Good Doom/Heretic/Hexen WADs

[Ninja Destroyer]

Doom v0.3 Resurfaces

If there ever was a time when the words “The Doom community has done it again” couldn’t do justice to what just happened, this should definitely be it. A really, really bare-bones concept of what was known at the time as the alpha version of Doom has resurfaced, and it has been aptly named as “0.3” in the Doom development chronology (it’s dated February 28, 1993; some of you weren’t even born yet!).

As usual, the contents of this pre-alpha are not many but they’re still pretty informative (thanks to previous efforts made by the community when it comes to compiling everything related to the development of Doom). It shows off some pretty basic maps from Tom Hall, that really big alpha HUD graphic that acts as if you were inside the helmet, and an on-screen HUD automap in the upper right corner of the screen. You can also see the graphics and you can realize how much of it is borrowed from Wolfenstein3D assets

Is this available for download, you may ask? Yes it is! You can download it here.

It works nicely on Dosbox. It's just a presentation of various textures and level building abilities of the engine. One of the maps is a proto-e1m2 from the looks of it. Plus we can see imps, pinkies and baron in the first one. Later on the maps get that maze-dungeon crawler feeling, too many tight corridors for me. The weaponry - only the shotgun is very similar to the one that was in full version. Other looks more like from Wolfenstein.

 

[otsego]

I'm having a ton of luck with people leaving Doom relics at thrift stores in my area lately... this is precisely why I visit said locations:

Whoever dropped this beauty off also left the floppy intact. I don't have a drive to extract the files from it right now, but I found the WAD online.

It consists of three episodes of very bland levels designed around 1995, before modders had a chance to design some really serious stuff like we've had in this thread. They're painfully easy even on UV difficulty (granted I'm playing with the GZdoom port with mouse look... call me a heretic if you wish).

Still, great find and a decent piece of the Doom lore.

 

[Jasede]

Wow, this disk of levels comes with a FREE DISK!

 

[otsego]

Wow, this disk of levels comes with a FREE DISK!

From my understanding, this company is a part of the '... For Dummies' group. They were selling the BOOK (which is what this is), and the disk was supposed to be the FREE EXCLUSIVE containing the levels on them. The book is full of Doom 'hints' (aka. what does teh rockit launchur do lul') plus notes about their own levels.

Classic.

 

[Astral Rag]

"Consumed Earth" looks like it's might be right up my alley, going to try some of the beta maps soon.

Nice find otsego, I always liked that cover art sadly the actual wads are indeed very average.

granted I'm playing with the GZdoom port with mouse look

Random id Tech 1 gif that amuses me:

 

[Riskbreaker]

http://www.doomworld.com/idgames/index.php?file=levels/doom/Ports/d-f/deimos.zip
Pretty solid replacement of Ultimate Doom's E2. Decent vanilla-styled visuals and enjoyable, pleasantly challenging but not frustrating gameplay. Maps are pretty low on secrets which is rather unfortunate, especially considering the size of some maps from episode's second half.

Spoiler

 

[tormund]

Some of my favorites.

Cold as Hell:
http://www.doomworld.com/idgames/?file=levels/doom2/Ports/a-c/cah_se.zip
Story driven prequel to Doom games set in research base on Arctic during 1950s. Story is told through notes and audio logs, similar to Shock games. Suprisingly good writing and voice acting. Hub structure, difficult, mouselook is a must since weapons have a recoil. Jumping and crouching too are required.

ZanZan:
http://www.doomworld.com/idgames/index.php?file=levels/doom2/Ports/v-z/zanzan_g.zip
Worth playing for the visuals and story alone. Short and weird in every way, but well worth it. You ever heard of Wayne Barlowe? Imagine if he did art design for FPS game in late 90s, and you'll have some idea about what awaits you in ZanZan. Made by some of the people who worked on legendary Batman TC, and went on to work in ACE Team.

Hell Ground:
http://www.doomworld.com/idgames/index.php?file=levels/doom2/Ports/g-i/hg.zip
Episode where every map feels like it came from a completely different project. They are all amazing, and some of them are among most visually stunning maps I played.

Jenesis:
http://www.doomworld.com/idgames/?file=levels/doom2/Ports/megawads/jenesis.zip
Great megawad, not vanilla compatible but has a great vanilla feel to it nonetheless. Inspired by Plutonia, but not nearly as insane as many of other modern megawads. Good choice for those who are tired of ultra crazy slaughtermaps that are so popular today, but still want some challenge.

And a couple of relatively recent Wolf3D total conversions:

Unsung:
http://www.moddb.com/mods/unsung
Set in WW1, and really well made. Atmosphere is fantastic, story is told through cutscenes done in style of Belgian comic books.

Planet Nexion:
http://www.moddb.com/mods/planet-nexion
This one is something of an acquired taste. Has a striking monochrome art style, and a story that feel like a weird mix of 50s "B" SF movies and Metal Hurlant. Pretty difficult. Not source port compatible, runs through dosbox, which among other stuff means that you won't have automap.

 

[dunno lah]

Using Crispy Doom right now. Does anyone have trouble getting vertaim to work for Crispy Heretic and Hexen? Enabling it does nothing for me and I still move forward and back with y-movement...

 

[Gragt]

Crispy Doom focuses on Doom. Being able to play the other Id Tech 1 games with it, like Heretic or Hexen, is more of a courtesy but they haven’t been updated in a long time and miss many of the enchancements of the actual Crispy Doom. Fabian has no interest to start working on these but welcomes anyone willing to do the job.

 

[tormund]

http://www.doomworld.com/vb/doomworld-news/74184-idgames-maintainer-ty-halderman-passes-away-at-69/

idgames Maintainer Ty Halderman Passes Away At 69

Late last April, new files stopped appearing on the idgames archive, leading to mounting concern about maintainer Ty Halderman's well-being. The following month, in late May, a visit by a Doomer in Ty's native New Orleans confirmed that he was alive but hospitalized. That same month, Bill Koch (Bloodshedder) and Eric Baker (The Green Herring) were recruited as interim maintainers to keep the idgames archive running. Today on the forums, a close relative confirmed that Ty Halderman died on July 31, surrounded by his family. We have no reason to believe that this information is fabricated.

As maintainer of the most important part of the Doom community, Ty Halderman was the reason over 20 years of custom levels and mods remain available today. As part of TeamTNT, he contributed to TNT: Evilution from the Final Doom package among other WADs, and was one of the main programmers of the source port Boom, which set a new standard for custom level design that remains today. Needless to say, Ty Halderman was not called an "essential pillar of the community" for nothing. For all of this and more, he received the Espi Award for Lifetime Achievement at the Cacowards just last year. The work he did for this community is immeasurable, and his loss devastating. We at Doomworld offer our condolences to Ty Halderman's family, and would like to thank him for his efforts in keeping the central archive of the Doom community alive. He will be missed by us all.

RIP

 

[Ninja Destroyer]

2015 must be the most depressive year in gaming. Idgames was and it still will be the fundament of the Doom community where you can archive your most wild ideas and you just know that there never will be problems with downloading them. It really shows how dedicated you can be for something that is your hobby.

RIP

 

[otsego]

http://www.doomworld.com/vb/doomworld-news/74184-idgames-maintainer-ty-halderman-passes-away-at-69/

Damn... often perused that database throughout the years.

 

[Kutulu]

Since i am on a Hexen & Heretic marathon, here is some of favorite stuff for hexen:

Wrath of Cronos,
Rpg mod, monsters level with you but it usually stays doable & there are some cool spells.
https://zandronum.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=1224
I never did a full plathrough with this but i really liked it.

Wad 1, Wolfen:


Wad 2, Ressurection of Chaos:


Wad 3, Scourge of Viscerus:

 

[Riskbreaker]

http://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/megawads/deso.zip
I'm playing through this 12-map episode for Zandronum right now (just finished map 10) and... I gotta say I was pleasantly surprised! Really enjoyable and nicely crafted stuff.
Gameplay relies on monster placement and (sometimes devious) traps, with next to no horde combat. Maps are large-ish, well-detailed, and fun to explore; they are for the most part indoors, techbase-style affairs. Loads of custom textures, lots of them taken from AVP, Q2 and HL1. Some custom weapons, mobs and power-ups.
As far as flaws go, there was a couple of not exactly intuitive key/switch hunts, and some maps contain areas that either have constantly flickering lights, or are almost pitch black. Also, maps from the second half are somewhat stingy with ammo.

Spoiler

 

[tormund]

One of Doomworld regulars made a list of sp wads on archives, ranked by number of reviews and average review score
http://www.doomworld.com/vb/wads-mods/74214-list-of-single-player-wads-by-popularity/
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/5103936/top-idgames/top-idgames-votes.html
Some interesting bits, like two wads with most votes being controversial Ghoul's Forest 3 and one "classic" trollwad, both of them having few hundred votes more than Alien Vendetta and first Action Doom.
Pirate Doom is currently best rated among wads with more than 50 votes.

 

[Riskbreaker]

Screenies from this (wip) reimagining of Doom 2's hell maps make mine saliva glands all unruly and stuff.
http://www.doomworld.com/vb/wads-mods/74292-doom-ii-hellscape/

This one actually reminded me

that I never properly finished Caverns of Darkness, another great looking wad (mostly) made by Lutz.

 

[DawnrazorDCLXVI]

Only one I know is Witchhaven, and I'm not sure it's good.

 

[tormund]

First map's name sounded familiar, so I checked a bit and turns out it was released few years back. I played it, it was pretty fun and hard iirc.
http://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/heretic/Ports/serpents.zip
I see you also have a map by Vordakk, I really liked some of his wads. I'm looking forward to checking this out.

 

[Riskbreaker]

"Five atmospheric, non linear, detailed Heretic maps with 2-5 hours of tough, bestial, and chaotic gameplay that requires a mustache in order to play." (Not my words)

My bro made a fuckin killer Heretic WAD, so far only in demo, you should check it out!

Download: https://www.mediafire.com/?cl01b4hlu35min4

Played trough first three maps. Pretty enjoyable stuff. DeathevokatioN's maps have some truly great detailing and architecture (map 3 in particular had some pretty impressive parts), and their gameplay is rather intense and challenging. Egregor's map is a wee bit more humble in the visual department, but it still takes player trough a number of different environments, and it was pretty fun to play trough.

 

[Astral Rag]

Only one I know is Witchhaven, and I'm not sure it's good.

?

Witchaven is a fairly decent "Heretic clone", it runs on the Build Engine and it's often overbashed by modern gamerz who don't have a clue what they're talking about.

Also, dat intro

 

[Darth Slaughter]

?

Witchaven is a fairly decent "Heretic clone", it runs on the Build Engine and it's often overbashed by modern gamerz who don't have a clue what they're talking about.

The thing I most remember is that you could make stairs with your arrows...

 

[tormund]

?

Witchaven is a fairly decent "Heretic clone", it runs on the Build Engine and it's often overbashed by modern gamerz who don't have a clue what they're talking about.

I guess that has more to do with Capstone having a reputation as a shovelware developer, so people automatically think that every single one of their games was junk...

 

[lightbane]

In this thread someone posted a link for the Strange Aeons WAD. Unfortunately, it wasn't finished at the time the link was posted. However, I found a more recent version which is fully complete, here: http://www.mediafire.com/download/i5zsw9y2evf6745/SA+34.zip

Additionally, here's Derceto, a Doom2 map that recreates Alone in the Dark 1.
http://gamejolt.com/games/derceto/67651

 

[ghostdog]

So, I renamed my wad files to their actual wad titles and made a list. These are mostly megawads or wads with more than 1 stage, some mega-map wads and a few smaller single stage wads that seemed very good. I've gathered this up from online reviews and recommendations here in the codex and I've played about half of them. A few are joke wads, or cater to a very specific playstyle, but most of them are classic or neo-classic doom. They date from mid 90s to 2015. I didn't like some of them, but I've found most of them to be above average and quite a few to be truly excellent.

Spoiler

007 Licence to Spell DooM
10 Sectors
20 Years of Doom
2002 A DOOM ODYSSEY
32in24-7
A Fistful of Doom
A New Hellspawn
Action DooM
Aeternum
After the Holocaust
Alien Vendetta
Armadosia the mad corridor
Astrostein 3
Back to Basics
Back to Saturn X E1
Back to Saturn X E2
Base Ganymede - Complete
Bedlam
Bloodpack
BloodRust
Boomsky
Bowels of Hell, The
Brotherhood of Ruin - The Lost Temple
Brotherhood of Ruin, The
Caverns of Darkness
Cheogsh
Chord 3
Chord G
Chosen
Classic Episode, The
Cold as Hell - Special Edition
Combat Shock
Combat Shock 2
Community Chest 2
Community Chest 3
Concern
Congestion Control
Crumpets
Crusades
Cyber110
Cydreams
Dark 7
darken2
Darkening, The
Darkest Hour, The
Dawn of the Dead
Death Tormention II
Death Tormention III
Demon Eclipse - Episodes 1 and 2
Demonfear
Demons of Problematique 2
Desolation
DEUS VULT II
Dickie 10
Dimensions of Time
Discovering the Hell - The Invasion
DOOM 2 - Flashback to Hell
Doom 2 the Way id Did
Doom Raider - Crypt of the Vile
Doom Redemption
DooM Resurrection Episode I
Doom the Way id Did
Doomed deja-vu
DoomTown
Double Impact
DSV
DSV Ep3 - War
DSV Episode 2
DSV Episode 4 - The Revolution
DSV Episode 5
Dystopia3 - Re-Birth of Anarchy
Earth
Enjay Zdoom 2001
Epic
Epic 2
Equinox
Estranged_1.3
Eternal
Eternal DOOM IV - Return from Oblivion
Eternity
F_Episode 2
Final Gathering II, The
Flay the Obscene - DeathmatcH
Fortress 1024
Fracture
Galaxia
Gatebar
Genesis of Descent
GMOTA - Fantasy arcade action v099
Haloween
Hatomo Battles The Yomi Demons
Hell Factory, The
Hell Ground
HELL in HELL
Hell on Egypt
Hell On Mars
Hell Revealed
Hell Revealed II
Hellbound
Hellcore 2.0
Hellfire 2
Hellfire Reborn
Hell's Twisted Influence
Hell's Twisted Influence 2
Hellspawn
Herian 2
Hi-Tech Hell 2 - Alien Tech
IC-2005
Icarus - Alien Vanguard
Icebound
Incineration
Invasion - Level1
Invasion - Level2
Jenesis
Kama Sutra
Knee-Deep in ZDoom
KZDoom 7
Legacy Of Suffering
MancerXX
Memento Mori
Memento Mori 2
Mordeth
NeoDoom
Newdoom Community Project 2
Ni'mRoD - IXNAY on the HOMBRE
November
Null Space
Null Space Junior
One bloody night
Operation - Arctic Wolf SE
Operation - BIOWAR
Operation - Rheingold Episode 2
Operation Overlord
Painful Evil
PALACE OF NEMRAC
Phobia
Phobia - The Age
Phobos
PHOBOS - ANOMALY REBORN
Phobos Revisited
Phocas Island 2
Phouse - The house of portals
Planisphere 2
Pleiades
Plutonia 2
Polygon
Post
Project Slipgate
Proving Grounds, The
Remain EP1
Requiem
Retro Episode
Return Of The Triad
Return to Purgatory
Revolution!
Rip it, Tear it, Smash it!
RTC-3057 Blue hub1
Ruma
Scientist
Scythe
Scythe 2
Selfish - The Complete Series
Selfish 5
Shotgun Symphony
Simply Phobos
Sin City
Sine Die
Sky May Be, The
Slayer
Speed of Doom
Stardate
Strain
Stronghold
Suspended in Dusk
Suspended in Dusk
Swim With The Whales
TAB
Tantrum 2
Thy Flesh - Turned into a draft-excluder
Twilight Zone II - Final Dreams
UAC Ultra
UAC Ultra Textures
Ultimate Torment & Torture, The
Unholy Realms
Unloved
Vae Victus
Valhalla
Valiant
Vanguard
Velocity CTF X
Visions of Eternity
Void
Vordakk's Keep
Vrack
Vrack 2
Vrack 3
Whispers of Satan
Zanzan_g
ZDoom Community Map
Zone 300

 

[tormund]

I hope that you guys have played or are currently playing Doomed Space Wars http://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/s-u/spacwars
It's so good.