Introduction

Information

Welcome to The Comprehensive Doom WAD Reviews by Colin Phipps!

Perhaps I should explain the title. Doom and Doom ][ are a pair of great 3D action games by iD software. WADs are files that contain extra information that can be interpreted by Doom or Doom ][. Comprehensive means every WAD is included. Reviews are me describing what I think of the WAD as a level for single play.

These reviews are not comprehensive YET. I have so far done all Doom 1 level PWADs beginning 0-b that I have found in the main levels directories on ftp.cdrom.com, and a few others. The comprehensive in the title refers to the ongoing attempt to include a review of every WAD. I may never finish, but I am trying. The point is that I have reviewed every Doom 1 level beginning 0-a that I have found - if you find one I haven't reviewed, let me know about it. I will continue to review WADs, and post more complete versions as I progress.

Minor exception - I have missed out one or two WADs on purpose. WADs that are just compilations or reworkings of other WADs I intend to leave until last, when I have reviewed the originals. Also, at least one WAD I have failed to get to work (but I think that may be my fault).

Suggestions

I am very glad for the feedback I have had so far (all 2 of you!). The more feedback I get, the more likely I am to complete these reviews, so if you like them, let me know :-).

The reason I do the WADs in order is because it is a pain to remember which I already downloaded. However, I will be glad to receive recommendations of WADs to review. Equally, if you have just finished your own WAD, I will happily do reviews on request (though not necessarily immediately, depends how busy I am). But please read the note below before sending me anything.

The Author

Believe it or not, all the reviews and the other documents in this set are written by one person, Colin Phipps (that's me!).

My e-mail address is crp22@cam.ac.uk. Feel free to e-mail me about reviews, or about WADs that I have not included. However, my e-mail account is run by the university, and I only have access to it while I am at university. So don't be surprised if I don't reply immediately, it may be out of term, or there may be exams :-). Also, they will shut down my account if my inbox overflows, so don't send any big attachments without asking me first.

Alternatively, I keep an eye on the rec.games.computer.doom.* newsgroups, so you can post comments there if you like.

Copyrights/Permissions

You may distribute these files by any means you like.

You may modify these files, provided that you credit me for all the reviews that I have done, and inform me that you are using them. You may include them in a collection of WAD reviews, provided you inform and credit me.

If you display these files on a Web site, please let me know, so that I can see them live.

Disclaimer

For those of you with more brains than lawyers, you probably needn't worry about the full disclaimer, but remember:

Doom is only a game. Don't take it too seriously.

If you want it, here is the full disclaimer:

In the below, "this package" refers to the ZIP in which these reviews were supplied, all files supplied in it, and any files related to it.

I disclaim all responsibility for damage suffered by you in using this package, or damage caused to you by others using this package, including but not limited to:

Acknowledgements

Well, there are a lot of people to credit here, I hope I haven't forgotten anyone. Thanks go to:

iD software
Thanks for Doom 1 and Doom ][. Great games. All the more great because my 486DX2 can still run them :-).
All those authors that took time over their WADs
It really is appreciated when authors take the trouble to make their WADs good.
Olivier Montanuy, Avery Andrews, Kevin McGrail
WinTEX - couldn't have done without it.
Renaud Paquay, Raphael Quinet, Brendon Wyber
WinDEU 5.991 - hopelessly unstable for editing, but invaluable for viewing and finding bugs in PWADs.
Scott Jordan
TCOUNT, a handy utility for measuring the ratio of ammo and health to enemies.
Marc Rousseau
Zennode - a great, fast NODES and REJECT builder. Essential for those large, slow PWADs.
Hank Leukart
The Doom FAQ - everyone interested in Doom should read this.
Matthew Fell
The Doom Specs - an invaluable reference.
Bernard Devaux
Invaluable feedback about the first version of these reviews.

While I'm at it, absolutely no thanks to:

Notepad
For being the worst text editor I can find, and generally making my life hell.
Internet Explorer
For slowing my computer to a crawl with its totally excessive memory requirements.

Revision History

For those (few) of you who care, the version numbers for now are 0.abc where a is the number of whole directories on ftp.cdrom.com that are done, b is the number of letters/numbers within the next directory that were completed, and c is the revision number within that letter.

v 0.11
Released about 1997/01/25, the first release.
v 0.111
Reviews are greatly modified in response to valuable feedback from Bernard Devaux. Technical stuff moved out of the reviews. This release just sent to Bernard Devaux - not enough new to upload again yet.
v 0.112
Reworked the architecture rating to make it more consistent.
v 0.12
Released about 1997/03/08 on ftp.cdrom.com

Trademarks

Doom, Doom ][, Heretic and Quake are trademarks of iD software. Duke Nuke'm 3D is a trademark of 3D Realms. Windows, and Internet Explorer are trademarks of Microsoft. Pentium is a trademark of Intel. Other trademarks belong to their respective owners.