Love for Doom 64 is a quiet but unwavering thing. Rather than fading out slowly over the 25 years since Doom 64’s release, it has only grown stronger. Doom 64 fans are probably the most dedicated and die-hard of the Doom sub-fandoms, faithful for decades to a console-exclusive game they could only play on modern systems via emulation or fanmade ports. Because of how hard it’s been to play, Doom 64 has enjoyed less than %1 the amount of custom content that Doom and Doom II have — by far the biggest reason those earlier Dooms have managed to stay
Tag: 2018 WADs
Eviternity
December 10, 2018 marked the 25th anniversary of Doom. There were about as many different ways of celebrating the occasion as there are people who play Doom. Countless retrospectives dotted the internet landscape. Tons of new mapsets were released around that date, including one of my own. That’s not to mention other big projects like the colossal OTEX texture pack. It was a big day, but to my reckoning the biggest thing by far to come out of Doom’s 25th birthday was Eviternity. The reasons are many, not least of which is that Eviternity was the flagship WAD to feature
Unwelcome
I live and breathe for the works of Doom modding that transcend being works of Doom modding — the WADs that advance my understanding of what a WAD can even be. There are plenty of total conversions of Doom, dating as far back as the mid-’90s. And thanks to advanced ports like GZDoom, there’s dozens of completely new games being developed today on the engine. But those projects aren’t what I’m talking about exactly. I’m more focused on what can be done within the confines of Doom while retaining its most basic and core elements. Unwelcome is one such project.
The Revenant Problem
Presented without comment: The Revenant Problem requires DOOM2.WAD and runs on Boom-compatible sourceports. If you’re not sure how to get it running, this may help. I’ve also reviewed some other WADs if you want to check those out, I guess.
Hell on Earth: Super Tiny Edition
You know how I’m always going on and on about short maps? “I love short maps.” “These maps should be shorter.” “Why doesn’t anyone make short maps anymore?” Hell on Earth: Super Tiny Edition is like if someone pandered directly to me by taking “short maps” to their most ridiculous, comical extreme. And no surprise — I adore it with every fiber of my being. Super Tiny is a reimagining of Doom II, with all 32 levels condensed into a playable space only 64 map units across. For those not in the know, that means you’re stuffed into a box exactly
Avactor
2018 has been a heck of a year for Doom WADs. I can’t even keep up with the major releases: REKKR, Doom 64 for Doom II, Dimension of the Boomed, and now Avactor. And they’re all amazing. If Dimension of the Boomed hadn’t already taken its place as my WAD of the Year, the title would fall to Avactor. Avactor: End of the Fifth Cycle is a 12-level epic from Eradrop, a mapper who loves jungle maps as much as I love gimmick maps. Eradrop… drops (sorry) an entirely new textureset into Doom to turn it into a dark, murky, foreboding crawl through overgrown valleys,
Dimension of the Boomed
Barring some shocking upheaval… I have found my 2018 WAD of the year. Dimension of the Boomed is Doom meets Quake — two of my favorite things together at last — but Boomed isn’t just Quake wallpaper pasted over the old Doom paint. And it’s not one of those uninspired “Game X in Game Y” conversions you used to see all the time either. It’s so much more than the sum of its two more obvious parts. It’s the perfect balance of the grim, haunting look of Quake, and the fast, violent action of Doom, sure — but those alone do not a good WAD
Griefless
For months now, I’ve been toiling away on a huge, multi-megaWAD retrospective — playing these epic WADs that each take weeks to finish, and then trying to make sense of my thoughts and put it all down in writing. (EDIT: Hilariously, this is referring to my piece on skillsaw that didn’t get finished until 2022.) And while I’m smashing my head against a brick wall on that project, little WADs like Griefless give me the will to live. Griefless is the latest from James “Jimmy” Paddock, the Doom community’s resident jack of all trades (and master of all of them). Jimmy’s mapping
Icon, Citywars, and Evilcore
Daniel Remar is better known for his standalone games — stuff like Hyper Princess Pitch, or two of my all-time favorite games, Iji and Hero Core. He’s so much more known for those that I didn’t even realize he made Doom WADs until a few weeks ago. If the dude makes such brilliant games, he must make some dope Doom WADs, right? Well, out of the six WADs he hosts on his website, I’ve picked out three that I’d consider awesome, if a little basic. They’re presented here in what I think is chronological order; unfortunately they aren’t packaged with documentation, so release