MAP13: Command Center (Console Doom)

MAP13: Command Center is the thirteenth level of console versions of Doom, based on the original E2M5: Command Center with modifications made to accommodate consoles' framerate and storage capacity limitations. The author of the conversion is American McGee and the original author of the map is Sandy Petersen. The map first appeared on the Atari Jaguar, and was later ported to the 3DO, Sega 32X, Game Boy Advance, Sony PlayStation, and Sega Saturn consoles.

The PlayStation version introduces additional modifications to add colored lighting, translucent textures, reverberation effects and enemies from Doom II. The PlayStation version also introduces an animated fire sky in this level, as though the action takes place in Hell rather than on Deimos.

Unlike the PC version, console versions of this level completely lack the secret exit to Fortress of Mystery, as the level was re-purposed in these versions in the form of MAP23: Dis.

Essentials
Go straight forward through the door into a dark room, then turn left and left again. Climb the staircase in front of you, then go forward and down another staircase to an area overlooking a nukage pit. Head forward and two columns will lower in front of you holding a computer area map and a chaingun; they also hold a baron of Hell on Hurt Me Plenty (HMP), or two barons on Ultra Violence (UV). (On UV, a bug prevents the right-hand pillar from lowering, as described below.)

From this room, head around the large square marble wall in front of you and through a skull switch door. Turn right and go through another door. Head around the corner and go through the skull switch door on your left, then follow the corridor up a round staircase. At the top, keep following the corridor to another skull switch door, leading to a room with blue windows and many zombiemen. Turn right and go through another wooden door, then go straight forward to another door. Behind this door is a room with shotgun guys and lost souls. Head through the room, turn left to go through another skull switch door, then turn right and head forward until you see an outdoor area in front of you. Turn left or right here and follow the corridors to the exit door, behind which is the switch that finishes the level.

Other points of interest
After climbing the first staircase, turn left and go through a wooden door. The room behind it has three imps at the north end, and armor at the opposite end.

From the same staircase, turn right and then open the skull switch door on your left. Behind it is a wooden door, and behind that is a small room containing a backpack, a berserk pack and a box of shells. These items are guarded by a demon and/or cacodemon depending on skill level.

Before the area with the round staircase is a hallway with two skull switch doors. The door on the west wall leads to an optional area - you will see a shotgun on a platform in front of you as you enter. Turn left from here and enter either of the skull switch doors in this area to find a room with an armor pickup in one corner.

Just before the exit door is an outdoor area containing a box of bullets and megaarmor. When you approach these items, the door ahead will open to reveal a number of demons.

Secrets

 * 1) After going through the first door, head to the west side of the next room. Walk onto the pool of blood near the south-west wall and a door will open, releasing three imps. A box of shells is inside. (sector 35)
 * 2) On the opposite side of the same room, walk over the medikit in the south-east corner and another door will open, which also hides a box of shells and three imps. (sector 41)
 * 3) After passing the room with the marble pillars and nukage pool, you will enter a rectangular brick room. Go through the east door to a room containing imps and shotgun guys. Open the metal wall in the north-east corner to reveal an alcove (sector 59) with a chainsaw.
 * 4) When you reach the top of the round staircase at the south end of the level, a door will open at the bottom of the staircase. Go back down to find a blue-lit room (sector 106) with a medikit, an energy cell and a radiation shielding suit. The room also contains a demon and (on Hurt Me Plenty or higher) a lost soul.

Bugs

 * (PlayStation and Saturn, UV skill level only) In the room up from the entrance cave, one baron stays trapped in the roof while the pillar on which it hides stays up with the noise of it lowering endlessly, along with the pig-like active noise of the invisible baron. While difficult, the baron can be killed by firing at the pillar (weapons able to hurt this baron of Hell include the pistol, shotgun, super shotgun (if cheats have been used), chaingun, and the rays of BFG9000), which will then lower, revealing the chaingun. Otherwise, the players will not obtain a "true" 100% kill score at the end of the level. Destroying lost souls spawned by pain elementals can still exceed this total, however.


 * A radiation shielding suit is still present in secret #4, even though all of the nukage areas in which it was intended for use were removed, making this item practically redundant. It may be useful for the only remaining nukage pit to the north with the lift that leads to the green armor and other items and imps in order to keep as much health as possible. However, this is unlikely as that room can be accessed without dropping into the pit.

Comparison of versions
In the northern part of the map, which was initially roughly symmetrical, most of the features on the western side have been deleted. These include the western staircase in the starting area, a passage and room leading to the H-shaped marble room, and one of the nukage pits in the central outdoor area.

The secret exit and its associated teleporter and rooms have been removed.

The "vine room" in the southeast of the map, along with all the hidden areas connected to it in the northwest of the map (oval cage secret, C-shaped walkway), has been removed.

The southernmost area of the original map, a staircase that forks east to the normal exit and west to the nukage-filled perimeter of the "vine room", has been removed.

The room with short red columns near the exit has been removed. The hallway previously entered at the top of the deleted staircase is now entered from the south and leads to the exit.

Nearly all switches in the level use a skull switch on metal wall texture. However, the exit switch uses a skull switch on red brick texture (SW1HOT).

PlayStation and Saturn
The Sony PlayStation and Sega Saturn versions include additional changes to this map:
 * The pair of green torches in the starting room were replaced with the blue ones to then give the room itself the blue light color (Saturn port removes all of the colored lights). Another pair of green torches that are put slightly south of the starting room were replaced with skull poles instead.
 * In the south-west room, the damaging floor is changed to a platform that cannot be stood on. A shotgun is placed on this platform.
 * The skull walls in the south-west marble room now scroll up.

Texture theme

 * The PlayStation version of the level introduces an animated fire sky on this level, which is normally reserved for levels set in Hell. The next level, MAP14: Halls of the Damned, goes back to the red sky with mountains normally seen in Deimos levels.
 * The two columns in the starting room are metallic rather than brick.
 * Demonic face, as well as green marble, were merged into gray marble variation.
 * Outdoor rock flat is replaced with tan brick.
 * The doors on this level use skull switches or wooden door textures, more commonly seen in hellish levels.

Things

 * Two pain elementals are added to the map on Ultra Violence. The first is in the room overlooking the nukage pit, and the second is placed south-east of the exit door.

Music
The map uses the following music tracks:

Player spawns
This level contains six spawn points:
 * 1) facing south-east. (thing 211)
 * 2) facing east. (thing 212)
 * 3) facing north. (thing 213)
 * 4) facing south. (thing 215)
 * 5) facing south. (thing 216)
 * 6) facing south. (thing 217)

Things
This level contains the following numbers of things per skill level: