Bloodshedder

It's unlikely that any DOS source ports were maintained long enough to have their sidedef limit increased from 32768 to 65535. According to the Doom Wiki, Brigandine has 51206 sidedefs.

Please try again, I have modified the SPF settings on the Doomworld mail server. I would like to see if it works now. If you get another rejection mail, please send the contents again.

Related story: https://www.wired.com/story/on-the-trail-of-the-robocall-king/

You can just copy and paste the list it gives you into Notepad or something and then don't save the changes to the WAD afterward.

While I chuckled during the beginning of "Into Sandy's City", changing almost every instrument to an organ and removing all the percussion does not make Doom music "Castlevania style". Sorry.

At first I thought the CON12 connector on the back of the laptop was for the RAM upgrade, but didn't notice that the upgrade board had two connectors on it. My label of the keyboard connector on the motherboard is wrong; it should say "AT keyboard". Thank you for the info on tag RAM, I had never heard of the need of it. I have some experience with older systems, but apparently not as much as you.

I don't see any L2 cache or a socket to install any. There is a set of 4 plugs on the front side, but I have no idea what they might be used for. The two chips labeled TC514256AJL are fast page DRAM chips, but I'm not sure what they would be used for. I have no idea where you can buy the memory expansion module.

"32Kx8 High-speed CMOS Static RAM" - this is probably the CMOS memory chip where BIOS settings are stored. It is not cache memory. Also, it is only 256 bytes large.

https://imgur.com/a/3FQKhDk Your board is way too old to have PCI Express slots. RAM is SIMMs which need to be installed in matching pairs in order to work. You have two pairs, most likely of different capacities, which is why they look different. The battery says "replace this" because it has gone dead according to the startup screen you showed.

I don't know if the math works out exactly like that, but the ISA bus only runs at 8MHz, while the PCI bus will run at 33MHz generally. Since you have 3 PCI slots, you can easily add another PCI card if the case has room. I don't have any experience running Doom on the minimum RAM requirements, but I suspect it will be a bit choppy even if you have a 486. Don't know if it will output color. It is very unlikely that RAM from a desktop machine will fit a laptop.

https://stason.org/TULARC/pc/graphics-cards/C-D/DFI-INC-XVGA-VG-8000W-WH.html - I guess it might play Doom, but being an ISA graphics card, it will be much slower than a PCI card. http://tulipgv.nl/tlt-nb.html - here is some info on Tulip laptops, but it's in Dutch.

3 Heures d'agonie 3 - 3ha3 Team Doom 2 - Single Player - Vanilla - 3.24 MB - Reviewed by: magicsofa I once took a French film class, and the first thing we watched was the gut-wrenching trial of Joan of Arc, portrayed without dialogue or color. The director had to rely on a more limited tool set than what we are used to now, but they came up with something that still has power even today. In Trois Heures d'Agonie, the mappers have limited themselves to three hours (ish) of build time for each map. The director of Joan of Arc had no choice, but these people purposely crippled their construction materials just for fun? Well this is the third installment from the French speedmappers, and in many of the levels I found myself thinking "this must have taken more than three hours." A few of the levels are rather bare, but none looked horrible. Usually lighting contrast was most neglected in terms of visuals. Most of the maps look good with some being exceptionally shiny. The MIDIs were pretty top notch throughout, including selections from Doom 1 and Heretic that I enjoyed a lot. So she has a sexy voice and stylish clothing, but what about her personality? 3ha3 is a really fun megawad to play. It's fast, it's easy going, most of the maps are not very long and aim for quality rather than quantity. The mappers here have done an excellent job of utilizing those three hours to pack some punch into their small maps. Creative uses of moving sectors and previously visited areas lent an unexpected and lively atmosphere to the gameplay. Instead of turning each corner to find yet another intricately detailed room that's really just a square with ten thousand border sectors, you will instead fight through interesting configurations that change in just the right way as you play. All this is done with a subtle touch in relatively short maps, so nothing feels beaten to death other than the demons under your feet. Most of the maps are very short, but a few are longer, especially at the end. The last couple maps bump the monster counts up into the hundreds, and the final map is actually sort of a composite of three mappers' efforts and follows a more slaughter-oriented style. It's fitting as a final map however, even if it strays a bit from the rest of the WAD's style. The progression of the maps is also pretty darn good considering the lack of a binding theme. Overall, this excellent megawad won't drag you down with extensive layouts - instead it's like a buffet of delicious appetizers that have totally filled you up by the time you've eaten 32 of them. And what's more, it features a mod to the SS Nazi which makes it almost fit in as a normal Doom monster! Just what I've always dreamed of... Back to Phobos - Serge Haikin Doom 2 - Single Player - ZDoom Compatible - 54.36 KB - Reviewed by: magicsofa A short, small map for E1M1. It's fun and has a very classic feel to it, although there's randomly a baron (easy to skip) and some cacodemons that are a chore to fight with just the shotgun. Detailing is simple but effective. The lighting was pretty good although a bit dark in some places. Could be a nice beginning to an episode, but doesn't stand for much on its own. The description is cute though. "You find a time machine and throw the switch." Sounds like something Doomguy WOULD do... Snot Station - Xyzzy01 Chex Quest - Single Player - ZDoom Compatible - 30.4 KB - Reviewed by: antares031 Snot Station is a single level, created by Xyzzy01. This level was designed for Chex Quest 3, which requires ZDoom to run. For your information, this level doesn't have difficulty settings. The level itself is pretty simple and straightforward, with minimal details around this Chex Quest techbase. Ammo and health supplies are just enough to keep you alive, and monster placements are pretty challenging for the casual players. If you don't manage your ammo wisely, you'll end up with your bootspoon, while a bunch of cycloptis are trying to cover you with green slime. This level even has a boss monster, Lord Snotfolus, so this level doesn't play around. Keep in mind that there are some evil Chex Warriors, which don't technically count as monsters. So stay alert, even if the monster count shows 100% kills. Despite some difficult moments, this level can be beaten within five minutes on UV-Max, once you know how to beat it. Snot Station is a simple, but challenging level, thanks to its ammo and monster placements. If you're not familiar with the original Chex Quest, I suggest you to play the original game before you try this level. If you enjoyed Chex Quest, then go ahead and play this level. If you beat this level first try with no foreknowledge, I guarantee that you're pretty good at Chex Quest. Short Dance at Iris Base - Carlos Lastra Doom 2 - Single Player - ZDoom Compatible - 50.09 KB - Reviewed by: obake This is a single ZDoom map set in a base. Details are nice, and there are no notable technical errors. Like its name, this map is a dance, and a deceptively difficult one. You start only battling zombiemen, but the damage they inflict on you can easily turn into more stress during later encounters, as health pickups are few. Saving up on shells is a must, as later encounters will pit you against multiple sergeants and even chaingunners. The map weaves in a loop, so simply running away from them is risky. It also does not use many ZDoom-specific features, but since it looks and plays nice, I do not mind. It is a good map, though it can be frustrating due to the amount of hitscanners. Once you obtain the chaingun, it becomes less strenuous, and you can enjoy the work put into the detailing. Plus, it is short, with less than 100 monsters even on UV. Give it a whirl. Torn - Robert Kruger (MarketAnarchy) Doom 2 - Single Player - Boom Compatible - 5.51 MB - Reviewed by: JudgeDeadd A humongous map with over 4000 enemies. Sounds difficult? Well, it really isn't that hard. There's a lot of helpful nooks to hide in, as well as heaps of health and ammo, allowing you to pick off the monsters one by one from a safe spot. In the end, probably the most difficult challenge of this map is mustering enough patience to whittle down the entire population over the course of a few hours. Personally, I only had enough stamina to get through the first thousand. About this point I got trapped on south-eastern stairs (a glitch?), unable to get past the green torches; it was as good an excuse as any to stop playing. The map is very good technically, with great visuals (including shadows baked into wall textures) and a nice, unobtrusive song — an important thing in such a long map. If you're the grinding sort of gamer, who won't mind spending hours getting kills one at a time, you can have a good time with this map. MAYhem 2016 (v1.2) - A buncha mother schmuckers Doom 2 - Single Player - Boom Compatible - 19.31 MB - Reviewed by: Catpho It's Quack time baby! The community staple "MAYhem" series returns for its fifth installment. As per usual, it sports some restrictions: either having a maximum thing count of 160 in a map, or having a monster count of the map number multiplied by 10. The latter theme is not really pronounced, as the project never reached 32 levels, resulting in maps getting different slots than their intended ones (MAP31 still kept its original limitation however: monster count was the map slot multiplied by 100). Another creative factor was the resource pack given. It's all Quac--I mean Quake themed, very beautiful to boot: textures from Quake I, a Quake I total conversion called "Malice", and the Quake II inspired "The Darkening E2". The 21 maps in Mayhem 1600 are a diverse lot. Not like community projects were known for consistency mind you, but it's especially apparent here. You could be in a Quake temple in one map, but then find yourself in a colorful train space station a few maps later. Gameplay concepts follow suit: slaughtermaps, gimmick levels, adventure romps, and run 'n' gun action all find their place here. That means, for some, it brings a whole lot of different locales to discover, but for others, a bunch of illogical transitions without any sense of a big adventure or some sort of plot. That being said, the set manages to maintain beautiful visuals throughout. And if we are talking about a quality Doom experience, "MAYhem 1600" has a lot of nice individual bits, mostly thanks to experienced mappers like Alfonzo, Tarnsman, Breezeep, an_mutt, and Jimmy. There's the polished and fast MAP11 "Quake Plumbing Inc", the alluring, evocative and majestic expedition through MAP14 "Ancient Den", or just the good ol' Doom guilty pleasure of MAP04 "Affinity". There are also some weirder trips through the awesome gimmick in MAP20 "The Performance", the usual eccentricity of Ribbiks's obsession with colorful death boxes filled with monsters in MAP18 "Maria", the devilishly cruel MAP08 "Lodi Eno Rebmun Si Ocin", and slaughter pieces like the nightmarish MAP09 "Blood from a Stone" and the epic MAP31 "In Death, Is Life". The misfires weren't too bad, as they had one redeeming character one way or another (expect MAP07, you can skip that). There's something for everyone, and truly shows that variety is the spice of life... ... but to quote forum member "Demon of The Well", it could also be "the secret sauce of death"! The difficulty level here is astounding, and the aforementioned lack of consistency also created nonexistent difficulty progression and a myriad of ways to kill the player. Death here comes in many faces: maybe you didn't control a horde correctly in a slaughtermap, maybe a weird challenge got you, or maybe just 10 incredibly well selected and well placed monsters doing great teamwork (MAP01!). UV is a very grueling journey in this set, so i advise you to chose HMP or lower if you are just fresh off IWAD UV! Overall, MAYhem 1600 is a solid community project thanks to a pool of talented authors on board and the beautiful variety. Quite bone-breaking, but also very satisfying to play! Distribution Center - Rayziik Doom 2 - Single Player - GZDoom - 3.91 MB - Reviewed by: Scotty A sprawling single map for ZDoom that includes a variety of custom monsters. Aesthetically this is reminiscent of Knee Deep in the Dead, albeit highly modernised and rife with tastefully implemented ZDoom features. Combat is polished, and the map has a smooth difficulty curve, with fights gradually escalating in difficulty and size as you progress. This level won the Vinesauce mapping contest, which should give some indication of the quality you can expect here. Fast and for Doom - JC Dorne Doom 2 - Single Player - Vanilla - 283.68 KB - Reviewed by: Obsidian Is it just me or are maps made by the French Doom community oddly brutal? I think of Swift Death, Tangerine Nightmare, 3 Heures d'agonie...and then my brain segues seamlessly into blunt force trauma to the head (in a nice way, of course). There's just something inherently vicious about the gameplay in maps from the French community, throwing you into the action like a dog treat into a Pomeranian's eager jaws. That isn't to say it isn't fun though, oh no: there are few feelings more satisfying than looking back over the twisted cadavers in your wake and resisting the urge to do the Conan monologue. Today we're looking at one such example. "Fast and for Doom" is a collection of five speedmaps brought to us by a Mr JC Dorne, he of Tangerine Nightmare and Survive in Hell fame. I'll be going through each map on pistol start and reviewing them as they stand due to the small quantity, but I doubt that victory will be handed to me on a SHAWN2 platter. So let us begin. MAP01: Technological I wasn't kidding when I said you get tossed right into the thick of things! It's a small affair at 34 monsters, but the use of space and monster arrangement makes you work to kill those 34 monsters. It's a style of mapping I dig: it's economical with the resources a mapper has to hand and, as most limitations do, it breeds creativity. It's a theme that you'll see repeat throughout the wad. As for the map itself, it's a compact affair that looks pretty stylish. It's obvious that the gameplay is the main focus, but I appreciate the time put in to make the map look pleasing. All in all, a good opener. MAP02: Open Space As the name suggests, this one's got a bit more room to move and dodge and the monster count is bumped up to compensate. There's a bit more of a focus on mobs with MAP02, usually as punishment for accessing stronger weapons: thankfully, the map title stretches here too as more of the map is cut away as you progress to allow egress and dodging. It even stretches to the solitary secret: yes, the extra ammo is useful, but the real prize is the utility that the newly revealed space offers you when fighting. It's a nice approach to map design, both on a gameplay and aesthetic level. For want of criticism, I'd say that the gameplay lessens in intensity as you go on when it should be escalating: there's an effective two-pronged attack upon grabbing the red key, but after that the map doesn't quite return to that zenith. Personally I'd have had 1 of the 2 Archies before the end warp away to keep the player on their toes, but it's not something that overly bugs me, and the subsequent dramatic reveal of the single Lost Soul at the exit gave me a good chuckle. MAP03: Bloodbath In some ways Bloodbath feels similar to the map that preceded it, complete with the architecture opening up in time with the player's progression. The similarities don't stretch to the gameplay though: swapping out low for mid-tier monsters does the combat a world of good and ups the stakes nicely. There's a bit more transformation this time around too, with the centerpiece being the way the starting room opens up near the end. I won't lie, I dug that a lot. Good stuff. MAP04: Plutinya Heh, I wonder if 40oz has a copyright on that name. As is obvious from the moment this map slides into view, this is a pint-sized piece of Plutonia. Oddly enough it actually doesn't dunk you into monster line of sight on startup like the other maps, so I wonder what's in sto- "Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, dicks! DICKS!" So yeah, out of all the maps this one is definitely the craziest. You expected Plutonia, in all its Revenant and Chaingunner-drenched glory? You got it, and you got it in spades! At a guess I'd say that's why you have the moment's grace, as this is very much a map you have to approach as a puzzle more than a map. What enemies you shoot, where you go, all of these things are worth thinking over to determine the best route. The biggest threat by far is the collection of Revenants near the yellow skull, as they tend to have a decent line of sight over most of the map and will not hesitate to use it: the best tip I can give is to be aware of them at all times. The map also sets a couple of Archies loose at the end, although the impact they have is lessened somewhat by their positioning. In the end, it's a Hell of a rush to beat this map. The finale awaits! MAP05: In the Void The finale to Fast and for Doom has a fairly simple setup: there are 2 keys, you need 2 keys. Each key has a mini-gauntlet to soldier through and gives you a particular weapon to deal with the nasties. From a gameplay standpoint, I'm a little iffy on the fact that you can pick up both weapons before tackling each key challenge: the super shotgun makes the chaingun area somewhat trivial in my view, and forcing the player to go through a challenge with only 1 weapon might've been more challenging. Still fun though, and the little maze area was quite inspired. The standout part of this map for me though is definitely the end. It might not seem like much from a broken down perspective - a fight with a single Cyberdemon around a pillar - but the small arena gives the encounter a sense of urgency while the lower windows prevent splash damage from becoming a major bugbear. Again, I feel like the SSG's absence could've made this more tense: as it stands you can activate the Cyberdemon's pain state fairly easily whenever it pops its head around the corner, while the supplied plasma rifle falls by the wayside a bit. Again though, it doesn't stop being fun and it felt damn good to see that bastard go down. And that's yer lot! I may have had some nitpicks on the gameplay front in some places, but considering these are speedmaps I can easily forgive them, and the experience I took away from this mapset was ultimately a positive one. If you're looking for some Doom-flavoured entertainment with its fair share of teeth, I highly recommend you check this out. The /newstuff Chronicles is a very sporadic roundup of new items uploaded to the /idgames archive, and it is written entirely by community members like you. If you wish to contribute, the /newstuff Review Center is the place to do so. Register on the Doomworld Forums first if you don't already have an account, because you need one to submit reviews. Special thanks goes to the nearly 300 users who have submitted reviews over the past several years. View full news article

3 Heures d'agonie 3 - 3ha3 Team Doom 2 - Single Player - Vanilla - 3.24 MB - Reviewed by: magicsofa I once took a French film class, and the first thing we watched was the gut-wrenching trial of Joan of Arc, portrayed without dialogue or color. The director had to rely on a more limited tool set than what we are used to now, but they came up with something that still has power even today. In Trois Heures d'Agonie, the mappers have limited themselves to three hours (ish) of build time for each map. The director of Joan of Arc had no choice, but these people purposely crippled their construction materials just for fun? Well this is the third installment from the French speedmappers, and in many of the levels I found myself thinking "this must have taken more than three hours." A few of the levels are rather bare, but none looked horrible. Usually lighting contrast was most neglected in terms of visuals. Most of the maps look good with some being exceptionally shiny. The MIDIs were pretty top notch throughout, including selections from Doom 1 and Heretic that I enjoyed a lot. So she has a sexy voice and stylish clothing, but what about her personality? 3ha3 is a really fun megawad to play. It's fast, it's easy going, most of the maps are not very long and aim for quality rather than quantity. The mappers here have done an excellent job of utilizing those three hours to pack some punch into their small maps. Creative uses of moving sectors and previously visited areas lent an unexpected and lively atmosphere to the gameplay. Instead of turning each corner to find yet another intricately detailed room that's really just a square with ten thousand border sectors, you will instead fight through interesting configurations that change in just the right way as you play. All this is done with a subtle touch in relatively short maps, so nothing feels beaten to death other than the demons under your feet. Most of the maps are very short, but a few are longer, especially at the end. The last couple maps bump the monster counts up into the hundreds, and the final map is actually sort of a composite of three mappers' efforts and follows a more slaughter-oriented style. It's fitting as a final map however, even if it strays a bit from the rest of the WAD's style. The progression of the maps is also pretty darn good considering the lack of a binding theme. Overall, this excellent megawad won't drag you down with extensive layouts - instead it's like a buffet of delicious appetizers that have totally filled you up by the time you've eaten 32 of them. And what's more, it features a mod to the SS Nazi which makes it almost fit in as a normal Doom monster! Just what I've always dreamed of... Back to Phobos - Serge Haikin Doom 2 - Single Player - ZDoom Compatible - 54.36 KB - Reviewed by: magicsofa A short, small map for E1M1. It's fun and has a very classic feel to it, although there's randomly a baron (easy to skip) and some cacodemons that are a chore to fight with just the shotgun. Detailing is simple but effective. The lighting was pretty good although a bit dark in some places. Could be a nice beginning to an episode, but doesn't stand for much on its own. The description is cute though. "You find a time machine and throw the switch." Sounds like something Doomguy WOULD do... Snot Station - Xyzzy01 Chex Quest - Single Player - ZDoom Compatible - 30.4 KB - Reviewed by: antares031 Snot Station is a single level, created by Xyzzy01. This level was designed for Chex Quest 3, which requires ZDoom to run. For your information, this level doesn't have difficulty settings. The level itself is pretty simple and straightforward, with minimal details around this Chex Quest techbase. Ammo and health supplies are just enough to keep you alive, and monster placements are pretty challenging for the casual players. If you don't manage your ammo wisely, you'll end up with your bootspoon, while a bunch of cycloptis are trying to cover you with green slime. This level even has a boss monster, Lord Snotfolus, so this level doesn't play around. Keep in mind that there are some evil Chex Warriors, which don't technically count as monsters. So stay alert, even if the monster count shows 100% kills. Despite some difficult moments, this level can be beaten within five minutes on UV-Max, once you know how to beat it. Snot Station is a simple, but challenging level, thanks to its ammo and monster placements. If you're not familiar with the original Chex Quest, I suggest you to play the original game before you try this level. If you enjoyed Chex Quest, then go ahead and play this level. If you beat this level first try with no foreknowledge, I guarantee that you're pretty good at Chex Quest. Short Dance at Iris Base - Carlos Lastra Doom 2 - Single Player - ZDoom Compatible - 50.09 KB - Reviewed by: obake This is a single ZDoom map set in a base. Details are nice, and there are no notable technical errors. Like its name, this map is a dance, and a deceptively difficult one. You start only battling zombiemen, but the damage they inflict on you can easily turn into more stress during later encounters, as health pickups are few. Saving up on shells is a must, as later encounters will pit you against multiple sergeants and even chaingunners. The map weaves in a loop, so simply running away from them is risky. It also does not use many ZDoom-specific features, but since it looks and plays nice, I do not mind. It is a good map, though it can be frustrating due to the amount of hitscanners. Once you obtain the chaingun, it becomes less strenuous, and you can enjoy the work put into the detailing. Plus, it is short, with less than 100 monsters even on UV. Give it a whirl. Torn - Robert Kruger (MarketAnarchy) Doom 2 - Single Player - Boom Compatible - 5.51 MB - Reviewed by: JudgeDeadd A humongous map with over 4000 enemies. Sounds difficult? Well, it really isn't that hard. There's a lot of helpful nooks to hide in, as well as heaps of health and ammo, allowing you to pick off the monsters one by one from a safe spot. In the end, probably the most difficult challenge of this map is mustering enough patience to whittle down the entire population over the course of a few hours. Personally, I only had enough stamina to get through the first thousand. About this point I got trapped on south-eastern stairs (a glitch?), unable to get past the green torches; it was as good an excuse as any to stop playing. The map is very good technically, with great visuals (including shadows baked into wall textures) and a nice, unobtrusive song — an important thing in such a long map. If you're the grinding sort of gamer, who won't mind spending hours getting kills one at a time, you can have a good time with this map. MAYhem 2016 (v1.2) - A buncha mother schmuckers Doom 2 - Single Player - Boom Compatible - 19.31 MB - Reviewed by: Catpho It's Quack time baby! The community staple "MAYhem" series returns for its fifth installment. As per usual, it sports some restrictions: either having a maximum thing count of 160 in a map, or having a monster count of the map number multiplied by 10. The latter theme is not really pronounced, as the project never reached 32 levels, resulting in maps getting different slots than their intended ones (MAP31 still kept its original limitation however: monster count was the map slot multiplied by 100). Another creative factor was the resource pack given. It's all Quac--I mean Quake themed, very beautiful to boot: textures from Quake I, a Quake I total conversion called "Malice", and the Quake II inspired "The Darkening E2". The 21 maps in Mayhem 1600 are a diverse lot. Not like community projects were known for consistency mind you, but it's especially apparent here. You could be in a Quake temple in one map, but then find yourself in a colorful train space station a few maps later. Gameplay concepts follow suit: slaughtermaps, gimmick levels, adventure romps, and run 'n' gun action all find their place here. That means, for some, it brings a whole lot of different locales to discover, but for others, a bunch of illogical transitions without any sense of a big adventure or some sort of plot. That being said, the set manages to maintain beautiful visuals throughout. And if we are talking about a quality Doom experience, "MAYhem 1600" has a lot of nice individual bits, mostly thanks to experienced mappers like Alfonzo, Tarnsman, Breezeep, an_mutt, and Jimmy. There's the polished and fast MAP11 "Quake Plumbing Inc", the alluring, evocative and majestic expedition through MAP14 "Ancient Den", or just the good ol' Doom guilty pleasure of MAP04 "Affinity". There are also some weirder trips through the awesome gimmick in MAP20 "The Performance", the usual eccentricity of Ribbiks's obsession with colorful death boxes filled with monsters in MAP18 "Maria", the devilishly cruel MAP08 "Lodi Eno Rebmun Si Ocin", and slaughter pieces like the nightmarish MAP09 "Blood from a Stone" and the epic MAP31 "In Death, Is Life". The misfires weren't too bad, as they had one redeeming character one way or another (expect MAP07, you can skip that). There's something for everyone, and truly shows that variety is the spice of life... ... but to quote forum member "Demon of The Well", it could also be "the secret sauce of death"! The difficulty level here is astounding, and the aforementioned lack of consistency also created nonexistent difficulty progression and a myriad of ways to kill the player. Death here comes in many faces: maybe you didn't control a horde correctly in a slaughtermap, maybe a weird challenge got you, or maybe just 10 incredibly well selected and well placed monsters doing great teamwork (MAP01!). UV is a very grueling journey in this set, so i advise you to chose HMP or lower if you are just fresh off IWAD UV! Overall, MAYhem 1600 is a solid community project thanks to a pool of talented authors on board and the beautiful variety. Quite bone-breaking, but also very satisfying to play! Distribution Center - Rayziik Doom 2 - Single Player - GZDoom - 3.91 MB - Reviewed by: Scotty A sprawling single map for ZDoom that includes a variety of custom monsters. Aesthetically this is reminiscent of Knee Deep in the Dead, albeit highly modernised and rife with tastefully implemented ZDoom features. Combat is polished, and the map has a smooth difficulty curve, with fights gradually escalating in difficulty and size as you progress. This level won the Vinesauce mapping contest, which should give some indication of the quality you can expect here. Fast and for Doom - JC Dorne Doom 2 - Single Player - Vanilla - 283.68 KB - Reviewed by: Obsidian Is it just me or are maps made by the French Doom community oddly brutal? I think of Swift Death, Tangerine Nightmare, 3 Heures d'agonie...and then my brain segues seamlessly into blunt force trauma to the head (in a nice way, of course). There's just something inherently vicious about the gameplay in maps from the French community, throwing you into the action like a dog treat into a Pomeranian's eager jaws. That isn't to say it isn't fun though, oh no: there are few feelings more satisfying than looking back over the twisted cadavers in your wake and resisting the urge to do the Conan monologue. Today we're looking at one such example. "Fast and for Doom" is a collection of five speedmaps brought to us by a Mr JC Dorne, he of Tangerine Nightmare and Survive in Hell fame. I'll be going through each map on pistol start and reviewing them as they stand due to the small quantity, but I doubt that victory will be handed to me on a SHAWN2 platter. So let us begin. MAP01: Technological I wasn't kidding when I said you get tossed right into the thick of things! It's a small affair at 34 monsters, but the use of space and monster arrangement makes you work to kill those 34 monsters. It's a style of mapping I dig: it's economical with the resources a mapper has to hand and, as most limitations do, it breeds creativity. It's a theme that you'll see repeat throughout the wad. As for the map itself, it's a compact affair that looks pretty stylish. It's obvious that the gameplay is the main focus, but I appreciate the time put in to make the map look pleasing. All in all, a good opener. MAP02: Open Space As the name suggests, this one's got a bit more room to move and dodge and the monster count is bumped up to compensate. There's a bit more of a focus on mobs with MAP02, usually as punishment for accessing stronger weapons: thankfully, the map title stretches here too as more of the map is cut away as you progress to allow egress and dodging. It even stretches to the solitary secret: yes, the extra ammo is useful, but the real prize is the utility that the newly revealed space offers you when fighting. It's a nice approach to map design, both on a gameplay and aesthetic level. For want of criticism, I'd say that the gameplay lessens in intensity as you go on when it should be escalating: there's an effective two-pronged attack upon grabbing the red key, but after that the map doesn't quite return to that zenith. Personally I'd have had 1 of the 2 Archies before the end warp away to keep the player on their toes, but it's not something that overly bugs me, and the subsequent dramatic reveal of the single Lost Soul at the exit gave me a good chuckle. MAP03: Bloodbath In some ways Bloodbath feels similar to the map that preceded it, complete with the architecture opening up in time with the player's progression. The similarities don't stretch to the gameplay though: swapping out low for mid-tier monsters does the combat a world of good and ups the stakes nicely. There's a bit more transformation this time around too, with the centerpiece being the way the starting room opens up near the end. I won't lie, I dug that a lot. Good stuff. MAP04: Plutinya Heh, I wonder if 40oz has a copyright on that name. As is obvious from the moment this map slides into view, this is a pint-sized piece of Plutonia. Oddly enough it actually doesn't dunk you into monster line of sight on startup like the other maps, so I wonder what's in sto- "Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, dicks! DICKS!" So yeah, out of all the maps this one is definitely the craziest. You expected Plutonia, in all its Revenant and Chaingunner-drenched glory? You got it, and you got it in spades! At a guess I'd say that's why you have the moment's grace, as this is very much a map you have to approach as a puzzle more than a map. What enemies you shoot, where you go, all of these things are worth thinking over to determine the best route. The biggest threat by far is the collection of Revenants near the yellow skull, as they tend to have a decent line of sight over most of the map and will not hesitate to use it: the best tip I can give is to be aware of them at all times. The map also sets a couple of Archies loose at the end, although the impact they have is lessened somewhat by their positioning. In the end, it's a Hell of a rush to beat this map. The finale awaits! MAP05: In the Void The finale to Fast and for Doom has a fairly simple setup: there are 2 keys, you need 2 keys. Each key has a mini-gauntlet to soldier through and gives you a particular weapon to deal with the nasties. From a gameplay standpoint, I'm a little iffy on the fact that you can pick up both weapons before tackling each key challenge: the super shotgun makes the chaingun area somewhat trivial in my view, and forcing the player to go through a challenge with only 1 weapon might've been more challenging. Still fun though, and the little maze area was quite inspired. The standout part of this map for me though is definitely the end. It might not seem like much from a broken down perspective - a fight with a single Cyberdemon around a pillar - but the small arena gives the encounter a sense of urgency while the lower windows prevent splash damage from becoming a major bugbear. Again, I feel like the SSG's absence could've made this more tense: as it stands you can activate the Cyberdemon's pain state fairly easily whenever it pops its head around the corner, while the supplied plasma rifle falls by the wayside a bit. Again though, it doesn't stop being fun and it felt damn good to see that bastard go down. And that's yer lot! I may have had some nitpicks on the gameplay front in some places, but considering these are speedmaps I can easily forgive them, and the experience I took away from this mapset was ultimately a positive one. If you're looking for some Doom-flavoured entertainment with its fair share of teeth, I highly recommend you check this out. The /newstuff Chronicles is a very sporadic roundup of new items uploaded to the /idgames archive, and it is written entirely by community members like you. If you wish to contribute, the /newstuff Review Center is the place to do so. Register on the Doomworld Forums first if you don't already have an account, because you need one to submit reviews. Special thanks goes to the nearly 300 users who have submitted reviews over the past several years.

Disjunction - floatRand Doom 2 - Single Player - Boom Compatible - 10.66 MB - Reviewed by: magicsofa Disjunction. Judging by the name, I first thought this might be a financial planning mod, taking Doom to its outer limits, where you have to trade caco-coins and baron-bucks until you realize your career is worthless. Or perhaps a train simulator, with the unattainable objective of not crashing and killing everyone aboard. It turns out neither of these fantasies are true. Today's offering from last year is a straight-forward, no BS megawad by floatRand. Let me be clear, though, when I say "no BS", I do not mean "no frustrations". The fact is, this WAD did frustrate me in a couple of ways. But it was also delightful in other ways. So we'll focus on the good first, because good things are good. Let's talk about the visuals. 99% of these maps are stunning, and I don't mean stunning in the sense of "I put on so much makeup today that you can't see my actual skin." floatRand has a way of making things look really nice without always using ten thousand sectors. Don't get me wrong, there are enough sectors to go around, but I really loved the overall sense of composition and purpose in the architecture of Disjunction (ironic, isn't it?). I say 99% because a tiny portion of areas looked bland, especially parts of the very first outdoor area, as well as parts of the final map which is insanely large so a bit more excusable. Many of the maps are themed heavily around one vibrant color among dark backgrounds, which I find pleasing because I'm a simple person. The music was awesome. Much more on techno/fantasy side, with tracks from Megaman and Jazz Jackrabbit (yay!). Metalheads might not like it. But I liked it, and I was ready to gaze at 11 beautiful maps and jam to the tunes and whatnot. So what about my frustrations? Well, those are found in the "whatnot". The "whatnot" being all those things you do in Doom other than look at the walls and listen to Cyber Rainforce. You know, finding keys, shooting hellspawn, et cetera. At first I was confronted by lots of monsters, and difficulty was high but since these were generally small humanoid enemies, the flow was alright. Unfortunately in these early maps the architecture does get in the way because it's way too cramped and annoying to traverse. That problem goes away once the maps themselves become bigger, but is overshadowed by a different problem: incessant use of monsters in annoying ways. For example, there are a ton of surround-traps. You enter a room, the door locks behind you, monsters surround. You go through a teleport, monsters surround. You grab a key, monsters surround. There are just way too many locked-in-a-room-full-of-monsters scenarios for my taste. Also, once you get past the first few maps, you find a lot of encounters with almost every enemy type. I felt that floatRand was placing monsters based on how cool it looked, not how it would make a good battle. Expect to find battles like: one arachnotron, one mancubus, one pain elemental, and four revenants. Also both during and after large battles you can expect two to four archviles to brighten your day. I don't want to make it sound like the action was never fun. At times it was cooking. Sometimes there were tricks to get around the battle, which I generally welcomed. But more often than not the pot seemed to be boiling over, and by the end you're facing giant hordes that make your BFG seem kinda weak. The epicness of the scenery gets more and more grand, but the gameplay actually grinds to a slow crawl because it just takes a long time to clear the rooms. Maybe I'm just getting old and slow. I did play on HMP so I guess I could have lowered the difficulty, but a quick look at monster counts showed only a small difference. I'd consider playing it again with some custom weapons. A minigun and a railgun would balance the game nicely, I think. Slaughter enthusiasts and masochists can fire up UV or Nightmare, but for the rest of us, expect to be severely punished. I wouldn't want anyone to miss out on the phenomenal level design, but I know some people will be turned away by the high difficulty. If you think you're one of those pansies (I know I am!), then consider playing on super easy mode or using a mod to increase your firepower. Or play on "cooperative mode", which we all know means spawning a bot to flail about at the beginning of the level in order to give yourself infinite lives. Whatever you need to do, this is a WAD that shouldn't be ignored - it's more like a famous tourist attraction that's always busy and you just have to suck it up. On a scale from lamb to lambchop, I give this WAD a solid 7.9. Temple of Unholy Fire, chapter 1 (demo) - Cacodemon9000 Doom 2 - Single Player - Boom Compatible - 8.96 MB - Reviewed by: magicsofa We've all done it: or at least most of us have, and we have learned the consequences and hopefully will never repeat our mistake. Any time you write "Chapter 1" on something, you're guaranteed not to finish that thing. Well that was the case here with Cacodemon9000's map "Temple of Unholy Fire, chapter 1 (demo)". Tragically this was the last thing they uploaded to /idgames. Perhaps it was because of the scathing review by Zalewa, who is all over that s*** playing everybody's maps. Who are you anyway, Zalewa, and why do I keep having to talk about your reviews? Anyway, this level suffers a lot from tedious battles as well as some bland architecture. There's some modification to the bullet weapons, making them a bit more powerful, but it's basically useless against the hordes of monsters - some of which just had to be upgraded themselves. The archvile's flame attack, for example, spawns many explosions throughout the animation, which is funny because you can outrun it, but also stupid because it's out of control. That might have been cool for the boss battle (which was, astoundingly, a THIRD version of archie), not for the entire map. Add to that spectral cacodemons, mancu-serpents, and beefed up arachnotrons, and you have a little party. The actual geometry of the map was pretty cool in a lot of places (less cool in others when it was very long hallways), but the texturing and lighting made it mostly ugly. Since there was often no contrast, you couldn't really see the nice features until you're right on top of them. The outdoor areas were generally nice looking, and easy to traverse. Indoors however the layout is very boxy. The path you're supposed to travel does loop over itself in a nice way, but gets confusing at times, and most of the switches activate something random that you have to go find (like Hexen, but not as bad). There are some good ideas buried in this chapter 1 (demo), and I think Cacodemon9000 should continue mapping since Doom will never die, and neither will we IF WE JUST KEEP MAPPING. Perhaps they're mapping for another game or whatever, I just hope Zalewa's criticism didn't turn Caco9000 away from mapping entirely. Next time I would suggest posting the WAD in the forums to get feedback before uploading to /idgames, because the one-paragraph reviews are often flippant and discouraging. However, the criticism was indeed fair, and for someone looking to play a polished level, chapter 1 (demo) isn't gonna cut the mustard. On a scale of 1 to chapter 1 (demo), I give this WAD a chapter 1. Vertigone - Brett 'Mechadon' Harrell Doom 2 - Deathmatch - Skulltag - 217.52 KB - Reviewed by: magicsofa I'm thoroughly confused by this text file. First paragraph goes something like this: "This is my second oldest surviving map that I still have, and my very first DM map ever. However, the gameplay and layout are pretty awful, so I wouldn't really even bother playing it. I uploaded it for nostalgia reasons, I suppose." Sounds normal enough right? But then: "(Note from Mechadon from the future!! I decided to upload this while updating some other releases in the archive. I'm really only uploading it for, uh, 'historical' reasons. You should never play this map, at least not seriously :P )" So Mechadon went back in time in order to warn us that instead of not really bothering with this map, we should instead never play it. Well I played it, for "historical" reasons, and it's pretty bad. Could be worse though! It could always be worse. Always. On a scale of 1 to forgotten, let's move on to the next WAD, shall we? Newgothic Movement 2 - Armouredblood and Archi Doom 2 - Single Player - Boom Compatible - 10.95 MB - Reviewed by: magicsofa Welcome to Newgothic - Movement 2. The first installment, released in 2010, was generally liked. So the stakes are high, your training wheels are off, the GDP must go up (forever). I spent my last review whining and complaining about unfair and wild monster placement. That's because I'm extremely sensitive. You can imagine my feelings when I read the description. "Slaughter. Fun Slaughter. With music. Enjoy." ...I'm going to be slaughtered to music? And I'm supposed to enjoy it? Fine. Some of us are aggressively against slaughter maps, and we can see why. They just filled the hallways with monsters, perfectly placed on the grid, all facing the same way. It's stupid. But you know what, it's also stupid that you can carry 100 rockets. And that's what makes Doom fun. Not the hellish landscapes, nor the goring of endless demonic flesh. It's really the insanity of your own character, the voiceless Doomguy, sliding around inside a nightmare firing rockets that move slower than himself. The beautiful thing about Doom is that you can enjoy it many different ways. Even though the textfile says "Difficulty settings: not implemented", they are always there for you. And in many other ways you can cheat around the true, hardcore experience. Want to save every ten seconds? Go for it. Want to play co-op, turn on infinite ammo, or skip maps? Only your pride can stop you. So I enjoyed these maps with a pleasant little Biffbot to keep the savings away. Aesthetically these maps were mostly awesome. Only a few of the massive areas looked bland to me, and since they would soon spill over with bodies, it kinda didn't matter. Complementing the monster counts in the thousands were ridiculous amounts of ammunition and health. Several places could be muscled through by collecting the health along the way. This (along with all my cheating) made the slaughter feel more like a party. Maybe they should be called party maps! Moving on, there are overwhelming numbers of guests at this party, and my poor bot was often being swarmed at the spawn by hungry zombies reaching for the keg. It was fun. And you deserve a bit of fun after your long day at the office. This megawad delivers what it promises. I have only a few small gripes - such as difficulty settings would be kinda nice (take out a few cybies plz), and a couple of map oddities such as giant but inconspicuous doors - but nothing really major. So slaughter away, my friends. On a scale of 1 to nutz.wad, I give Newgothic Movement 2 a near-perfect score of 1.6. Silent Hill Orphan TC - Autz (sonic_HD87) Doom 2 - Single Player - GZDoom - 24.91 MB - Reviewed by: magicsofa And now for something completely different! This TC uses "messy code" to turn Doom into a point-and-click adventure! Specifically, it copies Silent Hill: Orphan, an obscure mobile game. The code seemed to work fine to me; it's got inventory, dialogue, totally illogical puzzles (yes, put the candle in the pot of sludge), and even combat! However, the game is unpolished, with the creator sometimes talking to your character, saying stuff like "I was too lazy to put this in." It's still quite an accomplishment. Perhaps someone could use this engine to create a Doom point-and-click using screenshots of maps as the backgrounds. Anyway, check it out if you want to see a very obscure use of GZDoom. Vulkan (Episode 1) v1.2 - DavidN - @DavidXNewton Doom 2 - Single Player - GZDoom - 36.12 MB - Reviewed by: magicsofa Vulkan has nothing to do with Star Trek, which is a good thing. I love Doom and Star Trek separately, and I wouldn't want one to be ruined by the other. I don't remember setting anything to "stun" in Doom - do you? So anyway, DavidN has created an episode about a UAC project that accidentally drilled into hell. Your job is to get dropped off and totally abandoned, as usual, so you can dive to the bottom of the infested power station. I had a blast playing this WAD, which overall has a cool vibe that reminds me of Doom 1, mixed with a little Quake, and a slight nod to Descent. The environments are not caked with detail, but they are put together in a way is evocative and beautiful. Unfortunately the lightning isn't so great in places: you will encounter some bright areas that don't have enough contrast, and much worse, insane darkness in others. I was turning my gamma up to 1.4 and still finding walls with my face. Some of that was from destructible light sources, but other times it was obligatory. Was there a flashlight that I missed? Thankfully it was only a few small areas that had this problem. Brutal Doom is included with the package, which is awesome, but I can't be judging that portion of it. I think these maps would be a success even without it. The swarms of axe-men made me feel like I was playing Nazi Zombies at times. The bigger monsters on the other hand were less of a threat with the Brutal weapons. They just go down too easy, and weren't used in big enough numbers to be taken seriously. You'll be more worried about lightning fast pinkies. Some other customization added nice variety to the gameplay. You collect "vulkoins" in each map which give you a bonus to your health and armor when you get 100, and there's a few scripted events including a mechanic at the end where you have to bring cooling orbs to reactors to cool them down, which was fun and cute. And cuteness is the most important thing in any WAD. So despite some minor kinks, Vulkan has mostly atmosphere and action to offer you, and I hope DavidN is working on the next episode. On a scale from 1 to core breach, I give this mod an 8.1. Secretdoom: Hell's Memento 2 - Cyberdemon531 Doom 2 - Single Player - GZDoom - 25.19 MB - Reviewed by: magicsofa After sacrificing your soul to the depths of Hell, you wake up in a pool of blood and walk into a gateway. You find yourself in the depths of Hell once again, and you have to find your way out. Deeper, and deeper, into the depths of Hell. Once again... depths of Hell. You should all know Cyberdemon531 already, from their status as a "speed runner extraordinaire". I hate running, so I don't really follow that side of the community. Anyway, in this WAD you will be facing insane amounts of monsters, and you'll also have a ridiculous buffet of items both healthy and ammunitious. Starting with map05 you get enemy counts in the several-hundreds. Often you'll be free to wander a vast expanse, but some areas are very crowded. A lot of the battles were repetitive or too easy. A few moments did get interesting, such as a fun trap that cages the player, or suicide bombers swarming around a barrel. Additionally there were a ton of switches to hit, which was cool (because stuff was happening) but not executed well. What I mean is, the switch might lower a wall, revealing a room. And in the room is another switch... and another wall lowers, revealing a similar room with a switch. And on and on in the endless depths of Hell. And if you call the depths of Hell right now, we'll even include two additional pools of blood, and one additional gateway to Hell, totally FREE! All we need is your soul that's 1-800-DPTH for two gateways and three pools of blood to wake up in every morning! The design of the maps fluctuates a great deal in terms of visuals. Many of the areas are just so big, it's impossible for them to look nice. In other places there's decent geometry but poor lighting and texturing, or just extreme darkness. Some areas did look quite nice however, with the techbase and industrial areas being the best. The music was pretty good, but I think it was composed by Zagfan590 (referred to in the .txt as supplying "choice clips"). This plays more like a speedrunning/slaughter training camp than an atmospheric adventure, and perhaps that's what you are looking for. Perhaps that's the whole point of the Secretdoom series (secret's out!). There were some nice ideas buried under the demons piled 900 high, as well as some pretty areas but also some ugly areas. Kind of like my brain. On a scale of 1 to 1-800-DPTH, your pools of blood can be delivered straight to your door! Good Morining Phobos - sincity2100 Doom 2 - Single Player - Boom Compatible - 9.93 MB - Reviewed by: magicsofa Good Morining, Doomworld. Today's class is about an exciting and brand new experience created mostly by sincity2100. It also happens to be the last review for March 2017. Huzzah! This WAD has already received a number of positive reviews, so if that's enough for you, why are you wasting your time listening to me yammering away instead of playing? God knows. Anyway, Good Morning Phobos is long and beautiful. It's attractive in a non-invasive way, making it almost relaxing to behold. It appears that sincity2100 can use any clashing styles they want and still have it look amazing. It took me a moment to realize that giant lamppost was made of rock. It's not a detail-fest but with 33 maps, I don't even want that. Your eyes need a place to rest once in a while. I was impressed that all 33 were pretty consistently gorgeous, with decent gameplay to match. Enemy placement was where this WAD shined a little less clean. The layouts were almost always so wide-open that you'd rarely get stuck, which is nice, but can also make encounters too easy. On the other hand, most of these levels are just brimming with former humans and company. The hitscan attacks quickly turn the wide areas into death traps. So you'll spend a fair amount of time sniping dudes out with your chaingun, and as a fan of games like Ghost Recon I actually don't mind this type of gameplay. However, I can see how it discourages the run-and-gun attitude possible in classic Doom, which might feel weird in a WAD that otherwise feels kinda old-school. Welcome to post-modernism! In conclusion, I really liked GMP and you could too. It's got a classy surface and respectable organs. It's got great MIDIs. It's not sure if it belongs in 1996 or 2016, just like us. Next class, I want an essay about your emotional response to playing this WAD and how it might affect your relationships with your family and friends. Dismissed! The /newstuff Chronicles is a very sporadic roundup of new items uploaded to the /idgames archive, and it is written entirely by community members like you. If you wish to contribute, the /newstuff Review Center is the place to do so. Register on the Doomworld Forums first if you don't already have an account, because you need one to submit reviews. Special thanks goes to the nearly 300 users who have submitted reviews over the past several years. View full news article

Disjunction - floatRand Doom 2 - Single Player - Boom Compatible - 10.66 MB - Reviewed by: magicsofa Disjunction. Judging by the name, I first thought this might be a financial planning mod, taking Doom to its outer limits, where you have to trade caco-coins and baron-bucks until you realize your career is worthless. Or perhaps a train simulator, with the unattainable objective of not crashing and killing everyone aboard. It turns out neither of these fantasies are true. Today's offering from last year is a straight-forward, no BS megawad by floatRand. Let me be clear, though, when I say "no BS", I do not mean "no frustrations". The fact is, this WAD did frustrate me in a couple of ways. But it was also delightful in other ways. So we'll focus on the good first, because good things are good. Let's talk about the visuals. 99% of these maps are stunning, and I don't mean stunning in the sense of "I put on so much makeup today that you can't see my actual skin." floatRand has a way of making things look really nice without always using ten thousand sectors. Don't get me wrong, there are enough sectors to go around, but I really loved the overall sense of composition and purpose in the architecture of Disjunction (ironic, isn't it?). I say 99% because a tiny portion of areas looked bland, especially parts of the very first outdoor area, as well as parts of the final map which is insanely large so a bit more excusable. Many of the maps are themed heavily around one vibrant color among dark backgrounds, which I find pleasing because I'm a simple person. The music was awesome. Much more on techno/fantasy side, with tracks from Megaman and Jazz Jackrabbit (yay!). Metalheads might not like it. But I liked it, and I was ready to gaze at 11 beautiful maps and jam to the tunes and whatnot. So what about my frustrations? Well, those are found in the "whatnot". The "whatnot" being all those things you do in Doom other than look at the walls and listen to Cyber Rainforce. You know, finding keys, shooting hellspawn, et cetera. At first I was confronted by lots of monsters, and difficulty was high but since these were generally small humanoid enemies, the flow was alright. Unfortunately in these early maps the architecture does get in the way because it's way too cramped and annoying to traverse. That problem goes away once the maps themselves become bigger, but is overshadowed by a different problem: incessant use of monsters in annoying ways. For example, there are a ton of surround-traps. You enter a room, the door locks behind you, monsters surround. You go through a teleport, monsters surround. You grab a key, monsters surround. There are just way too many locked-in-a-room-full-of-monsters scenarios for my taste. Also, once you get past the first few maps, you find a lot of encounters with almost every enemy type. I felt that floatRand was placing monsters based on how cool it looked, not how it would make a good battle. Expect to find battles like: one arachnotron, one mancubus, one pain elemental, and four revenants. Also both during and after large battles you can expect two to four archviles to brighten your day. I don't want to make it sound like the action was never fun. At times it was cooking. Sometimes there were tricks to get around the battle, which I generally welcomed. But more often than not the pot seemed to be boiling over, and by the end you're facing giant hordes that make your BFG seem kinda weak. The epicness of the scenery gets more and more grand, but the gameplay actually grinds to a slow crawl because it just takes a long time to clear the rooms. Maybe I'm just getting old and slow. I did play on HMP so I guess I could have lowered the difficulty, but a quick look at monster counts showed only a small difference. I'd consider playing it again with some custom weapons. A minigun and a railgun would balance the game nicely, I think. Slaughter enthusiasts and masochists can fire up UV or Nightmare, but for the rest of us, expect to be severely punished. I wouldn't want anyone to miss out on the phenomenal level design, but I know some people will be turned away by the high difficulty. If you think you're one of those pansies (I know I am!), then consider playing on super easy mode or using a mod to increase your firepower. Or play on "cooperative mode", which we all know means spawning a bot to flail about at the beginning of the level in order to give yourself infinite lives. Whatever you need to do, this is a WAD that shouldn't be ignored - it's more like a famous tourist attraction that's always busy and you just have to suck it up. On a scale from lamb to lambchop, I give this WAD a solid 7.9. Temple of Unholy Fire, chapter 1 (demo) - Cacodemon9000 Doom 2 - Single Player - Boom Compatible - 8.96 MB - Reviewed by: magicsofa We've all done it: or at least most of us have, and we have learned the consequences and hopefully will never repeat our mistake. Any time you write "Chapter 1" on something, you're guaranteed not to finish that thing. Well that was the case here with Cacodemon9000's map "Temple of Unholy Fire, chapter 1 (demo)". Tragically this was the last thing they uploaded to /idgames. Perhaps it was because of the scathing review by Zalewa, who is all over that s*** playing everybody's maps. Who are you anyway, Zalewa, and why do I keep having to talk about your reviews? Anyway, this level suffers a lot from tedious battles as well as some bland architecture. There's some modification to the bullet weapons, making them a bit more powerful, but it's basically useless against the hordes of monsters - some of which just had to be upgraded themselves. The archvile's flame attack, for example, spawns many explosions throughout the animation, which is funny because you can outrun it, but also stupid because it's out of control. That might have been cool for the boss battle (which was, astoundingly, a THIRD version of archie), not for the entire map. Add to that spectral cacodemons, mancu-serpents, and beefed up arachnotrons, and you have a little party. The actual geometry of the map was pretty cool in a lot of places (less cool in others when it was very long hallways), but the texturing and lighting made it mostly ugly. Since there was often no contrast, you couldn't really see the nice features until you're right on top of them. The outdoor areas were generally nice looking, and easy to traverse. Indoors however the layout is very boxy. The path you're supposed to travel does loop over itself in a nice way, but gets confusing at times, and most of the switches activate something random that you have to go find (like Hexen, but not as bad). There are some good ideas buried in this chapter 1 (demo), and I think Cacodemon9000 should continue mapping since Doom will never die, and neither will we IF WE JUST KEEP MAPPING. Perhaps they're mapping for another game or whatever, I just hope Zalewa's criticism didn't turn Caco9000 away from mapping entirely. Next time I would suggest posting the WAD in the forums to get feedback before uploading to /idgames, because the one-paragraph reviews are often flippant and discouraging. However, the criticism was indeed fair, and for someone looking to play a polished level, chapter 1 (demo) isn't gonna cut the mustard. On a scale of 1 to chapter 1 (demo), I give this WAD a chapter 1. Vertigone - Brett 'Mechadon' Harrell Doom 2 - Deathmatch - Skulltag - 217.52 KB - Reviewed by: magicsofa I'm thoroughly confused by this text file. First paragraph goes something like this: "This is my second oldest surviving map that I still have, and my very first DM map ever. However, the gameplay and layout are pretty awful, so I wouldn't really even bother playing it. I uploaded it for nostalgia reasons, I suppose." Sounds normal enough right? But then: "(Note from Mechadon from the future!! I decided to upload this while updating some other releases in the archive. I'm really only uploading it for, uh, 'historical' reasons. You should never play this map, at least not seriously :P )" So Mechadon went back in time in order to warn us that instead of not really bothering with this map, we should instead never play it. Well I played it, for "historical" reasons, and it's pretty bad. Could be worse though! It could always be worse. Always. On a scale of 1 to forgotten, let's move on to the next WAD, shall we? Newgothic Movement 2 - Armouredblood and Archi Doom 2 - Single Player - Boom Compatible - 10.95 MB - Reviewed by: magicsofa Welcome to Newgothic - Movement 2. The first installment, released in 2010, was generally liked. So the stakes are high, your training wheels are off, the GDP must go up (forever). I spent my last review whining and complaining about unfair and wild monster placement. That's because I'm extremely sensitive. You can imagine my feelings when I read the description. "Slaughter. Fun Slaughter. With music. Enjoy." ...I'm going to be slaughtered to music? And I'm supposed to enjoy it? Fine. Some of us are aggressively against slaughter maps, and we can see why. They just filled the hallways with monsters, perfectly placed on the grid, all facing the same way. It's stupid. But you know what, it's also stupid that you can carry 100 rockets. And that's what makes Doom fun. Not the hellish landscapes, nor the goring of endless demonic flesh. It's really the insanity of your own character, the voiceless Doomguy, sliding around inside a nightmare firing rockets that move slower than himself. The beautiful thing about Doom is that you can enjoy it many different ways. Even though the textfile says "Difficulty settings: not implemented", they are always there for you. And in many other ways you can cheat around the true, hardcore experience. Want to save every ten seconds? Go for it. Want to play co-op, turn on infinite ammo, or skip maps? Only your pride can stop you. So I enjoyed these maps with a pleasant little Biffbot to keep the savings away. Aesthetically these maps were mostly awesome. Only a few of the massive areas looked bland to me, and since they would soon spill over with bodies, it kinda didn't matter. Complementing the monster counts in the thousands were ridiculous amounts of ammunition and health. Several places could be muscled through by collecting the health along the way. This (along with all my cheating) made the slaughter feel more like a party. Maybe they should be called party maps! Moving on, there are overwhelming numbers of guests at this party, and my poor bot was often being swarmed at the spawn by hungry zombies reaching for the keg. It was fun. And you deserve a bit of fun after your long day at the office. This megawad delivers what it promises. I have only a few small gripes - such as difficulty settings would be kinda nice (take out a few cybies plz), and a couple of map oddities such as giant but inconspicuous doors - but nothing really major. So slaughter away, my friends. On a scale of 1 to nutz.wad, I give Newgothic Movement 2 a near-perfect score of 1.6. Silent Hill Orphan TC - Autz (sonic_HD87) Doom 2 - Single Player - GZDoom - 24.91 MB - Reviewed by: magicsofa And now for something completely different! This TC uses "messy code" to turn Doom into a point-and-click adventure! Specifically, it copies Silent Hill: Orphan, an obscure mobile game. The code seemed to work fine to me; it's got inventory, dialogue, totally illogical puzzles (yes, put the candle in the pot of sludge), and even combat! However, the game is unpolished, with the creator sometimes talking to your character, saying stuff like "I was too lazy to put this in." It's still quite an accomplishment. Perhaps someone could use this engine to create a Doom point-and-click using screenshots of maps as the backgrounds. Anyway, check it out if you want to see a very obscure use of GZDoom. Vulkan (Episode 1) v1.2 - DavidN - @DavidXNewton Doom 2 - Single Player - GZDoom - 36.12 MB - Reviewed by: magicsofa Vulkan has nothing to do with Star Trek, which is a good thing. I love Doom and Star Trek separately, and I wouldn't want one to be ruined by the other. I don't remember setting anything to "stun" in Doom - do you? So anyway, DavidN has created an episode about a UAC project that accidentally drilled into hell. Your job is to get dropped off and totally abandoned, as usual, so you can dive to the bottom of the infested power station. I had a blast playing this WAD, which overall has a cool vibe that reminds me of Doom 1, mixed with a little Quake, and a slight nod to Descent. The environments are not caked with detail, but they are put together in a way is evocative and beautiful. Unfortunately the lightning isn't so great in places: you will encounter some bright areas that don't have enough contrast, and much worse, insane darkness in others. I was turning my gamma up to 1.4 and still finding walls with my face. Some of that was from destructible light sources, but other times it was obligatory. Was there a flashlight that I missed? Thankfully it was only a few small areas that had this problem. Brutal Doom is included with the package, which is awesome, but I can't be judging that portion of it. I think these maps would be a success even without it. The swarms of axe-men made me feel like I was playing Nazi Zombies at times. The bigger monsters on the other hand were less of a threat with the Brutal weapons. They just go down too easy, and weren't used in big enough numbers to be taken seriously. You'll be more worried about lightning fast pinkies. Some other customization added nice variety to the gameplay. You collect "vulkoins" in each map which give you a bonus to your health and armor when you get 100, and there's a few scripted events including a mechanic at the end where you have to bring cooling orbs to reactors to cool them down, which was fun and cute. And cuteness is the most important thing in any WAD. So despite some minor kinks, Vulkan has mostly atmosphere and action to offer you, and I hope DavidN is working on the next episode. On a scale from 1 to core breach, I give this mod an 8.1. Secretdoom: Hell's Memento 2 - Cyberdemon531 Doom 2 - Single Player - GZDoom - 25.19 MB - Reviewed by: magicsofa After sacrificing your soul to the depths of Hell, you wake up in a pool of blood and walk into a gateway. You find yourself in the depths of Hell once again, and you have to find your way out. Deeper, and deeper, into the depths of Hell. Once again... depths of Hell. You should all know Cyberdemon531 already, from their status as a "speed runner extraordinaire". I hate running, so I don't really follow that side of the community. Anyway, in this WAD you will be facing insane amounts of monsters, and you'll also have a ridiculous buffet of items both healthy and ammunitious. Starting with map05 you get enemy counts in the several-hundreds. Often you'll be free to wander a vast expanse, but some areas are very crowded. A lot of the battles were repetitive or too easy. A few moments did get interesting, such as a fun trap that cages the player, or suicide bombers swarming around a barrel. Additionally there were a ton of switches to hit, which was cool (because stuff was happening) but not executed well. What I mean is, the switch might lower a wall, revealing a room. And in the room is another switch... and another wall lowers, revealing a similar room with a switch. And on and on in the endless depths of Hell. And if you call the depths of Hell right now, we'll even include two additional pools of blood, and one additional gateway to Hell, totally FREE! All we need is your soul that's 1-800-DPTH for two gateways and three pools of blood to wake up in every morning! The design of the maps fluctuates a great deal in terms of visuals. Many of the areas are just so big, it's impossible for them to look nice. In other places there's decent geometry but poor lighting and texturing, or just extreme darkness. Some areas did look quite nice however, with the techbase and industrial areas being the best. The music was pretty good, but I think it was composed by Zagfan590 (referred to in the .txt as supplying "choice clips"). This plays more like a speedrunning/slaughter training camp than an atmospheric adventure, and perhaps that's what you are looking for. Perhaps that's the whole point of the Secretdoom series (secret's out!). There were some nice ideas buried under the demons piled 900 high, as well as some pretty areas but also some ugly areas. Kind of like my brain. On a scale of 1 to 1-800-DPTH, your pools of blood can be delivered straight to your door! Good Morining Phobos - sincity2100 Doom 2 - Single Player - Boom Compatible - 9.93 MB - Reviewed by: magicsofa Good Morining, Doomworld. Today's class is about an exciting and brand new experience created mostly by sincity2100. It also happens to be the last review for March 2017. Huzzah! This WAD has already received a number of positive reviews, so if that's enough for you, why are you wasting your time listening to me yammering away instead of playing? God knows. Anyway, Good Morning Phobos is long and beautiful. It's attractive in a non-invasive way, making it almost relaxing to behold. It appears that sincity2100 can use any clashing styles they want and still have it look amazing. It took me a moment to realize that giant lamppost was made of rock. It's not a detail-fest but with 33 maps, I don't even want that. Your eyes need a place to rest once in a while. I was impressed that all 33 were pretty consistently gorgeous, with decent gameplay to match. Enemy placement was where this WAD shined a little less clean. The layouts were almost always so wide-open that you'd rarely get stuck, which is nice, but can also make encounters too easy. On the other hand, most of these levels are just brimming with former humans and company. The hitscan attacks quickly turn the wide areas into death traps. So you'll spend a fair amount of time sniping dudes out with your chaingun, and as a fan of games like Ghost Recon I actually don't mind this type of gameplay. However, I can see how it discourages the run-and-gun attitude possible in classic Doom, which might feel weird in a WAD that otherwise feels kinda old-school. Welcome to post-modernism! In conclusion, I really liked GMP and you could too. It's got a classy surface and respectable organs. It's got great MIDIs. It's not sure if it belongs in 1996 or 2016, just like us. Next class, I want an essay about your emotional response to playing this WAD and how it might affect your relationships with your family and friends. Dismissed! The /newstuff Chronicles is a very sporadic roundup of new items uploaded to the /idgames archive, and it is written entirely by community members like you. If you wish to contribute, the /newstuff Review Center is the place to do so. 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