Toxin Refinery (PE1_TOX.WAD)

TOXIN REFINERY

by Paul Corfiatis

Before embarking on Simply Phobos in 2004, Paul Corfiatis was no stranger to kickin' out the love for KDitD-themed maps. Some of these ended up in The Twilight Zone and TWZONE2 megaWADs but this map marks Paul's first standalone Romeroian excursion. Toxin Refinery is an imaginatively-titled remake of the original Doom's E1M3, released in 1999 along with a bunch of other odds and sods. Like a "Bad Dream" it also has a secret level for the hidden exit - more fun in the Martian sun. I'm guessing that the bonus entry's name is "Magna" since it's written into the map's geometry.

PC_WOLF, a Wolfenstein Classic (PC_WOLF.WAD)

I grew up playing Wolfenstein 3D and while I'm not against retreading that worn path it's not something I look for in Doom II levels. There are some who can't get enough of it, though. Paul Corfiatis continues to cram Wolf3D-themed maps into his work as late as 2015; back in '97, he was doing the same thing with his his brother Joe. PC_WOLF is a collection of what pcorf calls his sibling's best levels - MAP01-04 - and two that Paul hadn't yet shown to the world. Released in 1999, this six map episode will probably find favor with a select few Doomers who, like Paul, enjoy slaying SS Nazis in boxy rooms ad nauseum.

PC_PLAN (PC_PLAN.WAD)

PC_PLAN

by Paul Corfiatis

Paul Corfiatis has made a ton of Doom levels. PC_PLAN has the earliest beginnings of any of them but was released in 1999. That's because it was the first level Paul ever designed; the medium, however, was paper. This MAP01 replacement owes its existence to its sentimental value since PC_PLAN is pretty basic when compared to the maps from The Twilight Zone, which Paul had released in 1998. I suppose he felt honor-bound to commit his plan to WAD. According to the author's notes, the thing placement has not been tinkered with in any way, bringing the pencil sketch to life exactly as conceived.

Big Boy (BIGBOY.WAD)

BIG BOY
by Paul Corfiatis

Paul made a fairly big splash in 1998 with the original Twilight Zone megaWAD but it wasn't his premier production to be performed in an editor. I'm not sure whether Big Boy is, either, but it was among the first of his works pre-TWZONE that he deigned to release afterward. It also apparently began life as a big Doom II level featuring a ton of Wolfenstein 3D textures and SS Nazis. These latter features don't really surprise me given what I've seen from most of Paul's other, larger projects. As published, BIGBOY is a single level for E2M4 so all the Doom II resources are no longer present. Some of the Nazi stuff is still baked into the level's architecture but both details are easy to miss.

Verada (Please Consider) (VERADA.WAD)

VERADA
PLEASE CONSIDER
by Paul Corfiatis

Apparently, a vocal portion of the Doomworld community found some of the levels of Paul Corfiatis's Death Tormention to be too easy. I can see that such might be the case while playing straight through but I recall pistol starting the maps to be very dangerous. pcorf's response to the criticism was, naturally, to make a hard level for the critics! Too tough for even the author to beat it in UV. That's not a difficult task to accomplish, though, and you'll see why. The end result is Verada, alternately titled Please Consider. It's a single level for Doom II released in early 1999 in a sort of starbase / techbase style.

StarCove - A Tribute to Ty Halderman (STARCOVE.WAD)

STARCOVE
A TRIBUTE TO
TY HALDERMAN
by Michael Jan "valkiriforce" Krizik

Ty Halderman passed away in 2015. He remains an Essential Pillar of the Community for a variety of reasons, the most prominent in my mind functioning as the steward of the /idgames archive for nearly twenty years. The only reason he stopped was because his terminal illness dealt him such a blow that he could not even tell the Doom community why their regularly scheduled updates had ceased. It was no surprise to see authors gathering together in an attempt to pay tribute to the man, many of whom gathered under the banner of Christian Hansen's THT: Threnody (Ty Halderman Tribute) project. Classic megaWAD officiando valkiriforce had a slightly different idea, likely because Threnody was a Boom-compatible release and Krizik is more of a Chocolate kind of guy.

Absolute Dishonor (ABSOLDIS.WAD)

valkiriforce was one of 2011's biggest darlings. He churned out map after map of vanilla Doom II goodness but tapered off in 2012 toward an apparent last gasp in 2013, releasing what appeared to be a sort of rarities collection. 40oz made a huge splash in 2010 with UAC Ultra but took several sabbaticals from the community related to the development of Doom the Way id Did and the hotly anticipated UAC Ultra 2. You can only resist id's siren song for so long, though, and both authors are back in 2016. While each one had their own solo stuff they brought their heads together for Absolute Dishonor, an eight-map episode for vanilla Doom II.

Mutiny (MUTINY.WAD)

40oz had a dream, a dream of making a megaWAD with a dystopian Cyberpunk theme that leveraged the gimmick of collaboration. It was a great idea and Vail obviously had his expectations dialed back early since he was looking to compile sixteen levels. However, while bromancing maps worked pretty well for his and Super Jamie's UAC Ultra, the vast majority of the community's authors seem more inclined to tag-team megaWADs a la Speed of Doom than trust their artistry to a complete stranger. I can only assume that this issue was compounded by people perhaps taking up slots and then having others too skittish to follow. As a result, Mutiny took longer than 40oz really expected and saw release a year later in 2016. It's still pretty cool, though.