Nebula 95: Mudman Wonderland (NEB02.WAD)

NEBULA 95
MUDMAN WONDERLAND
by Chris "lupinx-Kassman" Kassap

Chris Kassap's Nebula 95 series strikes me as a means of blowing off steam from his relentless perfectionism by flexing his vanilla muscles and indulging in stone-age Doom lunacy with jazzy MIDIs and sound replacements. Like the other entries, this one actually occupies both MAP01 and 02, with the first being a little bonus intro and the second housing the main event. After escaping near-death on the shrine planetoid you bound through the quadrant in search of your old military instructor (Crash?), arriving on a world with possibly sentient mud creatures. After naming off a few Doom-related alien races like Kaiser's DSV (with plenty more to spare), the potential existence of beings composed of mud pales in importance when compared to the very real presence of demons right next to you.

400 Reviews and Happy Holidays

i let a few milestones glaze by, but as of Mayan Mishap, Doomed: Doom WAD Reviews is sitting pretty at 400 reviews and has been semi-active for almost four years. every year people make more stuff than i can play, and thats good. ive also been part of the cacoward team since 2012, a position i did not envision but have since kept up with... more or less. actually, 2014 has been my best year since 2011 since i kept up plenty of buffer reviews for irregular updates in case I got waylaid. the only really big addition to the blog has been the tumblr, which has been a neat experiment at delivering something more specific than my blog to a different audience. anyway, i could do some kind of cool retrospective or something but id rather solicit you guys for a roadmap for 2015. what super-obscure stuff would you like to see reviewed that isnt on the blog? what cacoward winners from 2010 and earlier are you dying to see words on?


SUGGESTIONS

10 Sectors
Plutonia 2
Dark 7 / Dark 7 Mission Pack
Urotsuki: Inferno Road, Dead End, Radical Way
Ultimate Simplicity
Massmouth / Massmouth 2 / Massmouthmas
Soldier of Fortune
Scythe / Scythe 2 / Scythe X
Dolphin's Dream
Unhinged
Castle of Eternal Carrot in the Sky
The City of the Damned
City of the Damned: Apocalypse
Virus: Episode One
Super Sonic Doom
Oniria 1 / Oniria 2
Happy Time Circus 1 / Happy Time Circus 2
Castle Phobos
Dark Hell
Unloved
Hellcore 2.0
Claustrophobia: The Walls Close In
Junko
Grime
Elysion
Disturbia
Cheogsh / Cheogsh 2 / Realm of Cheogsh
NeoDoom
Alien Flower (RDC Freakmapping #5)
Caverns of Darkness
Paranoid
Darkest Hour
The Golden Souls
Sinful Discharge (Heretic)
Gulag (Heretic)
Curse of D'Sparil (Heretic)
Codename HYENA Killermachine
Plutinya 1024
The Crypts
Town of Witchcraft (Heretic Treasure Chest)
Cassie Steele
The Experiment
Hoover Dam
Balls
One Bloody Night
e6y3
Escape From Phobos / Escape From Deimos / Escape from Natas
hellrun.WAD (Doom / Doom II)
Istanbul
Nordhell
Phoebe
RRWARD: RRWARD01 / RRWARD02 / RRWARD03 / RRWARD04
Scimitar
SJS1: Streets of Fear
Triad Experimental Corporation
NUTS.WAD
Area 51
Kama Sutra
Hell Revealed II
Community Chest / Community Chest 2
Vrack 1 / Vrack 2 / Vrack 3
Deus Vult
The Rebirth
The Abyss
Phobos: Relive the Nightmare (and other works by Shamus Young)
Dimensions of Time
Marswar
SlayeR
TVR!
World of DETH
E2MWalter
Big Woodchip
Operation Biowar
Beta Labs
Post
Strange Aeons
Nerves of Steel
Impure Offering


COMEDY OPTIONS

Doomguy's pimp ventures II: The More,The Merrier.
pol.wad
School Doom II
21ratmaz
AOL Girls Museum
Duke Nukem Level Conversion
ZBlood
Otakon
Doom City
Doom Center
Dawn of Reality
The Ghoul's Forest 3
The Mystery of the Marie Celeste
Calgon, Take me away!
RTC-3057
Nimrod: Project Doom
Phocas Island
Phocas Island 2


PROMISES

Wonderful Doom
2002: A Doom Odyssey
Claustrophobia 1024
Exquisite Corpse
Titan
Titan 2
Titan 1024
Dark Covenant


IT CAME FROM THE COMMENTS SECTION

Claustrophobia 1024 2: The Mystery of Too Many Maps
Bloodworks
Mitnal
The Hub
cwave.wad
Quake: Descent Into Heresy
The Ultimate Torment and Torture
Stronghold: On the Edge of Chaos
ZPack: Random Maps for ZDoom
Knee Deep in ZDoom
Community Chest 3
END1 / END2
Classic Episode 2: Singularity Complex
Flashback Demo 1
Flashback Demo 2


TUMBLR TRAVAILS

Reign of the Spider Gods
Demons of Problematique / Demons of Problematique 2
Whispers of Satan


STUFF I'M EMBARRASSED TO NOT HAVE PLAYED YET ...done! :D

Stardate 20X6
Swim With the Whales
UAC Ultra


DELAYED-SION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS

32in24-14: How the Hamburglar Stole Christmas
Respawned: Back From Hell
Doom: Redemption
Inferno
Phobos: Anomaly Reborn
The Dying End
~The Complete Works of Paul Corfiatis~ / Death Tormention / The Twilight Zone II: Final Dreams / Death Tormention II /
~The Complete Works of Kristian Aro~
~The Complete Works of Chris Hansen~
No Rest For the Living
Chex Quest
Oblivion
Paranoia
Paranoiac
Something Wicked This Way Comes / Wickedly Simple / No Rest for the Wicked / For the Wicked Shall Perish / Death Comes Not Gently to the Wicked / The Wicked and the Damned / Wicked Be the Ways of Men / Damnation Awaits the Wicked / Exalt Not the Wicked
Planet Phobos / Planet Hell
Innocence / Innocence 2 / Innocence 3 / Innocence: TNT
~The Abyssal Speedmapping Sessions~ / Abyssal Speedmapping Session 1 / Abyssal Speedmapping Session 2 / Abyssal Speedmapping Session 3 /
Congestion Control / Congestion Control 2
~The Complete Works of Memfis~
NewDoom Community Project / NewDoom Community Project 2
Harmony
A Taste For Blood
Plutocracy
Return to Hadron
Endless Torture
Ol' No Name
Sunlust
King Dime's Birthday Mapset
Nuclear Halls
Estranged
~The Complete 40oz Birthday Map Collection~
Favillesco Episode 1: Genuflected on Io / Episode 2: Tragedy Over Europa / Alpha Episode: Apostasy on Amalthea / Alpha Episode 2: Desecration On Thebe
Prime Directive
Matt Tropiano Birthday Maps
Happy Birthday TMD!
NOVA 2
Arcadia Demade
Drip Feed
Valhalla
Epic 2 + Anything else Eternal made between 2007-2010 (excluding Long Days)
Beyond Revival
Hell Ground
Mapgame
Gravity
Eternal Doom IV
Back to Basics
Cold as Hell
Epic
Songs of the Damned
IC2005
Vae Victus (2)
Decade
Tremor (Part I: Genesis)
Phobos Revisited
Plutonium Winds
Doom Raider: Crypt of the Vile
Ruma
007: License to Spell Doom
Sin City / Sin City 2 / Sin City 3
Null Space
Doom: Resurrection
Threshold of Pain
Monument
Sacrifice Episode
Argus
Pax
Induction
Doomed Space Wars
50 Shades of GRAYTALL
ICAR2015
Monument
Way Too Many Dead Guys
Breach
Jared's Doom
Sharp Things
All Aboard the Mega Magilla Gorilla Flotilla
Pcorf Community Project 2: 2048 Unleashed
Jiffy Bag
The Warlock's Hearth
The Last Sanctuary
Bloodstain
Tech Gone Bad

Doom 2 In Name Only (D2INO.WAD)

Doom 2 in Name Only arose out of discussions of Chris Klie's BF_THUD. After playing Klie's megaWAD, it's pretty clear that he took most of his design cues from the names of the map slots his levels appeared in. A thread by Hellbent prompted another thread by ella guro where the project took off and then stagnated until its untimely release in 2014 amid some controversy. The final product is a full-fledged megaWAD for Doom II that makes a claim for vanilla compatibility, but the sheer size of many of the submitted levels made for less than rigorous playtesting as far as technical details go. A limit-removing port should be used, at the very least.

Mayan Mishap (T-MAYA.WAD)

When he's not a jetsetting playboy fighting Nazis and curing cancer, Doomworld Forum superstar Tango messes around with Doom, and on rare occasions he actually finishes Doom maps. Mayan Mishap isn't just a collection of Doom II levels, though. Released in 2014, it's both the rare instance of a complete Tango project in the wild plus an attempt at a new yet familiar take on classic gameplay. The end product spans MAP01-04 plus MAP31 and is targeted at BooMBF ports but had the MBF BEX code converted to DECORATE so that it would run in stuff like Zandronum. As far as story goes, well, there isn't one. You don't really need an excuse to slaughter demons in a vaguely Mayan environment, though.

B/\|_||-|/\|_|S (BAUHAUS.WAD)

Doom authors are pretty content to stay within the confines pioneered by the IWAD levels. The original gave us Phobos, Deimos, Hell, and E4, while Doom II showed us starbase, city, and... even more Hell. Now and then, more novel settings appear, and every once in a while someone throws us all for a loop, like Didy and B/\|_||-|/\|_|S. Bauhaus is named after what else? but a German art school active between World War I and World War II, the name literally translating to "house of construction". The focus on art rings true to Didy's sensibilities, given that the goal of his Monster Hunter, Ltd. dirty pair was to recover a lost work.

Reconstruction/Decomposition (RCDC_V2.WAD)

RECONSTRUCTION/
DECOMPOSITION
by "Da Werecat"

Reconstruction/Decomposition almost slid past everyone, released in 2014 in the thread of its origin (mrthejoshmon's "My map to your map") and then later in its own to little fanfare until it was updated to include difficulty settings, among other things. It then received the interest that had thus far eluded it, and which is well-deserved. It's a MAP01 placement for Boom ports (.OGG support preferred) and, uh, I think it takes place on some kind of space craft, though whether the ship / station is still in conventional space at the level's end is debatable. There isn't any kind of framing story, but enough is implied for your imagination to run wild.

3 Heures d'Agonie 2 (3HA2.WAD)

The French Doom Community released 3 Heures d'Agonie back in 2013, a megaWAD's worth of speedmaps from a wide variety of authors, from inexperienced to guys that are established as heavy hitters in Doomworld thanks to their contributions to mapsets like Plutonia Revisited. 3 Heures d'Agonie 2 is what else but the second outpouring of hastily put-together levels from what is becoming an increasingly talented stable of individuals. This time, it's a full megaWAD for vanilla Doom II, though as could be expected there's no attached story, just raw Doom II.

Mayhem 2048 (MAYHEM14.WAD)

Mayhem has been a Doomworld institution since 2012. TheMionicDonut had a dream, and that dream was to get as many people as possible to make a map over the course of a month - May, of course. The other part of the institution is to take as long as humanly possible compiling and fixing the darn thing, with 2012 seeing release in November and 2013 in March... of 2014. As of the time I'm writing this, the 2014 installment - Mayhem 2048 - is still not finalized, but maybe by the time this is published they'll pull together and slap the thing on the archives (EDIT: done as of Nov. 27!).