Research: Remarkable Doom Wads

[Daniel]

Hello people,

I had an idea for making a big Doom Mods review, but for this, I'll need the help from the community. This is the basic idea:

We will trace a storyline since the launching of original Doom in 1993, telling the history of Doom modding until nowadays. Then, some great wads launched during those years will be reviewed and commented, respecting their importance at its time release. For example: Darken 1 was launched in 1999, and it was a masterpiece in that year. If we analise them with our "contemporary eyes" (after too much work is done from all kinds of proposals, such as huge detailed maps, source-port exploring features, etc.), we should not give to that wad a significant value. Note that the public release of Doom's source code was done in that year, so "DeHackEditing" was a very fun activity (I miss that time hehe!). The point here is to reinforce the importance of Doom Mods and mappers, not to rank them as "best" or "worst". I believe everyone here made important contributions to the game, and we also can't compare wads in which the author desires to keep the "old Doom feeling" with others that wish to use source port improvements. Then, this storyline will also recreate the source port development and its reflection in Doom Modding.

I think that would be a nice criteria to reinforce the importance of masterpieces such as Alien Vendetta, Hell Revealed, Memento Mori and so on. Also, it will avoid "personal feelings" about the authors, being careful to not take it to the personal side, just looking for his work. I think this review would be a more honest way to tell Doom Modding history (I think it's one of the most popular modified games of all time - is it?), also for a "foreign" interested to know how Doom Modding developed to nowadays state (with the big difference between "old school mods" and new ones. It also divides opinion in the community).

So, to start this, I just ask for you doomers to tell the mods that were reference for you and the year you've played it. I'll try:

1993 - original Doom (the first experience is never forgotten!)
1994 - Doom 2
1996 - Egyptian Doom 2 (this mod always were a reference for me)
1999 - PUBLIC RELEASE OF DOOM.EXE SOURCE CODE
2000 - The Darkening 2
2002 - Ultimate Doom (weiry, I've known it lately)
2002 - Alien Vendetta
2002 - Eternal Doom (launched in 1997 - another masterpiece to me)
2003 - Hell Revealed 2 (lots of fun playing it in Doom Legacy's splitscreen mode with some weapon mods)
2004 - The Island (this is the first ZDoom-only mod that called my attention... this kind of mod weren't my focus of attention at that time)
2004 - Castle Nevermore
2004 - Narcosis (a deathmatch map, but I liked if mostly because of textures and level design)
...

and so on. Of course we don't have time to play all the greatest mods, so the ones mentioned here will be my focus of attention.
Thank you for the contribution! I'll try to check this thread regularly, when time lets me to do so.

[Naniyue]

This may not quite be what you are looking for, but it could serve as a nostalgic introduction:

"The first experience is never forgotten."

I remember playing DooM when it was new. I was a freshman in college, with no computer of my own. I'd play co op in the comp-sci lab until the predawn, or solo on an old laptop that I borrowed, with just the PC speaker for sound. Even though this was all before mouselook, the game was still fun as hell. It had "the magic", or the ability to totally absorb you into its world.
And then the modifications came . . .
"You can shoot Barney in DooM?" I asked, surprised. "Sure," my friend said as he loaded up the
game, chose the right stage, and lo and behold, two Barneys blasted hearts towards me.
If I wasn't hooked before, I was now.
It all seemed so magical. The original game, the music, the other games based on it (ie
Heretic), but when the source code was released, the game changed forever . . .
In short, DooM is simply remarkable!

[scalliano]

I could say that I was spoilt regarding my first experience with a Doom mod, in that it was Justin Fisher's excellent Aliens TC. Having been a big fan of both the film and indeed Doom, and having played it for many years before on console before finally getting a PC, I was amazed at the transformation he had achieved. The game had gone from being a fast paced, frantic slaughterfest to being a deep, suspenseful survival horror game. Having no enemies on the first level was a masterstroke - further elevated by Sergeant Apone's unexpected dialogue: "Sir, this place is dead. Whatever happened here, I think we missed it."

Then I discovered the aliens' nest on level 2 and it all kicked off. The aliens were literally coming out of the walls, the authentic sound effects were lifted straight from the film, and, of course, there were the ventilation ducts. The weapons were all there (bar the flamethrower for obvious reasons), and Fisher had actually used the same techniques to create the enemy sprites as Id had to create the Doom originals. And I can't describe my elation on discovering that the Power Loader had made it in! Obviously, there were issues - the final level didn't end, thanks to the limited nature of Doom's special actions, installation was a bit of a nightmare with modded .exes and batch files aplenty, misaligned textures, and as Fisher conceded himself, the Queen sprites were a bit ropey. Still none of this detracted from what was (and still is, IMO) a beutifully crafted and atmospheric piece of work and a benchmark for all mods to come thereafter.

It is also worth pointing out that, with the onset of source ports, a lot of the technical issues have been addressed, and many improvements made to the mod, such as intermission screens, a proper ending and even support for the CD of the original James Horner musical score. Basically what I'm saying is that if you have never played the Aliens TC, you have no excuse now.

[Captain Proof]

I actually was exposed to the FPS genre when I first played Wolf3d.I was blown away and It still(and will always) has a place in my gaming repertoire.But when Doom came out it was the first time I had a game scare me.First time I played it was back in 4th grade...I started drawing up my own maps and wishing I could make my own.Wish I still had some of those maps I drew up.

I never got to play the Aliens TC,seeing that it doesn't work correctly on Zdoom and the only way I could somewhat run it is through EDGE.I think the first actual mods I got to play was Vilecore,Talosian Incident,Tei Tenga,and Laz's Wolfendoom mods.So I guess you can say I was a late bloomer when it comes to the mod scene.

[scalliano]

@Proof: Works for me. There was a page which explained how to get it working, but I can't find it again. I'll have another lookski.

EDIT: Found it! This wasn't the page I was talking about, but it does have the correct version (atcud20.zip).

http://www.atomicgamer.com/directory.php?id=1622

Shame about the shit queue server though. To be honest I'd love to see a KDiZD-style remake of it as DECORATE and ACS would alloe for a much closer tie-in with the movie. Could end up pissing on a Picasso, though.

[Naniyue]

If I had to choose, I'd say that KDiZD and BlooD TC have been the most influential for me, at least as of late.

KDiZD is remarkable in that it feels like I'm playing a present day FPS and an early 90's one at the same time. The architecture and lighting are complex, something I never even thought DooM, with or without source ports, could do. And, as I believe I've stated in more than one post here in the forums, atmosphere in a game is important. KDiZD has it!

The latest incarnation of the Blood TC is remarkable in that it is astonishingly faithful to the original game. It's almost as if Build and DooM merged together! For example, I swear that the train level plays just like the original, and the fairgrounds level left me with a pleasant feeling of deja vu. Actually, I prefer the mod to the original game, for personally, I hated the red tint over everything in the original.