Master Levels for Doom II

The Master Levels for Doom II was 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. 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.

As a bonus, a poster and 1830 amateur PWAD files downloaded from the internet (collectively called Maximum Doom) are also included. 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.

John Anderson (Dr. Sleep)

 * Geryon: 6th Canto of Inferno (GERYON.WAD)
 * Minos' Judgement: 4th Canto of Inferno (MINOS.WAD)
 * Nessus: 5th Canto of Inferno (NESSUS.WAD)
 * Vesperas: 7th Canto of Inferno (VESPERAS.WAD)
 * Virgil's Lead: 3rd Canto of Inferno (VIRGIL.WAD)

Jim Flynn

 * Titan Manor (MANOR.WAD)
 * Trapped on Titan (TTRAP.WAD)

Christen Klie

 * The Catwalk (CATWALK.WAD)
 * The Combine (COMBINE.WAD)
 * The Fistula (FISTULA.WAD)
 * The Garrison (GARRISON.WAD)
 * Subspace (SUBSPACE.WAD)
 * Subterra (SUBTERRA.WAD)

Sverre Andre Kvernmo (Cranium)

 * Black Tower (BLACKTWR.WAD)
 * Bloodsea Keep (BLOODSEA.WAD)
 * Mephisto's Maosoleum (MEPHISTO.WAD)
 * TEETH.WAD:
 * The Express Elevator to Hell
 * Bad Dream

Tom Mustaine

 * Paradox (PARADOX.WAD)

Tim Willits

 * Attack (ATTACK.WAD)
 * Canyon (CANYON.WAD)

Premise
This mod is a single menu map which is designed to be loaded with the Master Levels for Doom II. The Master Levels are a loose collection of 20 single map wads commercially released by id Software that, when originally released, were normally run through a DOS tool that would let the user pick the wad they wanted to play and would launch Doom II with that single wad loaded. The Master Levels Menu Interface allows the user, with a small amount of set up, to have all the Master Levels loaded into ZDoom at once and still choose the order in which they want to play the maps, through an in-game menu. This forgoes the need to restart the engine each time you're loading a different Master Levels wad.

Obtaining the Master Levels
The Master Levels for Doom II is a commercially released product by id Software and must be purchased. id Software's online store does not sell the game, so the most convenient online distributor right now is Steam. Here is a link to the Steam page for The Master Levels for Doom II.

If Steam is not a desirable solution, the only other option is to look for second hand retailers who might have it, online or offline.

Set up
Using the Master Levels Menu Interface to work with the Master Levels requires a small amount of set up. The text file included with the download of the menu interface (the text file is the same as the one displayed on the Doomworld/idgames download page) contains detailed instructions and should be referred to. The shortest version is that the system using ZDoom's ability to read zip files. Many of the Master Levels overwrite MAP01, but by using the zip system to separate the Master Levels wad files into different logical namespaces, the map contents don't overwrite each other. Generally speaking, the Master Level wads are packed into a maps folder in a zip file to be loaded with ZDoom, however there are a few special steps so please be sure to read the instructions.