Matt Tropiano has been making Doom levels since 1998 and as late as 2012 he decided to grace us with a megaWAD in progress which he'd called quits on, subtitled Episode 1 so that he could pick it up again if he got up the gumption. Coffee Break's first episode consists of eleven Doom II levels, to be played in Boom / MBF compatible ports. It's got some extra care when played in ZDoom-derived stuff but nothing important, just ending the game at MAP11 to cap things off. There's no real story, just intermission texts that hint at the usual demon-blasting goodness.
Since id Software released Doom in 1993, thousands of user-made WADS and maps have been and continue to be created for the Doom community's entertainment.
These are their stories.
Thursday, March 7, 2013
Monday, March 4, 2013
Lost Way (LOSTWAY.WAD)
LOST WAY
by "Lainos"
by "Lainos"
If Russian author Lainos is known for anything, it's his crop of expressive, exploratory city levels. Works like 5till L1 Complex are known for their sheer size and non-linearity, so his Lost Way - also release in 2012 - comes as quite the departure. LOSTWAY is a single map for Doom II to be played in limit-removing source ports with .OGG support, preferably PrBoom+. It's a city level, of course, the textures drawing from the same fountainhead as Overdose, but there's a little something extra poured into the pot, an Egyptian flavoring that suggests something beyond his usual oeuvre.
Labels:
2012,
Doom II,
Lainos,
limit-removing,
review,
russian,
single map
Thursday, February 28, 2013
Survive in Hell (SIHR2FIX.WAD)
French author JC Dorne started work on Survive in Hell as early as 2008, looking at the sector stamps. He eventually finished and released it in 2012, a Boom-compatible megaWAD for Doom II. Not only is it BooMBF, but it's got bonus cosmetic features for those playing in ZDoom-derived ports, a nice touch you don't see often. There's no given story, and what comes across in the intermission texts is your essential marine-conquers-all scenario where you battle into the very heart of Hell to do what you do best - kill all of the demons. You'll see a lot of Hell and you'll also see a lot of less specific locales...
Monday, February 25, 2013
Titania (TITANIA.WAD)
TITANIA
by JC Dorne
by JC Dorne
Apart from Survive in Hell, JCD's token one man megaWAD, his only other solo release as of this writing is Titania, published in 2012 for Doom II. It hasn't graced the archives, but it's interred on the Doomed Speed Demo Archive if you want to take a look. (EDIT 12/22/13: JCD uploaded it to the archives on 12/17/13!) He describes it as a small map inspired by Ultimate Doom, but if that means upwards of 250 monsters with a layout to match, he has a very different sensibility about level size. Titania has no given story. It's clearly a UAC techbase complete with a front desk, but that's it.
Thursday, February 21, 2013
3 Heures d'agonie (3HAFINAL.WAD)
Necromantic Thirst may be on hiatus but French Doomers JC and Oxyde managed to wring some maps out of their burgeoning community. Speedmaps, that is. 3 Heures d'Agonie was constructed under one general guideline; authors were to map for no longer than three hours. Of course, it's just a guideline, with some taking slightly more time in their editor of choice. 3HA is a collection, offering no major themes and no given story. It does fill all thirty-two map slots, though, to be played with Doom II in limit-removing sourceports. While there's no defined theme there are a fair bit of custom textures added so that you have something new to look at and a pretty good soundtrack to enjoy them with.
Labels:
[WH]-Wilou84,
2013,
community project,
Darkwave0000,
Datacore85,
Doom II,
franckFRAG,
French,
JCD,
limit-removing,
megawad,
Nekrotikflesh,
Oxyde,
review,
subject_119,
ZyklonB
Monday, February 18, 2013
Jägermörder - 01 : Chemical Lab (DMDJM01.WAD)
JÄGERMÖRDER 01
CHEMICAL LAB
by Derek "Afterglow" Mac Donald
CHEMICAL LAB
by Derek "Afterglow" Mac Donald
Derek Mac Donald, otherwise known as Afterglow, is more known for his deathmatch works than anything, so it's interesting to see such a dedicated author take a run at the single player side of Doom. Mac Donald wouldn't release the second Jägermörder level until 2005, but in 1999 he published this single level - Chemical Lab - for Doom II, to be run in Boom-compatible ports. It's a short MAP01 replacement in a techbase style. The supplied story describes a Hellish invasion in the Colorado Rocky Mountains where UAC computer anomalies were ascribed to ever-infamous Microsoft malfunctions. The oversight allowed the demons to slip in, so it's up to you to fight to the teleporter technology they used to enter and slay the source on the other side.
Labels:
1999,
Afterglow,
Canadian,
Doom II,
Doomworld's Top 10 WADs of 1999,
review,
single map
Thursday, February 14, 2013
Batman Doom (BATMAN.WAD)
You never forget your first superhero. Some twenty years ago, my big two faves were the X-Men cartoon and Batman: The Animated Series. I only have one of those on DVD today; you can probably guess which one. It's TAS, by the way, because B:TAS is awesome, and even though I am a much bigger Spider-Man fan, when I go DC, it's Batman all the way. Batman Doom, released in 1999, is a fun throwback to that 90s Batman fever. It pulls a lot more from the comics than either TAS or the movies, but you can see where they intrude. It's also designed for DOS (not vanilla!) Doom II, doing an unprecedented amount of mod work with DeHackEd. Batman Doom comes from the ACE Team - Andres, Carlos, and Edmundo Bordeau. I think this is where they started their work; nowadays, they're releasing actual games for money, most recently Steam favorite Rock of Ages.
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Planisphere 2 (PLANISF2.WAD)
PLANISPHERE 2
by "Perro Seco"
by "Perro Seco"
Perro Seco released the first Planisphere in 2011. He published the sequel, Planisphere 2, more than a year later. Like the original, PLANISF2 is a single city level for Doom II, occupying the MAP01 slot. Unlike its progenitor, however, Planisphere 2 is big. That's because it's a scale model of New York City. Yeah, that's right. The whole city. Well, actually, you start in New Jersey and fight your way through Manhattan, gracing Brooklyn and Queens with your presence, eventually ending up in Rikers Island. The point is, the map is so huge it's prone to causing errors in the engines it plays in, but more on that later.
Labels:
2012,
Doom II,
limit-removing,
Perro Seco,
review,
single map
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)







