It's amazing to see how the Doom community has progressed over time. Each year, as new, amazing maps are made the bar is set just a bit higher. Now we go to play Doom and have hundreds of wads to play that are all top-notch; we truly have choices as players! So many, to the point that none of us will likely ever play them all. That's a shame, of course, but a great reason to be thankful for the fleeting moments of somebody else's time to play your Doom map. For this reason, it is important to know and understand the standards of the community and the principles which make a good map . NOTICE!!! I need someone who would be willing to take the time to write up these weekly goings on and submit them with pictures for me to get on the site. If interested, please use the email link above to contact me. Thanks. ===================================================================================== Exclusive Sneak-Peak at Super-Sverre's "Echelon"







Sverre André Kvernmo's (aka Cranium or Soundblock) story is one of success that serves as an inspiration to many Doom mappers and modders. While studying art in England, he responded to a publication about Id looking for levels for a map pack. After getting in touch with them, he learned that they were booked up on maps, but he sent his in anyway. A short time later, maps were dropped and Shawn Green opened up his envelope. Liking what he saw, Sverre was brought onto the team to create "The Master Levels of Doom 2." It was here that his carreer in the gaming biz started and it was with that perserverance of sending his maps in anyway that got him the job. After getting his foot in the door, he worked for a bit with Xatrix on Redneck Rampage and then went on to work at ION Storm developing levels for Diakatana. He continued to work in the gaming industry for a while after that, but eventually decided the constant deadlines and overtime was more stress than it was worth; he now makes a comfy living as a graphic artist for a vehicle simulation software developer.



Sverre originally made 12 maps for "The Master Levels of Doom 2." 5 were accepted and the other 7 became his Cabal1-7 series. After working on the master levels, Sverre shortly thereafter was contacted by Jim Flynn to join TeamTNT and begin work on the iconic "Eternal Doom." From there, he took a break from Doom mapping; a long break. 17 years later he burst back onto the scene with "Plasmaplant," a big blue map that shares a similar aesthetic to Ribbiks's "Swim with the Whales," with some amazing emphasis on color and lighting, as well as a few quirks to keep the player paying attention. 3 years later, he's back with another amazing set of maps! "Echelon" is a 30-map megawad that runs in zDoom under the Doom 2 iWad.







There are many things I want to say about this megawad; where to start is the toughest thing, though, hehe. Starting with aesthetics: these maps were some of the most beautiful, minimally detailed maps I've played in some time. With a heavy emphasis on colors, as well as some great lighting, these maps each had an interesting atmosphere to them that made them all memorable. Simply reading one line of my feedback to Sverre brings back a total picture of each level. Of course, that's aided by the fact that most of these maps are also very short. Even the maps with 100+ monsters took under 10 minutes to max on a first pass. The longest map, containing 200 monsters, took maybe 20 minutes, including my own sight-seeing time. But many of these maps were under 20 monsters, many more around 50, and only a small handful over 100.



In-between each map is some intermission text, providing more and more info on the story in this wad. The shortness of these levels adds to the narritive of the overall set, given that the player is constantly returning to an advancement in the story line with each quick level. In addition, short, medium, and long-ish levels were spaced evenly throughout the entire megawad, giving a great sense of variety to the overall product, as well as keeping the player interested in the story. Sverre also did an excellent job matching each map with what is going on in the story, along with a nice MIDI selection consisting mostly of Ribbiks's and Jimmy's works, alongside a few other talented folk, all further adding to the overall immersion. The story itself was fairly interesting, incorporating a few of the original texts in with a brand new chain-of-events in which the Doomguy wakes up late for work, only to find that the invasion has come and gone without him. Left behind is a small force to occupy and hold already taken areas. After seeing the devestation, he decides to go home and check on his wife; not finding her, he sets off to save the people of Earth and destroy Hell's upper echelon, ending the invasion for goo-- for now. After finally reaching Hell, the Doomguy fails to find the fiery horrors he was expecting; instead, as he enters the portal after each level he finds that his thoughts shape the next area he is thrust into, or perhaps his thoughts simply convey where he desires to go and the portal delivers him there... "Echelon" delivers an awesome, immersive experience that will keep you playing from start to end; indeed, my total time on this, maxing each map was about 3 and a half hours, taking my time and enjoying the maps.







The beginning of this megawad uses relatively few crazy zDoom features, but as the map set goes on there are many really cool setups that could only be done within zDoom, as well as a lot of awesome, minimalist architecture and detailing that could only be done within zDoom. Sverre has a fondness for the simplicity, yet beauty, of Doom's aesthetic and it shines brightly within this megawad. I found this whole megawad to be a pleasurable journey through a professional-looking map set.



In addition to the fantastic aesthetics, the gameplay was a fun romp. Sverre included 3 new custom enemies in this wad which kept things fresh throughout. One is called a Viper; a red lizard that launches randomly-scattered volleys of 4 painful fireballs in the players direction and explodes upon death. This monster has the added benefit of psychological warfare on the player, as he shares sounds with both the caco and the rev, hehe; I liked that twist. The other two enemies are of the -fiend family: the Clusterfiend and the Midasfiend. Both serve similar roles as the cacodemon, but each has a different, interesting effect on their projectiles. The weaker one, the Clusterfiend, shoots his projectile which produces a second projectile on impact, typically seeming to "bounce" off of the object or wall it hit. The Midasfiend's projectile splits into 5-or-6 smaller ones upon impact, which thinking about it now, seems more like a clusterbomb, but that's neither here nor there. The new custom monsters all looked cool and the -fiends had a comical effect on their backside as they launched their projectiles. The DECORATE code calls it "a small 'dingleberry' of plasma rears out the rear when it fires," heh.



The gameplay for each individual map of this wad was fairly quick, easy romps through levels, constantly pressing on. Most maps featured one major scene/encounter, with the rest being incidental combat; opening the map or wrapping up lose ends before moving on to the next. The whole set up was a really cool way to keep the player hooked into constantly wanting to play the next map. After all, you start it up, play for a couple hours, then it gets to be about time to call it. After finishing your "last" map of the night, you read that story and the next map opens up. You run through a bit, then realize you're already almost done; might as well finish it at this point. Then you read the next bit of story text and the following map loads up. Rather than save and exit, you like what you see, decide to take a quick look around, and then the process starts all over again until you fall alseep in your computer chair for being up past 3 am. Guess I shouldn't have started after 12, eh? Heh. Most of the maps were fairly low pressure, though there were a few tight spots and traps here and there to keep the player on his toes, but this was interspersed between quick, easy maps to keep things moving at an enjoyable pace.







This megawad had me hooked for more than one playthrough; I highly recommend it to every Doomer, old-shcool and new-school alike! Sverre doesn't fail to deliver on the quality content he is known for; give this tremendous megawad a go right away and prepare yourself for a beautifully colored, fantasticly delivered story-driven experience through this reinterpretation of Doom's classic storyline! Find it on /idgames !







Some folk may be familiar with an old interview, 18 years old to be precise, on the "5 Years of Doom" page in which Sverre was asked about his work on "The Master Levels of Doom 2" as well as "Eternal Doom" and Daikatana, in addition to other more general questions. The result was an interesting read about his time spent mapping for Doom and how it impacted his life professionally. If you haven't had the chance to read it, head on over here and give it a check: http://5years.doomworld.com/interviews/sverrekvernmo/



I had the chance to ask Sverre a few questions during my time with this megawad, somewhat of a make-shift interview of my own. I think the result turned out to be an intriguing perspective into the life of a video game developer and graphic artist and I managed to get a couple age-old questions answered... Without further ado here it is:



**************INTERVIEW************** Vinny: We all know you had a fair-sized hand in making the Master Levels for Doom 2; having made almost one quarter of the maps in the final product. I see you later had a short run with Xatrix making Redneck Rampage, after which you worked at ION Storm developing levels for Daikatana for over a year and a half of its development. What do you do now?



Sverre: After Daikatana there was KISS Psycho Circus, a Doom homage, the Anarchy Online MMO and finally the Conan MMO, which rounded off my twelve year stint in the games industry, which began with the Master Levels. I'm currently a graphic artist for a vehicle simulation software developer. Churning out houses and structures for tank- and car- simulators, that type of thing.



V: I don't quite understand, but I see something about a tank; care to elaborate?



S: We're a small company that makes driving simulators, full arcade-style cabinet, for driving schools/universities, and sometimes, the military.



V: Wowzers; that's a long way from mapping for Doom! In the old DoomWorld interview, you were asked you about how you were selected for the Master Levels, to which you provided a link to the story given to Henrik Larsen at The Master Levels FAQ, broken over time. Would you happen to have a copy of that for posterity?



S: Oh, that thing disappeared did it? Sorry, I don't have a copy. Basically, I saw a note in the pre-internet gaming press (paper publication - PC Zone) about how id were looking for levels for a map pack. I called up id long distance from England, where I was studying art at the time. Donna got me to the person in charge of Master Levels - Shawn. At first was told there probably wasn't any vacancies, but I sent him my maps anyway, and when one of the participants pulled out (his dad wouldn't let him spend the time making Doom maps!), Shawn opened up my envelope and liked what he found inside.



V: It's awesome to hear that perserverance paid off. What's it like working in the gaming field?



S: Well I miss the gaming biz a lot, and would love to go at it again at a lesser capacity and with something retro. AAA titles are over for me as a developer. I couldn't cope with the always looming deadlines and overzealous amounts of overtime in the end, so I limped out.



V: Going limp before a climax is never a good thing; what would you say is the climax of your work?



S: Haha, I wouldn't know... ;-) Besides Master Levels, which maybe was the most fun, I have a special place in my heart for Anarchy Online. There was a really buzzing community in there after the launch probelms were fixed. In-game radio run by players, player-run chat bots which knew the world in and out, the ability to conquer zones of the map and a really deep setting to back it all up. Besides, I've always loved sci-fi and it is the only pure sci-fi title I've worked on, and a massively huge one at that, so that was a a lot of fun. I had a hand in the patch that spruced up our dungeon generator and added new and popular static dungeons to that game (patch 14.8), so that was a climax of sorts.



V: How has the constantly changing technology impacted your work?



S: It makes it hard to not throw out the baby with the bath water, features wise. You always lose something when you gain something, game tech wise. Or so I find. Why is oldschool Doom still so popular? One reason I'd wager is because FPS'es lost something along the way.



V: Fast speed, projectiles, and knowing it's a videogame (not trying to be realistic); I'd wager. Aside from Doom, what is your favorite shooter game?



S: I obviously loved the Quakes and the Half Lifes, Blood, Unreal and Battlefield 1942, but haven't played them in a long time. Good old Metal Slug is fun and I really enjoyed Mirror's Edge and the Portal games, but I'd have to go with Hotline Miami on this one. It kicks so much ass.



V: What mappers inspired you the most in the 90's?



S: Jason Hargreaves (Nukemine) and Dr Sleep, definetely. They were the only two early mappers I could find that made better stuff than the originals. After that, Memento Mori was an influence and plenty of others that don't spring immediately to mind.



V: What gave you the inspiration to return to Doom mapping in 2013?



S: Well I hadn't made any games since 2008, so I was really itching to do some game design of some sort. I always felt Doom had some immediacy to it that later games creation tools didn't match, so I chose a nostalgic return to that rather than trying to jump on board the Unreal engine or something. So much time is spent creating art assets with those new engines. Not to mention all the scripting needed. None of that with Doom, just fast action and that short space between designing and playing what you designed.



V: Glad to have you back! What Doom wads/maps and mappers have the greatest influence on your work today, either when making Doom maps or professionally?



S: I dig Afterglow's very precise and texture-linedef hand-in-hand approach, though I couldn't match his precision myself. I hope his Odium makes a splash when its released. Likewise, Ribbiks' wildly awesome creations made a big impact, though I don't think I could go all the way there myself. I heard Skillsaw is really good, but I haven't seen enough of his to make a statement. I try to, but I don't play enough other wads really, playtesting my own stuff takes a lot out of my play-Doom budget. I do get the time to see some of other people's stuff, but I wish I had more time and energy to just delve into what other people make. To answer your question better I don't think I take direct influence from anyone too much, having perhaps a style of my own, whether its very good anymore or not. Well, come to think of it... If there's one guy that's affected my style lately, its pcorf. He kinda liberated me from trying to go all out on the detailing and proved that you can still do top notch playability even with just a few lines. With Plasmaplant I was kinda trying to utilise the new limit removing stuff a lot, which is very time consuming, but after playing pcorf's 300 lines megawad I reverted a bit to just making simple yet cool environments, so hats off to him or there may never have been an Echelon.



V: A giant hats off to pcorf, then! What were some of your biggest goals and ideas with Echelon?



S: I've heard it said that confines can be liberating, creatively speaking, so I went a bit overboard with the initial goals, which was to make the maps match their expected playtime duration to Doom II's par times. "Project PAR" proved impossible, but it forced me to make really small maps, which is what I wanted anyhow. Bite-sized quicksnacks, rather than meandering behemoths. An arcade'y approach, rather than an overly adventurous one. Also, to carry a narrative and be colorful.



V: What was your favorite idea that unfortunately had to hit the cutting room floor while making Echelon?



S: NPCs. I wanted some fellow survivors in there that you had to give your weapons, which later transformed into monsters that you had to blast. Even made some graphics for them. A preacher that becomes a Spider Mastermind, a construction worker that turns into a cybo, a woman that turns into an Archvile, and a couple of graffiti artists...















V: What symbolism did you incorporate into Echelon?



S: Abstracts, more so than intentional symbolism. I try and steer clear of the too obvious, though that can be hard when working with a demonic theme, as we do. There's plenty of graffiti in there, made by the Doomworld community, which I suppose is rife with all kinds of symbolism.



V: Lol, I did like the graffiti. What is your mapping process?



S: I have no, one set way of going about this. Certain maps explode out in a day or two, others take decades from first few linedefs to completion. Echelon is a good example of this - there are portions of maps that date back to 1996 in that, and maps that were made in a week, last month. I like it best when the architecture you create starts buzzing off itself, and new unintended areas just spring to life as a result from what you just made, but there's a lot to be said for the more planned approach with pencil sketches, flowcharts and what not.



V: What was your favorite map to work on?



S: God, that's hard to answer. Teeth springs to mind. There's sometning unrepeatable about how that map opens up - it was fun being in the same room as beta testers trying it out. The Image Of Evil was fun, again since it has a unique aspect in the mapview. But I guess nothing beats that wild creative joy of putting together the very first map you make (Temple of Death, in my case). You know what though, it was the Eternal Doom mapset - because that project was such a team effort. Seeing everyone's creative force come together like that for the first time, before I had worked on any games, was awesome.



V: What do you like to see within Doom levels?



S: Surprises. Stuff that makes me wish I'd thought of that, or could do that. Renewed love for the game.



V: Same here. Making truly unique things in a 22 year old game is tough, but every now and again folk seem to do it; it's inspirational. what is your favorite aspect of map design?



S: Happy accidents. The magic that sometimes creeps out of corners you didn't even plan for. An encounter that turns out cooler than what you expected.



V: I see in the previous interview you've had a lot of feedback from people who prefer Timegate over Nucleus and Darkdome in Eternal Doom, despite the difference in time spent on the maps; what do you think made Timegate more successful than the other two?



S: Don't know for certain. There's a sense of narrative to the place? It ties the story of Eternal Doom's two time zones successfully? It was created right at the end, when all resources were in place? It doesn't meander like Nucleus and doesn't make ridiculous switch-hunting demands like Darkdome?



V: I always liked the way Timegate was built, with the player starting on the outer edge of the map, moving around, then finally inward. The overall aesthetic of it was really cool and it had such a fantastic atmosphere to it. While I also really liked Darkdome and thought Nucleus was cool, for some reason they never left the impression on me that Timegate did. Still, time not wasted, as all are good levels. The interview also mentions that you made over 600 textures for Eternal Doom, how did you create them?



S: I can't believe that number to be correct. Perhaps if you count all fonts, HUDs and stuff? No, still seems like way too high a number. You're not counting all the three episodes' gtaphics are you? I mean, I only worked on the first one. At any rate, I used Photoshop 3. Some stuff, like the (original) title screen and the intermission soldier, were hand-drawn stuff that got scanned and treated. A lot of it was created while experimenting and getting used to what Photoshops filters could do. Frequently, I would work in RGB mode, fidget with the RGBs until I hit a register of notes in the Doom palette, then convert back to indexed color. It was quite the alchemy. The other mappers needed textures and fast, so I can't say I'm too proud of every creation in there, but it has its moments.



V: Perhaps it was the way you had counted it at the time. As somebody who's work belongs solely in Paint, I have to admire the talent and skill required to make textures that look as good as those in Eternal Doom. Retres.wad is perhaps my favorite texture set, containing most/all of the Eternal Doom resources. What advice could you give to somebody just learning to draw textures/sprites for Doom?



S: Wow, ok. Maybe I was right, I'm not going back in there to count again! Hopefully I wasn't trying to take credit for the Hexen rips - I never wanted those in there to begin with. For any budding artists - post on Doomworld about questions you might have about the process - there are a lot of competent and brilliant people on there who know in and out how the Doom graphics work. Stick to a theme, look closely at the original art, experiment wildly but don't be overly ambitious at first, and prepare to have your patience tested.



V: That's some great advice; I believe making a plan and keeping things simple, short and sweet in the beginning are the best courses of action, as well as experimenting through genuine curiousity. The old interview mentions you used to be an avid deathmatcher; when was the last time you DM'd?



S: I lost 50-49 to Randy Pitchford just before I left Ion Storm. I had him like 49 - 42 or something, then he made a valiant effort to come back and I wasn't feeling it any more. Shouldn't be possible to come back from that in Doom, but it happened. I logged onto some deathmatch server thingie a couple of years back, I forget its name. Only one other guy was logged on and he left about the same second I got on, so I looked around for a bit and then logged off. Should give it another go I guess, though my wrist is pretty busted these days so I don't much expect a comeback!



V: I'm sorry to hear about your wrist; I get minor problems with tendonitis in both of mine, though it's usually remidied by wearing a brace for a few days so I'm fairly fortunate in that regard. Idk if you have a good brace, but I'd highly recommend a DJ Orthopedics wrist brace; lightweight and comfortable, doesn't make my wrist sweat like some other highly padded braces while also providing great support. Idk why, but it feels great sometimes to just crank down that top velcro at my wrist for a couple minutes when it's in a lot of pain. That's funny about that game with Randy; I've had more than a few matches where I lost all of my steam towards the end, finishing in a confusing defeat, hehe. Speaking of, I'm always looking for more people to DM; do you wanna DM sometime? Lol



S: It would be ugly. I'd have to at least get used to how DM'ing works these days first! Perhaps I'll play you with my left, just so I have an excuse.



V: Hehe; go easy on me! Feel free to stop by quakenet.org's irc channel #dmstuff any time :) Otherwise we can try to set something up via PM. Do game dev's still DM on Doom?



S: They did in the 90's and early 2000's, but I haven't seen a proper LAN party like that for years. Battlefield 1942 took over the torch there I suppose, at least where I worked after moving from the states.



V: Did you ever manage to fix that old hard drive with some of your earliest maps on it?



S: Nope, it was double dead and I threw it away eventually. There wasn't that much on it - half an unfinished map, mostly. I tried recreating it, but couldn't!



V: What does that Doom collection look like nowadays?



S: I have my complete set of pewter miniatures that Romero gave me, but moving around a lot like I have, you learn to trim down your number of belongings. The future is digital I tell you!



V: Over 15 years since the last interview, is Carlsberg beer still where it's at? S: I'm lovin' it! NEWS from the /IDGAMES ARCHIVES 8 new submissions for the archives; great job everybody!

First up for the week is a beautiful NS DM wad we've seen on Wads In Progress for some time now; "Morgenstern" by Nicholas "Tiger" Gautier is an 18-map set which requires OpenGL to run. Being an MP wad, that basically means play it in Zand under the Doom 2 iWad. Find it here: http://www.doomwadstation.net/idgames/doom2/deathmatch/Ports/megawads/tgrdm3.zip text file







This wad, while gorgeous, has many problems on the gameplay side of it. Nevermind the absence of the bfg, this wad has some questionable armor/powerup placement and strange design decisions. Amongst these are several tight areas designed to eat up time running to the opposite end of a large map and rediculous usage of OpenGL features which bog down my fairly new, midrange laptop on SP to the point where I could not reliably hit a moving target. I can only imagine what older computers would experience, let alone during an active MP match. Still, the bad things aside, this wad did have some absolutely beautiful touches put into it: reflective floors/walls, clouds of fog, jump pads, 3D models, portals, nice architecure and a couple decent layouts in their own right.







Even if you are not a DM'er, and especially if you map for zDoom or its family, download this map set right away. Awesome, awesome, awesome special effects in this thing that every (G)zDoom mapper should be familiar with. The look of this is what the standard for GzDoom maps will soon be, if it's not there already.



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Next on the list for the week is "Tritium Refinery" by Subucnameth, which can be found here: http://www.doomwadstation.net/idgames/doom2/s-u/tritium.zip Text file







This 2-map set runs in Vanilla under the Doom 2 iWad.



These were 2 solid vanilla maps. Fun gameplay, with its easy general setups and tight traps. Nice, simplistic visuals that worked well for a vanilla map. The only downside to these two maps, to me, was the overexcessive use of brown; aside from that the texturing, lighting, and detailing was solid. Vanilla fans are sure to enjoy these two maps; give them a shot today!



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Our third wad this week is one I had the pleasure of playing some months ago when its beta was posted on the DoomWorld forums. "Shrooms" by Albertoni can be found here: https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/s-u/shrooms







This 6-map set runs in zDoom under the Doom 2 iWad, though GzDoom is recommended.



Perhaps one of the more interesting wads I've played; this wad is minimally detailed, but rich in effects and atmosphere. Something I never noticed before: this wad has 2 endings. Personally, I like the normal ending in which the player questions whether he has been murdering demons, or his very same friends that gave him the magical fungi in the first place. Much like a typical trip, not that I would know, the journey starts off fairly grounded in reality, with a few strange occurances here and there. Following that, things take a turn for the crazy, symbolism and colors abound; areas clear and yet fuzzy at the same time. If you're looking for something fresh and interesting, give this wad a download!



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After that experience, "The Wreck" by Thomas Nijman can be found here: http://www.doomwadstation.net/idgames/doom2/Ports/s-u/thewreck.zip Text File







This 3-map wad was made for the Vinesauce contest and runs in GzDoom under the Doom 2 iWad.



I'm not gonna lie; I hated the beginning of this map set. The underwater portion during the first half of the first level as the player finds a way into the ship really made me want to quit then and there, but as the first map goes on the effect isn't quite so bad. This map set had some cool things going on; during the first level, the player raises and lowers the water level in the ship they are in, which is also crashed and upside down. There was a decent puzzle that made me think briefly of Zelda, as well as a few other cool things going on. This wad's second level takes place firmly within 'The Wreck of the Moria Daria,' while its final map is situated on its deck, which has somehow been turned right-side-up. Idk how it makes sense, but this was an interesting map set and I just love the theme of a wrecked ship. Nice job here Thomas! I encourage every GzDoom fan to check this cool wad out.



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The fifth wad this week is called "Deliverance: ONI Facility Demo (stripped version)" by Elric Sullivan (Fisk); found here: http://www.doomwadstation.net/idgames/doom2/Ports/d-f/f-f01-s2.zip Text File







This wad runs in (G)zDoom under the Doom 2 iWad. The music was stripped to comply with /idgames's standards.



This was a decent-looking, fun romp through a level that struck me as being in the E1-style of Doom 1, both aesthetic-wise and gameplay-wise, with most monsters consisting of imps, bulls, and zombies; few medium-tiers thrown in there, but not many. This would make for a fantastic opener for a map set, if just a bit long. Still, I ran around this thing and somehow wound up at the exit in less than 5 minutes (I also missed 2/3 of the monsters and map), so it ain't too bad. I liked it enough to turn around before hitting the exit switch in order to clear the map proper before leaving; I'm sure many folk will like this as well. Give it a go!



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Following that is an invasion map by the same guy who brought us the first wad this week, "Morgenstern;" find "Shadowmaker" by Nicholas "Tiger" Gautier here: http://www.doomwadstation.net/idgames/doom2/Ports/s-u/shdwmkr.zip Text file







This invasion-style map runs in Zandronum 3.0 under the Doom 2 iWad.



I love invasion maps and this was a beautiful one. A bit demanding on the hardware, as was the case with a map or two in "Morgenstern," but all-around a fun experience! I didn't make it far, legitimately, which was unfortunate, but the once the enemies and stuff started porting in things got a bit rough for this guy. Still, I kept at it for a little bit and made it through to the end; I'm sure this wad would be fun with 2-4 people, all on nice comps. I was a bit saddened to not see the BFG make an appearance anywhere, but at 7 waves this was nice. Respawn times on items was rediculously quick, which might have been a bad thing considering you could just about pick any weapon, stand on its ammo crate and never run out of ammo (they respawned that quickly; < 5 seconds), but for SP it made things much more possible; a nice feeling to have when every known corner of the map gets swarmed by enemies. With nowhere to run to, this map demands that the player find a safe spot and hold out. Still. being a fair-sized map there are plenty of places to choose from and once that initial Hell of each wave has been dealt with, mop-up is cake. Where you decide to hold up affects how tough it will be, I suppose, but you'll rob from Peter to pay Paul in tedium, most likely. As you progress through the map, portions of it open to give the player more space, as well as supply him with additional goodies. Being from Tiger, it was a very beautiful map. Invasion fans give this map a download!



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Our seventh wad this week is titled "Industrial Warfare" and comes to us from Carlos Lastra. Find it here: http://www.doomwadstation.net/idgames/doom2/Ports/g-i/industry.zip Text file







This map runs in zDoom under the Doom 2 iWad.



A fairly straightforward map, this non-linear map features few traps and mostly an exploratory style of play. Gameplay and aesthetics fit that common E1 theme. Carlos is getting better with his maps; so take some time to crack this map open and give it a check.



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Finally, to round off the week for /idgames we have "Russian DOOM" by Julian Nechaevsky, which can be found here: https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/source/rus-doom







This is a cool program; based on Chocolate Doom 2.2.1, Julian Nechaevsky has made a new executable program which runs Doom, but with the words translated to Russian. In addition, for each iWad, there is a small pWad within Russian Doom which translates the names of the maps to Russian as well; for that full Russian experience. This program is really cool; hopefully we'll see some more for other languages pop up!



Fantastic; 8 new submissions to the archives is something to be proud of! top Speedrunning news and videos "Ancient Aliens" has been receiving some new demos lately. I absolutely loved that map set and it's stuff like that which raises the bar for all of us to aspire to as we map after its release. There have been some really cool demos for this ground-breaking megawad to come out over the last few months, but I was happy to see more begin to trickle in; hopefully we'll see more soon!



Check out the DoomWorld thread here: https://www.doomworld.com/vb/doom-speed-demos/89728-ancient-aliens-proofs-complevel-9/3/ DoomWorld member 4shockblast put up a couple interesting demos for Sunder over the week; MAP03 NM-Speed in 3:20 and MAP08 NM-Speed in 2:54 (also Pacifist). Both are good watches! Great job on these 4shockblast! Would love to see more!



Check 'em out here: https://www.doomworld.com/vb/post/1670302

top NEWS from around the Web Looking towards the DoomWorld forums we find a couple sweet things:







DoomWorld member Impie has released a quite interesting gameplay mod titled "Surreal Killer" on the forums. In this GzDoom mod, you "play a four-armed babe with an attitude and an unusual way of handling firearms." New monsters, weapons and powerups are included with this mod. The weapons are all really cool to use and most have an alt fire, typically involving the use of your extra hands, often increasing dps by simply putting out more shots, which tends to mow down monsters fairly quickly. Having an extra set of arms really does pay off!







The monsters, on the other hand, do not like to go down without a fight. Most monsters seem to have been at the very least tweaked, with some being totally replaced by new ones. Some regulars of the DoomWorld forums might recognize Fractal Curly from this mod, ranamed here to Papa Mosh; Impie put out a thread for him a little while back. I was glad to see his inclusion in this mod, as he's an interesting character. Taking the place of the Cyberdemon, Fractal Curly has a couple different attacks, but wasn't truly fractal which might be the reason for his change in name, but he'll always be Fractal Curly to me. One is to throw big ole boulders at the player and the other is to spawn 2 ubercurleys, which are simply smaller versions of Papa Mosh called Uber Mosh which replace the Barons of Hell. Spider Masterminds have been replaced with a large rocket-shooting robot ala Cyberdemon, and regular ole roided-out Curly takes the place of the bulls. Every enemy has a new look and some, like the Spider Mastermind, have totally new attacks which counter the player's newfound set of hands nicely.







This mod was a ton of fun to play and I hope Impie continues to add more content to it before its eventual upload to /idgames; great job on this Impie!



Find its DoomWorld thread here: https://www.doomworld.com/vb/wads-mods/90795-surreal-killer-monster-weapon-wip/



Find its download link here: http://www.mediafire.com/file/p3ege7760dm61c1/surreal+killer+dl.zip



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DoomWorld member rdwpa released a new map, "Ahh!" is a small -complevel 9 map showing off of the allhell.wad bestiary and sprite replacements, with a few reverted back to Doom 2 originals.







This was a really cool map from rdwpa. As is typical for him, the encounters are all layered in such a way as to provide the most amount of pressure on the player. Something I particularly liked about this wad was the large variety of monsters it used and how fun its guns were to shoot. The shotgun was mixed with the chaingun to create an auto-shotgun from Hell. Still, for an rdwpa map it was fairly easy; I guess its bark was worse than its bite. I finished this map in just under 6 minutes, though with an extra 4 deaths bump that number up to just under 12, hehe.



This map consists of 3 main encounters, with the second one being the largest and most deadly. After finishing the entire area, the player is teleported to one final fight. This whole thing is really interesting for a Boom-compatible wad, given all the new monster behaviors. This isn't a new behavior, but worth noting: the chaingunners have two heads. This is a new behavior, though: when the arachnotrons die, who themselves are steeds in this twisted corner of Hell to those two-headed chaingunners, they spawn a chaingunner. Like the dude riding them dusted himself off and decided to keep on going like his name is John Rambo. In addition, should the player fall while one of these duos is locked in, shooting at the player, they'll continue to fire at the player's dead body indefinitely. It's quite comical.







The map itself is mostly an outside, grassy area surrounded by grey walls, with tall grey industrial-looking things in the background. The final fight takes place on a rooftop. Rdwpa succeeded in delivering another fun wad with this; download it right away!



Find it on its DoomWorld thread here: https://www.doomworld.com/vb/wads-mods/90741-ahh/



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One Man Doom has 2 new reviews up!







"Asylum" is a Vanilla Doom 2 map made earlier this year by Angry Saint. This wad has some absolutely gorgeous lighting and is a fun romp with its fair share of tough spots. Read KMX's great review here: https://onemandoom.blogspot.com/2016/09/asylum-asyv10wad.html



The second review KMX posted is about the first episode of "Alpha Accident" by Eugene "Wraith" Guschin. This 9-map, Limit-Removing episode-replacement takes over the E1 mapslots of The Ultimate Doom iWad. This wad has a non-traditional Doom style that cannot be summed up in one or two sentences, so head on over to One Man Doom and check out KMX's full review here (he seems to have really enjoyed it!): https://onemandoom.blogspot.com/2016/09/alpha-accident-aae1wad.html



Great job on the reviews KMX!



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Wads In Progress has some new info on a couple wads; check it out!



http://wadsinprogress.info/?a=listwads&game=&status=&mode=



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DoomLauncher received an update! V2.4.0 is now out; get over to Realm667 and see for yourself!



http://realm667.com/index.php/en/



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Take care everybody!

top Doom 3/4 news Doom Wad Station (yours truly) posted it's first Doom 4 map review, which you can find here. The map is called "Janitor vs. Zombies" and while not the best map I ever played, it's not bad and it's a good lead in to the 2nd map (the sequel) which I'll also be reviewing shortly. And since you have to play the first one to play the 2nd one, you might as well. :-) Not really much going on with Doom 3 (pretty much the norm). If you have any news to add for either of these, be sure to email me.

In case you were wondering about System Requirements for Doom 4 Doom video game system requirements ( minimum )

OS: Windows 7, Windows 8.1, Windows 10 (64-bit versions only)

Processor: Intel Core i5-2400 or better / AMD FX-8320 or better

Memory: 8 GB RAM

Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670 (2GB or better / AMD Radeon HD 7870 (2GB or better

DirectX: Version 11

Network: Broadband Internet connection

Storage: 22 GB available space

Additional Notes: Open GL 4.5. Latest Graphics Drivers. Doom Reborn has received an update! Pre-beta Version 1.6 is out! For those who don't know, Doom Reborn is a 1:1 replica of Doom 1+2 in Doom 3. The recreation and attention-to-detail put into this mod is simply amazing and can truly only be witnessed for oneself. Grab your Doom 3 cd and download this baby right away!



Find it here: http://www.doomwadstation.net/doom3tc/reborn/

Sadly - Doom Reborn's website is gone. :-(

And check out their site here: http://www.doomreborngame.com/

That about wraps it up for this week. Once again, Vinny and I would like to thank YOU, the people who keep the community alive, for visiting this tiny corner of the internet and getting your news from Doom Wad Station. Mucho appreciado! See you next week, same Doom time, Same Doom channel. If you have news - a wad, a new site, a youtube video you want to share, just email me and we'll get it into TWID. This site needs your help . In order for this site to survive, it depends on the generosity of it's users to help by contributing to assist in offsetting the cost of hosting, time, etc... help doom wad station to keep bringing you high quality reviews and downloads please consider a donation today.

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