brick

I am 100% sure I saved a copy on my desktop, but I am several time zones away from that PC. If no one else has posted it by then I'll do that when I get back in a few days.

Brick | 1 wad | 9 maps Adventure | 7 wads | 30 maps Double Impact (2011) by @RottKing & @Ralphis. 9 SP maps for limit-removing Ultimate Doom. I love Double Impact and I will talk yours ears off about how great it is if you let me. It's one of my favourite E1 replacements and any excuse to replay it is good enough. Some wads feel like a natural extension of that E1 style, but to me DI is something else entirely; it's as if someone skipped those extensions and went straight to the extreme, logical conclusion without stopping at any of the intermediates. Removing limits means the architecture is more detailed but it's still the same kind of abstraction as id's maps. I know I often have this weird fixation on lighting when talking about wads, but I think this is the wad that made me realize how much I cared about it, it's incredibly well done, sometimes subtly. And the music! some of the tracks are still Bobby's but reshuffled (a couple are just left as is) but the mashups are really fun, the E1M1 original is so catchy, and even the victory music fits so well with the humorous ending text. The wad is famous for its difficult combat, but it's also beautifully balanced, HNTR is more difficult than iwad E1 of course but it's still very approachable and removes more than half the opposition. The wad uses the whole bestiary, but even the more hellish denizens work well in the E1 setting, and some of the maps veer into corrupted techbase and make them fit even more naturally. In general it's a study in how to use the more limited Ultimate Doom set effectively, I think this is the wad I'd use to convince sceptics that interesting and challenging fights can still be made in UD. Maps are much larger than iwad, but no matter how long or complex they got I never felt a single one outstayed its welcome. There's always a logic to the progression even if it's not immediately obvious, there isn't a single trigger that feels like bullshit, the sometimes numerous secrets (most maps have 10 or more!) are always so fun to sniff out and occasionally very clever. E1M3 allows you to exit with almost half the map unexplored, including a chain of secrets to eventually reach the other exit. And it's worth finding it because playing E1M9 is its own reward, it's one of my favourite maps in the set. E1M7 has a great gimmick with a switch that drains a lot of the toxin pools, changing the look of many rooms and exposing new passages. And then there's E1M8; I'll be honest, I still don't like it, I appreciate the attempt at trying something new but I feel it veers too much into "run around, die, try again, rinse and repeat until you figure out the pattern", and I'm not a fan of this kind of perseverance-endurance test. It's a minor complain though, this is still one of my favourite wads.

Brick | 1 wad | 5 maps Adventure | 6 wads | 21 maps Mayan Mishap (2018) by Tango. 5 SP maps for Doom II in MBF. I did not recognize the name until I made the connection to Supercharge, but @Tango has been actively mapping for a long time now. This little set oozes charm and personality, with a custom palette, custom textures, replacement sprites for most of the enemies borrowed from various sources, but also small but ever-present changes to the mechanics. Almost every enemy projectile moves faster now, several times I winced at how quickly a fireball was flying towards me. Barons are now armed with a Cyberdemon's rocket launcher on top of their green volleys and are terrifying in large number. On top of the slow and ponderous mancubus there's now a flying variant, though it thankfully moves just as slowly. The maps seem big and full of enemies but are actually not that long, I found them to be just the right length to avoid oversaturation. The Mayan aesthetic is perhaps not as pronounced as I expected but visually the wad is pretty distinctive, Tango put quite a bit of effort into the architecture and it's fun running around the maps, trying to find ways to get to a higher terrace that you can see from below. Gameplay is pretty aggressive, the first map is easier but they then ramp up the difficulty quickly. I found some of the arenas a bit too much for my liking and the difficulty balancing not very friendly to the lower scale, I think a Megasphere here and there on HNTR would've done wonders to defang some of the toughest encounters without requiring changes to the combat setups. Still I had a lot of fun playing, the wad is very well done and certainly eye-catching.

MAP30 - “Goodbye” I expected this to be more of an epilogue map, the title, the music and the quiet beginning lulled me into a false sense of security. I should've guessed something was up when the map kept handing me all the guns with a ton of ammo but laughable resistance: couple of cacos here, one arachnotron there... Then I opened up the middle building and oh yeah this is a big final fight alright, with a Spider and Cyberdemons and a whole bunch of heavies. Infighting ended up saving me from the sluggish reflexes caused by my surprise! I get the yellow key and go for the door, go press the switch that will allow access to the exit, and when I see a BFG on my way back I smacked myself (again) and thought I should've gotten suspicious much earlier. Sure enough archviles had undone most of my hard work, but the BFG does clear out everyone pretty quickly. I guess the final joke is that MAP30 is an IOS after all, just... not the way you'd expect. Final thoughts (forgive me if I ramble, I tried making this more organized but I think I failed) It's been interesting reading other people's thoughts this month. There's a consistent view (not just for this wad) that easy = boring, and whenever veterans feel a wad doesn't challenge them enough this often comes up as an immediate association, and a negative one. Maybe I'm the one who's wrong, but I do not share this view, mainly because I think "difficult" and "boring" exist on separates axes. They can run parallel, they can cross over and even overlap sometimes, but they are not different words or manifestations of the same feeling. I've played games or wads that were hard, that I would never be able to complete fairly, and I was still bored. I play games to unwind, to have fun and be entertained, maybe even to be challenged once in a while, but I can still enjoy a wad that provides some but not all of the above, and I can find interesting scenarios and things to have fun with even in the absence of a high difficulty. I feel this is where Ichinichi truly shines. Someone said it was an extension of the original games, and I think that's what I love most about it: I get the same feeling of "oh hey this is a cool little thing that I haven't seen before" that the iwads often do (Romero's maps in particular are practically made of these one-time tricks), but with completely new maps and completely new tricks, and it's so fun to get the feeling of replaying Doom all over again with maps that are not Doom. KINDa had some of this experimentation but I think I got frustrated with it because it would sometimes lose focus and meander into strange progression or requiring frustrating timing. Playing Ichinichi really feels like @TheMightyWhoosh took criticism to heart, kept the particular personal style but with more focus (I think the speedmap restriction really helped there), and the product is one of my favourite wads of the year, with a distinct style and aesthetic, a lower difficulty that doesn't get in the way of the experimentation and the little cute bits. Don't let the easy difficulty be an obstacle - approach the wad as lighthearted and relaxing fun instead of a challenge, and let yourself be carried away by its charm. It certainly has plenty of it. I don't think I'll have time to participate next month, if not then best wishes to everyone and see you in the new year!

Brick | 1 wad | 11 maps Adventure | 5 wads | 16 maps Tuning Contest #3 (aka Freakmapping) (2008) by Various. 11 SP maps for Doom II: 3 vanilla, 1 Doomsday, 2 ZDoom, 5 GZDoom. This is a contest with what I thought was an interesting premise: contestants were given one SLIGE-generated map, told to upgrade it to something better-looking and to inject some uniqueness, then the entries were judged by popular vote on the forums. The end result is the usual mixed bag you'd expect, but even more so because mappers used very different ports. I played the SLIGE map first to get an idea of what the baseline was; it's typical of the random generator with that S-shaped starter room tagged as a secret, blocky rooms and corridors, very straight progression. There are a series of lifts that seem to be what most of the contestants latched on, almost all the maps include similar looking or acting lifts. Beyond this they did very different things with the premise. Escape From Burning House has no combat and the goal is to get out of the titular burning house, which looks suspiciously identical to the original SLIGE map, with taking constant damage acting as a timer to get out. I liked Corrupted Zone for repurposing that S into something very different, and making a large and complex map but where its origin is still recognizable. The maps that deviate the most from the original are unsurprisingly in the GZDoom group. Freak Train is very script-heavy and I had trouble seeing the SLIGE origin at all. Descent is beautiful, but most of the real estate is occupied by that immense tower and the surrounding city, none of which is ever accessible (it really looks stunning though). I think Netherworld ends up as the oddest one out because the Doomsday renderer just looks so different from even GZDoom. Ultimately I found it very interesting to see how the same map and premise could be interpreted so differently, but not all the maps were that much fun to play.

MAP28 - “Castle of Corruption” Another beautiful map, it definitely gives off castle vibes, and those zigzag lines, menacing as always, make it look like the corruption is creeping in. I think my favourite looking sections are the start after the walls are lowered, and the plasma rifle room. Speaking of, getting it is practically required, I don't think pistol starters have another way past the Cyberdemon. As often happens to me I found the yellow key (cleverly hidden behind a series of secrets), but by the time I realized it can be used to remove the archviles I had already killed them, in what was a hectic but fun fight. I think I took most of my damage from the swarm of Lost Souls, I had the SSG equipped and for some reason refused to switch, so they took several bites while I methodically removed them one at a time. Easily another one of my favourites. MAP29 - “Pop” A suitably epic penultimate map, keeping the MIDI that the iwad plays on this slot; Shawn's Got the Shotgun is incredibly fitting (to be honest, all of the choices have been). The map consists of 3 major sections laid out a bit like the Atlantis of legend. We start in the wide circular hall with a blue switch, doors leading outside that cannot be opened, and multiple doors (some locked) to the inner circular section. The detailing in this starting hall is fantastic, I can't believe this stays within the static limits, it looks so rich in parts. All the keys are in the inner section, in small subections that can each be completed very quickly and have to be done in order. The last yields the blue key, and using it opens doors to the outer section, which runs all around the building and has 3 switches that need to be pressed. I only just realize, as I write this, that it is in fact possible to completely skip the big fight; if you access each switch from the inside without exploring any of the outside you never cross any of the linedefs that trigger it. I did not think of this, though the fight was a bit easier because I found the Invulnerability sphere earlier but got suspicious and saved it, a wise choice! I think it's also easier if the Cyberdemon infights with everyone else (there's three of them on UV? Yikes) but since he's inside I found it easier to just BFG everything. Pressing all 3 switches opens the way to the throne room (cathedral?) of the Spider, which goes down rather anticlimatically after what I just had to do. I liked the map a lot as a big final fight, but I'm not disappointed to learn there's a way to skip it, I really like that the wad rewards clever players without forcing them to play by its rules.

Brick | 4 wads | 5 maps Silver Edge (2022) by Paolo M. aka Paul977. 2 SP maps for Doom II in Boom. I hope you like revenants, because I could swear they account for half the enemies in the wad. This pair of map is difficult to judge for me. Objectively they're probably well put together. I'm not a fan of the silver aesthetic but it's very purposeful and consistent. The palette and custom textures give it a unique look, with the yellows and greens looking quite striking. I don't even think the combat is bad, there's clearly thought put into the encounters, the enemy count is low but the ambushes are set up very precisely. I just did not care for the gameplay, I found the ambushes irritating, I kept going in circles trying to find where to go next even though the maps are not that large. I think it's a me problem, but unfortunately I didn't have a great time playing this. Porn (of which your mainstraem idea is laughable) (2016) RaphaelMode. 1 SP map for Doom II in Boom. This is not exactly the kind of wad title that inspires great confidence, so I walked in expecting the worst. Surprisingly this turned out to have nothing to do with porn (the text file's attempt at explaining the title anyway made no sense whatsoever), but it's still pretty bad. It's a series of branching paths, one path leads to death and one path leads to the next test, with a wall scribbling that's supposed to hint at which is the right path to choose. The problem is that there is zero context for the scribbles, nothing outside of them to even begin to guess what they say, no pattern that I could guess even after a few to try and decipher them, so the map turns into an exercise of pure trial and error. The stock music, the fact many of the "traps" involve standing on a moving platform and waiting for a full minute to find out if it was the correct choice or not, and the amateurishness of the "hints" do not add to a great experience. fred (1994) by Jeff. 1 SP map for vanilla Doom. Yes, it's a 1994 map, but honestly I like it more than the previous one. There's not much to it, it's very easy, short, nothing remarkable, and has the typical abstraction of those early maps. But it also has some fun secrets, progression that didn't make me want to pull my hair out, and for something so old there's a surprisingly good understanding of some of the basics of mapping, with extensive use of elevation and light level differences. It doesn't have the "I can't believe this is one of the first maps" impression of something like Stones, nor the wow factor of later 1994 gems like Doomsday of UAC, but it's still remarkably well put together for something made within a month of DEU, and for the whole 5 minutes it takes to max it it's a fun ride. Shrike (1995) Carlos Dwa. 1 SP map for vanilla Doom II. Another early era map, this time for the sequel. Right away I knew there was trouble when the wall right next to the starting door is tagged as requiring a blue key (I wonder how much it would mess up the map if it did work...). Opening the door reveals a completely different texture selection than the start room, with no attempt whatsoever at any sort of consistency or aesthetic. Around the corner and past some human and zombie enemies, there are a dozen SS. Carlos claims that the "purists" could complete the whole map with just the shotgun but I can't imagine many people would want to go through knights, cacos and then the barons with just that (though it seems there's plenty of ammo for those so inclined). The texture usage is utterly random, when it's not just plain absent. Then I hit a room with 2 archviles, trying to move around it sent me through a series of teleporters that ended in a dark room with no way out and a bunch of enemies that eventually shredded me.

I have so completely and utterly missed those peeping skulls, in every single map... I feel stupid XD MAP26 - “Aka Desu” This is a hub-based map, it seems as if there will be 4 sections (one for each key and one for the exit) but the first and last are actually connected. The yellow key is easy to get, most enemies can be killed by poking around the corner and letting them come. The blue key has a clever secret BFG. The red key section is the most involved, looks the best and had the most entertaining fights, including teleporting in a couple of archviles. After that it's just one quick jaunt to the exit, guarded by a PE that is harmless in such a small room. Fun and quick-playing map. MAP27 - “Regenerations” I thought this map looks gorgeous, I'm shocked that this was done in just a single day. I love the way Doom sectors can be made to portray beams running across a partial ceiling with the sky visible above it, and this arrangement looks so beautiful in the main hall of the map. There's also a great-looking use of zigzag linedefs near one door, as if to show the grey metal of the techbase breaking apart or in an unfinished state. The red key requires some precise timing that surprised me, I think this is the first time in the wad that a required puzzle tests my reflexes, but the timing is relatively forgiving. There are some criss-crossing hallways in the north (using a lift to go "under" when they cross), and the goal is to open up the originally inaccessible one-third of the starting main hall/cavern. That final fight is epic, with pretty much every mid-tier teleporting in, but it's not very hard and infighting helps a lot. Probably one of my favourite maps, in a set where I've loved every map.

Brick | 1 wad | 12 maps Adventure | 8 wads | 47 maps Lifetime | 240 wads | 1004 maps Bella (2003) by Paul Corfiatis. 12 SP maps for Doom II in ZDoom. I'm not sure about my calculations, because I know ICID and I have a different number for my total wads played with ER/IWA, but if I have it right then this wad pushed me over another milestone. It came on the heels of @pcorf releasing 2002ADO, which I really like alongside a lot his releases both new and old. It does feel a bit weird, Pcorf loves mapping for vanilla and sometimes for Boom, but this is one of his rare wads that requires ZDoom for more than just MAPINFO. It doesn't go all out mind you; no scripting, no overuse of slopes. Unfortunately Pcorf did find the stealth monster flag, and uses it for just about everything, including (especially) archviles. I admit it was the most irritating feature; getting constantly mobbed by stealth chaingunners is not what'll get me sold on the flag's existence being a good idea. The maps also like to spam cyberdemons (and I was playing on HNTR...), some are more like puzzles and require figuring out how to get past them, but others are just an exercise in BFG spam and dodging. The maps are short, with several interesting combat setpieces here and there to make them more interesting even if I don't think they're all set up very well. There's a lot of Dehacked to make variants of several enemies, including cacos that move faster and have more health, another bizarre caco variant that can land and shapeshift into a chaingunner and that explodes into lost souls like the PE. There are other oddities too, like one of the secret maps taking you back to the same map you reach it from, with everything reset since this is not a hub. All this combined with the ZDoom specials gives the wad a strange feel, it just does not play like a typical Pcorf. It does, however, absolutely look the part, lighting is beautiful, and there are some very nice looking rooms, all of it with nothing but stock graphics. It's not my favourite of Paul's wads but some of the maps are fun to play and I think it's worth a look for some of the interesting ideas.

MAP24 - “Epping” The Cyberdemon was definitely the most dangerous enemy here, he roams a wide platform and many times I thought I was in a safe spot only to find myself dodging a rocket that had almost hit me. The sound of that mechanical hoof is defintely unnerving. Much of the map otherwise unfolds uneventfully, apart from a surprise ambush here and there of course. The grove to the west looks lovely, with sector health and armor bonus trees and fruits that have fallen out of them. Awakening the undead from his eternal rest has a nice cinematic touch to it too. I really enjoy the playfulness that's present all over the wad. MAP25 - “Putrid” There's a long ride up a mine elevator or something at the beginning, and then the map proper begins. There are multiple moving parts to it with damaging floor being surprisingly more present than has been standard so far. I think the most heated fighting is early on, then it settles into a more incidental pace. The biggest surprise was the Spider after getting the blue key, but she doesn't have to be dealt with straight away. I don't have much to say about the map, but it's perhaps a testament to the wad's consistently high quality that the worst I can say about a map is "it's good and solid"! My Doom time will be limited in December so my picks will be either a quick-playing megawad, or a multi-wad pick so I can at least participate for one full wad. Much as I would love to play Hell's Bane, there's no way I'll be able to keep up. +++ 3 Heures d'Agonie +++ Operation Biowar & Equinox +++ Pagodia & 10 Day Vacation (DBP27) & Altars of Madness

Brick | 1 wad | 10 maps Adventure | 7 wads | 35 maps The Adventures of MassMouth Do Over! (2002) by Cyb. 10 SP maps for Doom II in ZDoom. A while back when ICID rolled The Adventure of MassMouth, I tried playing it but gave up at the 4th map. When I rolled Do Over I decided to try again. I managed to finish it this time, which wasn't really difficult considering the maps are tiny, almost half of them are just cinematic interludes, and the whole wad can be finished in half an hour. Do Over is more update than remake, Cyb tried to polish the wad up a bit, added some fancy camera work to the cinematics, but the maps are identical from what I remember. Unfortunately this means that Do Over doesn't fix any of the problems of the original. Some are not really Cyb's fault, modern ZDoom doesn't like the wad, and while it doesn't spit out any errors some things clearly don't work the way they're supposed to, including both MassMouth's signature blaster and the Eye of Mahan weapon later on. This makes the wad much harder than intended, but gameplay is so weak anyway it doesn't really matter. Which is the problem with the wad: there's really nothing to it. Other than the fancy camerawork in the cinematics there's no story or lore or anything of much interest. Maps are tiny and incredibly straightforward, combat is either laughable or just tedious against some of the health sponges. There are a couple of cute joke textures in the early maps, but visuals are incredibly bland and it feels like the later maps are even more rushed, with zero interesting combat, progression, architecture, or anything really. I'll have to check out the sequel some day to see if it deserves its Cacoward, but this one is absolutely not worth even the minimal time it takes to play.

MAP22 - “Embedded” Another hot start, this time with a squad of cacos flying into view. There's a nice contrast in map architecture between the base corridors in the centre, the rocky rugged landscape outside, and the reddish caverns in the SE. The various bits are well interconnected and going all the way around the rocks to finally reach the yellow key is satisfying. I was not surprised when picking it up triggered a teleport ambush, but it still gave rise to some frantic moments, especially since that PE can do serious damage if not dealt with quickly. Getting the chaingunners and arachnotrons to infight at the end while dodging their fire with the blur sphere was another fun moment. MAP23 - “Tech Gone Naughty” I chuckled at the reference in the title. Then the map did get naughty when it unceremoniously tried to crush me when I blindly went for the BFG (my fault for not watching out for traps!). The map itself is one mostly-straight and not-too-long string that we cross all the way from one end to the other for the red key. The multi-archvile trigger when we pick it up is a nasty surprise, as each teleports to a different section of the string and they basically start reviving everyone, while I run back in sheer panic trying to get them before they cause too much damage. Having made it all the way back I go through the red door and one final archvile, which is so easy to dispatch with the BFG compared to how much the previous ones can cause trouble. Loved the map.

@Devalaous can I make an easy suggestion for fixing all those impassable walls without editing any of the maps? I think all you'd need to do is force the correct compatibility on whichever ports you want to support. For GZDoom I think all you need to do is add nombf21 to a defaultmap section in ZMAPINFO. For DSDA-Doom and Woof, just add a lump called COMPLVL and put the word vanilla in it (nothing else). I think Nugget Doom and Doom With Love also support COMPLVL, so between this lump and the ZMAPINFO addition you'll cover pretty much all the ports that could be affected, with minimal effort, and like I said without any map editing.

MAP20 - “C Plus” I think this one gave me the most trouble with combat so far. Right away there's a Cyberdemon above, and while hiding from him is initially easy, there are several spots later in the map that are exposed to his fire without it being immediately obvious, he works well to put some pressure without being too aggravating. The keys are all next to each other separated by fences, there's a nice sense of progression every time I found myself back in that hall with one more key under my belt. I think I took the most damage in that central staircase area, partly because of the mancubus hitting me from above when I couldn't yet reach him, and partly from eating a Cyberdemon rocket near the blue door when I thought I was safe. Finally murdering the Cyberdemon after getting the red key was very satisfying, and the change to the starting area that gives access to the last room looks pretty cool. The finale is a fight against two Spiders, it's not the most exciting but getting them to infight is fun and that large hall looks nice. MAP21 - “Brisk” Once again the title fits, the map is short and indeed brisk. It's another one where we press a succession of switches, each peeling off another layer and unleashing another wave of enemies. Almost all the fighting occurs in that central arena downstairs, which has more striking texturing and those jagged edges that I'm starting to love so much.

Hellmaker would introduce some weird flags on some linedefs, I'm not sure why or if there was a pattern to it. 20 years later when MBF21 was created it expanded on Boom/MBF by adding to these flags. One of the new flags is "block players" but not monsters, which happens to coincide with one of the garbage flags that Hellmaker introduces. I know Rudolph has complained about this before but I played through the original RoC not long ago with zero problems in GZDoom, you just have to make sure not to turn on the compat flag for "MBF21 features" (any of the Doom compat presets will keep it off). I'm sure the issue with DSDA-Doom is again that people are playing with the wrong complevel, I just tested the famous MAP04 line; on cl 21 it blocks, on any other cl it works fine and you can go through, I even tested it by switching cl mid-map from 21 to 11 and I could suddenly walk through no problem. Oddly, I tried the MAP01 red key and couldn't reproduce the problem. In both GZDoom and DSDA-Doom, no matter whether I had MBF21 compat or another compat, I could get the red key without any problem... very strange!