Doomkid

I love that so many people can watch the exact same film and all come away with completely different interpretations of what it was trying to convey. Objectivity among humans is a laughable concept, that’s the biggest thing I personally take away from Fight Club’s existence.

I can only speak for myself, but between vanilla, chocolate, PrB, GZD, and the 3 multiplayer ports, I already have the ability to play or create any Doom wad or mod I can conceive of. Eternity is not alone though, there are many actively developed ports I don’t use simply because the niche they fill isn’t something I’ve yet found myself needing. It’s strictly a matter of demand already being met elsewhere, as far as I can tell. Although I would wager it’s a little more popular, Odamex finds itself in a similar situation to EE but from a multiplayer perspective. Demo compatibility, multi-wad server rotations and several other features it has are amazing to me, but most people who just want to play some survival, cooperate or deathmatch, they don’t really care about it’s useful-but-niche features. Couple that with it lacking some cool features the other two have such as advanced scripting, custom skins, experience points etc and it just falls in the position of simply not having that much demand since 98% of MP players don’t care about vanilla demos and are having all their needs met between Zand and ZD. I will always have Oda installed on my PC and I’ll always be running servers from Doomshack, but I’m also not the average Doomer - I’m much more vanilla oriented, most don’t give a damn about that. The extra features Oda has are badass, but they just aren’t in demand enough for it to make a huge difference from the perspective of popularity. I still appreciate every source port and developer, the more the merrier I say, and being the “most popular port on the block” doesn’t really mean shit anyway. It’s the same deal with wad making.. Wgaf if you’re not winning cacowards or making the most popular wad of all time.. If creating it is enjoyable and even just a handful of people have fun with it, mission accomplished I say.

I don't think this music sucks. I think the execution sucks. When it's fixed, it sounds badass, for people who like classic style thrash that is:

I can confirm that all of the episodes are very solid Doom romps that shouldn't take too long to complete: Fava Beans - 1995 Hellrun - 1996 Osiris - 1996 Area 51 - 1997 Far Side of Phobos - 1998 Bermuda Triangle - 1999 Operation BioWar - 1999 Coffee Break - 2012 Rowdy Rudy's Revenge - 2018 Mini Doom - 2019 Ray Mohawk's Manic Monday - 2019 Blood Foundry - 2020 Pathogen - 2020 Cool Skies - 2020 UAC Pacific Northwest - 2020 These are all shortish/easyish episodes, or longish single-maps. I know I'm forgetting a bunch, especially the 2000-2010 range.. Maybe someone else can help fill in the blanks! All should be easy to complete in one or two afternoons. Hope you enjoy!

I'll just ramble some little tweaks and suggestions if you don't mind. Feel free to ignore any/all of them! I feel like Enjay Doom warrants a mention as the first "true" megawad, that was actually designed by one author from the ground up as opposed to a compilation of random maps. It's actually still fun to play even today. Under jokewads, I feel like wow.wad just has to be mentioned, even if the humor is unintentional. Such a small POS somehow attained legendary status within the community, which silly as it is feels like an achievement in it's own right! Another funny/goofy wad that warrants mention is Simpsons Doom (in all it's various incarnations) just for being so ubiquitous, and maybe this will be a controversial nomination, but the EXTREME WEAPONS PACK is just so hilarious that I feel it should maybe get a nod as well. Oh, and also there's the Hell Rickroller and InstaDoom, which were both super popular in their own right and brings the list to a nice, clean 10. Maybe a smaller section for "music wads" could be added? The Plutonia MIDI Pack is one that seems to have reached a pretty popular status, for which I'm very grateful as that wad really did deserve it's own soundtrack. There's many other examples too, but this is the first one that springs instantly to mind. As far as my stuff goes, I wouldn't feel comfortable recommending anything other than Rowdy Rudy II when it comes to community projects I've lead. It's basically the ultimate culmination of everything I ever wanted to achieve when I first began Doom mapping/modding forever ago, and since it's a community project with many talented people, the overall quality of the maps is really high (higher than all of my solo creations), particularly for a pure vanilla experience. I might even make up a "deathmatch top picks" to go alongside this some time, or if you like it enough maybe you can even add it to the original post. As a spoiler, the DM top 10 is actually pretty easy, at least imo - the only issue I'd have is the actual order they belong in, on which I'm completely undecided. The DWANGO series (duh) Execution Deathmatch The UDM Series The Dweller, Mancer, Danzig and Styx series (all different mappers.. but styles so similar and the wads tend to be associated with one another, they could potentially be lumped together) Don't Be a Bitch Remastered (the whole Mechanix series would be suitable, but I think this has the overall highest quality) The popular Duel compilations (duel32/duel40, zddl, which contain classic maps such as SSL2 and Judas23) I feel like, among DM fanatics, mentioning the Gothic, Cybercrime, Decamatch, DMC and TNT wads might be more controversial than the ones listed above, but due to sheer popularity over the years not mentioning them would be wrong. I'll try and refine all this info-dump into something usable for you...! EDIT: Also, just as a bit of trivia, Requiem is more or less the 3rd Memento Mori, though not named as such (rightfully so imo, but still it is part of that same lineage)

lol I hit enter too soon on my post!

To be fair, two of the things underlined don’t seem to have any problem: “53 maps of quite a solid quality” could maybe have the “a” removed but still seems correct, and “LSD shoved down the throat of a Doom mapper” also seems fine. it would be, but that's not what it says.. D'OH Great post, you’re a natural fit for this kind of thing, Endless! Kind of sad that none of the wads I’ve worked on (even tangentially) are here, but there’s really just too much Doom content to account for it all, and what’s here is a fantastic sampler of what the community has to offer. I feel like a “truly” ULTIMATE wad round-up would need 2x the amount of content that’s featured here, but.. that’s a lot of work and it’s already great as-is!

I'm pretty much in full agreement with this from an artistic perspective. The very beginning of Dragonball all the way up through the Cell saga was enjoyable for me, and even though some story elements had already started repeating, it wasn't too played out at that point. Part of me wishes they had ended it there, but the greedy part of me who just wants some basic entertainment is glad I got a few new DB seasons in the late 2010s, so I'm honestly a bit torn on it. It was like an old friend returning to my screen for a while. I will say the Buu saga/Super allowed some characters to go through further development which in turn made them more likeable, particularly Vegeta and Mr. Satan, imo. Overall there was definitely a quality drop, and they really should leave it cut off at the end of the Tournament of Power - anything else after this point is just going to be embarrassing (but probably very lucrative anyway.) It's getting into Simpsons levels of "just end it already" if they continue it from here on out. Then again, Dragonball has always specialized in being completely over the top, so I wouldn't be surprised if there is more content on the way.. I know there's that storyless Dragonball Heroes thing but iirc that's just promotional content that can be mostly forgotten about. I did watch GT, but nothing about it really appealed to me. Even years before there was ever talk of Super, it always felt like inferior side content. Not awful, just not that good either. EDIT: On the subject of the franchise's over the top nature, did anyone else crack up even back in the day at the end of the Namek section where Goku is facing off with Frieza? It keps saying "There's only has 5 minutes til Namek explodes!" and then at the end of the next episode it's like "There's only 4 minutes and 59 seconds until Namek explodes!"... For some reason how drawn out and ridiculous it was cracked me up, even though Goku fighting Frieza is really one of the more dramatic parts of the series. The ToP does this same thing as well, but for some reason it felt more acceptable there, like we were essentially watching slow motion footage of the fights that stretched 2 minutes of battle out to half an hour. Just wanted to ramble about this since I never talk about DB with anyone and I'm sure I'm not the only one who found it funny.

I’ve used fake names for various things. Carl and Frank are usually my go-to fake names, after Carl Brutanananadilewski and Frank Zappa. Usually though I just use my real name because it’s nothing important.

Honestly, as a massive Dragonball / Z fan, I really like Super and most of it's flaws are just as apparent in Z, the only meaningful difference if that Super is much later so the story has been dragged out even more than it already was in Z. Nostalgia blinds most DB fans to the fact that this has always been a glorified "animated soap opera" that has always relied on overly played-out tropes, the only meaningful difference that it's animated and targeted towards adolescent boys. Even in Z, they had repeated the "crazy strong alien/android/etc villain shows up!! We got our asses kicked first time around!! We gotta train and get stronger!!" thing like a million times by the end. Super is just that same old thing yet again - but it's still entertaining if you were a fan of OG DB / Z who is willing to admit even they were rife with flaws. There's funny humorous moments and it should just be enjoyed while not being taken too seriously, or with the expectation of Shakespearean writing. The old MST3000 joke "repeat to yourself it's just a show, I should really just relax" is all I can think of when I see DB fans tearing Super apart constantly. The expectation of fantastic storylines seems odd since that's never been the DB franchise's strong point. Super Sayajins has always been really silly even since partway through Z. When Goku's hair just kept get huger and golder.. I knew to expect it to just keeping getting more absurd, and Super did not disappoint. Super Sayajin God Red, God Blue, Ultra Instinct, Ascended Ultra Instinct.. It's just new colors and new names for the same old "leveling up" that Super Sayajins have always done. Super does have some questionable moments in it's animation though, putting storyline and such totally aside. Everyone looks way too skinny and underfed.. Z had it's fair share of crap animation moments too, especially Vegeta's head/face constantly changing sizes throughout the Namek part of the storyline, but overall the characters looked less emaciated in Z which was better imo. On the other side of the argument, Super is a lot more vibrant and colorful than Z, and when it's at it's best looks fantastic. Anyway, long story short, if you're a DB fan who is just looking for a light-hearted continuation that's fun to sit and watch here and there, you won't be disappointed. Also this is one of the few internationally produced shows where I'd actually recommend the English dub over the original dialog. Usually with films or TV shows I'll watch them subtitled, but the Funimation VAs clearly had a good time making this and it shines through.

I would go with Windows personally, just for the sake of having compatibility with the highest number of games/common programs. When I was small, I found Windows very easy to use. Granted it was 3.1/95 at the time so the UI has changed, but a lot of the fundamentals remain the same, so hopefully despite his cognitive challenges he will also find it somewhat usable. It's possible to password protect most internet browsers if necessary, in case him getting onto the internet and finding weird stuff is of concern. I'd be curious to hear what some of the local parents have to say about this one though!

Before I started. Since discovering WadAuthor back in the day, it's been a constant source of fulfillment. There have been worries that my work wasn't up to par - but I wouldn't call those worries a "low point" exactly, just a realization that I should step it up a bit. Which I never did, but who cares, it's still been fun! EDIT: I guess losing all my childhood MSpaint automap doodles from 1999-2001, and then my actual first maps from 2001-2003 could be considered a low point. Nothing of value was really lost, but I'd just prefer to have them. Oh well, they were still useful on my road to making actual playable wads.

Here's a great video demonstrating it by Dimon, by the way:

I apologize for the bump, no extra info on Dwango9... But Dwango13 was absolutely not compiled in the 90's. Dunno how I've missed it before, but it has a Greenwar.wad map inside, dating it at 2002 at the absolute earliest, though going by my gut feeling, it was probably made even quite a while after that - there's just some strong evidence in the maps that they're "recreating that 90's feeling" without actually being from the 90's, if you catch my drift. I can't find any evidence of it's existence whatsoever prior to 2010. Just wanted to throw this here as clarification for the 4 people who care!

Finally found Dwango20's intermission theme!

Cacodemon is definitely the most iconic. All the Doom demons are pretty legendary at this point, but the Cacodemon is the "icon" of Doom, so to speak.

I was just wondering if there are any old internet/BBS/forum posts from even before the alt.games.doom era? The oldest posts I can find there are from Jan 5th 1994: https://groups.google.com/g/alt.games.doom/search?q=after%3A1993-11-01 before%3A1994-01-05 Is there any even older archives, or is this the oldest surviving stuff? I'm sure I remember reading about how the proto-Doom community existed as early as mid 1993 with people speculating about how the game would be and such. Even having stuff this old archived is a huge deal (imo), bit I figured it couldn't hurt to ask about even older content, if indeed any does exist! EDIT: Turns out there's loads of pre-Doom Doom chatter on comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action. The first posts I can find that specifically mention Doom by name are from April 30th, 1993: https://groups.google.com/g/comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action/c/HLUNLujl2b0/m/YHwNBvt-YQwJ https://groups.google.com/g/comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action/c/F8ACDZh7ncI/m/JpE2RwU-bDUJ Let me just say, based on some of these old mid-1993 posts about Doom, that "hype culture" is by no means a new phenomenon. People were giddy about Doom just based on a small handful of screenshots - rightfully so, but still! An interesting little time capsule.. https://groups.google.com/g/comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action/c/QoEBN-xy5Rc/m/BLx22wolzXgJ

I cant think of one single map I've had as much fun with as Hellrun for Doom2. By modern standards it's pretty toothless, but I had never played a slaughtermap - even a proto one, before Hellrun. The visuals have held up very well compared to most other mid 90's wads, especially among single-map releases. I return to it every year or so for another fun run though. I've somehow yet to get bored of it.

Huh, I had no idea these things doubled as vaporizers.

I constantly see people bad mouthing e4m1, e4m2 and map23 so often these days and for the life of me I have no idea why. I swear this is a semi-modern phenomenon, like some time within the last 10 years everyone just agreed the maps sucked and I simply missed the memo. They’re very fun maps imo, some of the best. I also love the Icon of Sin since it’s 99x more fun and challenging than the Doom1 bosses, but hatred for the IoS is a long established thing unlike the 3 maps I mentioned above.

I’d bring a tent, sleeping bag and some smoke to Map01 of Earth.wad. Those crashing waves make for a really nice view. I originally considered a deathmatch map - no monsters around to cause trouble, right? But then I had a horrifying thought: when a deathmatch occurs, do marines just teleport into those maps and start blasting eachother? It would be pretty awful to wake up to SSG fire, only to die a second later, being mistaken for a willing participant in the bloodbath... no thank you. For peace and sleep, I’ll remain in single player turf, thank you very much.

On the topic of the Cyberdemon, assuming Doomguy is around 6 feet tall, the Cyberdemon would then be about 12 feet. Doom has these weird rectangular dimensions where on the Z axis, 64 units is about 6 feet, but on the X and Y axes 64 units is about 4 feet.

Not to derail the thread too much, but here it is if ever you need it: https://www.doomworld.com/applications/core/interface/file/attachment.php?id=104049

I do, although thanks to Jading Tsunami I can now use the automated DEHpick program which makes it as easy as entering one command. I can manually apply Deh patches with my eyes closed at this point, but being able to just type "dehpick" then hit enter and bam, it's ready to launch, really helped me stay on the DosBox train.

Frankly speaking, this is actually a pretty damn good song lyrics aside, and compared to the rest of the "music" I'm hearing in here it's clearly the best of a bad bunch