Doom WAD
Encyclopedia
Doom WAD format is default format of package files for the video game Doom or its sequel Doom II
, that are containing sprites, levels, and game data. WAD stands for Where's All the Data?. Immediately after its release in 1993, Doom attracted a sizeable following of players who created their own mods
for WAD files—packages containing level
s, graphics
and other game data—and played a vital part in spawning the mod-making culture which is now commonplace for first-person shooter
s. Thousands of WADs have been created for Doom, ranging from single custom levels to full original games; most of these can be downloaded for free over the Internet
. Several WADs have also been released commercially
, and for some people the WAD-making hobby
became a gateway to a profession
al career as a level designer.
There are two types of WADs: IWADs (internal WADs) and PWADs (patch WADs). IWADs contain the data necessary to load the game, while PWADs contain additional data, such as new character sprites, as necessary for custom levels.
was aware that many players had tried to create custom level
s and other modifications for their previous game, Wolfenstein 3D
. However, the procedures involved in creating and loading modifications for that game were cumbersome.
John Carmack, lead programmer at id Software, designed the Doom internals from the ground up to allow players to extend the game. For that reason, game data such as levels, graphics
, sound effects and music
are stored separately from the game engine
, in "WAD files". This allowed players to make their own data without any modification to the engine itself. According to Doom's initial design document
, WAD stands for "Where's All the Data?".
The idea of making Doom easily modifiable was primarily backed by Carmack, a well-known supporter of copyleft
and the hacker ideal of people sharing and building upon each other's work, and by John Romero
, who had hacked games in his youth and wanted to allow other gamers to do the same. Not everybody in the id Software crew was happy with this development; some, including Jay Wilbur
and Kevin Cloud
, objected due to legal concerns and in the belief that it would not be of any benefit to the company's business.
release of Doom, on December 10, 1993, enthusiasts began working on tools to modify the game. On January 26, 1994, Brendon Wyber released on the Internet the first public domain
version of the Doom Editing Utility (DEU), a program created by Doom fans which made it possible to create entirely new levels. DEU continued development until May of the same year. It was made possible by Matt Fell's release of the Unofficial Doom specifications. Shortly thereafter Doom enthusiasts became involved with further enhancing the DEU program. Raphaël Quinet spearheaded the program development efforts and overall project release while Steve Bareman lead the documentation effort and creation of the DEU Tutorial. More than 30 other people also helped with the effort and their names appear in the README.1ST file included with the program distribution. Yadex, a fork of DEU 5.21 for Unix
systems running X
, was later released under the GNU/GPL license. (Carmack additionally released the source code
for the utilities used to create the game, but these were programmed in Objective-C
, for NeXT
workstations, and were therefore not directly usable for most people, who were PC
users.)
Soon, countless hobbyists were building custom WADs and sharing them over AOL
and CompuServe
forums, and other Internet-based channels. Many of the WADs were in the style of the stock game, others were based on TV series
, movies
, or original themes. Some of the id Software staff have revealed that they were impressed by some of the WADs; John D. Carmack later said the following about a Star Wars
-themed modification:
Another particularly notable early modification is the Aliens TC (see below in the conversions section), based on the movie Aliens
.
Even though WADs transformed the game by replacing graphics and sounds, they were somewhat limited; much of the game's behavior, including the timing and power of weapons and enemies, was hard-coded in the Doom executable
file and impossible to alter from WADs. One program called DeHackEd
addressed this fact by letting users modify parameters inside the Doom executable itself.
Around 1994 and 1995, WADs were distributed primarily through BBS
s and via CD collections found in computer shops or bundled together with instruction guides for level creation (in later years Internet
FTP
servers became the primary method for obtaining these works). Although the Doom software license required that no profit be made from custom WADs, an id Software member claimed to have taken some measures against distributors of CD-ROM compilations of WADs, some WAD sets and shovelware
bundles were nonetheless obtainable for a price at certain outlets.
The id Software team was at the time working on their next game Quake, using new technology, but started side projects picking up some of the most talented WAD makers from the community to create official expansions and compete with the unauthorized collection CDs. The team produced the 21 Master Levels, which on December 26, 1995, were released on a CD along with Maximum Doom, a collection of 1,830 WADs that had been downloaded arbitrarily from the Internet. In 1996, Final Doom
, a package of two 32-level sets created by TeamTNT
, was released as an official id Software product.
Additionally, a handful of first-person shooter games released at the time used the Doom engine under a commercial license from id Software, as such essentially being custom WADs packaged with the Doom engine. An example is the 1997 release, HacX.
In addition to the many people who contributed to commercially released WADs, some authors became involved with the development of other games:
In late 1997, id Software released the source code to the Doom engine
(initially under a restrictive license; it was however released again under the terms of the GNU General Public License
). With the source code available, it became possible for programmers to modify any aspect of the game, remove technical limitations and bug
s, and add entirely new features.
These engine modifications, or Doom source port
s, have since become the target for much of the WAD editing activity (although some purists prefer the original, unmodified engine). As of 2009, several source ports are still actively developed, and Doom retains a following of people who still create WADs.
, usually retaining theme of the original game, but possibly including new music and some modified graphics to define a more distinctive setting or mood. Both single-player and deathmatch
multiplayer levels are common.
Also common are WADs which contain several levels, sometimes in the form of an episode, replacing some 8-10 levels, and sometimes in the form of a megawad, which replaces all or most levels in the game (36 in Doom, 32 in Doom II).
Megawads often represent the work of several people over several months and in some cases years.
, character set and story instead of simply providing new levels or graphic changes is called a total conversion. The phrase was coined by Justin Fisher, as part of the title of his Aliens TC, or Aliens Total Conversion. Add-ons that provide extensive changes to a similar degree but retain distinctive parts or characteristics of the original games, such as characters or weapons, are often by extension called partial conversions.
The Aliens TC was noted for its suspenseful atmosphere. The first level is devoid of enemies, a surprising feature considering the fast-paced action of Doom. Later on, however, the players faces the aliens
and even gets to use the powerloader from Aliens as a weapon. Fisher had gotten the idea to create the Aliens TC within his first five minutes of playing Doom in late December 1993, noting a similarity in atmosphere of Doom and the movie. Incidentally, it has later become known that id Software originally planned to base Doom on an Aliens license, but abandoned the idea in the early stages of development.
s are available for Doom. The original Doom Editing Utility has been ported to a number of operating system
s, but lost significance over time; however, many of today's editors still have their roots in DEU and its editing paradigm, including DETH, DeePsea, Linux Doom Editor, and Yadex. Other level editors include WadAuthor and the relatively young Doom Builder (initially released in summer 2003), which, among other things, features a 3D editing mode.
A number of other, specialized editors also were created over time to modify graphics and sound lumps, most notably SLumpEd, Wintex, XWE, and SLADE. Things, such as monsters and items, and weapon behavior can also be modified to some degree using the executable patching utility DeHackEd
. Additionally, designers can code their own custon weapon or monster items using a script called DECORATE, which is based on C++
The utility Slige can be used to automatically generate random maps. Slige has a cumbersome approach when creating levels and therefore a newer tool called Oblige has been created. This tool is entirely coded in Lua.
files. WAD files still remain in Quake files, but their use is limited to textures. WAD2 and WAD3 use slightly larger directory structure, so they're incompatible with Doom.
Doom II
Doom II: Hell on Earth is an award winning first-person shooter video game and second title of id Software's Doom franchise. Unlike Doom which was initially only available through shareware and mail order, Doom II was a commercial release sold in stores...
, that are containing sprites, levels, and game data. WAD stands for Where's All the Data?. Immediately after its release in 1993, Doom attracted a sizeable following of players who created their own mods
Mod (computer gaming)
Mod or modification is a term generally applied to personal computer games , especially first-person shooters, role-playing games and real-time strategy games. Mods are made by the general public or a developer, and can be entirely new games in themselves, but mods are not standalone software and...
for WAD files—packages containing level
Level (computer and video games)
A level, map, area, or world in a video game is the total space available to the player during the course of completing a discrete objective...
s, graphics
Graphics
Graphics are visual presentations on some surface, such as a wall, canvas, computer screen, paper, or stone to brand, inform, illustrate, or entertain. Examples are photographs, drawings, Line Art, graphs, diagrams, typography, numbers, symbols, geometric designs, maps, engineering drawings,or...
and other game data—and played a vital part in spawning the mod-making culture which is now commonplace for first-person shooter
First-person shooter
First-person shooter is a video game genre that centers the gameplay on gun and projectile weapon-based combat through first-person perspective; i.e., the player experiences the action through the eyes of a protagonist. Generally speaking, the first-person shooter shares common traits with other...
s. Thousands of WADs have been created for Doom, ranging from single custom levels to full original games; most of these can be downloaded for free over the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
. Several WADs have also been released commercially
Commerce
While business refers to the value-creating activities of an organization for profit, commerce means the whole system of an economy that constitutes an environment for business. The system includes legal, economic, political, social, cultural, and technological systems that are in operation in any...
, and for some people the WAD-making hobby
Hobby
A hobby is a regular activity or interest that is undertaken for pleasure, typically done during one's leisure time.- Etymology :A hobby horse is a wooden or wickerwork toy made to be ridden just like a real horse...
became a gateway to a profession
Profession
A profession is a vocation founded upon specialized educational training, the purpose of which is to supply disinterested counsel and service to others, for a direct and definite compensation, wholly apart from expectation of other business gain....
al career as a level designer.
There are two types of WADs: IWADs (internal WADs) and PWADs (patch WADs). IWADs contain the data necessary to load the game, while PWADs contain additional data, such as new character sprites, as necessary for custom levels.
Extensibility in Doom
When developing Doom, id SoftwareId Software
Id Software is an American video game development company with its headquarters in Richardson, Texas. The company was founded in 1991 by four members of the computer company Softdisk: programmers John Carmack and John Romero, game designer Tom Hall, and artist Adrian Carmack...
was aware that many players had tried to create custom level
Level (computer and video games)
A level, map, area, or world in a video game is the total space available to the player during the course of completing a discrete objective...
s and other modifications for their previous game, Wolfenstein 3D
Wolfenstein 3D
Wolfenstein 3D is a video game that is generally regarded by critics and gaming journalists as having both popularized the first-person shooter genre on the PC and created the basic archetype upon which all subsequent games of the same genre would be built. It was created by id Software and...
. However, the procedures involved in creating and loading modifications for that game were cumbersome.
John Carmack, lead programmer at id Software, designed the Doom internals from the ground up to allow players to extend the game. For that reason, game data such as levels, graphics
Graphics
Graphics are visual presentations on some surface, such as a wall, canvas, computer screen, paper, or stone to brand, inform, illustrate, or entertain. Examples are photographs, drawings, Line Art, graphs, diagrams, typography, numbers, symbols, geometric designs, maps, engineering drawings,or...
, sound effects and music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
are stored separately from the game engine
Game engine
A game engine is a system designed for the creation and development of video games. There are many game engines that are designed to work on video game consoles and personal computers...
, in "WAD files". This allowed players to make their own data without any modification to the engine itself. According to Doom's initial design document
Design document
A software design document is a written description of a software product, that a software designer writes in order to give a software development team an overall guidance of the architecture of the software project. An SDD usually accompanies an architecture diagram with pointers to detailed...
, WAD stands for "Where's All the Data?".
The idea of making Doom easily modifiable was primarily backed by Carmack, a well-known supporter of copyleft
Copyleft
Copyleft is a play on the word copyright to describe the practice of using copyright law to offer the right to distribute copies and modified versions of a work and requiring that the same rights be preserved in modified versions of the work...
and the hacker ideal of people sharing and building upon each other's work, and by John Romero
John Romero
Alfonso John Romero is a game designer, programmer, and developer in the video game industry. He is best known as a co-founder of id Software and was a designer for many of their games, including Wolfenstein 3D, Dangerous Dave, Doom and Quake...
, who had hacked games in his youth and wanted to allow other gamers to do the same. Not everybody in the id Software crew was happy with this development; some, including Jay Wilbur
Jay Wilbur
James Edward Wilbur was a British bandleader and prolifically recorded musician identified with and influential in the Big Band era....
and Kevin Cloud
Kevin Cloud
Kevin Cloud is a computer games graphic designer from Shreveport, LA. He was hired in 1992 by id Software to work as an assistant artist to the then lead artist, Adrian Carmack. Prior to that, he was employed by Softdisk, where several other id founders worked. During part of his employment at...
, objected due to legal concerns and in the belief that it would not be of any benefit to the company's business.
Utilities and WADs appearing
Immediately after the initial sharewareShareware
The term shareware is a proprietary software that is provided to users without payment on a trial basis and is often limited by any combination of functionality, availability, or convenience. Shareware is often offered as a download from an Internet website or as a compact disc included with a...
release of Doom, on December 10, 1993, enthusiasts began working on tools to modify the game. On January 26, 1994, Brendon Wyber released on the Internet the first public domain
Public domain
Works are in the public domain if the intellectual property rights have expired, if the intellectual property rights are forfeited, or if they are not covered by intellectual property rights at all...
version of the Doom Editing Utility (DEU), a program created by Doom fans which made it possible to create entirely new levels. DEU continued development until May of the same year. It was made possible by Matt Fell's release of the Unofficial Doom specifications. Shortly thereafter Doom enthusiasts became involved with further enhancing the DEU program. Raphaël Quinet spearheaded the program development efforts and overall project release while Steve Bareman lead the documentation effort and creation of the DEU Tutorial. More than 30 other people also helped with the effort and their names appear in the README.1ST file included with the program distribution. Yadex, a fork of DEU 5.21 for Unix
Unix
Unix is a multitasking, multi-user computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs, including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Brian Kernighan, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna...
systems running X
X Window System
The X window system is a computer software system and network protocol that provides a basis for graphical user interfaces and rich input device capability for networked computers...
, was later released under the GNU/GPL license. (Carmack additionally released the source code
Source code
In computer science, source code is text written using the format and syntax of the programming language that it is being written in. Such a language is specially designed to facilitate the work of computer programmers, who specify the actions to be performed by a computer mostly by writing source...
for the utilities used to create the game, but these were programmed in Objective-C
Objective-C
Objective-C is a reflective, object-oriented programming language that adds Smalltalk-style messaging to the C programming language.Today, it is used primarily on Apple's Mac OS X and iOS: two environments derived from the OpenStep standard, though not compliant with it...
, for NeXT
NeXT
Next, Inc. was an American computer company headquartered in Redwood City, California, that developed and manufactured a series of computer workstations intended for the higher education and business markets...
workstations, and were therefore not directly usable for most people, who were PC
IBM PC
The IBM Personal Computer, commonly known as the IBM PC, is the original version and progenitor of the IBM PC compatible hardware platform. It is IBM model number 5150, and was introduced on August 12, 1981...
users.)
Soon, countless hobbyists were building custom WADs and sharing them over AOL
AOL
AOL Inc. is an American global Internet services and media company. AOL is headquartered at 770 Broadway in New York. Founded in 1983 as Control Video Corporation, it has franchised its services to companies in several nations around the world or set up international versions of its services...
and CompuServe
CompuServe
CompuServe was the first major commercial online service in the United States. It dominated the field during the 1980s and remained a major player through the mid-1990s, when it was sidelined by the rise of services such as AOL with monthly subscriptions rather than hourly rates...
forums, and other Internet-based channels. Many of the WADs were in the style of the stock game, others were based on TV series
Television program
A television program , also called television show, is a segment of content which is intended to be broadcast on television. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series...
, movies
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
, or original themes. Some of the id Software staff have revealed that they were impressed by some of the WADs; John D. Carmack later said the following about a Star Wars
Star Wars
Star Wars is an American epic space opera film series created by George Lucas. The first film in the series was originally released on May 25, 1977, under the title Star Wars, by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, followed by two sequels, released at three-year...
-themed modification:
Another particularly notable early modification is the Aliens TC (see below in the conversions section), based on the movie Aliens
Aliens (film)
Aliens is a 1986 science fiction action film directed by James Cameron and starring Sigourney Weaver, Carrie Henn, Michael Biehn, Lance Henriksen, William Hope, and Bill Paxton...
.
Even though WADs transformed the game by replacing graphics and sounds, they were somewhat limited; much of the game's behavior, including the timing and power of weapons and enemies, was hard-coded in the Doom executable
Executable
In computing, an executable file causes a computer "to perform indicated tasks according to encoded instructions," as opposed to a data file that must be parsed by a program to be meaningful. These instructions are traditionally machine code instructions for a physical CPU...
file and impossible to alter from WADs. One program called DeHackEd
DeHackEd
DeHackEd is an editor originally created for the executable of the original Doom, that allows the operation of the executable to be changed. Hit points, sounds, frame sequences, text strings and several other miscellaneous values can be changed. Modifications can be distributed in the form of...
addressed this fact by letting users modify parameters inside the Doom executable itself.
Commercial WADs
Bulletin board system
A Bulletin Board System, or BBS, is a computer system running software that allows users to connect and log in to the system using a terminal program. Once logged in, a user can perform functions such as uploading and downloading software and data, reading news and bulletins, and exchanging...
s and via CD collections found in computer shops or bundled together with instruction guides for level creation (in later years Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
FTP
File Transfer Protocol
File Transfer Protocol is a standard network protocol used to transfer files from one host to another host over a TCP-based network, such as the Internet. FTP is built on a client-server architecture and utilizes separate control and data connections between the client and server...
servers became the primary method for obtaining these works). Although the Doom software license required that no profit be made from custom WADs, an id Software member claimed to have taken some measures against distributors of CD-ROM compilations of WADs, some WAD sets and shovelware
Shovelware
Shovelware is a derogatory computer jargon term that refers to software noted more for the quantity of what is included than for the quality or usefulness...
bundles were nonetheless obtainable for a price at certain outlets.
The id Software team was at the time working on their next game Quake, using new technology, but started side projects picking up some of the most talented WAD makers from the community to create official expansions and compete with the unauthorized collection CDs. The team produced the 21 Master Levels, which on December 26, 1995, were released on a CD along with Maximum Doom, a collection of 1,830 WADs that had been downloaded arbitrarily from the Internet. In 1996, Final Doom
Final Doom
Final Doom is a first-person shooter video game that uses the game engine, items and characters from Doom II. It consists of two 32-level megawads , The Plutonia Experiment by the Casali brothers, and TNT: Evilution by TeamTNT. Final Doom was released in 1996 and distributed as an official id...
, a package of two 32-level sets created by TeamTNT
TeamTNT
TeamTNT is a group of mappers who created the TNT: Evilution episode of Final Doom, as well as several free level packs and developer resources for Doom II...
, was released as an official id Software product.
Additionally, a handful of first-person shooter games released at the time used the Doom engine under a commercial license from id Software, as such essentially being custom WADs packaged with the Doom engine. An example is the 1997 release, HacX.
In addition to the many people who contributed to commercially released WADs, some authors became involved with the development of other games:
- Tim WillitsTim WillitsTim Willits is the creative director and former co-owner of video game developer id Software.-Early life:Willits is a graduate of the University of Minnesota and a former member of the University of Minnesota Army ROTC program...
, who contributed two Master levels, later became the lead designer at id SoftwareId SoftwareId Software is an American video game development company with its headquarters in Richardson, Texas. The company was founded in 1991 by four members of the computer company Softdisk: programmers John Carmack and John Romero, game designer Tom Hall, and artist Adrian Carmack... - Dario CasaliCasali brothersBrothers Dario and Milo Casali are best known for creating The Plutonia Experiment, one of two stand-alone megawads for the second and final Doom expansion, Final Doom....
, author of a quarter of Final DoomFinal DoomFinal Doom is a first-person shooter video game that uses the game engine, items and characters from Doom II. It consists of two 32-level megawads , The Plutonia Experiment by the Casali brothers, and TNT: Evilution by TeamTNT. Final Doom was released in 1996 and distributed as an official id...
, was hired by Valve Software to work on Half-Life - Sverre Kvernmo, designer of five Master levels and member of TeamTNT, was hired by Ion StormIon stormIon storm may refer to:* Ion Storm, a defunct games software company.* An interplanetary coronal mass ejection , a disruption of the fast and slow solar winds, often called "ion storm", "solar storm" or "space storm"...
for DaikatanaDaikatanaJohn Romero's Daikatana, or simply Daikatana, is a first-person shooter computer game developed by Ion Storm and published by Eidos Interactive. Released on May 23, 2000 for Windows, it was led by John Romero. The game is known as one of the major commercial failures of the computer game industry.... - Iikka KeränenIikka KeränenIlkka Keränen, a native of Finland, lives in Seattle, Washington with his wife Rose and two cats. He is a level designer at Valve Software. He also co-founded Digital Eel, an independent video game development group, in 2001...
, author of several Doom WADs and later Quake mods, was hired by Ion Storm to create levels for AnachronoxAnachronoxAnachronox is a 2001 third-person computer role-playing game produced by Tom Hall and the Dallas Ion Storm games studio. It offers gameplay in the style of console RPGs, such as Chrono Trigger and the Final Fantasy series...
and DaikatanaDaikatanaJohn Romero's Daikatana, or simply Daikatana, is a first-person shooter computer game developed by Ion Storm and published by Eidos Interactive. Released on May 23, 2000 for Windows, it was led by John Romero. The game is known as one of the major commercial failures of the computer game industry....
, and by Looking Glass StudiosLooking Glass StudiosLooking Glass Studios was a computer game development company during the 1990s.The company originally formed as Looking Glass Technologies, when Blue Sky Productions and Lerner Research merged....
to create levels for Thief 2. Keränen was later hired by Valve Software - John Anderson (level designer), also known as "Dr. Sleep", author of five Master levels and E4M7 of The Ultimate Doom, later worked on BloodBlood (computer game)Blood is a PC game developed by 3D Realms and Monolith Productions and distributed by GT Interactive. Development was underway at 3D Realms in parallel with a number of other well-known titles. Following the success of Duke Nukem 3D, development progress was made public starting in June 1996 with...
, UnrealUnrealUnreal is a first-person shooter video game developed by Epic MegaGames and Digital Extremes and published by GT Interactive in May 1998...
and DaikatanaDaikatanaJohn Romero's Daikatana, or simply Daikatana, is a first-person shooter computer game developed by Ion Storm and published by Eidos Interactive. Released on May 23, 2000 for Windows, it was led by John Romero. The game is known as one of the major commercial failures of the computer game industry.... - Matthias WorchMatthias WorchMatthias Worch is a German video game designer and computer graphics artist who works for Factor 5. He started out creating custom Doom and Quake levels. Matthias entered the computer game industry in 1998 when he moved to Dallas, TX to work on Ritual Entertainment's 3D First Person Shooter SiN....
(level designer) joined Ritual EntertainmentRitual EntertainmentRitual Entertainment was a computer game software developer established in 1996 by Robert Atkins, Mark Dochtermann, Jim Dosé, Richard 'Levelord' Gray, Michael Hadwin, Harry Miller and Tom Mustaine...
to work on SiNSiNSiN is a computer game first-person shooter based on a modified version of the Quake II engine developed by Ritual Entertainment and published by Activision in late 1998...
. He later contributed to the UnrealUnrealUnreal is a first-person shooter video game developed by Epic MegaGames and Digital Extremes and published by GT Interactive in May 1998...
series.
Source port era
Around 1997, interest in Doom WADs began to decline, as attention was drawn to newer games with more advanced technology and yet more customizable design, including id's own Quake.In late 1997, id Software released the source code to the Doom engine
Doom engine
The Doom engine is the game engine that powers the id Software games Doom and Doom II. It is also used by HeXen, Heretic, Strife, Freedoom, and HacX, and other games produced by licensees. It was created by John Carmack, with auxiliary functions written by Mike Abrash, John Romero, Dave Taylor and...
(initially under a restrictive license; it was however released again under the terms of the GNU General Public License
GNU General Public License
The GNU General Public License is the most widely used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU Project....
). With the source code available, it became possible for programmers to modify any aspect of the game, remove technical limitations and bug
Software bug
A software bug is the common term used to describe an error, flaw, mistake, failure, or fault in a computer program or system that produces an incorrect or unexpected result, or causes it to behave in unintended ways. Most bugs arise from mistakes and errors made by people in either a program's...
s, and add entirely new features.
These engine modifications, or Doom source port
Doom source port
A Doom source port is a source port of id Tech 1, the game engine used by the video game Doom. The term usually denotes a modification made by Doom fans, as opposed to any of the official Doom versions produced by id Software or affiliated companies.-Doom source release:The source code for the Doom...
s, have since become the target for much of the WAD editing activity (although some purists prefer the original, unmodified engine). As of 2009, several source ports are still actively developed, and Doom retains a following of people who still create WADs.
Levels and level packs
The most common kind of WAD consists of a single levelLevel (video gaming)
A level, map, area, or world in a video game is the total space available to the player during the course of completing a discrete objective...
, usually retaining theme of the original game, but possibly including new music and some modified graphics to define a more distinctive setting or mood. Both single-player and deathmatch
Deathmatch (gaming)
Deathmatch or Player vs All is a widely-used gameplay mode integrated into many shooter and real-time strategy computer games...
multiplayer levels are common.
Also common are WADs which contain several levels, sometimes in the form of an episode, replacing some 8-10 levels, and sometimes in the form of a megawad, which replaces all or most levels in the game (36 in Doom, 32 in Doom II).
Megawads often represent the work of several people over several months and in some cases years.
Conversions
A WAD that gives the game a general overhaul to incorporate an entirely different game settingCampaign setting
A campaign setting is usually a fictional world which serves as a setting for a role-playing game or wargame campaign. A campaign is a series of individual adventures, and a campaign setting is the world in which such adventures and campaigns take place...
, character set and story instead of simply providing new levels or graphic changes is called a total conversion. The phrase was coined by Justin Fisher, as part of the title of his Aliens TC, or Aliens Total Conversion. Add-ons that provide extensive changes to a similar degree but retain distinctive parts or characteristics of the original games, such as characters or weapons, are often by extension called partial conversions.
Notable WADs
The following is a non-inclusive listing of highly popular, unique or historically significant WADs that may be considered uncontroversial in its selection. See the external links section below for alternative lists and review sites.Megawads
- Eternal Doom is a set of levels for Doom II created by TeamTNTTeamTNTTeamTNT is a group of mappers who created the TNT: Evilution episode of Final Doom, as well as several free level packs and developer resources for Doom II...
after Final Doom, released non-commercially in several versions—the final one on 14 November 1997. Eternal Doom places the player and the original Doom's demons in 32 levels varyingly in the theme of medieval castleCastleA castle is a type of fortified structure built in Europe and the Middle East during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars debate the scope of the word castle, but usually consider it to be the private fortified residence of a lord or noble...
s and futuristic high-tech bases, featuring a time travelTime travelTime travel is the concept of moving between different points in time in a manner analogous to moving between different points in space. Time travel could hypothetically involve moving backward in time to a moment earlier than the starting point, or forward to the future of that point without the...
sub-plot. A distinguishing aspect of Eternal Doom is the size of the levels, the average being about four times the size of the levels in Doom and Doom II. Eternal Doom has been praised for the levels' grand architectureArchitectureArchitecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...
and complex layouts, but the size of some of the largest castles, combined with level design which sometimes forces the player to travel back and forth between switches located around the map—often difficult to find, has also been subject to criticism. - Hell Revealed (May 1997) is a 32-level megawad for Doom II created by Yonatan Donner, one of the players behind the Doom Done Quick speedrunning project, and Haggay Niv. It was designed with the intent of providing a challenge for expert players, and has become infamous for its difficulty: the hardest levels in the set feature battlegrounds where the player is pitted against dozens of the hardest monsters at once, some levels containing around 500 monsters in total. Second to the original games Doom and Doom II, Hell Revealed has been subject to the most Doom speedrunning competition of any Doom WAD. A sequel built around the same concept and featuring yet more monsters, Hell Revealed 2, was created by a different team and released December 31, 2003.
- 10 Sectors started as a competition at DoomworldDoomworldDoomworld is a news website dedicated to the computer game Doom, having been founded in 1998. It is hosted by AtomicGamer and is independently managed by a small staff of game fans with the help of many contributors...
, where entrants were challenged to make the best level they could for the BOOM source port using only 10 sectors, with the winner, Michal Mesko, receiving a Voodoo 5 5500 AGP graphics card.
Total conversions
- Aliens TC (1994) by Justin Fisher, based on the movie AliensAliens (film)Aliens is a 1986 science fiction action film directed by James Cameron and starring Sigourney Weaver, Carrie Henn, Michael Biehn, Lance Henriksen, William Hope, and Bill Paxton...
, was the first total conversion and is one of the most famous: in the week following the release of Doom IIDoom IIDoom II: Hell on Earth is an award winning first-person shooter video game and second title of id Software's Doom franchise. Unlike Doom which was initially only available through shareware and mail order, Doom II was a commercial release sold in stores...
, there was more discussion in the Doom newsgroupNewsgroupA usenet newsgroup is a repository usually within the Usenet system, for messages posted from many users in different locations. The term may be confusing to some, because it is usually a discussion group. Newsgroups are technically distinct from, but functionally similar to, discussion forums on...
s related to Aliens TC than Doom II. The popularity of the Aliens TC even reached outside the Doom community, for instance providing inspiration for the 1998 DreamworksDreamWorksDreamWorks Pictures, also known as DreamWorks, LLC, DreamWorks SKG, DreamWorks II Distribution Co., LLC, DreamWorks Studios or DW Studios, LLC, is an American film studio which develops, produces, and distributes films, video games and television programming...
game Jurassic Park: TrespasserJurassic Park: TrespasserJurassic Park: Trespasser is a video game released in 1998 for Microsoft Windows after much hype and anticipation. The player assumes the role of Anne, the sole survivor of a plane crash on InGen's "Site B" one year after the events of The Lost World: Jurassic Park...
. Fisher was offered employment by various game developers (including Dreamworks for the team that would later make Trespasser), but declined in order to finish his university degree.
The Aliens TC was noted for its suspenseful atmosphere. The first level is devoid of enemies, a surprising feature considering the fast-paced action of Doom. Later on, however, the players faces the aliens
Xenomorph (Alien)
The Alien is a fictional endoparasitoid extraterrestrial species that is the primary antagonist of the Alien film series. The species made its debut in the 1979 film Alien, and reappeared in its sequels Aliens , Alien 3 , and Alien Resurrection , two crossovers Alien vs...
and even gets to use the powerloader from Aliens as a weapon. Fisher had gotten the idea to create the Aliens TC within his first five minutes of playing Doom in late December 1993, noting a similarity in atmosphere of Doom and the movie. Incidentally, it has later become known that id Software originally planned to base Doom on an Aliens license, but abandoned the idea in the early stages of development.
- Batman Doom uses characters and locations from the world of the comic bookComic bookA comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
superheroSuperheroA superhero is a type of stock character, possessing "extraordinary or superhuman powers", dedicated to protecting the public. Since the debut of the prototypical superhero Superman in 1938, stories of superheroes — ranging from brief episodic adventures to continuing years-long sagas —...
BatmanBatmanBatman is a fictional character created by the artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger. A comic book superhero, Batman first appeared in Detective Comics #27 , and since then has appeared primarily in publications by DC Comics...
. - Chex QuestChex QuestChex Quest is a non-violent first-person shooter video game created in 1996 by Digital Café as a Chex cereal promotion aimed at children aged 9 and up...
- A total conversion made so DOOM can be approved for children. This was packaged in ChexChexChex is a brand of breakfast cereal, introduced in 1937 and currently manufactured by General Mills. It was originally owned by Ralston Purina, and the Chex name reflects the "checkerboard square" logo of Ralston Purina. The product line was part of the spinoff of the Ralston portion of Ralston...
cereal boxes, however when the promotion ended fans put Chex Quest up for download on the InternetInternetThe Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
. - Doom 64 TC is a replication of Doom 64Doom 64Doom 64 is a video game for the Nintendo 64 released by Midway Games in April 4, 1997. It is part of the Doom first-person shooter video game series.-Features:Key differences from the computer games in the series include:*32 exclusive new levels....
, the Nintendo 64Nintendo 64The , often referred to as N64, was Nintendo′s third home video game console for the international market. Named for its 64-bit CPU, it was released in June 1996 in Japan, September 1996 in North America, March 1997 in Europe and Australia, September 1997 in France and December 1997 in Brazil...
version of Doom, which contains different levels, graphics and sounds. - HacX was originally released as a standalone commercial game, but eventually released as freewareFreewareFreeware is computer software that is available for use at no cost or for an optional fee, but usually with one or more restricted usage rights. Freeware is in contrast to commercial software, which is typically sold for profit, but might be distributed for a business or commercial purpose in the...
. HacX includes all-new content and the game behavior has been extensively modified to account for its unique cybernetic science fiction setting. - Sonic Robo Blast 2 is a modification of the Doom engine, that turns it from a first-person shooter into a third-person platformer based on Sonic the HedgehogSonic the Hedgehog (character), trademarked Sonic The Hedgehog, is a video game character and the main protagonist of the Sonic video game series released by Sega, as well as in numerous spin-off comics, cartoons, and a feature film. The first game was released on June 23, 1991, to provide Sega with a mascot to rival Nintendo's...
. - Goldeneye Doom 2 Total Conversion is a modification of Doom 2 that adds elements from the Nintendo 64Nintendo 64The , often referred to as N64, was Nintendo′s third home video game console for the international market. Named for its 64-bit CPU, it was released in June 1996 in Japan, September 1996 in North America, March 1997 in Europe and Australia, September 1997 in France and December 1997 in Brazil...
game GoldenEye 007. - The Darkest Hour is a 7-level modification of Doom 2 that puts the player in the Star WarsStar WarsStar Wars is an American epic space opera film series created by George Lucas. The first film in the series was originally released on May 25, 1977, under the title Star Wars, by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, followed by two sequels, released at three-year...
universe. It was followed by a 5-level "prequel" called Dawn: A Prelude. - Urban Brawl is an indie gameIndie gameIndependent video game development is the process of creating video games without the financial support of a video game publisher. While large firms can create independent games, they are usually designed by an individual or a small team of as many as ten people, depending on the complexity of the...
developed on the ZDoom source port. - Void is a single-level modification based on American McGee's AliceAmerican McGee's AliceAmerican McGee's Alice is a third-person action game released for PC on October 6, 2000. The game, developed by Rogue Entertainment and published by Electronic Arts, is set in an alternative universe of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland...
. - Paranoid is an 8-level modification of Doom 2 (using the GZDooM engine) that is based on Half-Life. It features new weapons, enemies, graphics, sounds, models, skies, 3D architecture, a hub structure, a story-driven mission, and much more.
Miscellaneous
- Doomsday of UAC (also known as UAC_DEAD after the file name) by Leo Martin Lim, released June 23, 1994, featured what was considered one of the most realistic environments of the time. Exploiting an until-then unknown bug in the Doom engine's rendering code, it also introduced a special effect in the form of an "invisible stairway"; this trick has been used extensively later on.
- D!Zone by WizardWorks SoftwareWizardWorks SoftwareWizardWorks Software was a video game developer and publisher located in Minneapolis, MN. Focused on casual consumer games sold through mass-merchants like Target and Wal-Mart, WizardWorks was best known for publishing the Deer Hunter series of video games developed by Sunstorm Interactive but also...
, an expansion pack featuring hundreds of levels for Doom and Doom II. D!Zone was reviewed in 1995 in DragonDragon (magazine)Dragon is one of the two official magazines for source material for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game and associated products, the other being Dungeon. TSR, Inc. originally launched the monthly printed magazine in 1976 to succeed the company's earlier publication, The Strategic Review. The...
#217 by Jay & Dee in the "Eye of the Monitor" column. Jay gave the pack 1 out of 5 stars, while Dee gave the pack 1½ stars. - FreedoomFreedoomFreedoom is a free Doom engine based first-person shooter game currently under development. The game is currently in an alpha stage and many features are missing, for example some monsters and other sprites are replaced by placeholder images, some levels are missing, and some levels have no music....
is a project to create a freeFree softwareFree software, software libre or libre software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with restrictions that only ensure that further recipients can also do...
replacement (modified BSD License) for the set of graphicsComputer graphicsComputer graphics are graphics created using computers and, more generally, the representation and manipulation of image data by a computer with help from specialized software and hardware....
, sound effectSound effectFor the album by The Jam, see Sound Affects.Sound effects or audio effects are artificially created or enhanced sounds, or sound processes used to emphasize artistic or other content of films, television shows, live performance, animation, video games, music, or other media...
s, musicMusicMusic is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
and levelLevel (computer and video games)A level, map, area, or world in a video game is the total space available to the player during the course of completing a discrete objective...
s (and miscellaneous other resources) used by Doom. Since the Doom engineDoom engineThe Doom engine is the game engine that powers the id Software games Doom and Doom II. It is also used by HeXen, Heretic, Strife, Freedoom, and HacX, and other games produced by licensees. It was created by John Carmack, with auxiliary functions written by Mike Abrash, John Romero, Dave Taylor and...
is free softwareFree softwareFree software, software libre or libre software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with restrictions that only ensure that further recipients can also do...
, it can be distributed along with the new resources, in effect providing a full game that is free. Freedoom would also allow users to play any of the thousands of other WADs that normally require the original game. Despite its name, Freedoom resources require an executable with support for additional features introduced by the Doom source port Boom and will not work correctly with an executable build from the source code release of Doom. The WAD, alongside, PrBoom is packaged in the FedoraFedora (operating system)Fedora is a RPM-based, general purpose collection of software, including an operating system based on the Linux kernel, developed by the community-supported Fedora Project and sponsored by Red Hat...
RPMRPM Package ManagerRPM Package Manager is a package management system. The name RPM variously refers to the .rpm file format, files in this format, software packaged in such files, and the package manager itself...
software repository. A similar project, Blasphemer, aims to create a complete free version of Heretic. - The Harris levels. Levels created by Eric Harris, one of the participants of the Columbine High School massacreColumbine High School massacreThe Columbine High School massacre occurred on Tuesday, April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School in Columbine, an unincorporated area of Jefferson County, Colorado, United States, near Denver and Littleton. Two senior students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, embarked on a massacre, killing 12...
. - The Sky May Be. A notable joke wad, and the "Strangest WAD ever made", most of the game takes place in an over sized sector, where many textures are replaced with solid colors, and many sounds replaced with audio from British television programs. Placed on the http://www.doomworld.com/10years/bestwads/infamous.php.
Editors
Many level editorLevel editor
A level editor is a software tool used to design levels, maps, campaigns, etc and virtual worlds for a video game. In some cases the creator of a video game releases an official level editor for a game, but other times the community of fans step in to fill the void...
s are available for Doom. The original Doom Editing Utility has been ported to a number of operating system
Operating system
An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...
s, but lost significance over time; however, many of today's editors still have their roots in DEU and its editing paradigm, including DETH, DeePsea, Linux Doom Editor, and Yadex. Other level editors include WadAuthor and the relatively young Doom Builder (initially released in summer 2003), which, among other things, features a 3D editing mode.
A number of other, specialized editors also were created over time to modify graphics and sound lumps, most notably SLumpEd, Wintex, XWE, and SLADE. Things, such as monsters and items, and weapon behavior can also be modified to some degree using the executable patching utility DeHackEd
DeHackEd
DeHackEd is an editor originally created for the executable of the original Doom, that allows the operation of the executable to be changed. Hit points, sounds, frame sequences, text strings and several other miscellaneous values can be changed. Modifications can be distributed in the form of...
. Additionally, designers can code their own custon weapon or monster items using a script called DECORATE, which is based on C++
C++
C++ is a statically typed, free-form, multi-paradigm, compiled, general-purpose programming language. It is regarded as an intermediate-level language, as it comprises a combination of both high-level and low-level language features. It was developed by Bjarne Stroustrup starting in 1979 at Bell...
The utility Slige can be used to automatically generate random maps. Slige has a cumbersome approach when creating levels and therefore a newer tool called Oblige has been created. This tool is entirely coded in Lua.
WAD2 and WAD3
In Quake the WAD files were replaced with PAKPAK (file format)
The .PAK extension is frequently used as an abbreviation of "package" and there are many different formats.There is no standard for this extension.Applications using .PAK files are typically, but not only, video games.- Uses :Examples include:...
files. WAD files still remain in Quake files, but their use is limited to textures. WAD2 and WAD3 use slightly larger directory structure, so they're incompatible with Doom.
Guide books
- Joseph Bell, David Skrede: The Doom Construction Kit: Mastering and Modifying Doom, Waite Group Press (April 1, 1995), ISBN 1-57169-003-4
- Hank Leukart: The Doom Hacker's Guide, Mis Press (March 1, 1995), ISBN 1-55828-428-1
- Steve Benner, et al.: 3D Game Alchemy for Doom, Doom II, Heretic and Hexen, SAMS Publishing (1996), ISBN 0-672-30935-1
External links
- [ftp://archives.gamers.org/pub/idgames/ idgames archive] - hosted by gamers.org and maintained by longstanding community members Frans P. de Vries and Ty Halderman.
- Doomworld's web-based front-end to the idgames archive - includes search and rating systems
- World's first original WAD created by Jeff Bird.