Post by wadmodderpudu on Feb 26, 2021 1:10:19 GMT
The modding scene for DOOM, DOOM II, The Ultimate DOOM & Final DOOM has been around for the longest time since the release of first editing & modding tools in early-1994. But that doesn't mean that every PWAD is available on the internet to be very easily found, such is the case with what happened to Eric Harris's DOOM levels after the Columbine High School Shooting in 1999.
But the Multiplayer scene for DOOM, DOOM II, The Ultimate DOOM & Final DOOM was a different story at the time. Way before Zandronum, ZDaemon & Odamex, there was DWANGO, an early form of online gaming developed by Interactive Visual Systems for MS-DOS and Windows PC games active between 1994 & 1998 that allowed Matchmaking & Online Multiplayer. In addition to the games that were supported by DWANGO, the service was accompanied by semi-official "Deathmatch Map Compilation" PWADs for DOOM II and to a lesser extent DOOM 1 & Heretic, that were released between 1995 & 1997 which are still played on Multiplayer DOOM servers running the Zandronum, ZDaemon & Odamex source ports to this day.
Each PWAD also contained custom MIDI music which were either conversions of popular songs by Nine Inch Nails & other bands like Soundgarden, MIDI samples from old Sound Cards, old PC software or the early years of the internet, or MIDI music ripped from games like Heretic & Descent. A while back the last few MIDI files were identified earlier this year, solving the mystery of the soundtrack used in the DWANGO PWADs for DOOM II.
However, one bigger mystery still remains for the DWANGO service regarding the PWADs for DOOM II. There is an entire missing PWAD from the DWANGO series, that PWAD of course is "DWANGO9.WAD". For many years, many forum users asked regarding the existence of DWANGO9.WAD and the answer was definite, not only is DWANGO9 completely lost but it never existed in the first place.
To make matters more confusing, a Fan-Made "Fake" DWANGO9.WAD was created by ZDaemon player "Damaniac" back in 2004, which was done as a harmless fan creation to fill a gap that had been there for years. Unfortunately, it makes searching for the real DWANGO9 PWAD more harder, since the Fan-Made "Fake" is the one that shows up when you Google the term DWANGO9.WAD.
A while back old school DOOM community member "Shockwav3" made an interesting discovery, a compilation of maps in one PWAD called "DWANGO!.WAD" (DWANGO with an exclamation mark). This compilation PWAD contains a number of old deathmatch maps that were played on the Houston DWANGO server back in the 1990s, that was uploaded to Internet Archive by "HDRambo" a classic DWANGO moderator.
MAP05 of this compilation PWAD contains what appears to be MAP01 of the real DWANGO9.WAD, suggesting that during the time the DWANGO servers were still active, there was in fact a DWANGO9.WAD in existence. Unfortunately, this compilation PWAD doesn't have any text files or anything associated with it.
A while back DOOM community member Adam Post who goes by the aliases Doomkid, uploaded a YouTube video regarding the mystery of the lost DWANGO9 PWAD.
youtu.be/RXGtCjdwwe8
Unfortunately, the chances of rediscovering the lost DWANGO9.WAD are slim to none for right now, unless your likely to get in contact with former employees who worked at DWANGO (not the DWANGO that's still active in Japan) between 1994 to 1998 if they still have a copy of this lost PWAD in possession.
But the Multiplayer scene for DOOM, DOOM II, The Ultimate DOOM & Final DOOM was a different story at the time. Way before Zandronum, ZDaemon & Odamex, there was DWANGO, an early form of online gaming developed by Interactive Visual Systems for MS-DOS and Windows PC games active between 1994 & 1998 that allowed Matchmaking & Online Multiplayer. In addition to the games that were supported by DWANGO, the service was accompanied by semi-official "Deathmatch Map Compilation" PWADs for DOOM II and to a lesser extent DOOM 1 & Heretic, that were released between 1995 & 1997 which are still played on Multiplayer DOOM servers running the Zandronum, ZDaemon & Odamex source ports to this day.
Each PWAD also contained custom MIDI music which were either conversions of popular songs by Nine Inch Nails & other bands like Soundgarden, MIDI samples from old Sound Cards, old PC software or the early years of the internet, or MIDI music ripped from games like Heretic & Descent. A while back the last few MIDI files were identified earlier this year, solving the mystery of the soundtrack used in the DWANGO PWADs for DOOM II.
However, one bigger mystery still remains for the DWANGO service regarding the PWADs for DOOM II. There is an entire missing PWAD from the DWANGO series, that PWAD of course is "DWANGO9.WAD". For many years, many forum users asked regarding the existence of DWANGO9.WAD and the answer was definite, not only is DWANGO9 completely lost but it never existed in the first place.
To make matters more confusing, a Fan-Made "Fake" DWANGO9.WAD was created by ZDaemon player "Damaniac" back in 2004, which was done as a harmless fan creation to fill a gap that had been there for years. Unfortunately, it makes searching for the real DWANGO9 PWAD more harder, since the Fan-Made "Fake" is the one that shows up when you Google the term DWANGO9.WAD.
A while back old school DOOM community member "Shockwav3" made an interesting discovery, a compilation of maps in one PWAD called "DWANGO!.WAD" (DWANGO with an exclamation mark). This compilation PWAD contains a number of old deathmatch maps that were played on the Houston DWANGO server back in the 1990s, that was uploaded to Internet Archive by "HDRambo" a classic DWANGO moderator.
MAP05 of this compilation PWAD contains what appears to be MAP01 of the real DWANGO9.WAD, suggesting that during the time the DWANGO servers were still active, there was in fact a DWANGO9.WAD in existence. Unfortunately, this compilation PWAD doesn't have any text files or anything associated with it.
A while back DOOM community member Adam Post who goes by the aliases Doomkid, uploaded a YouTube video regarding the mystery of the lost DWANGO9 PWAD.
youtu.be/RXGtCjdwwe8
Unfortunately, the chances of rediscovering the lost DWANGO9.WAD are slim to none for right now, unless your likely to get in contact with former employees who worked at DWANGO (not the DWANGO that's still active in Japan) between 1994 to 1998 if they still have a copy of this lost PWAD in possession.
