Sacrifice (Doom Tutorial) (SACRIF.ZIP)

SACRIFICE

A DOOM TUTORIAL

by John "Gestalt666" Bye

I made some assumptions on Bye's back catalog based on the way in which they were uploaded to the archive but I've come to find out that Sacrifice was actually his first published level. In 1996 he converted it to a Doom II map and then offered it up to the community along with a slightly worked-over version as a sort of Goofus / Gallant pairing. His intent was to illustrate some freshman foibles in order for beginners to have a better idea on how to handle part of PWADcraft's essential window dressing. This is the equivalent of polishing a turd due to the source material but John does show in a few instances that a bare minimum of work can breathe a bit of life into stale scenes.

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.

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.

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.

BLT and LAKE4 (BLT.ZIP)

BLT and LAKE4
by Neal Ziring

Neal Ziring saw fit to release this package of two individual WADs for the original Doom in '94. LAKE4 and BLT are his first and second PWADs, respectively, replacing E1M1 and E2M1. Both are very much beginner material, lacking the level of artifice he would bring to SUBWAY and, later, ELEMENTS. LAKE4 is a very confined map, and pretty easy, whereas BLT is medium-sized and scatterbrained, showcasing a variety of textures in an abstract construction as could only be made in Doom, but whose layout somewhat resembles that of the more freeform Shores of Hell maps.