MEMFIS_E1M1 (MEMFIS_E1M1.WAD)

MEMFIS_E1M1

by "Memfis"

Back when I started researching the development of Doom the Way id Did: The Lost Episodes, I was surprised to find Memfis's name in the submission rolls. Some of the production material has been publicly lost to the sands of time and this level was perhaps the most interesting. Mainly because it didn't find its way into the running order of DTWID:LE and was otherwise unavailable. The author himself didn't have it on his person but the Archival Saint of PWADs, The Mad Butcher, made their private selection available. Originally submitted in mid-2011 (sharing its timestamp with Sticky Blood), MEMFIS_E1M1 - of course - replaces the first level in Knee Deep in the Dead.

The slot isn't just a matter of convenience, of course. The map is obviously situated as an episode opener due to its size and number of monsters. I'm not entirely sure what the opening area is supposed to be; it almost looks like a tram except there would be zero clearance between the structure and the passenger car. Maybe an airlock? An observation booth for quarantine? It's vaguely suggestive of something without committing to anything. More interesting is the included music track. I believe that it's one of Shamus Young's selections from Phobos - Relive the Nightmare; MAP05 to be specific.

The submission borrows some of the raw details of "Hangar" and rearranges them for the author's own purpose. Memfis is slightly more interested in world-building, though, as evidenced in the inaccessible booth behind the player start and the nukage-swamped structure in the outer yard. The incorporated homages feel perverse in how they're used. The blue carpet in the opening bit is raised out of the floor rather than inlaid, for instance, and the stairs / tech pillar room is a required portion of the layout. You still technically get access to the green armor by climbing it, too. The obligatory oblique path over nukage, conversely, is the first step down the map's sole optional leg. The connecting hallways sort of remind me of Relive X2, a more overt loveletter to Shamus's level design. Memfis has some of his "re-imagine the levels to sort of look like their names" quasi-realism, though it isn't anywhere near as interconnected as his 2012 couplet. I imagine, of course, that this is because it is aiming to be an E1M1-kickoff.

As far as combat goes, it's banal pistol-slinging. You don't get anything like "Hangar"'s more shocking moments, e.g. monsters attacking from a superior elevation or the imps / darkened room / midtexture walls chamber. You don't even have to worry about shotgun guys, though you are understandably stuck with the pistol unless you explore the small optional leg to find the shotty pickup. The author does include a common outdoor yard with a nukage pool but it isn't entered during normal play, not that it has any tantalizing goodies to suggest otherwise. It appears to have been connected at one point since the level has remnants of a now walled-off aperture in the exit chamber.

I'm glad to have played this level. All of DTWID's little experiments show so many different sensibilities about what is "id"-like. MEMFIS_E1M1 reveals a little more of the author's fondness for RELIVE, something that I knew from his own writing but didn't appreciate until spelunking into his catalogue. People looking for a more substantial Doom fix will be left wanting with this episode opener. If you like seeing the variety of IWAD interpretations, though, then you ought to take a look.

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