Knee Deep In The Dead

You'll never guess what game I've been playing lately: Doom. Well, Doom II, to be more precise. And to be completely precise, the Eternal Doom set of add-on levels to Doom II made by Team Eternal and Team TNT, circa 1999.

While I don't doubt that much of the enjoyment comes from the novelty of re-playing a very playable classic, the obvious dedication and technical expertise of these unpaid, amateur fans plays an equally large, if not larger, role. I find it amazing that there were so many free add-ons where the overall quality, design, and architectural consistency of the levels is actually higher than it is in the original game. One level in particular, #15, was visually appealing enough to make the whole download worth it. Honorable Mention goes to Level 31, a marathon of complexity with plenty of puzzles that didn't get boring even when I got stuck on it for a day.

id Software has a Windows 95-compatible Doom engine available through http://www.idsoftware.com/archives/doomii.html. Eternal Doom itself is at http://www.teamtnt.com/ixet.htm. I believe you'll need the full, registered version of Doom II as well, which isn't available (legitimately) on the 'net.