Intro - Doom Community Dev in Infancy
Welcome back to our Grand Tour through DOOM! Last time, we visited each of the classic 90s Doom games and expansions for PC: Doom, Doom II, Master Levels, and Final Doom (TNT + Plutonia). Today, we'll look at the complementary half of Doom: its community and modding scene.
As an observer-turned-participant in the Doom community as of only recently, I can't offer as-it-happened war stories. I'll aim to avoid rehashing publicly-available information to keep from wasting your time, and in the interest of not misrepresenting events, I'll stick to the concise essentials: the interesting tidbits only.
The early days of Doom modding are immensely impressive in hindsight. In 1994, the first full year following Doom's commercial release, there were no robust mapping programs, no paved paths, no pre-written guide of Doom WAD design best practices. The Doom (and Doom II) source code wouldn't be open-sourced until December of 1997. The "pioneers" of the 1994 Doom community worked with rudimentary tools to put their creations together; legacy wasn't followed, it was built from scratch.
That's the background of the 1994 WADs we're looking at today. While my personal enjoyment of these levels in 2024 varies wildly, they all deserve respect for setting the foundation along with their contemporaries for what would come after.
⚠️ With this as the context, my commentary here and throughout is highly subjective, through the biased lens of a 2024 player with thirty (count 'em!) years of collective hindsight. I'm a relatively inexperienced Doomer with peculiar preferences, so my comments and critiques should be taken with measured credibility.
There's a reason why "1994 level" is tongue-in-cheek shorthand for novice-made levels (and all the flaws that come with them). Back in 1994, everyone was a novice. But they wouldn't be for long.
Today's Itinerary - 10 of 1994's Best WADs
Part 2 of our DOOM Grand Tour will take us through the Top 10 WADs of 1994 as part of Doomworld's Top 100 WADs of All Time. We'll dive into some of the background in a moment, but first let's reveal the itinerary!
- Crossing Acheron by John Anderson (Dr. Sleep)
- Aliens TC by Justin Fisher
- Doomsday of UAC by Leo Martin Lim
- Galaxia by Pavel Hodek (Zovirax)
- Serenity by Björn Hermans and Holger Nathrath
- Eternity by Björn Hermans and Holger Nathrath
- The Unholy Trinity (aka Trinity College) by Steve McCrea, Simon Wall, and Elias Papavassilopoulos
- Return to Phobos by Michael Kelsey
- Slaughter Until Death by The Innocent Crew (Denis and Thomas Möller / Panza and Grindcrusher)
- The Evil Unleashed by The Innocent Crew (Denis and Thomas Möller / Panza and Grindcrusher)
(Postscript: we're actually going to be looking at just #1 through #3 on this entry. Keep an eye out for the continuation!)
Brief Background - Top 10, Top 100, and the Cacowards
Let's talk a little more about where I got that list of 10 WADs in the previous section. At the end of 2003, coinciding with Doom's 10th anniversary, a few prominent members of the venerable Doomworld community forum compiled a commemorative list: the "Top 100 WADs of All Time." This list is made up of 10 selected WADs for each year 1994 to 2003 (reasonably skipping 1993 due to Doom's release being December 10th). This list was part of a larger tribute aptly called Ten Years of Doom, with the the original page still hosted on Doomworld at the time of writing and certainly worth a visit.
Fun fact: this top 100 list technically contains 102 WADs! Years 1995 and 2002 both feature 11 WADs.
This Top 100 list would be the precursor to today's Cacowards, which similarly recognizes 10 exceptional WADs each year. In fact, the inaugural Cacowards in 2004 was billed as the "11th Annual Cacowards," retroactively recognizing 1994-2003 as the first ten in the series.
The 1994 WADs we're looking at today come from this Top 100 list. It might be helpful to look at the 1994 Top 10, as well as the Top 100 list as a whole, not as an be-all-end-all definitive statement on the 1994 community creations, but as a thoughtfully curated starting point--one that's incredibly helpful when looking back three decades in retrospect.
With that, let's start with #1.
#1: Crossing Acheron by John Anderson (Dr. Sleep)
Dr. Sleep, pseudonym of the late John Anderson, should be a familiar name by now. He's the designer behind the Inferno series--a set of eight (released) maps called Cantos in reference to Dante's Inferno. So far in our journey, we've actually encountered six of these levels: Canto 3 through 7 featured in Master Levels for Doom II, and Canto 8 as E4M7 of The Ultimate Doom.
Crossing Acheron, the Second Canto, claims the #1 spot on Doomworld's 1994 Top Ten. This single level is full of Dr. Sleep's characteristic design, featuring a tight, dense map featuring plentiful combat traps and key-hunting puzzles. While some of its surprises--metaphorical and literal pitfalls--can initially feel unfair, they're an essential part of this map's charm. Played with the right mindset, Crossing Acheron is a back-and-forth dialogue between you and its designer. Your goal is to keep up with the antics of the map's author who always seems to be two steps ahead.
The map is split into different zones but all feel like parts of a coherent whole, with the central church-like hub giving you access to branched-off paths and vestibules. The looped structure makes backtracking effortless as you gradually unwind the level's layered secrets.
Without spoiling any specific solutions, the red key is particularly tricky. It might prompt a reloaded save or two until you figure out how you're supposed to acquire it. That said, there will be nothing like your first playthrough of Crossing Acheron, and if you remember to laugh when you spring a dastardly trap, it might just be a special experience indeed.
#2: Aliens TC by Justin Fisher
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| The endscreen of the 1994 Doom WAD Aliens TC, with a compressed image of the USS Sulaco from Aliens in orbit. |
Even thirty years later in the era of 4K photorealism in our first-preson horror games, Aliens TC excels at setting a suspenseful mood in its opening levels. Not spoilers, but Map 1 sets the stage for your descent into LV-426's terraforming colony Hadley's Hope with some excellently thick tension. The TC's custom assets do plenty of heavy lifting to immerse you in the world of Aliens, far away from the hellscapes of the original Doom.
Progression through the levels grants you access to some unique weapons from the film: the Pulse Rifle and its attached grenade launcher, and the iconic Smart Gun with all of the power--and limited ammo--as its silver screen counterpart. One fun relic of this era is how the alternate firing modes of the Pulse Rifle are handled--the primary fire treated as one weapon slot and the grenade put into another, with the same weapon sprite for both save for the segmented weapon display indicating your selected munitions.
Another notable trait of Aliens TC is its sparse resources. You will regularly find yourself scrounging for ammo and evaluating whether direct combat is viable or if you want to avoid or skirt around enemies instead. This is especially exemplified in Map 3 "Med-Labs and Operations," where a shortage of ammo means killing all of the enemies in the level isn't particularly viable. Instead, you're encouraged to seal blast doors to block off the seemingly endless flow of hostile aliens, then make a couple daring escapes yourself. Aliens TC might not technically be a survival horror game, but it employs many of the genre's techniques to get you to engage with the eight-level campaign--filled with many enemies and few resources to fight them off.
My experience with Aliens TC wasn't perfect. My favorite part of this TC, the atmospheric suspense, gives way to more action-focused gameplay later on, which I personally felt wasn't executed as well as the strong opening. The later maps felt less tight than the opening levels, with less intuitive progression, overly large spaces that felt like wasted space, and maybe a few too many combat encounters in the cramped low-visibility hive areas. By the end of the eight main levels and combat-heavy bonus Map 9 (designed by guest contributor Richard Love), I'd had my fill and then some.
Criticisms aside, Aliens TC leaves an incredible first impression, so much so that I recommend everyone take the time to experience its first half-hour. The spooks and scares can make you jump even today, and the sense of sci-fi dread it can instill is utterly impressive. The bespoke custom assets are stand-out and do a wonderful job transporting you to the film-inspired setting. For those who see the adventure to the very end, there are some special surprises waiting for you that might make the journey feel all the more worthwhile.
I leave you with this excerpt of the README by creator Justin Fisher: The first time you play this will be the best. Not knowing what is around the next corner is what doom is all about
#3: Doomsday of UAC by Leo Martin Lim
Doomsday of UAC, also sometimes referred to by its comedically straightforward filename UAC_DEAD, is a single level by Leo Martin Lim. This 1994 WAD contains an expansive map that tells a sweeping, self-contained environmental story that makes it a joy to play even 30 years later.
The setup is simple: set in the distant future of AD 2010 in Jakarta, Indonesia, you play as an unnamed UAC marine and the only survivor of a failed evacuation. The reason: the sudden appearance of hellspawn in the UAC complex you called home turf. The UAC truck and your would-be ticket home is flipped over and totaled, and you emerge from the flaming wreckage unable to find any other survivors... or even corpses. Your mission: explore the UAC complex and find another way to get out alive.
The beauty of Doomsday of UAC is how the story remains center-stage through your adventure without ever becoming disruptive. Yep, it's buzzword time: environmental storytelling. As you gradually uncover the map, the tidbits of environmental detail show, not tell, what's left of the UAC complex after Hell's incursion. A consequence of this mod's 1994 origins is the by-necessity lack of intricate scipting or cutscenes (such as what would come later via ACS and ZScript). No pacebreakers to be found as you explore scorched outdoor areas, abandoned complex interiors, and a perilous hell-cave. You are always firmly in control and the controller of the pace. It might seem like I'm talking this point up a bit much, like "hey Lyre it's classic Doom, of course there are no drawn-out cutscenes and extensive reading mid-level." This is what we call foreshadowing.
The level features a hub-and-spoke design, giving you a straightforward and generally linear progression through the complex, hell-cave, and the nearby runway-strike-launchpad, returning to the central courtyard between sections. Those return trips are less exciting, but the backtracking is mercifully brief and at least gives you the chance to take a breather. This is thanks to the compact design of the map, dense with detail with carefully constructed transitions between zones to make moving about the map feel natural, like the themed sections of an amusement park. Looking at the complete map of this level after playing it through struck me with how little wasted space there is, and how little downtime is spent on simple transit.
My personal highlight of the adventure was the hell-cave. It's a dark, lava-filled expanse illuminated with eerie torches that light your path on a stunning invisible staircase. So says the readme: Remember the last of the 3 tests that Indiana Jones had to take? :). As a modern player, it's reminiscent to me of some of the best-looking lava chambers you could discover in the subterranean zones of Minecraft, with Doom's sense of supernatural fear added to the natural.
The visual design of Doomsday of UAC features "doomcute" aplenty, with handmade Doom-engine representations of your toppled evacuation truck, shuttlecraft, and fully-furnished lobby and clerical areas of the UAC complex. As for the interactive parts of the level, there are only a few choreographed moments throughout the journey, a couple of specific reveals and traps. It's surprising, given the story-focused nature of the WAD, and while it helps make your playthrough feel organic and self-driven, it can detract from the intended sense of urgency that should be fueling your escape.
All said, though, Doomsday of UAC is still a treat in 2024. Its pacing is brisk, its environmental details are interesting, and the ending feels complete and satisfying--a downright feat and ambitious success for a map released just six months after Doom itself. UAC_DEAD is not just an interesting specimen, but a very playable one that makes for a fun experience even today.
oh no, this might take a little longer than I thought
Instead of making a hyper-long post that covers all 10 1994 WADs, it might be more sensible for me to break this up into segments. At the time of writing, I've played and made notes for all ten WADs, but want a little more time to polish my thoughts. Tune in next time when we cover #4 onwards!