Topic: DOOM Multiplayer Lives! With the Zandronum sourceport

[Ratty]

After several days of obsessively playing the two Portal games until I beat them, I needed to unwind with some good old mindless violence. As a result I have been playing WADs for Doom engine games (mostly Heretic) with renewed relish and thought I'd recommend the new standard in Doom engine multiplayer since I've been playing on it. For the last several years if anyone I've talked to has been interested in playing the original Doom engine games in Deathmatch or Co-Op, or even just having an intuitive and easy to use sourceport for single player, I have recommended Skulltag. However development on and support of Skulltag ended several months ago, thankfully new fans have stepped in and started developing it again under the name of Zandronum.

The folks there have listed the features better than I could. From Zandronum's own "About" Page

Leading the way in newschool online Doom.

Zandronum is the continuation of Skulltag, an online-centric source port for the game Doom by Id Software.
The goal of Zandronum is to continue where Skulltag left off, leaving the fluff at the core of the project behind, while continuing to provide enhanced gameplay, modding capabilities, and personal attunement for the newschool crowd. Zandronum is capable of running on all of the popular desktop operating systems, so here's why you should play it:

Doom revitalized
-Client/Server architecture. Jump through all your favorite modes and mods instantly.
-Customizable game modes with a built-in set of gamemodes for your modding pleasure.
-64 player support.
-Multi-platform. We offer maintained binaries for Windows, Ubuntu, Mac OS X, and generic Linux binaries. FreeBSD server builds are also available on request.
-Open Source. Doesn't run on your flavor of operating system? Then the source code is available. The source is available on Bitbucket and all new code is licensed under a modified Sleepycat license.
-Advanced renderer support. Choose between an attractive OpenGL renderer, or kick up the nostalgia with the classic 2.5D Software renderer. Both with high resolution and wide screen support.
-Continuous support for ZDoom and GZDoom modifications.
-Newschool features: Console, freelook, key-binding, jumping, skins, announcers, and bots.
-Server management with remote console (rcon), map rotations, and blacklists.

If you've never played the original Doom Engine games, or haven't played them in years, there's never been a better time to start. Modern sourceports allow for easy use of both the original games and fan made WADs and other modifications. As well as a level of control customization and environment effects I could have only dreamed about when I was playing Doom95 back in the day.

Get it here
http://zandronum.com/download
Be sure to get the version with Doomseeker included, that's the easiest way to join and setup online Doom engine games.

Since there are no trailers for Zandronum yet but it's a direct continuation of skulltag here's an old Skulltag trailer to give you an idea what it's like. Though I should note that this is a very old trailer and all Doom Engine games are now fully supported.
Skulltag 97d Trailer
Video of a random mod where someone put the Kamikazes from Serious Sam in the game which I thought was funny
Coop Zombie Mayhem

If you've never played a Doom game and aren't sure if it's your thing, you can download the Doom and Heretic shareware episodes to try them out.
http://www.doomworld.com/pageofdoom/shareware.html
http://www.ravengames.com/heretic/raven-downloads.php

The full Doom engine game HacX is now available from free from the original developer http://drnostromo.com/hacx/page.php?content=download just run the HacX WAD as Doom 2 in Zandronum as it is a full conversion of that game.
One of the original developers of the series "ChexQuest" (which was a tie-in product with Chex cereal) also released that trilogy for free in a single WAD so you can grab that as well.

Of the other commercial Doom Engine games -
The Ultimate Doom, Doom 2 and Final Doom are all available on steam. As Are Heretic, Hexen and Hexen's expansion Deathkings of the Dark Citadel. The engine's only RPG Strife is not currently available unfortunately.

Once you've got the full versions of Doom and Doom 2 there are literally hundreds if not thousands of fan made levels to play through that are absolutely free, a good place to start is DoomWorld's list of 100 best WADs from the first 10 years of Doom http://www.doomworld.com/10years/bestwads/

[Abnormal Freak]

Hearing Tourettes Guy voice clips as SFX in DOOM has got to be the most splendid thing ever. "Wait a minute, you dick!" when you die... Amazing.

Assuming it'd work with this, DOOM 64: Absolution is a really nice total conversion/port of DOOM 64 headed by our board's own elbryan42 (except he doesn't post here anymore, lol).

[Ratty]

Hearing Tourettes Guy voice clips as SFX in DOOM has got to be the most splendid thing ever. "Wait a minute, you dick!" when you die... Amazing.

Assuming it'd work with this, DOOM 64: Absolution is a really nice total conversion/port of DOOM 64 headed by our board's own elbryan42 (except he doesn't post here anymore, lol).

Hm I don't think Absolution would work on Zandronum since it was apparently designed specifically for the Doomsday engine, which is known for being the most powerful but also the most resource intensive Doom sourceport, and one I've never bothered with much. I've heard of Absolution though certainly, it placed a spot in the 100 Greatest WADs list on Doomworld. Specifically one of the 10 best for the year 2003. Their description of it-

Doom 64: Absolution - Various

Doom64 was Doom's trip to the Nintendo 64 many years ago. Unlike most other console Doom ports, Doom64 featured new sprites, new maps, and even some new monsters and weapons. The Doom64 TC, as you may have guessed, is an attempt to port Doom 64 to PC using the Doomsday engine. Was it successful? Very much so. It seems jDoom is perfect for emulating Doom64 which features a variety of colored lighting and some very basic scripting. While the sprites and sounds are taken right from Doom64, the levels are emulations of the Doom64 ones made from scratch (a very impressive feat) and there are even some TC-only additions such as some new monsters and alterations to some of the maps. While many think it doesn't feel exactly like Doom should, it certainly is an interesting change to Doom, and well worth checking out. (Cyb) http://www.doomworld.com/10years/bestwads/2003.php

If you like that TC though the same director has went on to make an even more faithful port of the game, though you need to have access to a Doom64 ROM in order for it to work. http://doom.wikia.com/wiki/Doom64_EX

[Phoenix7786]

Oh man all this talk of Heretic and Hexen makes me want to fire up Dosbox and finish them.
How is the original Doom in co-op? Is there any challenge to the game with 2 or more people? Or are there WAD's specifically designed for teams?

[Ratty]

Oh man all this talk of Heretic and Hexen makes me want to fire up Dosbox and finish them.

You should really try playing them with a sourceport then, it will look and play a lot better with many more options. Zandronum is probably the most user friendly and intuitive sourceport I know, which is why I usually recommend it to people just getting into Doom. Just open the Heretic or Hexen WAD file with it and off you go.

Additionally, while Heretic and Hexen don't have nearly as many fan-made levels as Doom 2 and Ultimate Doom, there is still a decent chunk of them-
http://www.doomworld.com/idgames/index.php?dir=levels/heretic/
http://www.doomworld.com/idgames/index.php?dir=levels/hexen/

How is the original Doom in co-op? Is there any challenge to the game with 2 or more people? Or are there WAD's specifically designed for teams?

I'm sure there are WADs designed specifically for Co-Op but I've not played any. The main problem with co-op in Doom is that the game's movement speed means that you won't see the other players most of the time. Since you respawn when you die in coop it's not very challenging but is a fun way to explore. Just make sure the game is set so you don't lose all your weapons when you die, and that weapons and ammo respawn so it's not a problem when you or anyone else hoovers them all up.

[Phoenix7786]

Hmm I suppose people could always impose a "you die we all lose" rule or just something. I'll have a look at those links.
Quick question, when it comes to modding games I am a total dolt. I understand a WAD is a custom-made map with things like new levels all the way to new textures, weapons, enemies, and items. But what exactly is a source-port?

[Ratty]

Hmm I suppose people could always impose a "you die we all lose" rule or just something. I'll have a look at those links.
Quick question, when it comes to modding games I am a total dolt. I understand a WAD is a custom-made map with things like new levels all the way to new textures, weapons, enemies, and items. But what exactly is a source-port?

It's a port of the game's engine to modern operating systems. So you don't need DOS or even most of the original files that were installed with the games. The music, levels, textures, all of the actual game files were stored on the original WAD ("Where's All the Data?") files which can be found on the discs. Heretic.wad and Hexen.wad in the case of those games, Hexdd.wad for Death Kings of the Dark Citadel. I've heard that the WAD file format was adopted for Doom partly because many many fans had wanted to make their own levels and modifications for Wolfenstein 3D but it was difficult to do so with the way that game was set up.

PS - Some more in-depth explanations:
http://doom.wikia.com/wiki/WAD
http://doom.wikia.com/wiki/Source_port

PPS- And I think there is an option to not respawn (presumably until the end of the level) after you die in co-op for Zandronum, but not positive.

[Ratty]

This reply is a response to a question raised in another thread, here's the relevant part of my post there and the question-

I also played through the entirety of Doom 2 with my significant other, using a mod that lets you play as characters (and use the associated weapons) from Heretic, Hexen, Duke Nukem 3D and ChexQuest as well as the Doom Marine. It was a pretty sweet way to top off the evening.

wow that IWAD (I'm guessing something that extensive must be an internal WAD) that you played Doom 2 through sounds amazing, mixing in all those characters. I'm curious which one is that. Actually just so we don't derail this thread would you mind posting the reply on that one you made about Zandronum?

Certainly, the mod is called Samsara, a clever reference to the circle of life, death and reincarnation.

Here's some videos of it in action made by the author

Deathmatch
Samsara - WELP
Co-Op
Modding Modded Doom II Mods V (II)
Capture the Flag
Samsara - I'm terrible at my own mod.

[Phoenix7786]

Oh my goodness those look great. Having played Doom, Heretic, Hexen and Chexquest I never dreamed the day would come when they would all be recreated so faithfully, from the sound of the weapons, the Heretic's laugh when he gets a new toy, to seeing some of the Chexquest weapons gib Doom enemies the same way it would gib the flemoids.
What's more it looks like the mouse free-aims with WASD movement?
I'll definitely be looking for some co-op buddies, especially since I've never beaten Doom II (for some reason it always crashes when I try Dosbox so maybe one of these source-ports will fix that).
Thanks a bunch Ratty!

[Ratty]

What's more it looks like the mouse free-aims with WASD movement?

Yep! I always use "always freelook" and WASD movement when I play Doom engine games. It's become a standard optional feature on most engine ports, though "Chocolate Doom" (who's entire purpose is to recreate the original Doom experience as faithfully as possible) might not have it.

I'll definitely be looking for some co-op buddies, especially since I've never beaten Doom II (for some reason it always crashes when I try Dosbox so maybe one of these source-ports will fix that).
Thanks a bunch Ratty!

Oh yeah the games definitely run much better on modern source ports than on DOSbox, I doubt you'll see any crashing with them unless your WAD is corrupted or something. In which case you could just copy it from your disc or download it from steam again. Zandronum doesn't have the most options for things like texture smoothing etc*, but it has nice OpenGL ambient lightening effects and is easy to use. I think it's the optimal starter source port to get familiar with how they work. It's the one I use most of the time for singleplayer, and the only one I use for multiplayer.
Also you're welcome 

*Though I'm sure it's compatible with things like high resolution texture packs I prefer to use the originals.

[Abnormal Freak]

I'll have to get the Heretic, Hexen, and DOOM WADs from you mofoz sometime. Lost those games long ago.

[Phoenix7786]

The only Heretic, Hexen, Hexen II and Doom II I have are all abandonware, so I'm not surprised they're not 100% operational. The Doom I have is Ultimate Doom, so I knew that one would work. The Chexquest 1-3 compilation from Jacobi works just fine too.

[Ratty]

The only Heretic, Hexen, Hexen II and Doom II I have are all abandonware, so I'm not surprised they're not 100% operational. The Doom I have is Ultimate Doom, so I knew that one would work. The Chexquest 1-3 compilation from Jacobi works just fine too.

Ahh I think you mean shareware, but in the Doom series I think that only Doom 1 had a shareware version so your copies of Doom 2 is probably a full version you just forgot you bought long ago. Still, the shareware versions of Doom and Heretic/Hexen should be working for you. Here's where to grab those free episodes http://www.doomworld.com/classicdoom/info/shareware.php If they're not playing correctly, are you sure you're launching the games right? When you click on Zandronum it's  giving you a menu of whether you want to play Doom, Doom 2 or Heretic right? If not then the wads aren't all in the same folder that you selected Zandronum to look for, I'd recommend them in the same folder in "my computer/c:/program files/zandronum" with the executable. That's "my computer/c:/program files(x86)/zandronum" if you're running a 64bit version of windows.

I'll have to get the Heretic, Hexen, and DOOM WADs from you mofoz sometime. Lost those games long ago.

They're pretty cheap on Steam, about $5 a pop, extremely reasonable when you consider the thousands of free levels and mods you can then play. They'll probably go on 50% off or somesuch during the Xmas sale. In the meantime though along with HacX and the ChexQuest games and freeware episodes of Doom 1 and Heretic, here's another free game on the engine you can play.
Harmony Trailer - (promotional video for the game)
It comes with the ZDoom source port all set up and ready to play. Grab it here: http://rabotik.nl/harmony.htm be warned that the starting weapon is basically useless and the second weapon you get is grenades lol.

Also I'm ashamed I let a DOOM thread go this long without posting this dramatic reading of what is surely the best fanfiction ever penned.

(click to show/hide)

Doom: Repercussions of Evil

[Phoenix7786]

No they are all full-version abandonware (like my free heretic is Shadows of the serpent rider).

Anyways my brother threw 15 bones my way (since I lost my job) and I picked up a shit-ton of them off of Steam, including Heretic, Heretic expansion, Hexen, Hexen II and Doom II. For Heretic, Hexen, and Doom II I calibrated the keyboard then used Joy2key to play as my joystick and it worked great. The only reason I went through that hassle was people on steam forums said the joystick support is really lackluster, (except Hexen II) so use the keyboard settings and then run Joy2key.

I finished off D'sparil on Heretic, and boy was he no slouch. I've beaten Ultimate Doom previously, so I've scratched that one off my list. To keep myself from burning out on medieval FPS/quasi-puzzle games, I'm gonna do the Blizzard approach and go from Heretic to Doom II. After that, I'll have some unfinished business with Hexen.
I'd LOVE to do those in co-op, but only as long as there's no unlimited ammo. From what Terminus has said Samsara is hard-locked with infinite ammo with the pistol archetype so I'll probably pass on Samsara's but Zandronum is fine.

After some dicking around I got my WAD's in Zandronum's file and tested the pertinent games. Thanks for the help on Zandronum! I can see the huge difference playing now.

[Ratty]

Ahh cool to hear you bought the games, have fun! if you want to play co-op just look on Doomseeker and see if anyone's running a coop game.

Oh also I forgot to mention this mod that's extremely popular right now, and that Abnormal Freak would probably like as he's a gore hound.

Ultra-Violence indeed.
Brutal Doom Version 0.17 Trailer