I'm Never Getting Any Work Done Ever Again, Thanks To This Website...

I didn't think it was possible for Doom to become more accessible than it already is. Id Software's omnipresent FPS is playable on every device imaginable, from pianos to printers to even gut bacteria, while Nightdive released a delicious double-barrelled overhaul of Doom + Doom 2 last year, which exists on top of the fact that you can play vanilla Doom in your browser.

But it turns out I was wrong, terribly wrong, as an entire subculture of Doom modding has just been excavated in a way that might spell actual doom for my career. DoomScroll is a new website that lets users scroll through and play thousands (and I mean thousands) of user-made Doom WADs right in your browser.

DoomScroll is the creation of software engineer James Baicoianu and Internet archivist Jason Scott, who have developed it over several years and released it to celebrate Doom's 32nd birthday: "Our goal was to make decades of work from one of the most creative communities in gaming history more accessible and visible to everyone," Baicoianu explained in a Bluesky thread. "The community has built so much over the years, and there's no question that Doom has had a lasting influence on the game industry as we know it today."

Baicoianu points out that the DoomScroll archive includes everything from "simplistic maps made by kids just learning how game development works" to "full total conversions with all-new music, textures, and sprites". Presented against a vast wall of Doom sprites and bloody industrial textures, each level is summarised in a small grey box featuring its name, author, description, and a spinning wireframe view of the map.

Clicking on the box brings up a more detailed overview of the WAD displayed on a virtual laptop, with the wireframe overviews now spinning near the bottom of the page. Clicking on these will bring up an interactive automap, with a menu running across the top of the laptop from which you can select to play the WAD. After a few moments, the site launches you into your chosen Doom map from pistol start.

Every year another Doom birthday rolls by and reminds me of the same thing: I never actually launched the project I started five years ago with @textfiles.com Today, I finally fix that.

I tested several maps, all of which worked out of the gate with now-standard Doom KB+M controls. I then very quickly had to stop playing because, good grief, I can see myself losing entire workdays to this. Turns out that Christmas coming early causes you all sorts of or

Source: PC Gamer