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John Romero has released his first Doom level in over two decades
- some-guy 11y agoAll of the Daikatana and Ion Storm jokes aside, what Romero was able to achieve from a level-design perspective in 1993 with Doom, given that such an engine had never existed before, was pretty mind-boggling. I wish I had a chance to take game design classes with him now that he's a professor at my alma-mater (UC Santa Cruz), especially after seeing his walkthrough of Knee-Deep In The Dead on YouTube recently[0]. [0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUU7_BthBWM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUU7_BthBWM
- koof 11y agotheromero@ucsc.edu
- quincunx 11y agoCorrect me where I'm wrong and sorry to ask or be "that guy," but is it appropriate to post someone's email address without their consent? Googled around for a bit, it does not seem to be public information.
- binarycrusader 11y agoThey've also moved to Ireland recently, so the information posted is no longer valid as far as I know as they're no longer a staff member according to the organization's web site.
- ChristianBundy 11y agoIt's absolutely public information, regardless of the fact that it's outdated. https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Awww.cs.ucsc.edu+"theromero" https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Awww.cs.ucsc.edu+"ther... John's real email address is john@rome.ro (alternatively john@lootdrop.com). https://twitter.com/romero/status/55535691681112065 https://twitter.com/romero/status/55535691681112065
- quincunx 11y agoAlso, if you download the zip, there's yet another email address. This man clearly has no problem with being reached. So though I have to say I still feel sharing email should be the owner's choice, in this particular case, little harm appears to be done.
- adwf 11y agoDoens't really matter whether it's public information or not in my opinion. Most of the nastiness of doxxing isn't from private info becoming public, but from it being posted in a highly public place. The occasional stranger phoning/emailing you can be dealt with. Thousands at once? :( Whether it's "technically" public or not, any inbox posted like this is going to have a very bad day and be functionally useless until it dies down.
- sdevlin 11y agoDouble Fine's Devs Play series might be interesting to you. The first season includes a bunch of videos featuring John Romero talking about Doom. Here's a playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIhLvue17Sd6u2akeZZdYVBxNtfWZPm5W https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIhLvue17Sd6u2akeZZdY.... There are also a few videos where a guy does some live ROM-hacking on the original Zelda.
- mhd 11y agoOne of the major precedents to Doom's level design was probably Dungeons & Dragons. IIRC, the id Software guys were pretty heavy players and people like Sandy Peterson and Jennell Jaquays were working for id.
- pervycreeper 11y agoFrom the readme: >My previous Doom levels were made in 1995 for The Ultimate Doom (e4m2, e4m6), so this is a warm-up.
- henrikschroder 11y agoObligatory Penny Arcade: https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/1998/11/25 https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/1998/11/25
- ascagnel_ 11y agohttps://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/1999/11/22/ https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/1999/11/22/ is more apt.
- AdmiralAsshat 11y agoI wonder what engine he'll use to demo the finished wad? Will he stick with the Classic Win95 Doom engine, or using something more modern like jDoom?
- silverwind 11y agoReadme says he tested on ZDoom and Crispy Doom.
- pervycreeper 11y agoHe used jDoom in his recent walkthrough of E1
- godzillabrennus 11y agoThis is what makes Hacker News great. I'm learning that Doom has new game engines for the old game files from someone who uses the alias AdmiralAsshat.
- anonbanker 11y ago> what makes Hacker News great. you spelled "reddit" wrong there.
- lotharbot 11y agoI rather enjoy Zandronum (http://zandronum.com/ http://zandronum.com/ ). Favorite add-on campaign: Whispers of Satan (http://www.paulcorfiatis.com/wos/HTML/wos_index.htm http://www.paulcorfiatis.com/wos/HTML/wos_index.htm )
- mercurial 11y agoFound about Brutal Doom recently, and it's really quite good.
- nailer 11y agoClassic Doom engine was DOS4GW, not Win95
- rincebrain 11y agoI mistook this for being about John Carmack on first pass, and was both extremely excited and extremely confused. Having corrected this, I am still moderately excited and slightly confused.
- __david__ 11y agoWow, this is a pretty tough level! I'm liking it so far. It works really well so far in the Doomsday Engine, which runs pretty great on my Macbook.
- PopsiclePete 11y ago40-somethings get momentarily nostalgic and excited!
- TheOtherHobbes 11y ago50-somethings turn on God Mode and go sight-seeing, with a bit of mayhem.
- jlas 11y ago? I'm late 20s and I played doom on DOS.
- tobr 11y agoA bit off topic, but JP LeBreton, who is mentioned in the article, is also making a very interesting looking ASCII game. I can recommend his video devlog where he shows some of the tools he's made to create the game, e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syFT1cZF_w8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syFT1cZF_w8
- JustSomeNobody 11y agoSigh. I feel so old right now.
- archagon 11y agoI really miss the old school of FPS design, where you have hub-based levels that branch out into a bunch of different areas and eventually loop back on themselves. I haven't seen a game using one of those in many years, with the possible exception of the Rise of the Triad reboot. Maybe these granddaddy designers should get together for a few more games. In my opinion, the advent of linear, cinematic FPSes have ground design work in the genre to a halt. Nowadays, it's all about refining the core game loop and adding eye candy at the expense of broader level design and environmental exploration. Last year, I went back to play Duke Nukem 3D and it was as fun as ever; can't say the same for many of the FPSes that came out over the last decade.
- colechristensen 11y agoI would like a game that is neither a hallway to walkdown (albeit twisted) nor a flat open plane with objects on it. That is, complex geometry and architecture that seems like it wasn't just designed for the current mission; an open world that isn't full of doors that don't open and windows that don't break. I want a million functionally unnecessary ways to do things.
- archagon 11y agoI feel like the original Deus Ex was heading in that direction. The levels were very large and very well-connected, and you felt like you could be creative with your solutions without the whole thing feeling loosey-goosey.
- bitwize 11y agoI recall a Doom II level that created, as much as was possible with the engine, a "downtown" feeling (it may have been simply called "Downtown"). Many of the buildings were enterable, monsters could shoot you or lob fireballs at you from the windows, etc. In some ways a richer and more interesting design than even the "huge city full of textured solid parallepipeds" that many "open world" games feature.
- camgunz 11y ago
- anjc 11y agoCool guy who influenced entertainment and technology greatly. Everyone should read Masters of Doom.
- nailer 11y agoHaving wanted to finish the WAD before commenting: It's excellent. Not just the technical bits: all the textures perfectly aligned, lots of tight indoors/outdoors, etc., but how Romero uses just a few shotgun guys, pinky and imps for most of the damage. You don't need Cyberdemons everywhere or a hundred bad guys on screen at once, you can get by with clever teleports. Quite a few times I fell back, hearing the teleports behind me, then realised I needed to fall back more because multiple stuff was coming from multple directions now. I still didn't get the rocket launcher behind the monitor/poison symbol. Mac users: I recommend Doomsday Engine, and the Doom High Res Texture pack: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/k67w2ezieodzmap/index.html https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/k67w2ezieodzmap/index.ht...
- spitfire 11y ago> I still didn't get the rocket launcher behind the monitor/poison symbol. Where was this? I missed it altogether.
- nailer 11y agoNear the high area with windows, and the room with the boxes. there's a indented monitor in the wall.
- spitfire 11y agoahh. I see now. Still don't see a poison pill just "TCI Tenor". Here it is. You go down into the slime area accessed by the room with boxes. Stepping outside triggers a door beside the blue key, on the back of the elevator you just came down, to open/close. So step outside, allow the door to close then run inside and hit the switch. The elevator to your left will descend and you can get the rocket launcher.