Ultimate Doom: Pits of Despair UV max in 2:44

WAD Title: Pits of Despair
Filename: DESPAIR.WAD (in despair1.zip)
Level(s): E3M3
Author: Alex Hanson
Year: 1994
URL: http://www.doomworld.com/idgames/?id=13995

Demo Category: UV max (100% Kills and Secrets; "Ultra-Violence" skill)
Time: 2:44
Player: Eric "The Green Herring" Baker
Recorded With: Ultimate Doom.exe v1.9
Recorded On: June 12, 2010
Video Recorded With: DOSBox 0.73

Demo Download: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/6650582/DSP1-TGH.ZIP

The second DESPAIR.WAD in idgames/levels/doom/d-f/ is a level from one of Eric Falsken's buddies, as hinted at in the text file for Kingdom of Death, a WAD I previously recorded on. (I'll be uploading videos for that WAD later.) Alex Hanson's contribution to the unfinished WAD is a Hell level with occasional Earthly structures seeping through, and it's very short. Yet, somehow, there's still room for error: a cacodemon is stuck in the wall; a lava pool does no damage; and a teleporter is hideously misaligned. Dwarfing those are the dubious design decisions taken by the author: One baron cannot attack you unless you're standing directly in front of the very tiny window he sits behind, yet it's difficult to hit him for the same reason; there's a very dumb inescapable pit trap that baits you with powerups and a BFG; the aforementioned teleporter serves no purpose other than to pit you against a single spectre; and there's an invisible maze whose only redeeming factor is that it's mercifully short.

In fact, there's no real point to much of this level, as only the maze is necessary to finish, and you can just run past everything else, barons included. The fact that there are /two/ invulnerability spheres in this level only adds to this. Really, with this level and the two levels that made up the combined WAD, it's a blessing that Kingdom of Death was never completed, as the combined horror of a full episode would likely have ruptured the spacetime continuum. It is safe to skip this one.

My first exit time in UV max was 3:11, followed by 2:52. The whole session took about an hour. The first baron fight (or "fight" as the case may be, as it's with the baron behind the tiny window) can be a bit of a gamble depending on how much health you have, whether the baron decides to attack you with his fireball or not, and how much damage the fireball does, not to mention you have to stand at a very precise location and angle if you don't want your projectiles to smash into the wall. I had rotten luck in the room with the dumb pit trap; the baron didn't die in five rockets as I expected, and it took way longer to kill both monsters with the shotgun afterward than it did in previous attempts. To make up for it, I managed to ensnare two of the cacodemons in the armor room within the crusher traps, allowing me to kill both of the southwest barons before my second invulnerability sphere wore off, and I wound up telefragging another spectre upon returning from that spectre duel.

Whatever became of Adam Boyd, the other friend mentioned in the Kingdom of Death documentation with an unknown level slot, and his level? Your guesses are as good as mine.

Category:

Gaming

Tags:

• ultimate doom
• id software
• wad
• pwad
• pits of despair
• alex hanson
• e3m3
• speedrun
• speed run
• demo
• uv max
• 100 percent
• kills
• secrets
• dosbox
• crap