Complex 867 (COMP867.WAD)

COMPLEX 867

by Simon "Volte-Face" Broadhead

Simon was a minor fixture in the Doom community from 2001-2004. He didn't make many maps and he was also in his early to mid teens for all of his authorial work. He had an entry in the DoomCenter E1 Mapping Contest, submissions in the first Community Chest as well as its sequel, and even participated in Exquisite Corpse. Broadhead only had a couple of solo releases, Hell's Arena in 2001 and Complex 867 in 2002. The latter, COMP867, is a MAP01 replacement for Doom II. Volte-Face suggests that the level itself is vanilla-compatible but recommends using a limit-removing source port.

Installation A (AP_012.WAD)

INSTALLATION A

by Alex Parsons

The original Community Chest took in submissions from authors who had previously released them, like Gene Bird and Sphagne, in addition to exclusive originals. AP differed because he published two levels in the collection - AP_015 and AP_016 - and then placed them in the running of his World's End series with his next outing in 2003, Installation A. It's an unusual spot in the timeline because CCHEST hadn't been released yet but they occur after this level, AP_012, and his last solo venture, AP_013. It's still dependably a MAP01 replacement for Doom II for play in a limit-removing port but... other things have changed.

icarumem (ICARUMEM.WAD)

ICARUMEM

by "Memfis"

Requiem, Memento Mori II, Phobos - Relive the Nightmare... and then Icarus: Alien Vanguard. It would be neat to see Memfis continue to check boxes of classic-era megaWADs after experimenting with their resources. It's something that I've actually thought of doing. Until then, here's icarumem. This one was published to the Doomworld Forums in early 2012 but, again, didn't make it to the /idgames archives until the 2014 June powerdump. It requires the actual ICARUS.WAD since it's used as a texture resource and should work with essentially all limit-removing source ports. Apart from the PWAD dependency it's also important to note that icarumem occupies the MAP24 slot of Doom II. It isn't thematically linked with "The Haunting". The author presumably enjoyed its slot's track, "Ghost In the Machine".

Doom the Way id Did: The Lost Episodes (DTWID-LE.WAD)

Doom the Way id Did generated a ton of buzz in the community, who turned out to craft approximately 100 submissions. The only event that I know to have surpassed it - as far as single-player levels go - is the 10 Sectors contest. It has also enjoyed a number of spinoffs during its lifespan, including the long-lived but recently finalized Ultimate DTWiD. It's crazy to think that a handful of levels went on to form the foundation of No End In Sight, something like an 850% increase in volume. All of Callum Guy Oliver's entries were gathered together in their own package, PhobosDeimos Anomaly, in a posthumous tribute. A few even saw solo releases. The lion's share of the "rejects" were published as a gargantuan collection dubbed The Lost Episodes. DTWID-LE saw a beta release in 2012 but thereafter entered a drawn-out polishing phase where a few new maps were made or substantially changed. It didn't see its first iteration on /idgames until 2016.

Congestion Control (CCT.WAD)

CONGESTION CONTROL

by Karthik Abhiram Krishna

It was interesting to follow KA's authorial career because it was like watching him fuck off in the editor in real time. It wasn't hard to believe that Karthik would get his act together and increase his level of skill to the point where I could see his PWADs standing alongside Doomworld's Top 10 WADs of 2002. But it was starting to look like he was going to have to take a few massive steps if he was to make it there from Out of Phase. Congestion Control is the sweet memory which got him an entry in the Top 100. Like OPHASE, it's a MAP01 replacement for Doom II that features a dance mix MIDI. It's a technical leap forward, though, building off of the complexity initially seen in The Other Side of Phobos.

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.

The Subway (C4SUBWAY.WAD)

THE SUBWAY

by John "Gestalt666" Bye

When Bye released The Park in mid-'96 his Cygnus IV episode was just beginning. The author had despaired of the amount of effort that he had poured into Magnum Opus and was focusing on shorter levels. With the publishing of The Subway a few months afterward, though, his work was nearly complete; the original version would release later in September. This single map offering was a primer for the sort of level design that prospective players could expect from the entire adventure. It's a MAP09 replacement for Doom II and if you've already played CYGNUS20 then you can check out because, much like PARK, C4SUBWAY is functionally identical to the finished product. It has the same backing track, too, so you don't even get that novelty.

The Park (PARK.WAD)

THE PARK
by John J. "Spook" Bye

Bye released a handful of small, single releases before declaring his Magnum Opus, after which he vowed to stick to less time-consuming level design. The result of this three-month creative streak would outpace his previous levels in just about every aspect and result in his most accomplished solo work - Cygnus IV. Two of its maps actually saw additional publication in 1996 - apart from the not-quite-megaWAD. The Park is the first of them, being the opening level of the episode. It's a MAP01 replacement for Doom II. Spoiler alert: if you've already played the entire fourteen-level publication then this offers absolutely no mechanical differences.