Difference between revisions of "Doom Help Service"

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==Content==
 
==Content==
The Doom Help Service was one of the chief sources of playing and technical information on the games during the Usenet period of the Doom community, initially operating from the {{c|alt.games.doom.newplayers}} newsgroup before that was superseded by the {{c|rec.games.computer.doom.help}} one. Aside from the direct help offered within that group, the website also carries a large number of FAQs and documents on the game, much of which is available for direct download as a 530 kilobyte ZIP file. Ian also offered players and modders direct assistance via email, suggested as a last resort, though according to Ian, he handled as many as 400 emails a day at the height of the site's usage, causing a controversy at his university when it was discovered that the site was using the most bandwidth out of any resource hosted there. A document outlining the program's purpose can be found [http://www.gamers.org/dhs/misc/thedhs.html here]. A few documents are additionally available for [[Heretic]] and [[Wolfenstein 3D]]. The [http://www.gamers.org/dhs/depot/ file depot] offers downloads of various then-current [[editor|editing utilities]].
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The Doom Help Service was one of the chief sources of playing and technical information on the games during the Usenet period of the Doom community, initially operating from the {{c|alt.games.doom.newplayers}} newsgroup before that was superseded by the {{c|rec.games.computer.doom.help}} one. Aside from the direct help offered within that group, the website also carries a large number of FAQs and documents on the game, much of which is available for direct download as a 530 kilobyte ZIP file. Ian also offered players and modders direct assistance via email, suggested as a last resort, though according to Ian, he handled as many as 400 emails a day at the height of the site's usage, causing a controversy at his university when it was discovered that the site was using the most bandwidth out of any resource hosted there. A document outlining the program's purpose can be found [https://www.gamers.org/dhs/misc/thedhs.html here]. A few documents are additionally available for [[Heretic]] and [[Wolfenstein 3D]]. The [https://www.gamers.org/dhs/depot/ file depot] offers downloads of various then-current [[editor|editing utilities]].
  
 
A limited amount of Ian's personal information can also be found on the site, in the form of photos and textual descriptions of his visits to [[id Software]] and various other game companies, as well as a real-life meet-up with [[Raphaël Quinet]].
 
A limited amount of Ian's personal information can also be found on the site, in the form of photos and textual descriptions of his visits to [[id Software]] and various other game companies, as well as a real-life meet-up with [[Raphaël Quinet]].
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==External links==
 
==External links==
* [http://www.gamers.org/dhs/ Doom Help Service] home page.
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* [https://www.gamers.org/dhs/ Doom Help Service] home page.
  
 
[[Category:Usenet]]
 
[[Category:Usenet]]
 
[[Category:Websites]]
 
[[Category:Websites]]

Revision as of 04:20, 13 February 2021

The DHS logo

The Doom Help Service is a classic Doom website and former Usenet service administered by Ian Mapleson as part of the gamers.org network. It was founded in the earliest days of the community, with a copyright date beginning in 1994. It was founded on a domain at the Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh, but moved to its present location in 1996.

Content

The Doom Help Service was one of the chief sources of playing and technical information on the games during the Usenet period of the Doom community, initially operating from the alt.games.doom.newplayers newsgroup before that was superseded by the rec.games.computer.doom.help one. Aside from the direct help offered within that group, the website also carries a large number of FAQs and documents on the game, much of which is available for direct download as a 530 kilobyte ZIP file. Ian also offered players and modders direct assistance via email, suggested as a last resort, though according to Ian, he handled as many as 400 emails a day at the height of the site's usage, causing a controversy at his university when it was discovered that the site was using the most bandwidth out of any resource hosted there. A document outlining the program's purpose can be found here. A few documents are additionally available for Heretic and Wolfenstein 3D. The file depot offers downloads of various then-current editing utilities.

A limited amount of Ian's personal information can also be found on the site, in the form of photos and textual descriptions of his visits to id Software and various other game companies, as well as a real-life meet-up with Raphaël Quinet.

List of FAQs and guides

Title Canonical filename Author
rec.games.computer.doom FAQ, The rgcdfaq.hlp Frans P. de Vries
Doom FAQ v6.666, The doomfaq6.666 Hank Leukart
Doom and Doom II Cheat FAQ, The doomchts.hlp Ian Mapleson
Doom Level Names List levelnms.hlp Frans P. de Vries, Ian Mapleson
How to find Secret Doors in Doom/Doom II/etc. secdoors.hlp Ian Mapleson
Doom Shareware Secrets Help File dmshrwr.hlp Eugene Cohen, Robert Woodhead, and Brent D. Miller
Doom Spoilers spoilers.hlp Ian Mapleson
Doom I Keys FAQ, The dm1kfaq.html Patrick Kalinauskas
Ultimate Doom Episode 4 Secrets List e4secrts.html Paul Falstad
Ultimate Doom, E4M2 Recipe udmlev2.html Ian Mapleson
Doom II Secrets List, The dmiiscrt.hlp Paul Falstad
Official DOOM ][ Key FAQ!, The keyfaq.hlp Richard Ward and Mike Newton
Doom ][ Walkthrough v1.00 d2wtbase.html George Foot
Doom II Level 30 Recipe d2l30rcp.html Gordon Taylor
Information on Level 30 (Last Call) of TNT.WAD tnt.html Robert J. Baker
DOOM FTP/WWW Site List ftpwww.hlp John Van Essen
What is a WAD File? What kinds of WAD file are there? awadis.hlp Ian Mapleson and Tom Neff
How To Use PWAD (new level) Files pwaduse.hlp Ian Mapleson
How do I make a PWAD (new level) file? pwadinfo.hlp Ian Mapleson
How To Make Doom .lmp Demo's demomake.hlp Ian Mapleson
Doom & Doom II Editing Guide, The editguid.html Jan-Albert B. van Ree
Unofficial Doom Specs v1.666, The dmsp1666.hlp Matthew Fell
DOOM Level Design FAQ v1.2 pwadmake.hlp Tom Neff
BSP Tree FAQ bsp_faq.hlp Bretton Wade et al.
BSP Tree Article bspinfo.hlp Eddie
DEU Help File v1.2 deu-help.hlp Jawed Karim
Trinity.Wad: How I Made It trinity.hlp Steve McCrea
DEU 4 Dummies deu4dums.hlp David Biggs
DEU 4 Idiots deu4ids.hlp Greg Cymbalist and Chris Durston
Doom Network Troubleshooting Guide, The doomnet.hlp Murray Chapman
TCP/IP Internet DOOMer's FAQ, The inetdoom.hlp Scott Coleman and Jay Cotton
DOOM Modem Help v3.13 modemstr.hlp Keith Turbyfill and Ian Mapleson
SGI DOOM FAQ, The sgidmfaq.hlp John Troyer
How to play Registered Doom, Doom II and Ultimate Doom on SGI Systems sgidoom.hlp Ian Mapleson
Linux Doom FAQ, The linuxdm.hlp Steve VanDevender
How to run Doom under Windows 3.1 windoom.hlp Ian Mapleson
Windows Doom Icons dmicons.html Robert J. Baker
How to run Doom/Doom II under OS/2 os2help.hlp Brian Kidby
SNES Doom FAQ v1.3, The snesdoom.hlp H. J. Hornbeck
Some useful hints on using patch files patchinf.hlp Ian Mapleson
Notes on Doom v1.2 compared to Doom v1.1 notes1_2.hlp Ian Mapleson
Miscellaneous Information on Patching Doom II dmiiptch.hlp Ian Mapleson
What is FTP? How does it work? ftpintro.hlp Ian Mapleson
Getting DOOM Files via E-mail ftpmail.hlp John Van Essen
Where to get some useful utilities by ftp ftputils.hlp Ian Mapleson
BFG FAQ v1.3, The bfg_faq.html Tony Fabris
DOOM: Other 3D Action Games FAQ 3dgmsfaq.hlp Frans P. de Vries
Heretic FAQ v1.0, The hticfaq.hlp Tom Laufert
Heretic Secrets List hticscrt.hlp Paul Falstad
Wolfenstein 3D Cheats List wolfchts.hlp Ben Rudiak-Gould, Hans Peter Verne, and Robert Ruth

External links