MS5 (MS5.WAD)

MS5

by Malcolm Sailor

MSSCRAPS
MS1	MS2	MS3	MS4	MS5

The last act of the boy wonder was to publish all of his unreleased outtakes and incomplete fragments as Assorted Scraps and Leftovers. Uploaded to the /idgames /prefabs directory at the end of 2000, the intent was to allow them to serve as the inspirational springboard for any aspiring author. A handful of these maps were actually fully functional (if not realized) levels. He collected six of them into MS1.WAD for Doom II. MS5 has the distinction of being Malcolm's second release for id's original trilogy after 1996's SKULL. I doubt whether it uses any advanced source port features but Sailor implied that no serious bug-quashing was performed. You might be better off playing it in any limit-removing .EXE.

MS1 (MS1.WAD)

MSSCRAPS
MS1	MS2	MS3	MS4	MS5

Assorted Scraps and Leftovers was Malcolm Sailor's final gift to the Doom community, a collection of previously unreleased materials split into five different PWADs. The package was published in late 2000 and ranges from fully functional levels for Doom II (as well as the original) to deathmatch outtakes and aborted scraps. The majority of the items, which are found in MS2.WAD, are not "complete" levels per se. The author considered another seven to be fully functional in single-player, though. MS1.WAD contains six of them, all designed for Doom II. They are probably - mechanically speaking - vanilla compatible but the author did not polish them for release so I would play them back in a limit-removing port just to be on the safe side.

Short and Hard (SHRTHARD.ZIP)

SHORT AND HARD

by Malcolm Sailor

Quick is Good

Baron Gate

Center

3PACK_1 and DS-61-2 (later updated to DS-61-3) were among Malcolm's earliest releases in 1995. Both consisted of ZIP packs containing multiple, separate PWADs. In 1997 he released Short and Hard, the third and final of his collections prior to the largely archival MSSCRAPS. SHRTHARD has one thing in common with 3PACK_1 in that it contains Quick is Good, which was released nearly a year earlier in 1996, but the overall experience has been streamlined. There's only one .TXT for all three PWADs and none of them occupy the same map slot so they can be loaded together. They don't follow any sort of serial pattern, though. QUIKISGD occupies MAP01; Baron Gate has MAP27; and Center can be found in MAP31.

Center (CENTER.WAD)

CENTER

by Malcolm Sailor

SHORT AND HARD
Quick is Good	Baron Gate	Center

SHRTHARD was the last of Sailor's "compilation" zips prior to dumping all of his unreleased material at the end of 2000 as well as his last non-CHORD series release. The 1997 package includes the considerably older Quick is Good as well as two new deviations, BARONGAT and CENTER. This one is a MAP31 replacement for Doom II and like the other two was grouped together based on Malcolm's perception of their relative difficulty as well as their length. It definitely qualifies as short when placed up against NOSUN and 3, both of which the author had under his belt before uploading this .ZIP.

Baron Gate (BARONGAT.WAD)

BARON GATE

by Malcolm Sailor

SHORT AND HARD
Quick is Good	Baron Gate	Center

Whatever the final release order looks like on /idgames, it appears as though Sailor hadn't made NOSUN5 before compiling Short and Hard. The 1997 collection of three individual PWADs - much in the spirit of his earlier 3PACK_1 and DS-61-3 - gathered 1996's Quick is Good and threw in two new punchy, pint-sized Doom II adventures. CENTER will be covered in a different review; this is all about Baron Gate. Sailor was very happy with the way his MAP27 replacement played but felt self-conscious about its appearance based on the layout as drawn from the top down. I can agree with him that the automap is not the important thing when it comes to levels.

No Sun Series

THE NO SUN SERIES

by Malcolm Sailor

as featured in Super Serials

NOSUN	NOSUN2
NOSUN3	NOSUN4
NOSUN5

Malcolm is much better known for his CHORD series - specifically CHORD_NG, CHORDG, and CHORD3 - but he had another span of single-level releases that spanned from 1996 to 1997. The NOSUN levels are an interesting bridge between his early works, which felt increasingly aligned with the authors of Master Levels for Doom II, and his time spent working as part of Black Star Coven and John Bye. I assume that both Bye and Anderson served as an influence in the way Sailor approached lighting as detailing. While the location / adventure-oriented level design did not survive through to the final stage of his authorial career it's an interesting period to consider.

No Sun 5 (NOSUN5.WAD)

NO SUN 5

by Malcolm Sailor

1997 was Malcolm's big year. It marked the release of The Talosian Incident, where roughly nine levels worth of his work made their big debut; the start of his CHORD series, responsible for three of the other entries in Doomworld's Top 100 WADs of All Time; and the end of NO SUN, a run of five maps that attempted to tell Sailor's most cohesive story. The whole thing wrapped up at the end of April with NOSUN5, a MAP27 replacement for Doom II. The author is pretty proud of it but acknowledges one if its potential shortcomings. If you're a fan of the works of John Bye, though, or enjoyed the narrative action of TALOSIAN, then you'll have no issue here.

No Sun 4 (NOSUN4.WAD)

NO SUN 4

by Malcolm Sailor

1997 was the year where it all started to come together for Malcolm Sailor. He was starting to get a lot more positive feedback, particularly on his No Sun material; he was working with John Bye as part of Black Star Coven to produce The Talosian Incident; and while he didn't know it at the time, his soon-to-be-released CHORD series would cement his legacy in the Doom community's history. Here, though, it's still early 1997 and he hadn't quite triumphed over his mortal enemy, Tim Willits ("Dumb Fucker"). No Sun 4 is - you guessed it - the fourth entry in the NOSUN series. The biggest technical changeup is that it occupies the MAP07 slot as opposed to MAP01.

No Sun 3 (NOSUN3.WAD)

NO SUN 3
by Malcolm Sailor

You probably know him best for the CHORD series but young Malcolm had quite the storied career from 1995-1997 before laying out the material that would enshrine him in Doomworld's Top 10 WADs for three different years in 1997, 1999, and 2000. It's almost all single level releases, though, even if a good number of them (13) were gathered together as separate PWADs in .ZIP packs. NOSUN3 is the third entry in a series that started in 1996. This release marks Sailor's first official step into the '97 era though I can only assume that he was also working on The Talosian Incident during the same period since it was released a few months later in June. Like the first two installations, it's a MAP01 replacement for Doom II.

No Sun 2 (NOSUN2.WAD)

NO SUN 2

by Malcolm Sailor

While he did most of his mapping during his early teens, MS is primarily known for his CHORD series because of its soul-crushing difficulty and gorgeous, detailed environments. If you forget about his contributions to The Talosian Incident then you might be surprised to find him responsible for another series, this one actually attempting to draw a narrative through its action across a grand total of five entries. NOSUN2 is understandably the second level and was re-released in 1997 though I strongly suspect that it was originally published toward the end of 1996. Like most of the levels released by Malcolm, it's a MAP01 replacement for Doom II.

Sequel to Quick is Good (QUIKISG2.WAD)

SEQUEL TO QUICK IS GOOD

by Malcolm Sailor

MS began with DARKER in 1995 and then slowly honed his authorial skillset into the perfectionist machine that crafted the CHORD series. It's most fondly remembered for its last two levels, published in 1999 (CHORDG) and 2000 (CHORD3). In 1996, the author was beginning to indulge in longer maps with a more developed story by way of his NOSUN series but he still had a strong affection for Short and Hard levels. Enter the imaginatively-titled Sequel to Quick is Good, antecedent to QUIKISGD. It and NOSUN2 might just be the last things that he released in 1996. QUIKISG2 is a MAP01 replacement for Doom II, much like the majority of Malcolm's levels.

Skull (SKULL.WAD)

SKULL

by Malcolm Sailor

The young MS has left behind a sizable collection of levels for Doom II but you might not know that he crafted a paltry single map for the original. Skull is an E1M1 replacement released in 1996 after the dual publication of Go Away and NOSUN, the latter starting its similarly-titled series. It's interesting to see Malcolm try his hand at a format that's far more restrictive than the palette of monsters found in the Doom II rogues' gallery. What would his combat be without the screaming revenants, oppressive arch-viles, or corpulent mancubi and arachnotrons? Can you even live without the constant threat of a chaingunner suddenly appearing? Err, nevermind the last one.

No Sun (NOSUN.WAD)

NO SUN

by Malcolm Sailor

MS was a fairly prolific author of maps if not at the same production rate as workaholic wunderkinds like Paul Corfiatis. His biggest claim to fame was his CHORD series, probably followed by his contributions to The Talosian Incident as part of Black Star Coven. The former showcased outstanding architecture, lighting, and grueling combat while the latter had him developing short but scene-setting levels to further a narrative through the limitations of idtech1's gameplay. His work on TALOSIAN may have ultimately directed his talents toward the aesthetic of the CHORD levels but I'd like to think that NOSUN - a MAP01 replacement for Doom II who also kicks off its own sequential series - is the work that caught John Bye's attention.

Go Away (GOAWAY09.WAD)

GO AWAY

by Malcolm Sailor

The man who composed the CHORD series had a pretty meager start to his authorship (DARKER) but by his third major release - DS-61-3.ZIP, a collection of six PWADS packaged in a .ZIP file - he was making maps that would have easily fit among the Master Levels for Doom II. GOAWAY09 furthers his trend. Originally uploaded alongside the beginning of his NOSUN series in 1996, this MAP01 replacement eschews the Quick is Good philosophy made manifest in the previous release and aims at something a fair bit larger if not just as challenging. He didn't abandon his direction toward short bits of action; more on that later in SHRTHARD.

Quick is Good (QUIKISGD.WAD)

QUICK IS GOOD
by Malcolm Sailor

SHORT AND HARD
Quick is Good	Baron Gate	Center

The archive has QUIKISGD listed immediately after 3PACK_1 as far as release dates go but the .ZIP for its sequel, QUIKISG2, has a bibliography of sorts that calls a lot of things into question. I believe it to be an artifact of Sailor's penchant for updating stuff to fix bugs. In the previous year, 1995, he released a couple of single levels - DARKER and RULER - before a package of three individual outings including a new version of the latter solo venture (3PACK_1). All of his 1996 stuff is timestamped in July of that year but I couldn't tell you whether he was just storing PWADs like a camel, updated a bunch of stuff at the same time, or had one really productive summer vacation. I'm leaning toward the second.

DS-61-3 (DS-61-3.ZIP)

DS-61-3

by Malcolm Sailor

ALAPOLGY	FROMDREM
LAB	BOOM
WASTEME	SINFERNO

I think it was way more common in the early days of Doom but it was still relatively uncommon to find someone who had uploaded a .ZIP that collected single-level PWADs. The biggest exception in my recent memory would be jazzmaster's 32-in-32 series. In any case, two of Malcolm's earliest - and largest - releases were done in this style of compilation. 3PACK_1 collected one earlier level for an update and added two for an odd three. DS-61-2 doubled the fun with six PWADs and this time they were all originals. Most of its contents saw an update in 1996 as part of the DS-61-3 package. Both are named after Darth Vader's wing men in the first Star Wars movie. Based on the timestamp for FROMDREM I'm pretty sure that the original date of publication was late 1995 but I would need a copy of the first release to verify my assumption.

SINFERNO (SINFERNO.WAD)

SINFERNO

by Malcolm Sailor

DS-61-3
ALAPOLGY	FROMDREM	LAB
BOOM	WASTEME	SINFERNO

Seven levels in six WADs collected in one .ZIP file - that's DS-61-3. While every item has its own individual .TXT, only one of them goes unmentioned in the compilation's own information document - SINFERNO. It did find its way into some of Malcolm's WADographies, though, and is the last selection from its assemblage to be listed in QUIKISG2. The author didn't have much to say about it except to call it an okay Hell-themed level and mention that there were no changes between its re-release and the original, published in an earlier edition of the same package titled DS-61-2.

WASTEME (WASTEME.WAD)

WASTEME

by Malcolm Sailor

DS-61-3
ALAPOLGY	FROMDREM	LAB
BOOM	WASTEME	SINFERNO

DARKER, then 3PACK_1, and later probably DS-61-2... 1995 was likely a fairly productive year for Malcolm. The last .ZIP I mentioned had most of its contents updated and then uploaded as DS-61-3 in 1996, which is where this version of WASTEME comes from. And it's a good thing that the author fixed it! The initial release appears to have lacked an exit switch. It's still a MAP01 replacement for Doom II and while the monster count is a tad higher compared to the PWADs comprising the rest of the collection it's still shorter than the average bear. This level has nothing in the way of a framing narrative but information provided by Sailor suggests a lack of his own enthusiasm for it.

Boom (BOOM.WAD)

BOOM

by Malcolm Sailor

DS-61-3
ALAPOLGY	FROMDREM	LAB
BOOM	WASTEME	SINFERNO

Like the rest of the contents of the author's DS-61-3, this replaces MAP01 and was re-released mid-1996 but probably initially published as a part of DS-61-2 in late 1995. It's hard for me to gauge what sort of early influences MS had. In the one hand, denigrating id's own Hell episode in Doom II (and I know that he's not alone in his sentiments). On the other, using ideas from "Nirvana", "The Spirit World", and "The Living End" in his own ORIGINAL COPY DO NOT STEAL maps in 3PACK_1. One thing is plainly obvious here, though, and he so much as admits it in QUIKISG2's .TXT: BOOM.WAD borrows from John Anderson's Dante's Gate and given the texture scheme I assume its aesthetic sense as well.

Lab (LAB.WAD)

LAB

by Malcolm Sailor

DS-61-3
ALAPOLGY	FROMDREM	LAB
BOOM	WASTEME	SINFERNO

DS-61-3 is a 1996 update to a similarly-titled collection that could have been released in 1995, judging by the timestamp on FROMDREM. It contained six individual PWADs, all of which occupy the MAP01 slot. The imaginatively-titled LAB is one such delight. Of all the files in the package it's the only one with a framing story. Malcolm manages to slam both schools of thought concerning Doom's antagonists into one blurb. He describing the facility in question as belonging to aliens and then goes on to assert that while you ought to "blow it to hell", it's actually "already there".