Two Big Ones

I was gonna leave Icarus up until this next Friday but as long as actual news is happening, I should say something before it gets stale.

On the port side of things, Scoredoom got what I can only assume was an eagerly anticipated 3.0 release. If you haven't heard of Scoredoom before (who are you???) it's a mod that replaces certain enemies in Doom IWADs and PWADs as well as replacing powerups. It's semi-randomized, in that the port generates a random assortment of powerups and monsters for every map, but that map will always have that given setup. Then you play Scoredoom, get scored on various factors, and compete against other players. I'm still pretty young Doomwise so I'm staying away from stuff like this for now, but if I were to mod my gameplay regularly, Scoredoom would be one of my top plays. It's got a host of other features, of course, but I think I've touched on the important bits.

On the WAD side of things, Doom Core made its way to the archives. Doom Core is a 32-map MegaWAD (for Doom II, obviously) totalling much of Valkiriforce's output over the 2010 year. It's been rigorously tested to work in vanilla, so grizzled classic players take notice. I can't speak as to the quality of Doom Core yet but I did spend some time testing the first third of his 1996 style MegaWAD, Reverie, which was pretty damn challenging and fun to play (and also really fucking inventive), so I'll vouch for DCV.WAD, on top of the people already playing it and enjoying it in its development thread.

On the site side of things, the following WADs have been reviewed, I'm just stalling putting them up:

Polygon Base, by Rick Lipsey
A Hidden Mountain Factory, by Grzegorz Werner
99 Ways to Die, by Warren Marshall

The following WADs are on the chopping block:

Army of Darkness Doom (II), by some AoD fans
Dystopia 3: Re-Birth of Anarchy, by Anthony "Adelusion" Czerwonka and Iikka "Fingers" Keranen
The Troopers' Playground, by Matthias Worch

After I finish 1996 out I'll indulge myself in some non-"Best of" fare. Probably play through Doom Core, Raven, some other stuff. All I know is that quadruple threat of Eternal Doom, Requiem, S.T.R.A.I.N., and Hell Revealed, along with The Talosian Incident and Dawn of the Dead feels incredibly daunting. 1997 was one hell of a year, and yet Doom continues to march on...

Icarus: Alien Vanguard (ICARUS.WAD)

Team TNT began as a loose assortment of people from the Doom editing mailing list that for a time had batted around the idea of doing a large WAD for Doom II. Most everyone knows that Team TNT made TNT Evilution, which id Software officially licensed. Less but certainly many still also know that they released another WAD following Evilution's production, this one freeware, which because of certain circumstances actually made it out of the gates before its "predecessor". That WAD's name was... Brace yourself... Icarus: Alien Vanguard. The plot...

Doom Must Fall (DMF.WAD)

DOOM MUST FALL
by Mackey "Avatar" McCandlish

Doom Must Fall is a TC for use with Ultimate Doom, created by Mackey "Avatar" McCandlish. It replaces all enemies and weapons with some actual gameplay changes. It's based off of the game, One Must Fall: 2097, a vs. fighting game where the combatants control robots via a physical and mental link. The models were all primitive 3D renders, and looking at Rich "Weeds" Nagel's fansite, all of the monster sprite replacements are derived from the models found therein.

Invasion... Level 2 -- The Upper Decks (INVADE2.WAD)

INVASION...
LEVEL 2 -- THE UPPER DECKS
by Andy Chen and Claude Martins

"The Upper Decks" is part 2 of the Invasion story, originally conceived as a 9 part episode, here truncated to 4. Levels 3 and 4 were never released, though there is a "spinoff" map, Invasion: The Siege, that details what happens on the surface of Mars during the main levels. As with "Contamination", Andy Chen and Claude Martins have created a masterstroke in mapping and crammed it into an E1M2 replacement. INVADE2.WAD is everything its forebear was, and more. So much more. It's a shame that this WAD has been largely lost in the annals of time, 'cause it beats the pants off Doomworld's top 10 of 1994.

Invasion... Level 1 -- Contamination (INVADE1.WAD)

INVASION...
LEVEL 1--CONTAMINATION
by Andy Chen and Claude Martins

Invasion was originally conceived as a 9 part story. The authors must have realized they were a bit ambitious, because Level 2 breaks the news that the story was shortened to 4 parts. Sadly, Invasion's full plot was never to be told; levels 3 and 4 never materialized, though level 3 was hinted at in the .TXT of the spinoff project, Invasion: The Siege. What Andy Chen and Claude Martins leave in their wake is some of the best mapping to ever have come out of '94. I mean, seriously, after playing through this E1M1 replacement I'm surprised it wasn't listed on Doomworld's top 10 of '94.

Shrine of the Warriors (SHRINE2.WAD)

SHRINE OF THE WARRIORS
by Daniel "Stormin" Norman

Daniel "Stormin" Norman has a place in the annals of Doom history for his Doom II minisode, The Final Gathering. He also released two single levels for Doom II; one of them, "Dark Side of the Mind", was collected in the final version of GATHER2.WAD. The second, Shrine of the Warriors, is a fun Doom II level that systematically pits you against most of Doom's bestiary. I'm guessing given the filename presented in the WAD and the actual name of the included filename that this also had an OG Doom release, but it's not anywhere in the archives. The barebones plot is that the shrine is of demonic origin and is an attempt to pay tribute to the warriors of Hell. And, uh, I dunno, I guess you didn't want to buy a ticket?

Dystopia (DYST2.WAD)

DYSTOPIA
FOR DOOM II
by Anthony "Adelusion" Czerwonka

Dystopia is the progenitor of Anthony "Adelusion" Czerwonka's and Iikka "Fingers" Keranen's Dystopia 3, the trend-setting 1996 episode that in some ways led to STRAIN, Hacx, and other cyberpunk-flavored goodies. Dystopia was originally a Heretic level; Adelusion converted it to Doom II and re-released it (if you could call it that) in 1995, hence DYST2.WAD. It's a fairly large MAP01 replacement, containing in excess of 280 monsters. It also has no clear texturing theme, though the architecture design is clear and the individual detailing is internally coherent.

Serenity IV - MAP11 (SER3LV11.WAD)

SERENITY IV - MAP11
by Bjorn Hermans and Holger Nathrath

Back in the late 90s, Sam "Metabolist" Woodman was putting together a project called "Testament of Judgment". Looking on the archives, it was never completed, but during development he asked for and received a WAD from Bjorn Hermans to use in his megaWAD. The WAD itself was constructed by Holger Nathrath (and I assume playtested by Hermans) in the vein of the original Serenity trilogy. Woodman couldn't figure out a good way to work it into his mapset, however, and decided to release it on its own. The map has no official title, but it was indicated to be MAP11 of "Serenity III" (though shouldn't it be Serenity IV?). So, I'll refer to it as MAP11 from here on out.