Odyssey (ODYSSEY.WAD)

T. Elliot Cannon went on to have a relatively robust career in the video game industry beginning with Unreal, but he got his start--like so many others--with Doom. It appears that Cannon's heyday was focused on the period where the community was anticipating Quake. I initially thought that the Ancients Series marked Cannon's first forays into single-player level design. These maps appear to have been individually released at earlier dates and then were packaged together and re-released as Odyssey, perhaps around the time that TEC authored Iditarod. Both PWADs were uploaded to /idgames on 07 Apr. 1996. After looking at the .TXTs for his deathmatch packages for SLEDDOG and GRISHA, however, I am inclined to believe that the true production order was something more like SLEDDOG, IDITAROD, most of Odyssey, and then Grisha. Unfortunately, with the death of Compuserve, there's no log of Cannon's original releases, and the deathmatch packages do not appear to have made it to /idgames. Odyssey as it exists here is a five-map minisode for Doom II, replacing MAP01-MAP05.

Iditarod (IDITAROD.WAD)

T. Elliot Cannon made something like seventeen single-player levels for Doom II and eleven deathmatch arenas before being recommended to Epic Games by John Anderson aka Dr. Sleep and being hired for Unreal. Both Iditarod and Odyssey were originally released on Compuserve, I believe, which makes an absolute timeline difficult to pin down, given that Compuserve shuttered its doors more than 20 years ago. I originally believed that Cannon made the individual levels of Odyssey first and then cobbled together Iditarod during the anticipation of Quake. After experiencing Iditarod first-hand, I wasn't so sure. Both PWADs were absolutely created by the same person, but I found it difficult to believe that Cannon built the carefully-crafted Odyssey first and then cranked out Iditarod. Looking through packages of his Deathmatch levels that I obtained after I initially wrote these reviews, it would seem that the true order of production would be SLEDDOG, IDITAROD, some of Odyssey, and then Grisha, all of this occurring in 1995. Both SP PWADs were uploaded to /idgames alongside Diabolos on April 7th of 1996. Iditarod replaces MAP01 through MAP10 of Doom II.

Blood Runners (#BLOODR.WAD)

BLOOD RUNNERS

by "Sphagne"

Sphagne sits alongside Gene Bird and Daniel Trim as an author who published levels prior to Community Chest and who submitted them back when the original CCHEST pitch was something more along the lines of, "Have you ever wanted to see one of your works ensconced within a megaWAD?" Thus far, the five Sphagne levels that I've covered--Simphony of Death, Secret Lab, Death Cycle, Hell Harbour, and The Living End--were not among the three maps that made it into the 2003 Community Chest. Blood Runners, which the author claims was his eighth produced level, became CCHEST's MAP23. It was originally released as part of a batch upload in 2002, a MAP01 replacement for Doom II. The author claims that he did not know that there was an online Doom community back when he authored these levels from 1995-1999, so one may assume that it will function in any source port.

The Living End (#LIVEND.WAD)

THE LIVING END

by "Sphagne"

No--it's not THAT "Living End". This is a level by Sphagne that happens to go by the same name. Sphagne's main claim to fame is having submitted three of his previously-released levels to the first Community Chest: Avenger, Blood Runners, and Afterlife. Pretty much all of his single player maps were crafted somewhere between 1995 and 1999 and then uploaded in bulk in August of 2002. The Living End is purportedly the seventh of these, with four of the author's mentioned 19 levels never seeing publication. Like the rest of Sphagne's released solo works, it's a MAP01 replacement for Doom II.

Hell Harbour (#HHARBR.WAD)

HELL HARBOUR

by "Sphagne"

Sphagne's main claim to fame is submitting of his previously-released levels to the original Community Chest. Like his contemporary Gene Bird, Sphagne had been crafting maps since the mid-90s only to start publishing them later in the early '00s. Hell Harbour is Sphagne's sixth level but a portion of his maps were apparently not deemed fit for release. Of the seventeen or so works whose existence is confirmed, #HHARBR is actually the sixth. Like the rest of these single map publications (Gene Bird's and Alex Parsons's), it's a MAP01 replacement for Doom II. It was published in 2002 but the story of its creation suggests that it ought to work in vanilla given that Sphagne "did not know about Doom communities accessible via internet", which sort of precludes source ports.

The Abyss (ABYSS.WAD)

The Abyss was rescued from... the abyss of time. It's crazy to think that the primary reason we have The Abyss right now is because one of its creators, J.M.P. van Waveren ("Mr. Elusive"), toted a copy of it with him when he started working at id Software. Otherwise, who knows? This megaWAD was released over several iterations, eventually crystallizing in 1995 as a 24-map replacement for Doom II, not counting the placeholder "THE END" levels. Miklos de Rijk ("H2SO4") and van Waveren originally published The Abyss on a more localized BBS in The Netherlands, but there's no digital record of anyone acknowledging it. de Rijk and van Waveren went on to significantly more acclaim with their Omicron Bot for Quake, notable for its apparent ability to function on "the jankiest, boxiest of community maps". This apparently got Mr. Elusive a foot in the door at id, where he worked on Quake III and subsequent projects before following Carmack to work on the Oculus.

Death Cycle (#DCYCLE.WAD)

DEATH CYCLE

by "Sphagne"

One of my main goals has been to play through the collective works of the contributors to the first Community Chest as a sort of vertical slice of a subset of the Doom community at the time. I'd also like to do the same thing for Community Chest 2. The original CCHEST is somewhat maligned as the original goal was sort of something like, "hey, who wants to see their levels in a megaWAD?" with authors Gene Bird and Sphagne submitting levels that they had previously published on /idgames. Three of Sphagne's published fourteen maps ended up in the first Community Chest. Death Cycle, a MAP01 replacement for Doom II that was uploaded to /idgames in 2002, was not one of them. From what I can tell, it ought to be vanilla compatible, as the author had previously developed these maps between 1995 and 1999 before realizing that there was a broader Doom Community on the internet. This sort of precludes the existence of Boom as a target port.

Soulcage (SOULCAGE.WAD)

SOULCAGE

by Mike Alfredson aka "Use3D"

Use3D has been a supporting player in the Doom community for ages. He is recognizable in the honor rolls for the first three levels of the Community Chest series, Doom the Way id Did and its Ultimate expansion, and even Back to Saturn X's Episode 2. The first episode release of his Nilla Doom is a perennial contender for underrated WAD lists. He started building his solo megaWAD as early as 1997 and has released various rejects from the whole, most recently a spate in 2019. I don't think that Soulcage is one of these, though. As Mike's very first level, this MAP13 replacement was crafted in 1995. It looks as though Alfredson had independently released it, perhaps on a personal website, around the same time as his Hell Pit and Deep Core 1 back in 2004. It finally made its way to /idgames about fifteen years later.

OTTAWAU.WAD ver 0.9 (OTTAWA09.WAD)

Jean-Serge Gagnon released and updated his Forest Valley PWAD through 1994-1995. The final publication included a teaser for his next subject - the Ottawa University that must have been near and dear to his heart. OTTAWAU was never properly finished. Gagnon had planned out level names for the entire episode but in spite of the "ver 0.9" descriptor, the set only spans E1M1-E1M5 and E1M9. E1M5 only has the starting area built and it's apparent after perusing README.1ST that Gagnon and his team were not even finished with the maps that are included in OTTAWAU. This more or less final version was published in March of '95, a few days after the last version of FOREST.

Maze - BIG IS BEAUTIFUL (MAZE.WAD)

MAZE

BIG IS BEAUTIFUL

by "Spooky" John Bye

This is the second level that Bye authored and it's sort of a disappointment after having seen the conceptual promise of CyberDoom. I'm almost prefer to play his highly orthogonal lighting experiments. The title is Maze and while this accurately describes its main setpiece it fails to fully encapsulate the more banal aspects of its level design. The subtitle, BIG IS BEAUTIFUL, can be true especially when we're talking about the macrotecture that typifies high skill ceiling mapsets. Not for MAZE, though. This was originally made back in 1995 and is an E1M1 replacement for the original Doom.

CyberDoom (CYBER.WAD)

CYBERDOOM

by John Bye

1994-1996 was a watershed period for the Doom user community. A significant minority of folks in the games industry got their start making mods during this time. Heck; as of right now one of them is running id software! John Bye started out by reviewing PWADs before delving into a level editor himself. He would go on to publish a large solo project, Cygnus IV, as well as his idtech1 swan song in 1997 (The Talosian Incident). Bye kicked off his authorship in 1995 with the relatively reviled Sacrifice but his /idgames career opens on CyberDoom, a MAP01 replacement for Doom II. The core of his person is evident in its construction but if you only knew his levels for their careful sector-based lightcasting then this may come as a shock.

RRWARD04 (RRWARD04.WAD)

RRWARD04

by Richard R. Ward

Rich's levels don't constitute a series as much as they share the same general filename. His first two maps, RRWARD01 and 02, were single releases in 1994 and served as self-contained adventures. The other two, RRWARD03 and 04, made up the only bits of an episode replacement - Nocternal Missions - that he felt comfortable releasing. They were also released a good bit after his debut, the former showing in 1996 with the latter arriving on the archives in 2003 (though it appears to have been finalized in 1999). RRWARD04 stands out from the rest insofar as it is an E1M8 replacement but it should play in most any engine. The author does mention some visual bugs in the now ancient glDoom source port but I doubt whether it concerns the average player of today.

Three Kick Ass WADs (3PACK_1.ZIP)

THREE KICK ASS WADS
by Malcolm Sailor

Rule the World!

Omelet Face

TEKRKBRN

The boy who would go on to create the CHORD series to much critical acclaim spent a long time cranking out short single levels, many of which were released as part of collections bundled inside .ZIPs. 3PACK_1 was the first; uploaded in 1995, it contains three such offerings. Rule the World! (RULER) was published a few weeks before and found its way into this compilation because Malcolm wanted to update it. The others, Omelet Face and TEKRKBRN, are unique to the archive. Each one has more to offer than Sailor's debut (DARKER), though its emphasis of the contrast between light and dark would go on to be an important feature of his better-known works.

TEKRKBRN (TEKRKBRN.WAD)

TEKRKBRN

by Malcolm Sailor

THREE KICK ASS WADS (3PACK_1.ZIP)
Rule the World!	Omelet Face	TEKRKBRN

While his CHORD series would go on to both fame and notoriety for its survivalist-style combat and painstaking visuals, Malcolm Sailor started out making original levels of strung-together 64 wide corridors and knockoffs that combined his favorite ideas from Doom II levels. His third release was a packaged triplet of maps titled Three Kick Ass WADs (3PACK_1) which contained a previous publication, RULER, as well as OMELET and TEKRKBRN. The last, a MAP01 replacement for id's skeleton-studded sequel, derives its name from the predominant texture scheme. I think it means tech, rock, and brown, but that's a semi-educated guess on my part.

Omelet Face (OMELET.WAD)

OMELET FACE
by Malcolm Sailor

THREE KICK ASS WADS (3PACK_1.ZIP)
Rule the World!	Omelet Face	TEKRKBRN

3PACK_1 was released in 1995 some three months after MS's DARKER. The latter was a dark and dreary jumble of corridors. The former actually contained three levels, all occupying the MAP01 slot, that are way different than the author's debut. Two of them borrow quite heavily from the original Doom II. I'm not sure about TEKRKBRN yet but I'll find out one way or another. RULER snagged from both "Gotcha!" and mostly "Nirvana". Malcolm cheekily titled this one Omelet Face because he assumed that it would cook your countenance. He also claims it to the best Hell map he's seen other than id's but then goes on to damn Doom II's third episode in the same breath. Ah, to be twelve again.

Rule the World! (RULER.WAD)

RULE THE WORLD!
by Malcolm Sailor

THREE KICK ASS WADS (3PACK_1.ZIP)
Rule the World!	Omelet Face	TEKRKBRN

After beginning his career with the truly titled Darker mid-1995, Malcolm published Rule the World! later that year in September and then quickly re-released it after a few quick bugfixes as part of a package alongside Omelet Face and TEKRKBRN. I will be reviewing 3_PACK1 aka Three Kick Ass WADs as a whole package but first I'll be covering each of the included levels. RULER is a MAP01 replacement for Doom II and Sailor claimed it to be one of the better ones that he had seen. It's certainly more visually interesting than Darker, whose light levels prevented you from actually witnessing the map itself.

Darker (DARKER.WAD)

DARKER

by Malcolm Sailor

MS went on to dizzying heights toward the end of his career with the CHORD series, the later levels arguably setting the stage for the marriage of high skill ceiling and beautiful visuals / architecture that we see from authors like Ribbiks today. As with Matt Tropiano, Sailor was but a young lad at the onset of his career. DARKER - his first level and a MAP01 replacement - was released at the tender age of 12 in the year 1995. He would go on to downplay it alongside the rest of his non-CHORD back catalog, much like Mista_T and Dimensions of Time or Skillsaw and Sector 666. And, well, in this particular case it's hard to disagree.

Triple-Play (3X-PLAY.WAD)

TRIPLE-PLAY
OR, PRACTICE WHAT YOU PREACH :)
by Bill McClendon

Bill McClendon's main claim to fame was as one of the authors of The Unofficial WAD Designers' Handbook which offered lots of great information for prospective authors looking to dip their toes in the Doom pool. While BM would eventually go on to contribute to Requiem as well as STRAIN (the latter also sporting his partner in crime, Ron Allen) he was initially unwilling to reveal his works for the judgment of his contemporaries. His main concern was the thought of being held to a higher standard due to his hand in assembling the guide, which among other things contains a list of typical errors including

Texture Misalignment
This is the single most common error made by level authors. Although it has been mentioned several times in this document, properly aligned textures are an absolute must. Enough said. (The Unofficial WAD Designers' Handbook, Release 2.1 by Ron Allen and Bill McClendon)

That's painting a big target on your back for someone to post a "Gotcha!" Thankfully, Bill got over his fear of retaliatory nit-picking and presented his first official release, Triple-Play, for Doom II in mid 1995. It's a MAP01 replacement like so many others and the author recommends using IDMUS 18 to invoke "Waiting For Romero to Play" as the intended, complementary soundtrack.

Squares (1SQUARES.WAD)

SQUARES

by Costa Lappas

Squares, a single level released for Doom II in 1995, has earned a place in community history for two reasons. It was one of the earliest slaughtermaps in a sense that's distinct from levels containing slaughter-like encounters (i.e. the teleport ambush featured in "Suburbs") while connoting some sort of challenge. It's also one of the pillars upon which Huy Pham's Deus Vult was built, a fact that's more obvious in the release of the alternate / early version Deus Vult Zero. In the .TXT, author Costa Lappas advertised it as "extremely hard if not impossible to complete on the hard level". A quick look at the DooMed Speed Demo Archives shows at least seven players to have successfully cut their teeth on 1SQUARES while playing on Ultra-Violence and one finishing the map on Nightmare, so it's certainly not insurmountable.

Torment (TORMENT.WAD)

Shamus Young made a bunch of maps from 1995 to 1996, starting off with Slugfest and then moving on to the seminal Doom City before ending the year on Torment. The last is a six-level minisode released in 1995 that continues in Young's tradition of trying to make levels just as playable in single-player as they are in deathmatch. I can't speak as to their multiplayer quality but there's a pretty clear difference between these maps and those featured in Slugfest, seeming more polished and less distinguishable as oriented toward player vs. player.