button and have enough time to run under the door, which is completely impossible in E3M1. This is how it looks in E3M9: And in E3M1: There's also a historic issue with both maps having a wrong tag in one of the sectors in this outside area: When Doom v1.1 was released, in both of these maps, the sector with the FLAT10 floor was tagged with tag 6: This meant that crossing the crumbling bridge in the western outside area would affect the aforementioned sector. Fortunately, there were no adverse effects, because Doom v1.1 and v1.2 simply changed the floor flat to something from one of the surrounding sectors. This is how that looks in both maps in v1.1: This happens because line special 37 was apparently bugged and didn't actually change the properties of the affected sectors, so making that bridge lower would make it look like it was still sitting above the blood: The problem started when id Software decided to "fix" this special in v1.666, because this would lead to a crash if a mistagged sector was affected by this special. Thankfully, Sandy realized this and removed the tag from the outside area in E3M1.. but not on E3M9. This caused the game to crash if you ever: Played through E3M9 Lowered the bridge Stepped on the mistagged sector outside This is how it looks: And weirdly enough, they didn't notice this was happening until v1.9, where the misplaced tag was finally removed.

Man, your rendition of the soundtrack is still my favorite. Still use it as my default in GZDoom all these years later lol.

I like how this doesn't make my brain tired lol.

IS THAT COLOUR THEORY??

Wtf.. if it wasn't because of this, I'd never have heard it either. It's weird that just changing the drums made the song pretty unrecognizable for decades. Anyways, have a musical shitpost lol. Fight Fire With Shotgun.zip

It's in the Multiplayer menu. You have to go to game settings, and change the mode to horde.

I almost can't believe you used the term "Linux gamer" and bashed compatibility layers at the same time without a shed of irony. To me personally, rather interesting to witness, considering it should be a known fact that gaming is a multi-billion dollar industry that targets Windows end users pretty much exclusively. Linux as a gaming platform has always been considered (when at all), an afterthought. You and me as Linux users should know very well that if we want to not use Windows and still be able to play our favorite games, compatibility layers are a must because we simply aren't the target audience to begin with. And I don't know why you would even have a problem with this Quake release not having a native executable, considering it runs perfectly fine on the Steam Deck anyways (which runs on a fork of Debian). I mean, unless you're under the impression that Proton adds significant overhead? Because it doesn't. Unless your concerns are about Steam DRM, but unless you're a PureOS user, why would you care?

Okay, I actually found a bug with the achievements. I just completed MAP20 in Doom 2, and the achievement for completing maps 12-20 didn't unlock. The achievement completion stood at 88%, which indicated that I had one more level to beat. I suspected it maybe was because I had used the secret exit in MAP15, so I decided to play that level again and use the normal exit, and what do you know: the achievement unlocked. So for some reason using the secret exit doesn't count as beating the level. Apparently, it's a known issue.

Ah, okay. That makes sense. If you have the right tools, and know how to work around to fix your electronics, it's actually incredibly easy to fix permanently:

By the way, I wanted to report a bug in the Xbox version. I was playing just now, trying to get the achievement for beating the game in under 2 hours, and I played all levels in order starting from E1M1 as fast as I could, and I got the achievement upon beating E3M5. I didn't even get to complete the entire game lol. I'll try to see if the same happens in Doom 2.

Hey, I really apologize for necroposting, but I was Googling how to make the Windows version of UDB through Wine to stop crashing whenever I wanted to delete a texture from a sidedef, and this post was literally the solution. So it would be great to have this post as an unofficial way of getting it working on Linux, or at least be promoted more by Google's algorithm. I understand that OP wished to be able to use a native version of UDB, but it's frankly not worth the trouble. The Linux version is just extremely buggy and unstable, and I don't want to bash the developers for this, considering they're just volunteers. The solution really is to just run the Windows version with a Wine prefix that has those packages installed. Running UDB through a virtual machine is also not worth the trouble. I tried it, and the mouse just goes haywire, making the visual mode useless.

Uhh.. do you know the specs of your TV? Is this in docked mode? Because as someone who plays fighting games regularly (I'm not a pro, I just like them), I'm very sensitive to input lag and I can tell you the Switch on handheld mode has some degree of input lag but it's too little to be bothersome. My TV is also pretty decent for gaming (in game mode it has 8-10ms of input lag, which is pretty acceptable), so even in docked mode there's really little input lag, and it boils down to the perpetual 4 frames of input lag the Switch has, which is around 1/15th of a second and therefore barely perceptible.