Megawad

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Revision as of 10:47, 10 November 2021 by 76.240.46.216 (talk) (Doom: remove non-Megawads)


A megawad is a fan-made PWAD that, according to the idgames archive definition contains 15 or more levels.[1][2]

Megawads can encompass the efforts of a single person, or the joint efforts of a entire team; this is usually done with the help of the community through specialized projects that aim to smoothen the development process, as well as allowing level authors to sign up for the project. Megawads often garner considerable attention and have been a significant portion of Cacowards winners.

Given the threshold of 15 levels to be considered a megawad, episode replacements of eight or nine levels (comparable to original Doom's episode structure of eight levels and a secret level) are not megawads. Thus, in 2018, when John Romero announced his SIGIL episode as a "megawad", the Doom community did not accept it as such.

History

While the ultimate origin of the word will probably never be determined, the term "mega-WAD" was used by Denis Möller of The Innocent Crew in 1995 to describe the Memento Mori project. The following year, Yonatan Donner used the word "megawad" to describe his upcoming project, Hell Revealed. The word soon became commonly used within the Doom community.

Noteworthy megawads

Doom

Doom II

Full game replacement

Episode replacement

See also