This week in doom - week ending November 1, 2015 (doom date 21.7994)

this week in doom is my attempt at keeping you abreast of all the goings on in the DOOM community and, as you will notice, a busy community it is. It's difficult to believe that after 20 plus years this game's community is still as active as it is but, of course, ID Software has helped by releasing Doom 3 10 years ago (or thereabouts) and is now in the process of the new DOOM game (sometime in Q2, 2016?). Can't wait to see the beta shareware, or whatever it's going to be.....

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Thanks to "Fonze" for taking up the mantle of responsibility for TWID and doing the research and writing up TWID for us. Also, Thanks to you, the reader(s), and Community, which have kept Doom alive and relevant for all these years. And, thanks to ID Software, without whom, all this could not be possible. Keep on Dooming!

This Week in Doom: 11.01.15

Well, after a couple weeks of starving due to not-so-much tangible activity, our hunger is finally sated by the Doom community. Which leads us to the Harry Caray question of the week: (probably year; spice is a variety of life ;p ) If Doom was a hotdog and you were starving to death, -- 2 balls, 2 strikes, 2 runners on the bases -- would you grab it and -- ground double turns into an in-field home-run -- and use it to beat a wild boar over the head in order to get some food?

I would, that Doom-dog is over 20 years old.

Yessir, this week in Doom was a good week with 8 new submissions to the archives! Good job fellas! Time to take the plunge...

Starting with the oldest as always, up first we have a puzzle map called "The Trials 2" by Phil Walker, found here: http://www.doomwadstation.net/idgames/doom2/s-u/trials2.zip

This map was made for Vanilla (yay!) but the author states it runs better in zDoom. Doom 2 is the iWad.



Now, I never said it was a great puzzle map, but in all honesty it wasn't nearly as bad as the reviews on /idgames made it sound. Personally, I love puzzles, so my views may be a bit skewed for that. Still, this wad had a couple decent, but easy, puzzles. I liked the first one on the tightrope with the imps and contrary to what others said I found the teleporter puzzle to be kinda cool. Sure, it was easy, but it was also well-done. The blood room tightrope was much easier for me than the first with the imps and for the most part I fail to see the major downside of a small couple imps teleporting in from the bad switches. I also fail to see the aesthetic difference between them to serve as a clue and was disappointed to see one group of imps teleport in, only to be stuck. Looking back on it I feel like there were only 2 puzzles in this map.

All of that aside, I had fun on this map. Good attempt Phil; keep at it and one day you'll be making some really cool puzzles!

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Our next submission made it into my article last week, only this time... (drum roll please)... it's on /idgames! "Skulldash (Version 1.0)" has been released! "Skulldash" is by author Joshua "Dragonfly" O'Sullivan and can now be found here: http://www.doomwadstation.net/idgames/doom2/Ports/megawads/skuldash.zip

This wad is made for Zandronum 3.0 with the Doom 2 iWad.



I said it last week and I'll say it again this week; Cacoward material, right here! I simply love everything about this wad. Everything about it screams quality.

I also really like the way that the entire concept fits together with Doom. Kinda like an old checkpoint race, plus Doom, then mixed with memories of Rise of the Triad. The timed-nature of the levels also keeps the player in a rush and often out of the comfort zone. Really well-done! Also, the bosses were really cool, too.

If you still haven't tried this out, why; what are ou waiting on? This is by far the best whole product that I've seen put out in a long time. Download it NOW!

Also, don't forget about the Skulldash Community Expansion Pack! You can be a part of it too!
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Third up is a submission by Memfis called "KOKOC" and is found here:

http://www.doomwadstation.net/idgames/doom2/Ports/j-l/kokoc.zip

This wad contains 2 levels for the Doom 2 iWad under PrBoom+ (-complevel 2).



These two maps were good fun to play. Not the most beautiful maps, almost everything was square it seemed, but there were a lot of really cool-looking squares here, heh. The progression was good and I had fun playing these two maps. Stuff like this makes me wish I had more time to fully explore wads as they come in.



These maps had a little over 100 enemies a piece and didn't really move that slow, though they weren't quick, either. I liked the way that the encounters were handled; good variety of monsters and they worked well with the layout of the levels. Go check these two out soon!

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The fourth submission is just a head-scratcher. It's called "zDMP2014" by various authors and is found here: http://www.doomwadstation.net/idgames/doom2/Ports/v-z/zdmp2014.zip

Now some of you may remember "DMP2014" from last week. Great map set; I liked it and many maps were made by well-established mappers. This one was also made by a few mappers I look out for; sounds sweet, right?

Wrong. You need an unofficial dev build for the first, of all the possibilities, map. I can't get it open. There's no mention anywhere of what, among the hundreds, of the dev builds you need and even once you got it, it's 7-zipped. So the built-in unzipper for Windows can't handle it. Well, how about running some parameters, see if we can start on MAP02. Nope, guess I'm just too dumb, or it's impossible, whatever. I'm done here; this is stupid. But hopefully some of you will get to play these maps; I'm just gonna PM the respective authors for their maps individually.

Stuff should be made idiot proof for people like me; this clearly wasn't. What a disappointment.

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The next map set we have coming in is from a few mappers, headed by JoeIlya, called "Doom 2's Consumed Earth" and is found here: http://www.doomwadstation.net/idgames/doom2/a-c/consumed.zip

This wad was made for Vanilla in the Doom 2 iWad.

These maps were ok as a whole set. There were a couple iconic moments, like that first screenshot that is basically the very beginning which starts at the end of Doom 2, after the Doomguy kills the Icon of Sin. Personally, I feel like there can be no Doom without the impaled head of Romero, so I wasn't sure at this point if I should be killing the demons or singing "Dust in the Wind" over a few brews with them, but I opted for killing them because it's what the impaled head of Romero would've wanted. To get back on subject, MAP03, "Ghetto," by 40Oz, was my favorite of the set.



The other maps delivered as well, for the most part. Personally, I felt like health was a bit scarce over-all, but I suppose that's the way most modern maps are. Still, if the goal was to emulate Doom 2, there should have been a bit more forgiveness with the health, among other things, such as effects not seen in the iWads.



Don't get me wrong though, I had fun with these. Solid set of maps and for Vanilla, so give 'em a shot!

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Our next two submissions to the archives are "DS Doom" and its source code! Another winner uploaded by Mike Swanson. DS Doom was made by Dave "WinterMute" Murphy and can be found here:

http://www.doomworld.com/idgames/source/dsdoom

The source code can be found here: http://www.doomworld.com/idgames/source/dsdooms

DS Doom is a Nintendo DS source port based off of PrBoom. That's pretty darn sweet. Big thanks to Mike Swanson and Dave Murphy for this gem added to the archives!
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The last submission is ironically titled, "At Least it has Some Gameplay" by Doomguy 2000, found here: http://www.doomwadstation.net/idgames/doom2/Ports/a-c/atleast.zip

I think the archive maintainer, The Green Herring, summed it up best when he said "It had little to no gameplay value" and "A short, L-shaped hallway filled with monsters, followed by a joke text screen and cast roll. 'Nuff said. Signed, the Guy Who Accepted This File to the Archives."

Still, he gave it 2 stars, which is kinda funny... but then again, I did too O.o

See that chaingunner's expression? That's what I looked like after realising The Green Herring was spot on with his comments. Still, it took about 1 minute to beat and another to go through the text and cast roll, so why the Hell not give it a shot? Well, off you go then...

8 submissions for the books! Great week everybody!

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Scanning through the forums, we find a couple things that look cool:

At the DoomWorld forums there is a thread by Obsidian, well-known for great detailing, where he teams up with another great mapper, General Rainbow Beacon, and the two of them speedmap out parts of the maps they do here, passing it back and forth every 30 minutes. I'd say they turned out pretty sweet! Find them here:

https://www.doomworld.com/vb/wads-mods/70471-grbsid-productions/

I only had the chance to play a couple of them, but after playing these two I downloaded the rest of them to play later. I like Obsidian's maps, as well as General Rainbow Beacon's. The two of them together seem to work out well and I for one love to see colaborations in the community.

These maps appear to be pretty short; of course being speedmaps that's no surprise. But short maps always have one major advantage: they can be squeezed into a quick coffee break. Add these maps to your coffee break set today!

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Over on the zDoom forums we find a WIP called "Laundry 3: Don't Dry this at Home" by Sgt. Shivers, found here: http://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=49851

Not sure what to think of this WIP, but it looks funny and possibly cool.



Apparently you can "spend countless hours hitting trees with an axe" and "combine various harvested minerals and resources to forge new weapons." Sounds like it has potential and a good sense of humor; keep and eye on this.

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Around the web there are a couple nice, new reviews over at One Man Doom.

The first is of a map called "Way Too Many Dead Guys" by author Urthar, found here:
http://onemandoom.blogspot.com/2015/10/way-too-many-dead-guys.html

The second is about "Doom 2 In Name Only RDC," which is by the Russian Doom Community. The review can be found here: http://onemandoom.blogspot.com/2015/10/doom-ii-in-name-only-rdc.html

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Realm667 just uploaded a review on the new mod, Skulldash. Yup, Cacoward material, expect to see it everywhere.

In addition to their reviews, there's lots of other really cool stuff over at Realm667. Give it a check!
http://realm667.com/index.php/en/

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Also, DoomsDay fans keep in mind the upcoming server move!

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Yet another week with nothing to show in the world of Doom 3. Sorry to the fans out there... but there was this cool video of Doom 2's Underballs in the Doom 3 game:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gnq6AY4stoE

Still, I think I'd just stick to Doom Reborn, which continues to fascinate me.
http://www.doomreborngame.com/

Hear that? That's the sound of the fat lady signing for this week's article. Great job to all the mappers and modders out there and let's all keep the spirit of Doom alive! Thanks and God bless!