I would like to organize a community Doom 2 Deathmatch game (potentially a series if the first one goes well). I’m aiming for 2:00 PM EDT (18:00 UTC) today, May 24th.
Preparation
Source Port (Odamex 12.2.0)
While a number of Doom source ports inherit the networking code from the original game, this network code uses a P2P architecture designed to run over IPX and LAN networks. It has many limitations and is not very practical for casual games.
There are a number of ports designed specifically for multiplayer with a client/server architecture. The “active” ones are Zdaemon, Zandronum, and Odamex. Of these, Zdaemon is proprietary and only supports Windows. Zandronum supports Linux, but has a hard dependency on FMOD, which makes it a nuisance to build.
Odamex on the other hand is fully GPL licensed and lacks this dependency hell, plus it is available as a FlatPak, in addition to Windows installers and some distro packages. So we will be using Odamex 12.2.0
(Heads up, the Odamex website still links to 12.1.0 for some reason. This version uses a network protocol which is not compatible with 12.2.0. You can grab 12.2.0 from the Github Releases page (all platforms), FlatHub (Linux), or possibly your distro package manager (mainly looking like Arch 🤏️, Gentoo 😎️, and Nix 😐️).
Files
You will need a copy of doom2.wad. This is the file from the commercial game which contains all of the maps, textures, sprites, audio clips, music, etc. It is easy to find back-ups on the Internet in case you’ve scratched your retail CD, or you are unable to read the file from your retail CD because computers don’t have CD drives anymore. Technical support may be available on Matrix for people who are struggling to insert their CD into the computer.
A few different versions of this file have existed. The correct MD5 / SHA256 sums of this file are 25e1459ca71d321525f84628f45ca8cd /10d67824b11025ddd9198e8cfc87ca335ee6e2d3e63af4180fa9b8a471893255
OdaLauncher
Odamex includes a program called OdaLauncher. This is a GUI application which serves as a server browser / configuration tool. Specifically, you need to point it to odamex(.exe) (the game itself), and a directory where you store your .wad files (including doom2.wad, in addition to the unzipped .wad files of whatever map set we’re playing).
Map set
I have an inkling to keep things simple and just run the DWANGO 5 mapset, but I am completely open for suggestions. Brit11 is also a solid option. Keep in mind, the maps must be vanilla/boom/mbf compatible. A lot of maps designed for Zdaemon, Skulltag, or Zandronum use advanced Zdoom / Hexen features which are not available in Odamex. This limitation doesn’t impact the majority of deathmatch maps though.
The Odamex client has an included feature which will download .wad files from well-known sites, so as long as you have doom2.wad, the other wads should be fetched automatically if you don’t have them.
Server
The server is running at phobos.matapacos.dog, or you can also find it in the server list as “Hexbear Community Deathmatch” We had a “quick” test game to make sure the server was working. You might be able to hop in and get some early frags.
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Someone has to record this just so the final cut has some of the most obscure forum jokes of all time.
Not gonna join this but man if you guys run quake 3 or counter strike 1.6 at some point I would be so in
hel yea I’ll try to join from my laptop for a bit
Is it okay to try and join even if you’ve never played classic doom against another player and you’re only good at a single, very different game (account name unrelated)?
Yes. Multiplayer Doom plays like Celeste. You will die a lot of times, but be back on your feet in a split second. There are no punishing / demoralizing cool-down periods. You don’t even need to wait for your corpse to hit the floor. Most of the fun is running into situations you know will get you killed, and taking as many people with you as you can.
I got correct wads and would be happy to dump them in the gaming matrix chat if anyone needs. Figured I might save others some of the trouble I encountered in finding the right doom2.wad to work with Odamex.
I don’t know what matrix is, but it’s the wad associated with version 1.9 of Doom II - Hell on Earth if anyone else is having trouble
Thanks for mentioning the version!
That’s way too far past midnight in my timezone, otherwise I’d be so there. Any chance of another one that’s slightly more antipodean-friendly?
The time is adaptable. More likely to be pushed back up to about 6 hours (e.g. 8 PM east coast, 5 PM west coast). If the timezone is too fucked, the server latency probably won’t be acceptable either. The server I set up is located in Toronto.
The server I set up is located in Toronto.
laughs in lives-in-the-GTA low-ping happiness
Cabbagetown heads rise up
Yeah fair point about the lag. Don’t move it on my account but if it ends up being later anyway I’ll try to drop in and see if I can deal with it.
Fuck, I might just be down to do this. I actually work a half day tomorrow.
I’m down! Haven’t played Doom deathmatch in like 30 years. I remember being pretty good. Hope I’m not rusty. I wonder how long it will take the young’uns who don’t have much classic Doom experience to figure out which gun is the best sniper rifle.
I just installed the 12.2.0 flatpak on my Fedora linux laptop, it works perfectly, no tweaking required.
The whipper snappers are used to playing Call of Duty or Halo where you sprint at a pace of about 0.5 miles per hour. They are not prepared.
Hey now, I played some Quake free-for-alls! Granted I couldn’t stay alive for any amount of time, but still.
Is doom 2 the first one where you can actually look up and down?
You can’t look up or down in Doom 2, but it is a feature added by several modern ports (and then optionally disabled again for gameplay compatibility / ruleset reasons). It is an optional feature in Odamex. I will probably leave it off considering the maps weren’t designed with this in mind (it is available in spectator mode though).
Mechanically, Doom 2 is identical to the original, except there is a double barrel shotgun and a few extra types of monsters. By the time both games matured, they shared the same exact
.exefile which enabled extra features depending solely on which game data file (‘iwad’) was loaded.
If I was home I would definitely do this
