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[DOOM Mods and WADs Discussion] - Celebrating 19 Years of Demon Disembowelment!
Grimthwacker
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY!!!
Since the unexpected success of my original Doom appreciation thread, I've expanded my horizons and found a lot more to love about the constant wonder that is a now 18-year-old game. Like, loads more. Anybody who's familiar with the wonderful world of Doom WADs and mods knows what I'm talking about already, but for the people who don't know about it, there's an entire world of enhancements, levels and other amazing things that can turn Doom into something completely different and new. We'll be talking here about the basics of bring Doom into the current millennium, starting with source ports and moving onto the more specific aspects to add a fresh experience to an old classic.
The Skinny on Being Port-ly
Remember the old days when Windows was just a twinkle in Bill Gates' eye and computer games used to be run on DOS? Yeah, things weren't exactly streamlined back then, but thankfully we have all sorts of newfangled ways to enjoy PC gaming, and Doom is no exception. In order to run Doom, and other games using the Doom engine like Heretic, Hexen and Strife, on modern OSes, you'll need a "source port" - a modification of the engine that makes it compatible with current systems and in many cases adds a significant number of aesthetic and gameplay improvements. First thing's first: You'll need to own the actual games in order to get anywhere. Just hit up Steam in order to get the old Doom games on the cheap (ten bucks each) and make sure to note where the .WAD files are in the respective Program File folders. Then pick your poison, er, source port from the many available. The major ones are all roughly based off an engine called "Boom" which significantly enhanced the basic Doom engine, so if you see something requiring a "Boom-compatable" source port, they're probably referring to one of these:
- Chocolate Doom: about as basic as you can get, Chocolate Doom is a bit fancier than "Vanilla Doom" (get it?) in that it runs on modern systems and supports certain features like mouselook and acceleration support, but delivers Doom in its purest, no-frills form outside of running it on DOSBox.
- ZDoom/GZDoom: Now we get to the fun stuff. My personal choice of source port(s), they're two of the major Boom-compatable ports and "limit removing", meaning they can allow for programming, designing, and incorporation of effects not capable of being done with the old Doom engine. ZDoom is one of the most widely used ports for programming, so if you're going to use one port it should probably be this. GZDoom, a more technically sophisticated version of ZDoom, includes OpenGL rendering and functionality for even more complicated programming tricks and effects, as well as higher resolution sprites and objects.
- Skulltag: Capable of supporting many of ZDoom and GZDoom applications, Skulltag's main draw is its focus on multiplayer support. It includes an application called Doomseeker that acts as a server browser displaying all the servers and games being run on Skulltag, and also allows for easy download of any missing WAD files that are being used. If you want to relive the glory days of early Deathmatching, Co-op games, or any of the crazy new game types, WADs and experiences (including Mega Man 8-Bit Deathmatch), this is the way to go.
There are plenty of other ports that might tickle your fancy, but these should provide a nice entry point. Once you've downloaded the port of your choice, you'll need to take the IWAD files from the base Doom games (DOOM.WAD, DOOM2.WAD, etc.) and copy them into the main folder of your port. That'll allow the whole thing to run properly. I recommend downloading a handy tool called ZDL that allows you to gather together all your IWADs and various other extensions in one place and launch them all at once rather than dragging 'n dropping everything.
Blowing Your WADs
So, just what is a WAD anyway? It's short for "Where's All the Data", an acronym coined by id for a catchall file where all the relevent engine data and assets are stored. The base Doom games all use their own individual IWADs, while the stuff that the community makes are all basically add-ons that use the data from the IWADs and builds around it. WADs come in all shapes, sizes and forms, from single levels, small map packs, mammoth "Megawads" that provide full length substitutions for the games they use, and just about everything imaginable inbetween. So where exactly do you find them? Well, they're all over the place, but the easiest thing to do is head over to Doomworld, one of the most venerable community sites, and its voluminous /idgames database full of WADS and other files for Doom, Doom II, Hexen and Heretic, and other games. Doomworld also has a number of features showcasing various WADS, from the best and worst WADs from the first ten years of Doom's existence, to the yearly Cacowards dedicated to the most impressive efforts from community members introduced over the past year. You can also check out the various forums at source port sites like ZDoom and Skulltag, which regularly get all sorts of folks showing off their new stuff. Some notable recent releases:
Doom the Way id Did - a community project dedicated to remaking all three original Doom episodes using the same kind of level design philosophies used John Romero and the original Doom team; it's a surprisingly well-done and not overly-complicated set of levels that really evoke the old Doom feel without resorting to insane levels of monsters or other cheap tricks that other level designers tend to use (well, mostly anyway).
Reelism
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=PpSJ-sYtZ4c
A hilariously simple time-killer that puts you in five one-minute rounds of survival and completely at the mercy of an RNG slot-machine which dictates the kinds of crazy stuff you'll be experiencing in each round - from enemies to weaponry to special effects. Lots of fun, and very addictive (plus it uses a lot of SNES music to great effect!)
Reverie - a Cacoward 2011-winning Doom II megawad that manages to provide a nice stiff challenge and well-designed levels that don't overly frustrate and flow very well. Good stuff from the ten or so levels that I've played so far.
It's a Mod, Mod, Mod, Mod World
Want to play through a game of classic Doom with some extra twists to spice things up? Or would you like to introduce a whole new arsenal of gear to unleash on some unwitting hellspawn? Modifications (mods for short) are files that make changes to various Doom gameplay elements, from new weapons and enemies, increased difficulty, or other things without changing any of the actual levels within the game. They're perfect for adding a new dimension to gameplay, tweaking the challenge or providing an excuse to just go nuts with crazy new guns. Like with regular WADs, they can be found all over the place, but quality may vary, so don't expect everything you find to be a real gem. That said, here are a few great mods to start of with:
Brutal Doom
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=samQ-Xxc1M4
Another Cacoward winner from this year, Brutal Doom manages to turn our favorite murder simulator into the kind of nightmarish vision that would have Jack Thompson screaming from the rooftops about banning it FOREVER. . . if you can believe that. Simply put Brutal amps the violence factor up a few (dozen) notches and gives Doom a shot in the arm in terms of both challenge and viscerality: you and your weaponry are capable of doing tremendous damage, but the enemies are also faster and more deadly to compensate. A system where shots to the head can do greater damage and the Berserk pack allows you to finish off enemies in gleefully crazy fashion rounds out a package that makes good ol' Doom, well, a lot more Doomier. If you prefer, there's also Brutal Doom Lite a pseudo-mod add-on that allows you to enjoy the gory, challenging fun with just about any basic weapon mods (read: stuff that doesn't include custom monsters or other elements that might clash with Brutal Doom's gameplay elements).
AEons of Death
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=H18_uklWSYk
One of the most vererable "Kitchen Sink" mods, AEoD throws in a whole bunch of crazy random monsters and weapons from just about any shooter imaginable (within the mid '90s - early '00s timeperiod) and asks you to deal with whatever happens. I've never tried it myself but it's one of the most popular mods in the community (or unpopular, depending on who you ask) for this reason alone. Somehow Doom and insanity seem to go well together. . .
Diaz: Last Hours of Purity
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R86sOz0WSkE
A popular weapon mod from community stalwart (and gun nut) WildWeasel, Diaz introduce a whole new weapon system into the game that uses clip-based ammo pools instead of flat numerical ones - reload before using all the ammo in that clip and you toss it all. Loads of new weapons based off real-world analogues, from pistols and shotguns to assault rifles and SMGs (as well as the PSI-Amplifier from System Shock 2, apparently, for good measure) and a number of new ballistic-based enemies added to the usual cast of baddies make it a great well rounded mod.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=samQ-Xxc1M4
Another Cacoward winner from this year, Brutal Doom manages to turn our favorite murder simulator into the kind of nightmarish vision that would have Jack Thompson screaming from the rooftops about banning it FOREVER. . . if you can believe that. Simply put Brutal amps the violence factor up a few (dozen) notches and gives Doom a shot in the arm in terms of both challenge and viscerality: you and your weaponry are capable of doing tremendous damage, but the enemies are also faster and more deadly to compensate. A system where shots to the head can do greater damage and the Berserk pack allows you to finish off enemies in gleefully crazy fashion rounds out a package that makes good ol' Doom, well, a lot more Doomier. If you prefer, there's also Brutal Doom Lite a pseudo-mod add-on that allows you to enjoy the gory, challenging fun with just about any basic weapon mods (read: stuff that doesn't include custom monsters or other elements that might clash with Brutal Doom's gameplay elements).
AEons of Death
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=H18_uklWSYk
One of the most vererable "Kitchen Sink" mods, AEoD throws in a whole bunch of crazy random monsters and weapons from just about any shooter imaginable (within the mid '90s - early '00s timeperiod) and asks you to deal with whatever happens. I've never tried it myself but it's one of the most popular mods in the community (or unpopular, depending on who you ask) for this reason alone. Somehow Doom and insanity seem to go well together. . .
Diaz: Last Hours of Purity
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R86sOz0WSkEA popular weapon mod from community stalwart (and gun nut) WildWeasel, Diaz introduce a whole new weapon system into the game that uses clip-based ammo pools instead of flat numerical ones - reload before using all the ammo in that clip and you toss it all. Loads of new weapons based off real-world analogues, from pistols and shotguns to assault rifles and SMGs (as well as the PSI-Amplifier from System Shock 2, apparently, for good measure) and a number of new ballistic-based enemies added to the usual cast of baddies make it a great well rounded mod.
This really only scratches the surface of the myriad of Doom modifications and hours of play you can get from a supposedly ancient piece of software. . . it really goes to show how dedicated the Doom community is, and how flexible the old Doom engine can be with a little bit of work. If anybody has any other mods or WADs they'd like to recommend, feel free to chime in, but above all enjoy the seemingly endless (and cost effective!) entertainment that Doom still has to offer!!!
Grimthwacker on
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The sad state of the modern FPS.
http://doom.chaosforge.org/
It's way more fun than you'd suspect.
Yep. Shooters used to be all about goin' around and, well, SHOOTING all sorts of stuff. Now, all the shooting is being overshadowed by the taking cover and strawberry jam all over the face. Thank goodness we have stuff like Serious Sam to keep the old ways alive.
So I've been trying to play a lot of WADs recently, but I can never seem to get finish some of the more acclaimed ones because of the sheer, stupid amount of enemies being thrown at you with very little room to maneuver. Scythe II? Around Map 20 after spending a long stage dealing with gawdawful amounts of stuff already. Alien Vendetta? Map 15, after two maps worth of nothing but long and tiring slaughterfests involving multiple boss enemies, monster closets chock full of stuff like Imps and Revenants, and in general not very fun exercises in quicksaving and loading. Plutonia 2? Got real old after the twentieth time a bunch of stuff teleported in when I picked up a seemingly innocuous item.
I don't wanna sound like a sissy, but when interesting level design and, good challenging fights are tossed out the window for countless cramped quarters fights and teleport/closet ambushes in succession, it's safe to say your mapmaking style needs some work.
And since it was brought up, Serious Sam has never represented the classic shooter experience for me. It shares some qualities with it, but "kill 50 waves of 10,000 enemies before proceeding to the next box to do it all again" is not what I picture when I think of classic shooters. Exploring non-linear "boxes" with actual level design, puzzles, and secrets are big features that feel mostly ignored in favor of huge enemy counts in "neo-classic", if you will, shooters these days. Not that SS is bad (though I find it really boring unless playing co-op with 3 or more others), but it doesn't have the same vibe to me. It's like the Doom WADs that just throw huge numbers of enemies at you in lieu of creative, fun level design. Those WADs completely miss the point of what made games like Doom, DN3D, Quake, etc fun.
Amen to that, bro. I'm currently running through a WAD called "Renascence", which replaces the first 11 maps of Evilution (my favorite part of Final Doom), and I'm really appreciating the way the designer kept the classic Doom level design and enemy balance intact. No constant hordes, good maze and puzzle design, and encounters that keep you on your toes and tend to catch you off guard rather than shove a whole bunch of things down your throat at once. I like it when modders and WADers keep things nice and simple - hanging around the ZDoom forums I've been seeing a lot of great attempts at making mods that make things more challenging without resorting to anything drastic, like Doom: Hardcore, so veterans can enjoy a tougher game while keeping the simple essence intact.
Bullio is absolutely right, games like Serious Sam and Painkiller attempt to recreate a small section of the Doom experience but miss out on the great level design and better pacing. Painkiller even has some interesting levels, but it gets old fighting and having to kill every single enemy of numerous hordes.
The 1994 Tune-Up Challenge - A megawad comprised of maps created one scant year after Doom's initial release. . . considering the general quality of user-made maps from the early days that seems rather suspect, I know, but the Doomworld community took it upon themselves to upgrade and polish the base maps, creating brand new versions that really challenge without resorting to monster floods. Some very creative stuff.
Polaris - A creative weapons mod that features a number of ice-based weapons that require a special "coolant" ammo type to use. . . only having too much of it at a time will cause you to rapidly freeze to the point of hypothermia (which isn't good for your health, needless to say) if you're playing as the human Ranger character. Think of it as a Lost Planet mod, where you have to scavenge thermal patches off of dead human soldiers and through exploration in order to keep from freezing if you have too much coolant at a time. On the other hand, the "Cyberian" cyborg character doesn't need to worry about that, but has lower movement speed, which isn't very good when you're being attacked from all sides. A great mod with a wide variety of cool (no pun intended) weapons.
Mutation - A weapon and enemies mod with some nice new takes on the old familiar baddies, and weapons with unique secondary functions - for example, the shotgun has an underbarrel grenade launcher, the SSG is now a quad-shotgun, a CHAINSAWGUN (the chaingun with two chainsaw blades on it, which is far more fun than you'd initially imagine), and a rocket launcher with additional flamethrower that uses cell ammo for close-quarters carnage. I like it.
Simply Deadly - Another weapon mod, this one "simplifying" the basic arsenal while retaining its lethality. . . they're absurdly effective, basically borderline cheating (legitimately, mind you), and absolutely perfect for monster-heavy jerk-WADs like Hell Revealed and Alien Vendetta.
I was playing Hard Reset recently, and whilst it has level design problems (a lot of annoying invisible walls and jumping glitches from my experience) and the like, what surprised me was that I was actually having fun with the combat. It was fat paced and frantic with you constantly needing to be on the move and prioritising your weapons and target. I wasn't expecting much from it, but one thing I will say is that it reminded me how fun it could be to play a more fast paced FPS as opposed to all the slow health regen stuff you see these days.
Part of the problem is that Doom itself also went this way, with Doom 3 basically trying to go for a more Resident Evil feel, but just resorting to cheap monster closets and LOLDark everywhere. I mean the original Doom and Doom 2 had loads of sudden monster spawn ins, but the POINT of them was that it was meant to be the next combat segment and a sudden impromptu combat challenge. In Doom 3 it was just about trying to scare you, and it didn't really work.
Thanks for reminding me about Hard Reset. Bought that game during the steam sale and promptly forgot about it.
An awesome FPS action adventure thing. Voice acting, using money to buy shit, a plot. Totally cool. Worth picking up a copy simply to use the .WAD in a modern port and enjoy.
On a whim I decided to download Aeons of Death v.6 last night. . . I was curious about why it said the download would take about an hour until I realized just how many frickin' resources the thing probably has.
Granted I was about the same when I first started playing it, but then I was a kid at the time. During the early days I used to cheat blatantly, because hey, I was bad at Doom back then.
There's a thought, cheat codes seem to have all but disappeared from games. Which is a shame really, you really ought to get the chance to cheat if you want to. These days I almost never cheat on a first playthrough, but if cheating on subsequent playthroughs will make things more fun, then I'll cheat the tar out of a game if I can.
Sure you can cheat nowadays, you just have to pay for it.
*And no mods or PC controls either, which in uinmodded Doom is a fairly minimal issue thanks to auto-elevation aim.
**I imagine they were also available on PSN.
Those ports of Doom and Doom 2 on XBL are pretty great, especially the new campaign for Doom 2.
Only co-op I played on Doom3 was system link over oXbox. Actually pretty fun since with the addition of a second gun/flashlight you could be a bit more offensive instead of defensive. It also added some moments where you had to swap flashlight duties since one was running low on ammo.
EDIT: Not sure if it upped the enemies HP or added more of them though to compensate.
Actually, no--tablets would dis-prove this. And while I've seen it running on some tablets, that's definitely not a constant, and I can't imagine the experience would be particularly stellar overall. Same for phones, but that's an extreme situation. Returning to PCs, I could think of a few issues--someone browsing this at their office, or something who's currently dealing with a keyboard they do not like for gaming (pretty much a Doom killer right there), someone stuck with a Mac without a booting option. And OP, while huge and informative, makes no mention of options for anyone running OS X (since I last checked), so that might be an obstacle. Seeing how this is a gaming forum, there's a decent chance they might have one of those two consoles.
Not harming anyone to mention it. I'm not that interested in the Doom modding scene myself, but I do like to play me some Doom, so the XBLA was a convenient option at the time (actually my first purchase on it). The thing that particularly got me was the idea of shared couch co-op multiplayer, which obviously you're not going to have on PC barring some sort of awkward setup with laptops, and Doom's resolution makes split-screen pretty manageable. Pretty different experience from your usual online multiplayer, and LAN parties have vanished where I live.
EDIT: Plus, while I bought a 35 feet HDMI cable to link my PC to my television, that's not an option for everyone (and I live in a small apartment), as well as whatever equipment needed to extend your keyboard. One thing I wouldn't think of being much an issue would be how much you'd just have to see Doom, particularly pure Doom, on an HDTV (not that impressive, in my experience). There are lots of great reasons to hook up a PC to a TV, but I doubt Doom is one of them at this point in time.
EDIT EDIT: Apparently, Chocolate Doom runs on OS X now. So that's covered.
The one I have also does lighting a lot better than the newer ZDoom with some 3D models, which I can't explain, even though the version info is much older.
Still a fun as hell game though.
Steam Profile | Signature art by Alexandra 'Lexxy' Douglass
Oh my word...
That is the coolest looking Doom thing I've ever seen!
Steam Profile | Signature art by Alexandra 'Lexxy' Douglass
Switch: 6200-8149-0919 / Wii U: maximumzero / 3DS: 0860-3352-3335 / eBay Shop
I think I knew about Doom II having new content, but I forgot. Crap, now I'll have to keep my eyes open for a sale. Thanks.
I really like the XBLA port of Doom. I never realized I'd like playing Doom with a controller, but it's become my preferred control method for the games now. That's...pretty weird to say, but with Doom's aiming system it's not so much of a shock I guess.
It's probably true for the DS3 as well (as much as I despise Dualshock), but the aiming system in Doom lends itself really well to twitch gamepad action.
I thought the additional content in Doom II XBLA was something from Final Doom maybe? I have no idea, I only have the first game.
The Brutal Doom trailer is totally about listening to Happy Days. Don't lie. You barely notice the (very impressive) hyper-violent-shooting-maiming.
Your older version is probably ZdoomGL or Doomsday (site appears to be down now, which is sad because I loved that port).
Basically Zdoom uses an enhanced software renderer, but it still looks pretty close to the original Doom (except they made the sky white when you are invincible which annoys me) . There are 3d models and hi res texture packs out there that can be used by 3d accelerated source ports to make the game look "modern". I think most of the model packs were pretty terrible. There was a guy who was working on some good looking models for Doomsday but he never completed the project.
Doom and Doom II (as well as Wolfenstein) hit the GBA, if you have a DS capable of playing carts. Other than that, you'd have to get a flashcart and the DS sourceport.
Well, not a fan of tracking down GBA carts these days with the rampant bootlegs about, and I'd rather not support the flashcart industry. Bummer.
Switch: 6200-8149-0919 / Wii U: maximumzero / 3DS: 0860-3352-3335 / eBay Shop
The new episode is a 10-map (9 regular, 1 secret) original thing made by the folks who did the port; it's pretty darn good, all things considered, at keeping the classic style and a fun thing to play through. Plus, free Doomguy Avatar costume for beating the whole thing.
And yes, Brutal Doom is the best thing, though I enjoy using the Brutal Lite mini-mod that can be used with other weapons mods to the same effect mechanicswise. It's amazing how people can take something this old and make it even better than anybody could've imagined.
It's seriously some weird shit, that totally changes up the way weapons and monsters behave in Doom. It's really hard, contains some "gotchas" that may or may not be humorous depending on who you are and what you want to do with your time. I've had some real fun with it, and I plan on finishing it up one of these days, so I guess I'm one of those that falls on the "likes it" side of things.
I will say this though, any fan of Doom wads owes it to themselves to get this crazy thing working so that they can look at probably the most controversial wad ever. I had the easiest time getting it going on Chocolate Doom. Other source ports may make things more difficult or impossible with the wad, since it uses a DeHackED patch to run The Blessed Engine.
Their art direction certainly had something to do with it, but I feel the game would have lacked that uncanny quality simply because of the power behind the engine. Things aren't very scary if you can see them in all their per-pixel lit glory, no matter now scary their design is. It takes some really creative fiddling to really capture that and still have a "good" looking game.
Also, I'd like to suggest ZDL 3.1a be added to the thread. It's an excellent Doom frontend for Windows. With a little configuration you can launch any WAD with any source port, and allows you to launch with any command line arguments.
http://www.csua.berkeley.edu/~chiry/doom/zdl/
EDIT: Unfortunately, I haven't found a frontend of comparable quality for Mac. If I knew absolutely anything at all about programming I'd try it out, but oh well.
Yeah, I already had that covered, and I love it too. :P I've been screwing around with the latest Aeons of Death - my first time playing with it, mind you - and I'm finding it very. . . interesting. They've added some general "themes" and individual game selections for enemies, so the randomness is a bit more manageable from previous iterations apparently, but I'm still finding all the pickups, items and such a bit overwhelming. Also the randomization can really screw you over when it comes to enemy types in some of the worst situations, but I guess that's the nature of the beast. I'm warming up to it, though, and would consider using it in smaller mapsets to spice things up.