Derceto (DERCETOV3_UDMF.WAD)

DERCETO

by Mike "Impie" MacDee

Mike is more popular for his total conversions that explore a host of other universes, some his own and others from preexisting properties. His earliest efforts plied this same angle but stayed within vanilla Doom II's combat stylings. The references served as springboards for the imagination, allowing you to fill in the details left out by using id Software's stock textures. Derceto is a tribute to the original Alone in the Dark - a landmark survival horror title - and was originally released in 2014. It saw a significant facelift in 2015, though, where Impie gave the adventure a new coat of paint. The original is still available on /idgames if you're curious but this review covers the updated version that can be found on the author's personal website. Both are MAP01 replacements for Doom II. The first release targeted limit-removing source ports with jumping as a feature. The second has a much narrower band as it utilizes the UDMF format. Eternity should still be in the game, then. (G)ZDoom ought to work for sure.

rf 1024 (RF_1024.WAD)

Exquisite Corpse begat Congestion 1024, which begot the now maligned 1024 fad of Doom mapping. fletcher` was on the train back in 2006, adding an additional constraint. Now, ten years later, they've created a whole megaWAD for ZDoom and Eternity (make sure you have infinitely tall monsters off) - rf 1024. If you didn't already know, the premise of a 1024 map confines the area available for player movement to a size of 1024 by 1024 map units. The map itself could be as big as you wanted, and indeed many 1024 levels involved copious amounts of teleport coffins to turn a tiny level into a full-fledged slobberknocker, or various ledges and elements outside the playing area for detailing, world-building, and monster perches.

Vaporware (VAPRDEMO.WAD)

It's been a long time since I said I'd play the Vaporware demo. And, well, here I am! The only time I've used the Eternity engine in the interim is to check bugs across different ports in a few isolated instances, which after playing this seems like a gross misuse of a fantastic product. Vapordemo won a Cacoward in 2011, in part due to the belief that this was about as far as the project would ever progress. I sincerely hope that isn't the case, because this single excerpt from Vaporware (sadly the only Eternity Engine project besides Mordeth I can even name, excepting a few dual-compatible projects and the canceled TC) is a simply fantastic yet all too brief offering from Sarah "Esselfortium" Mancuso. When it was done, I wanted more, so at the very least it's fulfilled its basic criteria insofar as it's designed to get me interested in the full release.

Eternity Engine Update plus Vaporware Demo

Eternity's "Blue Box"

I haven't really used the Eternity Engine yet, but they just made a major update, extending compatibility and reaching toward Heretic support (and of course Hexen and Strife in the distant future). Cool stuff! In addition, there's apparently an Eternity project titled Vaporware that's been knocking around for some time. The Eternity Engine released a one map demo of the project along with the Engine update. I may take a look after finishing Memento Mori 2. After all, I've dabbled in PrBoom+ to play with Obituary. The least I can do is take a look at another fine Doom engine.

The Lost Episode: Evil Unleashed (LOSTEPIS.WAD)

Doom: The Lost Episode is an unofficial fifth episode (complete with intermission screen!) released for Ultimate Doom in 2009, requiring either ZDoom or Eternity to run. Headed by Xaser with additional credit to Skunk, Wills, Nuxius and SnowKate709, it aimed to collect unused Doom Alpha maps with maps exclusive to the various console versions of Doom and retool them to create a strange but excellent adventure (link to development thread here). For those interested the in narrative justifications Doom authors provide for their unholy concoctions, the story is quite simple. Crammed right in between Doomguy avenging the death of his pet rabbit and his arduous campaign to rid Earth itself of Hellspawn, the action finds our protagonist teleported into a fragmented dimension as a last-ditch attempt to distance Doomguy from the campaign of Evil. You'll have to fight your way through to the architects of the false reality to return to your own.