Doom Designer Makes First Level In 21 Years

Legendary game designer John Romero has come back to the Doom design field to make a brand new level for the game after 21 years of leaving the series alone. The level is a recreation of the Phobos Anomaly, the boss stage for the first episode of the first game.

Game Informer spotted the tweet from John Romero that he posted up on his Twitter account.

The map is only 215KB, but in Doom terms that's actually quite large given that the game isn't actually in 3D. Feedback on the map is that it's large and varied. I haven't had time to whip out Doom, load up the wad and play-test it for myself, but according to Romero it was yet another work of passion. The designer, who originally worked with id Software back in the early 1990s to make Doom and Quake before moving on to work on Daikatana, stated on Twitter that it took him about several hours over the course of two weeks to finish the level.

Anyone who originally played the first Doom will recognize the map as the pentagram boss level that introduces the Barons of Hell for the first time. At the start of the level, players first have to wipe out a bunch of pink demons after acquiring the chaingun, and then proceed to facing off against the two, pink-chested hell barons.

The E1M8 level, with music inspired by Metallica, Pantera, and Nine Inch Nails, really stood out back in the day because it mixed in elements of horror with fast-paced run-and-gun action. As mentioned, the midi tunes were perfectly suited to help bring Doom to life. Not to mention that current day remixes of the song from E1M8 still hold up to this very day and sound amazing. Romero's E1M8 is a very different beast with a completely alternate layout and design. Additionally, some images were posted up over on Doom War Station.

If you still have your old PC copy of Doom you can very well get in some play time with Romero's new map. Despite having stepped away from the series for 21 years, a lot of gamers still feel as if he hasn't missed a step, and that the level is just as much fun today as it was two decades ago.

This comes as a nice little hold-me-off until id Software releases the official Doom reboot later this year for the Xbox One, PS4 and PC. The upcoming game will come bundled with what's called SnapMap, which will allow players to build their own maps, modes, missions and more using pre-built toolsets. Heck, we could get really meta and have someone remake John Romero's E1M8 remake in the newest Doom.

If you want to download the new map you can do so by grabbing it from Dropbox. Instructions on installing the map can be found on the Doom wiki page.