Aliens TC (ALITCWAD.WAD)

The Aliens TC, released by Justin Fisher in 1994, is Doom's best-known "TC" and also one of the few high-quality partial conversions using popular commercial assets that remains on the /idgames archive. For awhile, Fisher's name became a pretty hot property, and everyone was watching and waiting to see what his next project would be. In the end, all we have is the remnant of the Nemisis TC, and about an entire world's worth of promise. Fisher left a profound mark on the game industry, from the aspect of user modifications to actual industry professionals some years down the line, and even got to see Terry Pratchett (RIP) play an early beta at a sci-fi con. And, well, that last bit may be the greatest accomplishment of all, depending on your outlook in life.

Galaxia: The Ultimate Czech Level (GALAXIA.WAD)

GALAXIA
THE ULTIMATE CZECH LEVEL
by Pavel Hodek

The story - you're part of a pair of survivors still living after the spaceship Galaxia suffered through a swarm of asteroids. You resign to repair the ship. Unbeknownst to you, the ship is headed toward a black hole, and because this is science fiction, your ship travels through the hole to another place entirely and escapes the usual fate of compression to a singularity as befalls most matter. Smarminess aside, you land on an alien planet, find a post-apocalyptic race of telepathic subterranean humans terrorized by giant spiders, and join the resistance before shit goes crazy and you're forced into action.

Get all that? Okay.

DoomX Update 06/01/2011

DoomX put out another status update recently, mostly just to say that the developer was introducing more extensive custom weapons to the project than he'd originally intended and showing off his freeze gun, a video of which plays at the top of the site. There's also a bonus gift, I believe a file housing his custom monster, The Loper, in its current state. He also hints at some other new monsters he's thinking of spriting up, explicitly mentioning the Cherub! Again, I'm pretty stoked observing this project and Pierre can take all the time he needs to do this right, 'cause it'll be a blast.

Crossing Acheron (ACHERON666.WAD, ACHERON2.WAD)

CROSSING ACHERON
by John "Dr. Sleep" Anderson

Crossing Acheron is the second level in John "Dr. Sleep" Anderson's Inferno series, loosely inspired by Dante's Inferno. Of the eight available maps (many of which can be found as part of the Master Levels for Doom II), only two are available on the idgames archives: the precursor, Dante's Gate, and this one. Like its progenitor, it comes in several different flavors, but I'll be differentiating between 1.666 (for Doom) and 2.0a (for Doom II).  The story so far - you've passed through Dante's Gate in order to find your beloved Beatrice and wind up on the shores of Acheron (whose features are not included in the map, a fact noted by Anderson in the .TXT). Your guide, Virgil, is missing and you're already under assault by demonic forces. Like any good hero, you must continue to seek out Bea, slaying everything in your way.

Dante's Gate (DANTE666.WAD, DANTE25.WAD)

DANTE'S GATE
by John "Dr. Sleep" Anderson

id employed a number of independent Doom mappers for their Master Levels project. Perhaps the most notorious them is John "Dr. Sleep" Anderson. Not because his works are reviled, no - Anderson's infamy is currently a product of his seclusion. His body of work is fairly well documented, but remains as of this time incomplete. His Inferno series, inspired by Dante Alighieri's work of the same name, was (is?) supposed to be a 9 map series. Eight of those maps have been released, with Dante's Gate and Crossing Acheron publicly available on the idgames mirror. Dante's Gate is the first in the series, occupying either E1M1 or MAP01 depending on which version you're playing - 1.666 for OG Doom or 2.5 for Doom II. There are more versions than these available, but these are the two I'll be discussing.

The Unholy Trinity (TRINITY.WAD)

THE UNHOLY TRINITY
by Steve McCrea, Simon Wall, and Elias Papavassilopoulos

A lot of folks that mapped for Doom in the golden age made imitations of real places, be they their work places, houses, or schools. Occasionally you'd see a few crude graphics that placed the map apart from Doom's aesthetics, but the textures were unmistakable. Steve McCrea took level design to the next level as early as 1994. He ran around his college campus, Trinity College, snapping shots of all the buildings and whatnot, made some new textures, and got together with his friends to make a map out of it. In the end, we get The Unholy Trinity, a decidedly goofy E1M1 replacement that plays pretty well.

Doomsday of UAC (UAC_DEAD.WAD)

DOOMSDAY OF UAC
by Leo Martin Lim

The plot: Hellspawn just attacked a UAC base. Your bosses send a truck to pick up you along with five other marines. Just outside of the complex, the invaders attack the truck. Luckily, they miss the false wall at the trailer's front, and when you come to, you spill out into the cabin, taking on the invading force all on your lonesome as your buddies are nowhere to be found. Sure, the odds suck, but someone's got to do it.

Return to Phobos (RETURN01.WAD)

If the original Doom has given us anything, it's the basis for a bajillion episode replacements. The perennial favorite, Knee Deep in the Dead, has inspired most of them, rivaled only by Thy Flesh Consumed, likely since that wasn't part of the initial release. Return to Phobos is an Episode One replacement circa '94 from Michael Kelsey. Kelsey was the author of what many consider to be Doom's first "serious" level, STONES. RETURN delivers on the promise of early forays with the editor to produce a nice selection of early but playable Doom levels with a mostly Phobos-like texture scheme.