Make, test, post. (MKTSTPST.WAD)

MAKE, TEST, POST.

by "Memfis"

Memfis has long had a love-affair with quirky stuff from Doom's '90s period. The vast majority of his catalogue leading up to and following really doesn't reflect the attitude represented in Kuchitsu, however, outside of perhaps Green Day. His smaller solo releases were more representative of his love for classic megaWADs like Requiem (REQUIMEM), Memento Mori II (MM2MEM01), and Phobos: Relive the Nightmare (RELIVEX2). 2013's Kuchitsu appears to have marked the seismic shift in his predilections, with the author continuing playing with more offbeat level design ideas in pus06, How Eye Killed Time, and--of course--Garbage. Make, test, post. was originally published to the Doomworld forums on November 14th of 2013. A MAP07 replacement for Doom II to be played in theoretically any limit-removing port, it continues the author's ongoing fascination with quirky, DoomCute elements.

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.

Abyssal Speedmapping Session 7 (ABYSPED7.WAD)

The Doom community has generally had semi-regular speedmapping events in one form or another but in my mind they seemed to get new life in 2013. One of the longer-running institutions--now defunct--is The Abyssal Speedmapping Sessions. The Abyss was a forum that ended up receiving some of the now defunct NewDoom regulars, and Obsidian wanted to bring them together to make some Doom maps. The first ABYSPED didn't have the greatest turnout but they kept it strong, eventually ending at a grand total of 69 iterations. ABYSPED7 is the seventh Abyssal Speedmapping Session, organized in June of 2014. A bunch of regulars from past sessions showed up as well as some, err, new blood, to put out a grand total of 14 levels, replacing MAP01-MAP14.

Greymood (GRMOOD.WAD)

GREYMOOD

by "MysteriousHaruko"

Misty has had a healthy community career over the past seven or so years, working to co-host the Pigeon Speedmapping Sessions and contributing to a variety of community projects. She's also had a smattering of solo releases, including but not limited to the 2022 Cacoward HM Caffeine Injection. Greymood is her first public offering, a MAP01 replacement for Doom II published back in 2017 which now feels like a long, long time ago. There must have been some prior shared maps as rd alludes to an improvement over prior works (and the DoomWiki mentions Think about it), but Greymood was the first to find its way to the /idgames archives.

Super MAYhem 17 (MAYHEM17.WAD)

MAYhem is a time when Doomworlders can band together and throw their weight behind an arbitrary set of restrictions. The series had a rough start in terms of meeting its megaWAD goal, with 2012 and 2013 fielding 12 and 11 levels respectively, but it hit its stride with MAYhem 2048, with each subsequent iteration meeting the "megawad" definition (in spirit with MAYhem 2024, which produced 35 segments to stitch together). The 2017-released-in-2018 installment goes by Super MAYhem 17 because the texture theme this go-around was Super Mario Bros.-themed, with an aesthetic that appears to be sort of a mix of Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World. This is a 28-ish level replacement for Doom II, to be played with Boom-compatible ports, with some fringe MAPINFO perks for ZDoom / Eternity users.

How Eye Killed Time (KILLTIME.WAD)

HOW EYE KILLED TIME

by "Memfis"

Memfis uploaded some maps to /idgames as he made them, but he waited to upload even more of them until 06/21/14, the day of the great uploading. How Eye Killed Time, a MAP01 replacement for Doom II, was apparently crafted early October of 2013 but it doesn't appear to have been stealth-released on the Doomworld Forum like most of the June 2014 uploads that I've played thus far. Maybe he posted it to a different forum, or maybe he just sat on it until he decided to clear out his archives. In any event, the PWAD claims to require Boom compatibility, but based on what I've seen over past Memfis reviews, I believe that the reality is that the only environment this map was tested in is PrBoom-plus using -complevel 9. It wouldn't surprise me if it worked in more or less any limit-removing port.

1 Monster (1MONSTER.WAD)

We are more awash in limitation-based projects than ever, with 10 Sectors capturing the imagination of the community. When 1 Monster was conceived, Dr. Zin had 2 Sectors and Congestion 1024 in mind, though we've since seen 100 Lines and a whole host of resource-economy projects. What you don't see a lot of, though, are restrictions on enemy variety. Enter 1 Monster, a megaWAD where only one monster type is placed on each map. Every member of Doom II's bestiary is represented here, from the lowly zombiman to John Romero himself with his luscious locks of love. The project kicked off at the tail end of 2005 and then changed leads several times before seeing a final release in 2007. In its more or less final form, 1 Monster is a 25 map replacement for Doom II, to be played in Boom-compatible ports.

Mega Tear (MEGATEAR.WAD)

MEGA TEAR

by "Memfis"

This Doom II MAP01 replacement was initially published on the Doomworld forums in July of 2013 and was only uploaded to /idgames in June of 2014, nearly a year later. It's theoretically Boom-compatible but, in order to listen to the provided music track, the engine must be capable of playing mod tracker files. Memfis didn't have any contextual information to offer that would help clarify the choice of title, Mega Tear, and a cursory search doesn't reveal anything obvious like a manga. In the community, "mega" is more often than not associated with megaWADs, something that the author often started but never found the wherewithal to complete. One could argue, then, that it's named in deference to Memfis's practice of publishing megaWAD fragments. Would a reject removed from such a project be a "mega tear"? Or is it more of a reference to the author's regret in having so many "incomplete" productions, each one eliciting a salty "mega tear"?

Europa 3: The Dark Side of Vrack (EAEURO03.WAD)

EUROPA 3

THE DARK SIDE OF VRACK

by Erik Alm

Now here's an interesting piece of Doom history. This is an Erik Alm take on the Vrack series, as evidenced by the subtitle. If you're unfamiliar with Vrack - Fredrik Johansson's main claim to fame as an author - then the levels established a sort of orbital platform space station theme seen more recently in the Japanese Community Project. Europa 3 is also the third and final entry in Alm's EAEURO run, which began in 2001 and ends here in early 2002. As with the others, The Dark Side of Vrack is a MAP01 replacement for Doom II that is meant for play in a Boom-compatible port. Unlike Europa 2, it doesn't require the use of an independent texture pack.

Toilet Break (TOLBREAK.WAD)

TOILET BREAK

by "Memfis"

2013-2014 was Memfis's most productive period as an author, at least in terms of the sheer number of releases. The true depth and breadth is obscured by how he held most of his available works off the archives until mid-2014, but both years feature something like twice the number of publications seen from 2011-2012. Toilet Break was made available on the Doomworld forums in May of 2013 and is a MAP01 replacement for Boom-compatible ports. It isn't always obvious to me whether his levels are actually -complevel 9 or just limit-removing and tested in PrBoom+ but there are a few clear instances of transparency to be seen.

ea Speedmap 3 (EASPD3.WAD)

EA SPEEDMAP 3

by Erik Alm

There's a sidestory to a lot of these authorial careers who had their heyday in the early '00s that I've been glazing over. 2001 was the birth of the community speedmapping event, I mean insofar as it was officially documented on /idgames. Whether it was Doomworld, NiGHTMARE, or SargeBaldy, people came and did the best that they could within 100 minutes. Erik Alm apparently never applied to any of the DWSPD festivities but he was a fixture of both NTSPD and SBSPD. ea Speedmap 3 was actually created for NiGHTMARE's #3 session in December of 2001. Alm's connection died while he was submitting it, though, so rather than let it go to waste, he uploaded it to /idgames in early 2002. EASPD3 is a MAP01 replacement for Boom-compatible ports.

Love You With Poison (LUWP.WAD)

LOVE YOU WITH POISON

by "Memfis"

Memfis made quite a few maps that leveraged resources from classic PWADs like Requiem and Memento Mori II as well as more obscure releases, e.g. Phobos - Relive the Nightmare. Love You With Poison, a MAP12 replacement for Boom-compatible ports released in 2013, is a bit different. The author decided to make use of the monsters and resources of JCD's Survive In Hell, a 2012 megaWAD that drew from - among other things - slaughter standards. LUWP is not a slaughtermap but it is a pretty tough play for a healthy variety of reasons. Note that you WILL need to load the SIHR2FIX PWAD in the correct order with LUWP in order to play the level.

An Infernal Place (INFERNAL.WAD)

AN INFERNAL PLACE

by Pablo Dictter

Pablo was a boundless fountain of youthful energy around 2000. He made a ton of very small levels, the earliest of which are ferreted away in his personal archive. Some were never uploaded to /idgames, instead appearing on Doom WAD Station. An Infernal Place is a slightly weirder situation; it was originally released as an E1M1 replacement on DWS, where it is still available as such. The version on /idgames is v1.1, a Doom II conversion with a few alterations. Nowadays we typically think of maps as either stolidly for one game type or the other but it's not all that unusual when you consider how many 1994 authors converted some of their PWADs to Doom II. This review is for the original publication of An Infernal Place, timestamped 03/04/01. It is purportedly meant for play in a Boom-compatible port.

Europa 2 (EAEURO02.WAD)

EUROPA 2

by Erik Alm

2001 appeared to have been a pretty formative year for Erik. Alm made five submissions for Sam Woodman's One Week Mapping Contest, demonstrating an esoteric taste that spanned "short and sweet" to large-scale challenges informed by Hell Revealed. It also marked the debut of his Europa series. The first entry was a massive labyrinth that mixed his stiff encounter design with a tangled layout and key sidequest that evoked shades of 1995. This entry - the second - closes out 2001 on a high note that sees a drastic change of style away from some of his less user-friendly design decisions. EAEURO02 is a MAP01 replacement for Doom II to be played in a Boom-compatible port. As is the case with EAGOTH1 and EAGOTH2, you need to play this with the Gothic DeathMatch II texture pack.

ea Gothic 2 (EAGOTH2.WAD)

EA GOTHIC 2

by Erik Alm

As I mentioned in the review for EAGOTH1, 2001 was a big year for Erik. His participation in the One Week Mapping Contest was an important stepping-off point for someone who was previously not confident in the worthiness of their work. Toward the end of the year he started a string of single releases beginning with Europa 1 and, shortly afterward, ea Gothic 1. EAGOTH2 is the speedmapped squeakuel to the latter. Another fast and furious Boom-compatible blastathon, Erik elected to utilize the MAP29 slot for this go around. Was he potentially filling the whole E3? Or is it merely another case of sky-and-soundtrack preference?

ea Gothic 1 (EAGOTH1.WAD)

EA GOTHIC 1

by Erik Alm

2001 was Erik's coming out party, starting off with a handful of submissions to Sam Woodman's One Week Mapping Contest before moving on to his first solo release, the relatively large Europa 1. He continued his frenzy of activity along a different path with ea Gothic 1. This is still a level for Boom-compatible ports but it's a much smaller, intimate affair that requires the beloved Gothic DeathMatch II texture pack. The product is a MAP27 replacement for Doom II, presumably because Alm appreciated the combination of Hellish sky and the curious atmosphere of "Waiting For Romero to Play".

Europa 1 (EAEURO01.WAD)

EUROPA 1

by Erik Alm

Erik has gone on to great fame with Scythe II often lauded as the direct ancestor of the Doom community's current gameplay standards. He humbly began in 2001, though, kicking out five submissions for Sam Woodman's One Week Mapping Contest. Thus spurred into action, he started an impressive array of small solo releases. Europa 1 was his first such publication, a Doom II MAP22 replacement for Boom-compatible ports. If you're looking for something on the level of the 2003 Scythe's short, accessible first two episodes then, well, hunt somewhere else. This one is large and, as is the case with Alm's early output, not particularly fair.

Catastrophe (CATA.WAD)

CATASTROPHE

by Kevin "Magikal" Reay

The first Community Chest was something like a Broadway Melody of 2002. A few of the involved authors had been publishing stuff for a few years - as early as 1998 in the case of Rex Claussen. Many of the contributors had not displayed their creative force until '02, though. Kevin Reay's debut was the mastodonic Industrial, an impressive and cryptic array of sector machinery. He followed it up late in the year with Catastrophe, a Boom-compatible MAP01 replacement for Doom II. The author specifically recommended the use of Legacy over other ports due to some effects that fake complex three-dimensional geometry. I didn't notice any shortcomings in ZDoom, though.

MAYhem 2016 (MAYHEM16.WAD)

The MAYhem series has built a PWAD for every May since 2012 and, starting with 2014, they've all been megaWADs. The project organizers have changed but the general procedure is the same. 1) Pick a texture pack in order to give the set a distinct identity. 2) Decide on some sort of limitation as a gimmick. 3) Kick the event off in May, where the bulk of the level design is (hopefully) performed. In this particular case the merry month was used for planning and logistics while the actual work was done in June. 2016 was really a tale of two gimmicks but you probably wouldn't realize either due to the necessities of the final product's presentation. It's a 21-level mapset for Boom-compatible source ports and, in spite of some promising progress, still drug ass until it was uploaded in early 2017.

10 Sectors Part 2 (10SECTO2.WAD)

In 2000, Doomworld hosted a contest inspired by an Unreal community challenge. 10 Sectors took more than 120 submissions from authors looking to create the most interesting Doom II level they could using - you guessed it - no more than 10 sectors. The premise actually allows for fairly complex levels as demonstrated in the official 10SECTOR megaWAD. It collected the thirty highest-rated entries plus two special mentions. 10SECTO2 is then the first and only spillover release. 27 of these levels were part of the top 32 for at least one judge. The illustrious Linguica hand-picked the remaining five to round the collection out to the mythic "complete game replacement" status. Like the primary release, this 2000 PWAD should be played with Doom II in a Boom-compatible port.