Olden day favorites (Wolfenstein's early years of maps)

What are your favorite (maybe shoot for 4-6 or so if possible) Wolfenstein/SoD mapsets (including shareware sets, if applicable) that were released within a couple years (say no later than 1995) of Wolfenstein itself?

For release date references, I'm going to list sets I know of through 1995, by game, having attained the dates by downloading from the Dome and checking file dates. This should be a full list to choose from:

Wolf3D Shareware:
AlienWolf
AReyeP's Lost First Add-on
Death Maps for Wolf3D
Dungeons of Death
Enigma's Nightmare (Parts 1-3)
Xmas Wolf
Mega Wolf
MRWOLF series (01-08)
My_Wolf 02
Nat_W3d (same person who made Temporary Insanity)
New11
Run Gun 3
Star Wars 3D
Wlfnewgr2
Wlfset14
Wolf-swe
Wolf_2
Wolf 3D Odyssey (Areyep's other shareware set)

Wolf3D Registered:
Bunker_11
The Renovation
BarBlitz
Operation Overkill
Shankenstein
Temporary Insanity
W3d_cc1
Wolf2Gam (this is on "Wolf3D Mania" CD also)
Wolf316
Wolfen60 (also on "Wolf 3D Mania")
Wolfndie
Wolfv1 (think this is the same of Episode 6 of Wolfen60)

SoD Registered:
Bismarck
BnSodNew
Festung
Mission One
MPSodLev
Sod_cc1
SoDBlast2
Sodmet12
SOD Floors
SpearMor
Spearmp
Spear_10
Spear_11

Well these are ALL the ones I could find through 1995, obviously a pretty big list to choose from and I wouldn't be surprised if many are unfamiliar with the majority here. Still, there are some that were definitely more popular and thus more people probably have heard of (and played), so favorites are probably a reasonable number to target, and I'm sure some will recognize the lesser names as well. But regardless of name or popularity, which ones do you remember playing and liking?

If I had to pick five, they might be these, though note that there are many I haven't played and will not pick as thus:
-Operation Overkill
-The Renovation
-Temporary Insanity
-Wolf3D Odyssey
-_cc1 sets

Mine would have to be the 815 levels that are in the super upgrades add on. I think SOD Floors is included in Doomsday. The spear is modified. The spear is modified for every SOD mod in Doomsday.

Has anyone else heard of Spearmpixsod? I just recall it's a really solid set of maps (and nothing else) replacing all of SoD. I cannot believe it is dated 11/24/1992! (Two months after the game's release, that's crazy!)

I seem to recall Operation Overkill is a solid single episode for Wolf3D, a few of its levels were used in Wolfen60.

The Renovation is definitely the worst of BJ Rowan's sets by quite a margin, but it still has some worthwhile stuff if I recall, as long as you don't expect it to be as good as Fatherland or Totengraeber. (I dislike E5 outright however, too many mazey levels.)

The cc1 sets, there's one for both Wolf3D and SoD and I seem to recall they tend to feel like the original game, although they do borrow the original layouts sometimes, but I don't think that's a spoiler.

And who couldn't list Temporary Insanity! It's a classic, surely the only set in the entire list that is sure to challenge you to the max with huge levels and some fiendish puzzles, and Nat even used bugs to his advantage (unfortunately, you must have v1.2 for some levels to run properly because of this; some of the bugs he exploited were fixed in v1.4). I don't think anything through E2L3 requires v1.2 bugs however. I think half or so of the levels after that will work okay with v1.4 too, and if I recall only E2L9 is completely unplayable in v1.4.

So that's my reasoning/brief thoughts on listing the oldies that personally stuck out for me. Wolfen60 and Wolf2Gam also stick out personally, but that is because I only ever owned Wolf3D Mania and not the Super Upgrades Pack. And in Wolf3D Mania those were the (only) two registered Wolf3D sets the CD contained. I didn't have internet back in the mid-90's, so those are the only things I had to play (besides the original games) way back then. The other stuff, while I pick them as favorites from the olden era, I didn't actually get a hand on until later.

Spearmpixsod (with an A, please!!) is a gorgeous map set by Maarten Pinxten. Real swell mapping from that guy.

Oops I forgot the a, typo. Fixed.

As a side note it just might be the best one from the whole period as far as mapping goes, as it's the only one I don't particularly remember any qualms with.

Exactly. There was a lot of noodling and messing around at first, but what else can one expect? It's like a kid set loose in a toy store. No limits!

I miss the old days of 95. 95, 96, 97, or 98 was when I first played episode 1 of Wolfenstein 3D. I was young then. My mother took Wolfenstein 3D away because she thought I was too young to be playing it. I rediscovered it in 2006. In 2008, my brother bought me the registered version. I knew what the registered version was like through a GBA rom in 2006. The GBA rom was horrible. I prefer the PC version. The GBA version had no music.

Thomas wrote:Exactly. There was a lot of noodling and messing around at first, but what else can one expect? It's like a kid set loose in a toy store. No limits!

Sorry but I don't know what this is referring to. Spearmpixsod in particular, some other mapset I mentioned, or just early day mapping in general?

I don't seem to remember Spearmpixsod taking any time to "get going", but I haven't played it for ten year. So a vague memory is easily possible.

BTW, in 1998 this same author released MPWolf, which is an Episode One replacement for Wolf3D. He said he planned on extending it (possible full 60 level set?), but it never came to be, shame. Well at least that's still ten more levels you can play from that author, that I haven't, but from an editor check they look no less solid than his SoD work.

p.s. Regarding sets that I just remember personally because they were all I had at the time and not due to good quality, Wolfen60 and Wolf2Gam on "Wolf3D Mania" ARE both in the Super Upgrades pack as well. Wolf2Gam is actually there twice, one says "18 levels" and the other says "20 levels". In reality, E1 L7, E1L10, E2L8, and E2L10 are not changed at all as far as I can tell; three other levels copy the original layout but add a new area (always one that does not need to be visited) or something of that sort. Okay, one of these three (E1L1) has different textures in part of the original map, but it doesn't progress any differently. So it's really 16 new levels, but technically 13 NEW levels. Though, it doesn't matter that much because the quality is mediocre at best. Still thought I'd mention it however. Wolf2Gam is also known as Star Fleet BTW.

Now when I first dug Wolf3D Mania I was satisfied with just about ANY level, even the appalling Lost Episodes. So that's why (and pretty much the only reason why) those games stick out in my mind personally. (Though Wolfen60 throws in the odd good level here and there, but it's by many authors and all the levels appear in some other set [I've identified most of them when looking through the Super Upgrade games].)

The first Wolf3D mods I saw were Mortal Kombat Wolf3D and Street Fighter II Wolf3D

Maarten Pixten's stuff is not from 1992. I have no idea why the files say so though. Old computers, I believe...

But the maps are great indeed. Tasteful design, clever secrets, overall very neat but also quite challenging.

I'm not much of an old school expert, but I do remember the first mod I played, which was MCS' Wolf Collection. And it was really good.

How could something from 1998 be dated 1992? Odd, but it's believable. I guess I need a new fifth favorites myself (and to drop it from the list).

Maybe Wolf3D Odyssey? Areyep's name means it ought to be decent at least (I picked his second game, rather than first). But I haven't played it.

Odyssey probably is. Far as I know AReyeP did do some maps back in Wolf's antiquity.

My only immediate qualm with both of AReyeP's shareware sets is that they are v1.0 or v1.1. You'd think such a genius as he is would have at least converted them to the more stable running v1.4. AFAIK they're not like Temporary Insanity or anything, which exploits bugs that can no longer be exploited in v1.4 (unless you code change the exe to put the bugs back in, of course).

p.s. This is relating old to not so old, but the pushwall trick that is used in Level 29 of Chemical Warfare (where you walk somewhere and the wall spontaneously moves more spaces) is also used in E3L8 of Temporary Insanity and I'm pretty sure it still works with v1.4. Somehow I have the idea that Level 29 of CW isn't all Jack Ryerson however...

Of course it isn't. Level 29 has got Chris written all over it.

And I need to dig deeper into that pushwall trick! I have no idea how there could be so many bugs. Does anyone have a full list of all the bugs and what can be extracted from them in the same manner they're executed and carried out in Temporary Insanity? I've always been curious about that.

You must have v1.2 or earlier to see Temporary Insanity in its full glory, although there are bugs other than just E3L8 that are exploited and still work in v1.4.

Some of it is just very creative/fiendish puzzles however.

I know I managed to download v1.2 somewhere, but obviously I cannot point any links.

Was Chris involved in E3L8 or finding other bugs for Nat (author of TI) to use? Who knows!

Spoiler:

No need to really have this spoiler so:

If you want a copy of Temporary Insanity that is fully installed and has an exe that will realize all the bugs it exploits, send me a personal message. Note you can't play it in SDL however.