Master Levels Wad Download

[Randell Magtoto]

TheMaster Levels for Doom II were released on December 26, 1995 by id Software as an expansion pack for Doom II. It was also included as a bonus on the Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil Xbox game disc in 2005, and in Doom Classic Complete on PSN. The PlayStation version of Final Doom includes 13 levels from the Master Levels.

The CD contains twenty WAD files created by various authors under contract. The file TEETH.WAD contains a secret level, so there are a total of 21 levels. To ease playing these WADs, the collection also includes DOOM-IT, an application created by Chris Badger for id Software which allows the individual WADs to be loaded through a menu interface.

As a bonus, a poster and 1830 amateur PWAD files downloaded from the internet (collectively called Maximum Doom) were also included in the retail release. (The Maximum Doom levels are not included with the downloadable version found on Steam.) Also of note is that some of the contracted designers for the Master Levels had levels they had previously released on the Internet that were included in Maximum Doom.

It has been mentioned by John Romero, John Carmack, and several of the involved mappers that the primary motivation for the creation of the Master Levels was to "give the D!ZONE guys a run for their money," as id Software had become increasingly dissatisfied with other companies releasing various shovelware CDs full of Doom add-ons without any of the windfall reaching back to id. According to mapper Sverre Kvernmo, id was looking for skilled mappers who might have a lot of existing unreleased material that could be included. As a result, most of the Master Levels WADs are parts of pre-existing series, some of the earlier installments of which had previously been released on the Internet.

Sverre was working on a 32-level megawad titled Cabal, about a cyberdemon lord betrayed by his peers and turned into a human. But when he was contracted to contribute to the Master Levels for Doom II, he sent the twelve maps he had already finished. Five were kept, and the other seven were later released as the Cabal series.

The Master Levels Menu Interface is a 2010 ZDoom WAD created by Zippy which is designed to replicate the menu functionality of DOOM-IT in-game and allow all 21 levels to be played without restarting the engine each time. Once the WADs are added, the Menu Interface can be loaded in ZDoom, and used to play each WAD at any skill level in whichever order the user wants; they will be returned to the menu each time they complete a level.

Recent versions of the Eternity Engine include native support for playing the Master Levels from within Doom II without use of command-line parameters or the need to exit the game to play other maps or the normal game. After configuring the directory in which the maps are stored (it will be automatically detected if installed via Steam or in the standard DOS install location), the menu pictured to the right can be used to start any of the maps. The secret level of TEETH.WAD is accessible by using the secret exit switch in the first map of that WAD file. After a level is completed, the menu reappears. A new map can be started, or escape can be pressed to return to the Doom II title screen.

A Master Levels map selection screen also appears in the Doom Classic Unity port of Doom II as of the January 9 update. Upon starting a new game and selecting the episode "The Master Levels," a list of levels will appear, functioning similarly to the menu used in the Eternity Engine. The selection uses the full names of the levels instead of their WAD file names. Completing a level will reopen the menu, presenting the option to choose a new level or exit to the title screen. The secret level of TEETH.WAD is accessible through The Express Elevator to Hell by finding the secret exit in the level.

If Crispy Doom is able to detect MASTERLEVELS.WAD, it can be loaded as a PWAD for Doom II, with fixes to ensure that Tag 666 still works properly in the fourteenth and fifteenth levels. As of version 5.9.0, it can also automatically assemble the individual PC WADs to work as if they were MASTERLEVELS.WAD, if they are placed in the same folder as Crispy Doom. It also uses revised versions of the ending texts from Classic RBDOOM 3 BFG, depending on if the player takes the normal exit from MAP20, or the secret exit to MAP21 and finishes that level.

Classic RBDOOM 3 BFG can assemble the individual Master Levels WADs into a copy of MASTERLEVELS.WAD. Like Crispy Doom, the port ensures that the necessary maps behave as they're supposed to despite using a different level number, and also includes a second file titled mlbls.wad. The contents of this WAD include a custom INTERPIC based on that of Doom II, but colored white to match the boxart of Master Levels, level names to appear on the intermission screen, and John Anderson's starry sky textures.

As a bonus, 1,830 amateur custom PWAD files downloaded from the Internet (collectively called Maximum Doom) and a Master Levels for Doom II poster are included. Version 5.9c of the Doom-It tool, created by Chris Badger, is included as well. Also of note is that some of the contracted designers for the Master Levels had levels they had previously released on the Internet that were included in Maximum Doom.

In your search for Beatrice, you lost your guide Virgil (the beatnik space-poet) while crossing Acheron. But you've caught up with him again, and he's agreed to lead you through the current way-station (mostly because demons and undead sergeants are not much impressed with Virgil's way with words).

In your search for Beatrice, your guide, Virgil (the beatnik space-poet) has just successfully lead you through the First Circle of Hades -- only to bring you to the court of Minos, the Judge of Hell.

Minos decided to grant leniency and not kill you until next week. In the meantime, having slipped past Cerberus, the top dog, you and Virgil come to a precipice overlooking the river Phlegethon. There, Virgil greets the Minotaur using phrases from an out-of-date "Passport to Demonese" by Charles Berlitz. Enraged at having been asked to remove his panties, the Minotaur falls upon the ground and throws a conniption fit.

You once were the biggest and baddest Cyber-demon to rule hell and you spear-headed the council that

governed the underworld; "the Cabal". Betrayed by the other members you find yourself not only dismantled,

but also a victim of the utmost demonic humiliation: You've been morphed into a human! Of course you're

out for revenge and have to kick the other members of the Cabal's butts one by one.

"Bloodsea Keep" is the home of your past advisor; Veavitdpoh (Very Evil Arch-Vile In The Deepest Parts Of Hell). Veavitdpoh is an old-school demon that believes in the rip-out-heart-routine and so shuns all use of technology and mechanical weaponry. His cult following has grown the last century but still amounts to little.

After being dumped into the endless "Sea of Blood" following your humiliating transformation into a human, you swim for an eternity before you finally bump your head against the pier of the keep. Digging your feet into the mud of human remains, your hand brushes by an old blood-soaked shotgun, the previous owner's severed hand still attached to it. All who enter "Bloodsea Keep" with such items fall victim to your former advisor's favourite past-time: Torture. Any "heretics" still alive inside the keep should be homicidal maniacs at best. "That's OK" you think, "maybe they brought some more ammo for the shotgun", before cocking the rusty pump-action, causing an eyeball to fly out of the cartridge...

In Mephisto's Mausoleum, you have reached the grave of an old friend and mentor: "Mephisto". Yeah, Old Lucy was a tough bastard. But then there was that incident with the earthling marine which lost him a lot of credit in the hard-core parts of Hell. So you had to kick him off the throne of course. His immortal spirit was kept as a member of the Cabal though and so he was in on the betrayal against you. Time to enter his tomb and lay the old man down to rest for good...

When the "Express Elevator to Hell" starts descending the renegade Cabal has begun to realize you might be a threat to them, human or not. Half way down the shaft that should have taken you to the deepest pits of Hell, the lift first slows down before it jerks to a halt. Ambush! Survive the initial onslaught and find a gateway out of the now sealed elevator. Tough, but that's the way you like it...

You're nearing the end of your journey. You and Chagrin, the ruler of the Black Tower, came off the same conveyor belt as newly assembled cyber-demons a few thousand years back. "Oil runs thicker than blood" the two of you used to say. Demons don't come much closer to friendship than what you and Chagrin shared. Well now your buddy rules the hordes of hell previously under your command and have left you for dead. Your task is simple: Enter the dreaded Black Tower, the nucleus of black magic and occult in all of hell, get to its highest floor and slay Chagrin. Then there is the getting back out and as well...

The Master_Levels_Menu_Interface at the ZDoom wiki is a 2010 ZDoom WAD created by Zippy which is designed to replicate the menu functionality of Doom-It in-game and allow all 21 of the levels to be played without needing to restart the engine each time. After the WADs are added, the Menu Interface can be loaded in ZDoom and used to play each WAD at any skill level in whichever order the user wants; they will be returned to the menu each time they complete a level.

I've known about these for a long time, and the idea was always somewhat interesting. It's not a perfectly accurate description, but to me they always seemed like a bizarrely implemented proto-expansion.

For those who don't know, The Master Levels was a collection of WADs officially released by id in response to D!Zone and the likes - basically, id didn't like the shovelware wads that were getting very popular, so they... did the same thing and released it.

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