Garbage (GARBAGE.WAD)

November of 2013 marked the beginning of perhaps Memfis's most productive span of authorship, kicking off with How Eye Killed Time and--apart from a lull in March--built multiple PWADs a month until July of 2014, right after his epic /idgames archive dump in June of 2014. Garbage is the second WAD published during this period, a two-level minisode for Doom II to be played in theoretically any limit-removing port. In practice, you are best to keep to PrBoom-Plus or its descendants like DSDA Doom. MAP01 plays just fine but the very first thing maze in MAP02 is not navigable in (G)ZDoom. If you must insist on playing in (G)ZDoom then you'll have to clip through the first maze. After that, it's aces.

The story of Garbage is the story of one man's quest "to make ugly 90s maps." I don't know what standard of 90s level he is espousing here, but I assume it's more quirky but fondly-remembered PWADs and less Maximum Doom fun like SQUID and SQUID2. Or, maybe that's the point, like Memfis wanted to make something horrible but it kept sliding toward classic 90s-style levels, like the inverse of the photographer who kept taking pictures of Tomie only for each one of them to reveal her true, horrifying nature. Except, it's a pretty awesome map, every time. What a terrible life, to have such a curse as this, that you can't make ugly 90s maps.

Garbage is a land of contrasts. Once you get past the atmospheric opener of MAP02, what you have is a freakin' awesome "Chasm"-like sandbox level. It has a few sector machinery gymnastics to sort out which I generally find fun and its architecture looks great. It can be tough going early on with hitscanner snipers in a couple of key locations, but I was amazed that a level this classically cool was hiding in Memfis's back catalogue. The final showpiece is a big crystal sector bridge--foreshadowed with the puzzling blue water pathway--that stretches across nearly the entirety of the underground cavern.

MAP01 is a viny outpost with some goofy DoomCute bits like tombstone-marked graveyards, a bizarre palatial foyer in front of the red key door (I like it, and it perfectly captures the "WTF?" factor of the 90s), and a crazy spiral teleporter structure. It's a bit more indulgent in quirkiness with several segments where you must battle monsters that are only silhouetted in pitch-black rooms, a semi-hidden yellow key which apparently threw /idgames folks, and a totally secret red key that's required in order to access a couple of cool-looking rooms. It doesn't really require platforming, unlike MAP02, but if you want to unlock its tasty secrets then you'll need to do some goating around.

The Doom equivalent of platforming is a key element of both these levels. The other star that binds these maps together is cryptic and sometimes punishing progression, as evinced by MAP01's yellow key, tucked behind a tombstone. Take the teleporter to the exit room, for instance. You don't know where either of the teleporters in the level's atrium are going to take you but if you take the one to the exit first, you're going in unapprised of the monsters in the windows or the ones on the other side of the fence. Once they take their pound of flesh, supposing that you're still alive, then you get the insult to injury that the gate to the exit portal isn't even open. The switch-fu required to complete the red key shrine in the similarly viny fort of MAP02 will trigger several lethal ambushes on your way to the prize, the last one being potentially the biggest shock of all.

This is a great pair of levels, especially for aficionados of the pre-game dev era of PWAD authorship. The core of MAP02 is rock solid, giving me some of that sector machinery and puzzle play that I love so much in Jim Flynn et al's work with an architectural aesthetic that in parts feels like the best-looking parts of the Doom II IWAD. I enjoyed MAP01 as an off-kilter map with some realistic and abstract features that echo the same sort of love that authors pour into their favorite pieces, whether they seamlessly fit in with the level's overall aesthetic or not. Maybe you, too, will find some time to enjoy Memfis's Garbage.

GARBAGE

by "Memfis"

MAP01

This is a super-fun vine-covered fortress with goofy incongruities like a palatial staircase with potted plant and wading pool as well as several graveyards, one of which is secret and has a "monsters coming out of their graves" gimmick. It's Memfis, so the UV combat isn't exactly challenging on a scenario by scenario basis. It's more just the player succumbing to attrition from loss of health. If you play sloppily and get a lot of health shaved off then you might want to think about a restart. This level has obscure (by modern standards, anyway) key progression. I was able to find the yellow key without any hints--I just naturally check behind stuff for switches--and it's required in order to complete the level. Apparently it was hard for some players to find; YMMV. I'd tried to strafe run into the red key area on the map but I had to see where the it was on the map before I committed to throwing myself at it. I think that it's just a matter of the best angle and building up enough speed across the terrace; it certainly wasn't impossible. It's a shame because the red key guards some of the cooler abstract features like a sector machinery spiral portal (very cute!) and the aforementioned graveyard battle, one of the standout encounters. In the main body of the map, it's definitely the lights-out imp and zombie ambush.

MAP02

This is a SUPER cool "Chasm"-style level but without damage floors... except for a little nukage plant at the end that isn't doing its job in poisoning the blood! Jeeze!! The Achilles's Heel of this set occurs right at the beginning. Depending on the port you're playing, you might not be able to squeeze through the first mess of stunted brown spikes. It wouldn't work in ZDoom but it definitely worked in DSDA-Doom. If you can't find a path through the left side of the first morass then just noclip through it, supposing that--like me--you're too cool to change ports for a Memfis map. Anyway, this is a crazy awesome map with at least one obvious Doom II source but with a few weirder setups. The red key vine shrine with the prison cells and an ultra-lethal monster closet / teleporter ambush is a cool assemblage of sector machinery. The yellow key and gate to the button that raises the crystal sector bridge are more on the side of fun, timed switch activities. If you couldn't stand the tightrope stuff in "The Chasm" then the author keeps it pretty lowkey--the only real bit of it is required in order to step up to the southern annex's front door.

ONLY HAPPY WHEN IT RAINS