Yet Another Update

Updated 2004/05/10.

I don't know what has got into me — I am managing one update per month. I am sure it will not last long. Anyway, there are just two new reviews this time: CCT2 and EXODUS. And I also fixed the Doomworld links, which did not work with some browsers.

Doom Builder

Updated 2004/04/17.

It is strange to see that some people are still creating new editors, this far into Doom's life. Well, I think these are the first levels that I have played that include Doom Builder in the credits. I have reviewed CASTLE2, PERDIDO02 and Real World 2. It keeps the old statistics page ticking over, where I keep track of the tools used for levels that I have reviewed. I have also started adding links to the Doomworld idgames pages in the reviews: it gives a decent choice of mirrors, and the reviews and ratings are an interesting source of second opinions.

Hall of Mirrors

Updated 2004/03/27.

I had not noticed, until I saw someone comment about it on Doomworld, that all the links to the idgames archive are broken. So I have relocated the Hall of Mirrors and fixed the links. I have purged the list of mirrors again while I was at it (the list in the archive README seems to be rather out of step with reality).

Revealed at Last

Updated 2004/03/13.

I have not had much time for Doom recently, but I do have one new review for you, and it is a big one: Hell Revealed 2.

Cleaning Up

Updated 2003/06/07.

I have nothing new for you this time, I'm afraid. I have been going through the site correcting some mistakes that I came across when browsing some of the reviews, and cleaning up the HTML somewhat. Let me know if you come across any broken pages.

Long Overdue

Updated 2003/05/31.

Well, that was rather a long pause in updates. And I'm afraid there isn't much to show for it, because I have been busy with other things. This is just a backlog-clearing update, posting the few reviews and corrections that have been made since the last update. There are just three new reviews: GANYMEDE, GATECRSH, and WTC911.

Slayer etc

Updated 2002/08/17.

Just a few more reviews for you this time. Firstly, the very impressive episode Slayer. There are also reviews of CANALRUN and QUADRANT.

Triple Century

Updated 2002/07/28.

Yes, finally, Doom Underground has passed 300 reviews. Adding up from the statistics page gives the current total as 302 reviews. Celebrate, or something. Oh yes, you'll want to know that I actually reviewed something and wasn't just making up new numbers. The new reviews this time are CRABBET, DECIMATE, FEUDAL, and SUPPRSN. I hope you find today's selection interesting.

Retro Experience

Updated 2002/07/24.

Sorry for the gap in updates, I have been away for much of the past month. I have also been doing some further improvements to the site; the index of authors now shows the individual levels which an individual made inside large megawad projects (at least for those where I've got around to adding the information). There are some new reviews for you as well. I've added reviews of Serenity and CH Retro, both episodes for Doom 1. And I also reviewed BIG_GUN.

Puzzled

Updated 2002/05/18.

I'm on a roll it seems, with yet another update. Puzzle levels are the theme this week, as I finally finished playing INDUSTRL, and also reviewed DAEMON2.

Records

Updated 2002/05/11.

It's hard to believe, but this is the first time I have updated 3 weekends in a row. The first time since the launch of Doom Underground in its current form, anyway. Just to prove it, I have finally got around to adding a past updates page to the site. Another record I'm pushing at the moment is the bandwidth being used. Demon only provide bandwidth data for hosted sites once they exceed 1MB/day, which I never expected DU to pass. But immediately after the Alien Vendetta review the site has averaged over 5MB per day, peaking at 10MB on Thursday (7th May). If the current rate continues I'll have to start putting graphs up. I can't be sure this is a record because Doomworld (where I used to be hosted) didn't provide per-site bandwidth data; however it is clear that the unusual high transfers were due to the Alien Vendetta review being my largest ever (totalling 175KB including the screenshots). Demon are a decent ISP though — I'm still well below their bandwidth limits, fortunately. The next significant record on the horizon is reaching 300 reviews. The statistics page calculates the current total 292 reviews. So it should only be a few months before I pass the 300 mark. Anyway, today's new reviews are CHEMICAL and WICKED_4. I have also been improving the information with the reviews a little; the main WADs index now shows the the number of levels in the WAD, for instance.

Minor Update

Updated 2002/05/03.

A couple of the more eagle-eyed readers spotted a couple of broken links from the reviews here. I have now fixed these. I do try to keep the download links working so let me know if you find any. Just a couple of new reviews this time: PRISON4 and WHOUSE. Not bad for only a week.

Alien Vendetta

Updated 2002/04/27.

Sometimes I seriously wonder why I bother to update this place. The number of hits seems to tick over quite happily regardless, and seems to go no faster whether I update or not. Not that I'm complaining of course. Anyway, the cause of the long gap in updates is now finished. I finished Alien Vendetta a couple of days ago. It has definitely made it as a great megawad, and I'm sure we can expect to see it remain popular. All 32 levels are now reviewed. I think it's my longest review of a single add-on ever but hopefully that doesn't put you off :-). And yes, that isn't counting screenshots. Even though my bandwidth today is 100x less than it was 3 years ago (it's true), I'm assuming that the opposite is true for everyone else, and you would rather have some good screenshots to liven things up. A lot of the older reviews are very miserly on screenshots, although at the time I was being generous (Doomoscope went for very small grainy screenshots but I preferred to have something real size).

New Old Stuff

Updated 2002/02/23.

I was hunting through my hard drive last week and I suddenly same across a lost directory with some half-finished and unpublished reviews from a couple of years ago that I had forgotten about. So I finished them off and added them to the site: ARTICA_B, DARKEN2, and DrCrypt's last review, XORG01A. No really new reviews this time I'm afraid, I've been rather busy. I'm about 7 levels into playing Alien Vendetta which looks fairly good so far. I had a bit of a hold up at MAP06 due to an annoying old Doom bug, where when a monster gets stuck it causes any movement in the surrounding area caused by switches to get blocked as well — very annoying, and a good reminder why I don't usually play with Doom compatibility turned on. Oh well, let that be a lesson to me. Anyway, it will take awhile to finish that, so the updates here may be a bit more spaced out in the near future.

Brotherhood of Ruin

Updated 2002/02/09.

Just one new review this time, of the excellent Brotherhood of Ruin.

Updated 2002/01/27.

Just a couple of new reviews this time, BRIKBLAT and CLASSIC7. I've almost finished playing BrotherHood of Ruin though, so there should be a review of that up here soon.

No More Pop-ups

Updated 2002/01/06.

Happy New Year! Unfortunately the new year at Doomworld brought one surprise I wasn't expecting, namely pop-up adverts (pop-under, whatever) — including for hosted sites. The old banners I didn't mind, in fact they added a bit of much needed free colour to my otherwise dull pages (although these days I am slightly more generous with screenshots than I was when DU started). Now I don't mind disabling or otherwise putting up with evil javascript banners when I'm visiting a site that's worth it. On the other hand, I certainly don't intend to inflict them on people visiting my site, not when I have a choice. So here we are, moved over to my personal web space. This should be a permanent new home, so update your bookmarks accordingly. Seriously though, Doomworld have been pretty good hosting, even if Telefragged aren't the most reliable in the world, and I'd like to thank them for the space they've provided me for the last 3 years or so. Sorry guys, I feel your pain. Anyway BTT, there are a few new reviews this time, of AHELLDAY, BASILICA and COECITS. Apart from the other changes to accomodate the move, I've also overhauled the front page a bit, with only the last two updates showing on this page (archived news page will follow if and when I get around to it).

Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics

Updated 2001/12/16.

The really keen-eyed might have already noticed that I've added another page to the site — the statistics page. I planned to do something like this right back when the site was launched, but never got around to it until now. Currently it gives stats on the year WADs were made, and the tools used to make them, but I may add more to the page later if I come up with any good ideas. There are a couple of new reviews this week as well, CHORD3 and CLASSIC6. Enjoy.

270 Reviews and Counting...

Updated 2001/12/08.

Only two weeks since the last update? I guess I must be in a mood to catch up with my Doom playing at the moment. I've resumed adding some of my older Doom 1 reviews to the site, with the result that Doom Underground has now passed 270 reviews. I've also cleaned up the mirror list some more, since several of the mirrors which had not switched to the new master archive have now disappeared completely, most notable the mirror at AOL. Anyway, for actual new reviews this time, we have AXIX, and CRUSADES (I started playing this a long time ago, but it proved to be not very suitable for coop, and I only just got around to replaying at single player).

Enough Excuses

Updated 2001/11/23.

Well, this update got delayed by longer than I'd hoped due to various things, but hey, everyone should know to pay no attention to my excuses by now :-). At least I have a few new reviews this time: BNBEYOND, CLASSIC5, SIMPLY. And Hell Revealed — I'm still not very reliable about reviewing megawads that I play, but as I get around to them I will try to get reviews of main ones up here. The idgames mirrors seem to have settled down now after the recent upheaval, so I've checked through the mirror list and split it into two lists, the up-to-date and the obsolete (the latter may still be useful for getting hold of old levels which have been removed from the main archive).

Death to cdrom.com

Updated 2001/10/08.

Well cdrom.com messed things up again, this time seriously. All good things must come to an end I suppose — but it's particularly annoying given I only changed all the links a few months back. Damn them! Well I'm definitely not falling for it again, this time I've written a little /idgames mirror redirector and all links on the site will henceforth go through that. I know it's a bit of an inconvenience, but unavoidable right now with noone sure where the archive will eventually end up — and you should have been using the mirrors anyway of course :-). Also the more observant of you might spot that I changed the background graphic, from CEIL5_2 to ... FreeDoom's CEIL5_2, by Espi. Sorry to disappoint, but there are no new reviews this time; I'm 90% done playing Hell Revealed, but that's mixed in with testing for the PrBoom 2.2.2 release and also stuff I've been working on for Freedoom so it's moving slowly. The next update will hopefully be fairly soon though.

Update

Updated 2001/08/15.

It looks like I'm falling behind on the updates again. Oh well. At least I managed 3 new reviews this time — 8ISENUF, CONTAIN, and PUNISHR.

cdrom.com Linking

Updated 2001/06/03.

Anyone know the story behind cdrom.com's new restrictions on linking? I mailed them about it, and just got an uninformative reply saying go ahead but use http://wcarchive.cdrom.com/pub/idgames/... I wonder if this is some new policy introduced since Walnut Creek were bought up by Wind River? Anyway, apart from changing all the cdrom.com links, and fixing some other broken links, I imported a few more old reviews of mine, added a new review of an old classic 666EPIS, and updated the review of UAC_CNTR.

Vrack 2 You Too

Updated 2001/05/20.

Added reviews of Vrack and Vrack2.

Rat in a Maze

Updated 2001/04/14.

I've added a review of an old favourite of mine, Rat in a maze. And I did some tidying up around the site.

Update

Updated 2001/03/11.

Imported some more old reviews of mine.

Update

Updated 2001/02/03.

Added Helios 2.

Update

Updated 2001/01/21.

I've updated a couple of reviews this week, and added a new review of Ander2, an updated version of an old Doom 1 favourite of mine.

Back to Life!

Updated 2001/01/13.

Well, it's been a long time, but this site is returning to life. Despite the site being almost dead, I've still been writing reviews, albeit not very many — I've been busy playing through Final Doom, which I got some time ago, amongst other things. I won't bother listing all the corrections, additions, new reviews, site changes, because half of them I did too long ago to remember. But you can expect more updates, even if I don't know yet how regular they'll be.