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After 24 Years Doom 2's Last Secret Has Finally Been Discovered (polygon.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the achievement-unlocked dept.

"Almost 25 years after it was released, Doom 2 has finally given up its last secret..." writes Polygon. An anonymous reader quotes their report: It's secret No. 4 on Map 15 (Industrial Zone). Now, the area in question has been known, seen and accessed by other means (usually a noclip cheat code). Getting to it without a cheat appears to be deliberately impossible, according to Doom co-creator John Romero. Romero tweeted out congratulations to the solution's discoverer, Zero Master. Zero Master figured out that the way to trigger the secret was to be pushed into the secret area by an enemy (in this case, a Pain Elemental).
Apparently the secret sector was an area just below the floor of a teleporter -- but entering that teleporter meant players rose up to the level of the teleporter's floor, according to Romero, so "you never enter the sector... you would never get inside the teleporter sector to trigger the secret."

One Reddit user notes Zero Master "has the first legit Doom 2 100% save file on earth, after 24 years."

28 of 62 comments (clear)

  1. Congrats! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    ...on wasting 23.9 years of your life ;)

    1. Re:Congrats! by Aighearach · · Score: 1

      If I play another round of freeciv, do I get an award or certificate?

  2. That music nostalgia by guruevi · · Score: 5, Informative

    Kids these days don't know but that game, music and sound effects all fit in less than 15MB and was infinitely more fun than whatever we have now.

    --
    Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
    1. Re:That music nostalgia by alvinrod · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I think the most recent Doom recaptured a lot of what made the originals enjoyable. Rather than loading the game with cut scenes and spending large chunks of time spouting exposition at the player (for a plot that's probably nowhere near as clever or engaging as the developers imagine) Doom cuts that to a minimum to allow people to actually play the game.

      People might like to complain about how everything these days is about graphics over substance or other arguments that are a little lazier than they should be, while forgetting that Doom (and later the Quake series) were at the time major drivers of graphical improvement themselves.

      I don't think that every game needs to be like Doom in order to be enjoyable. Sometimes a good narrative is exactly what a game needs, but by the same token their also need to be games like Doom where your just fighting hordes of demons and enjoying the visceral experience of tearing through the legions of hell-spawn. For a long time there was an absence of that as the FPS genre had evolved away from the type of game. However, I'm glad that it's back now.

    2. Re:That music nostalgia by jellomizer · · Score: 1

      Most games have a lot of details that Doom never had. Even back then an Older EGA game like Kings Quest IV took about as much space but every static screen was much more detailed. Doom has a few dozen bitmapped images that were just scaled in size to create the effect. Most of the work was CPU driven vs storage driven.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    3. Re:That music nostalgia by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      A lot of that is nostalgia. Personally I found the old shooters quite tedious. Even games that managed to tell more of a story were riddled with grinding puzzles. If it hadn't been for network multiplayer, I think game development would have taken a very different direction after the first few of those shooters. People complain about senseless grinding in "free to play" games nowadays, and they're right about that, but some of the old games were almost as bad. Give an old shooter to a teenager and let them play. They aren't going to be impressed by the graphics. Do you think they will like the game for the gameplay? I doubt it. This story is about an "impossible" secret that was only found after 24 years. Tells you a lot about the way those games were designed, doesn't it?

    4. Re:That music nostalgia by Dutch+Gun · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I can go on Steam / GOG, the PS store, or Xbox store and find a bunch of old-school side-scrollers, RPGs, beat-up-ups, or whatever genre you like, all with graphics and gameplay teleported from many decades back in addition to the most modern, slickest of AAA productions, and just about everything in-between. So, "whatever we have now" encompasses a broader and more diverse range of games than we've ever had before. And I can legally browse and download a vast selection of it over the internet, which is pretty much as convenient as things could possibly get.

      Personally, I think gamers are living in a fantastic time, with more access to a broader range of games than we've ever had before. Yes, there are trends which are annoying or even alarming, but all in all, things are pretty great for modern gamers. If you're not enjoying games like you use to, maybe it's just you, not the games.

      --
      Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
    5. Re:That music nostalgia by UnknownSoldier · · Score: 1, Insightful

      > People might like to complain about how everything these days is about graphics over substance

      And for good reason -- one of the problems with Form over Function is pointed out with this sarcastic FPS Map Design: 1990 vs 2016, ironically using Doom as a reference.

      > Sometimes a good narrative is exactly what a game needs

      Minor quibble. Technically, every game has narrative; the difference is that it isn't also obvious but narrative falls into two categories:

      * Developer narrative -- fixed story, or branching story (e.g. Guardian Heroes), may or may not have cut-scenes
      * User narrative -- sandbox games, old-school FPS like Doom; the user's decision of what to experience IS the narrative.

      There is a reason that Minecraft is the number one best selling PC game of all time: User narrative

      Minecraft, the digital Lego of this generation, is built upon 3 foundations:

      * Survive
      * Explore
      * Build

      The in-game story is whatever the player wants without all the bullshit of "Hurry-up-and-wait" unskippable cutscenes.

      Looking at the top 5 PC game and tagging them we notice that you don't need cut-scenes in order to be successful.

      1. Minecraft -- user narrative
      2. PUBG -- user narrative
      3. Diablo III -- dev narrative
      4. WoW -- dev narrative
      5. The Sims -- user narrative

      Agree with everything else you said. Doom (2016) captures the essence of the original Doom.

    6. Re:That music nostalgia by Dutch+Gun · · Score: 1

      People might like to complain about how everything these days is about graphics over substance

      This was a popular argument a few years ago. These days, it's tough to make that argument with a straight face when Minecraft and the resurgence of pixel-art-styled games clearly demonstrates otherwise.

      --
      Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
    7. Re: That music nostalgia by reanjr · · Score: 1

      You can procedurally generate details far beyond Doom or even most modern graphics and still avoid the need for a TiB of textures.

    8. Re:That music nostalgia by war4peace · · Score: 2

      1. Minecraft -- user narrative

      Indeed, it's a true sandbox game.

      2. PUBG -- user narrative

      Fail. PUBG has no narrative whatsoever, it's a "easy to play, hard to master", game in the like of Counterstrike, Unreal Tournament and Quake 3 Arena. One of the reasons it's so popular.

      3. Diablo III -- dev narrative

      ...with optional lore. You can play it without giving a shit about the narrative. Skip all dialogue, hack all monsters, win.

      4. WoW -- dev narrative

      Agreed. While you can play the game even while minimizing lore impact, sooner or later you will find yourself having to learn its essential aspects, otherwise you'd not be able to progress efficiently.

      5. The Sims -- user narrative

      Sandboxes are all like that.

      Doom (2016) captures the essence of the original Doom

      ...and does ONLY that. It's why I disliked it after the initial "awww this brings memories back" feeling. Of course, many people liked it because they just wanted to play the old Doom with nicer graphics and shit. I wanted more than that, but I know I'm a minority so no biggie.

      --
      ...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
    9. Re:That music nostalgia by Aighearach · · Score: 1

      Duke Nukem has Megadeath, though.

    10. Re:That music nostalgia by Quake1v1 · · Score: 1

      Serious Sam Says "Sup?"

    11. Re:That music nostalgia by 24-bit+Voxel · · Score: 1

      Just a note that you can get the modern version of Unreal direct from the Epic Game website free of charge too. After going back and trying to find Quake 3 games, looking at new versions of quake and not liking them, I found unreal is largely unchanged and free. I've been playing an hour or so a week for a while and digging it. Check it out!

      Sure it's pre alpha but it's working just fine. https://www.epicgames.com/unre...

    12. Re:That music nostalgia by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      Kids these days don't know but that game, music and sound effects all fit in less than 15MB and was infinitely more fun than whatever we have now.

      The past is always viewed through rose coloured glasses. I disagree that Doom 2 was more fun than for example Doom 2016, or any of the other games I have thrown countless hours into playing as of late.

      Maybe you just got old and grumpy?

    13. Re:That music nostalgia by Osgeld · · Score: 1

      oh yea its that comment

      actually if you sit down and play doom for even a moderate length of time, its quite boring and repetitive until the end levels then its boring repetitive and the difficulty ramps to 11, not because of good game design, only because of baddy spawn vomit

  3. Why do I see a quake tag by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    for a story about DOOM?

    1. Re:Why do I see a quake tag by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 4, Funny

      Because the article is totally UNREAL!

      --
      #DeleteFacebook
    2. Re:Why do I see a quake tag by jellomizer · · Score: 1

      Because you haven’t upgraded you slashdot experience.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    3. Re:Why do I see a quake tag by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 1

      I hadn't heard of these in FOREVER.

      --
      #DeleteFacebook
  4. How.... by Luthair · · Score: 4, Interesting

    would anyone be sure this is the first? Its not like Doom 2 has required an active internet connection for the past 24-years.

    1. Re:How.... by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 4, Funny

      would anyone be sure this is the first? Its not like Doom 2 has required an active internet connection for the past 24-years.

      Dude actually accomplished this 18 years ago - it’s taken that long for his AOL dialup connection to go through so he could upload the video.

      --
      #DeleteChrome
  5. Is there a video by thadtheman · · Score: 1

    of this secret?

    1. Re:Is there a video by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irNoHfnLXRM

    2. Re:Is there a video by umberleigh · · Score: 2

      Yeah, it's linked in the summary: https://www.polygon.com/2018/8...

  6. IDDQD by p51d007 · · Score: 1

    And he won't have to worry about dying LOL.

  7. Come get some by AndyKron · · Score: 1

    Fuck. I'm glad that was solved. Duke Nukem Rulz (but not forever)! Come get some!

  8. Absolutely not by complete+loony · · Score: 2

    Apparently the secret sector was an area just below the floor of a teleporter -- but entering that teleporter meant players rose up to the level of the teleporter's floor

    Absolutely not. Doom is a 2.5D game. A sector has a floor and a ceiling height and is surrounded by either other sectors or the area outside the map. There is no *above* or *below* a sector. In this case the sector is marked as a secret, and the walls are marked as teleporters. Touch the walls and you are transported somewhere else, *before* entering the sector and claiming the secret.

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    09F91102 no, 455FE104 nope, F190A1E8 uh-uh, 7A5F8A09 that's not it, C87294CE no. Ah! 452F6E403CDF10714E41DFAA257D313F.