Alien Vendetta

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Alien Vendetta (commonly abbreviated to AV) is a 32-level megawad, released on December 24, 2001. It is one of the few PWADs that are allowed to be used in Compet-n speedruns, and one of the Top 100 WADs of All Time. In a 2019 article on the history of Doom mapping, Alien Vendetta was called "the most influential PWAD of all time".[1]

On December 24, 2002—when it was selected for usage on Compet-n—it received an update that made various changes to almost all of the levels; the most notable change being the replacement of MAP25: Valley of Echoes with another map, MAP24: Clandestine Complex, as well as the relocation of the former MAP24 to MAP25.

In all of Anders Johnsen and Kim André Malde (Mutator)'s maps decorative things and most other items have angles set to make them face certain directions. This was due to the editor clearly marking which way things were oriented and the designers felt this looked better in their editor of choice, DETH.

On August 1, 2016, the expansion Alien Vendetta: Black Label (avbl_v1.wad) was released on the megawad's website, coinciding with a revamp of the site's design. The WAD features two new levels that replace MAP01 and MAP02, designed to then-modern level design standards by Brad Spencer (Vorpal). It must be loaded alongside Alien Vendetta to play. Then in September 2016, the original 2001 version was re-released on the website as well.

Only one map has original music, the rest reusing a multitude of existing tracks from other sources. In 2021, a Doomworld community project created the Alien Vendetta MIDI Pack with custom tracks, which was released on the 20th anniversary of Alien Vendetta's original release.

Content[edit]

Black Label title screen

Built-in demos[edit]

This WAD's 2001 release features three built-in demos. All require Doom II v1.9 to view them. The demo levels are:

Demo Level Skill Tics Length
DEMO1 MAP09: Castle Gardens 4 795 0:22.71
DEMO2 MAP14: Overwhelming Odds 4 1099 0:31.40
DEMO3 MAP28: Whispering Shadows 4 1778 0:50.80

The 2002 release also features three demos for Doom II v1.9. This time two of them are multiplayer demos. The demo levels are:

Demo Level Skill Tics Length
DEMO1 MAP07: Showdown 2-player deathmatch 7935 3:46.71
DEMO2 MAP20: Misri Halek 4 4022 1:54.91
DEMO3 MAP22: Rubicon 4; 2-player coop 2268 1:04.80

Speedrunning[edit]

IWADs
PWADs

In 2018, Ancalagon became the first to complete the D2all UV max of this mapset. The run took 4 hours and 13 minutes.

Current Compet-n records[edit]

The Compet-n episode records for Alien Vendetta are:

Run Time Player Date File Notes
UV max episode, MAP01-MAP10 58:45 Revved 2011-07-05 5845av01.zip

The data was last verified in its entirety on June 21, 2020.

Current DSDA records[edit]

The DSDA episode records for Alien Vendetta are:

Run Time Player Date File Notes
UV speed run 1:33:21 Zero-Master 2017-11-07 avall-9321.zip
UV max episode, MAP01-MAP10 37:58 Ancalagon 2018-07-06 ave1-3758.zip
UV max run 4:13:37 Ancalagon 2018-07-11 avall-41337.zip
UV -fast episode, MAP01-MAP10 1:11:45 GrumpyCat 2017-09-26 ave1f7145.zip

The data was last verified in its entirety on July 27, 2022.

Files[edit]

Alien Vendetta is contained in a zip file called av.zip. It is 9,041,333 bytes in size and contains 6 files:

Size Name
1,816,944 AVMOVFIX.WAD
709,905 AV.EXE
7,403 AV.DEH
55,068 AV.TXT
23,819,412 AV.WAD
7,660 CHANGES.TXT

It has the following hashes:

Hash type Hash code
MD5 fc30a2deb2fbd2f12514126a925ae3c7
SHA-1 83bc929c9d8f017a540d996e6ecda8bb3108d7fe
CRC-32 be64917d

The old archive is contained in a zip file called av-extracted.zip. It is 8,119,470 bytes in size and contains 2 files:

Size Name
23,822,384 AV.WAD
53,052 AV.TXT

It has the following hashes:

Hash type Hash code
MD5 db2441538f3f9bce9d15abcdcc062cd0
SHA-1 6a687a569b6708e95c888b35ab457ccdb4b2d2e6
CRC-32 851d6bd9

The Black Label expansion is contained in a zip file called avbl_v1.zip. It is 508,072 bytes in size and contains 2 files:

Size Name
5,409 avbl_v1.txt
1,433,627 avbl_v1.wad

It has the following hashes:

Hash type Hash code
MD5 76f2d28532d2bdf3da3435e4d5e9e2d9
SHA-1 4b5b0d3d36bacd9abb7b04e2f9c583dd93298d17
CRC-32 bbff2628

Development[edit]

Title screen for Alien Vindicta, made by Kim André Malde in 1996

The mapset was first known as Alien Vindicta, and its development began in 1996 as a Hell Revealed follow-up (while HR itself was only released in full in 1997, HR Episode 1 had already been released in 1996). The project was originally a solo effort by Anders Johnsen, with only a couple of maps contributed by other authors (namely, Martin Hunsager and Kim André Malde). By the end of 1998, a full 32 maps had been completed.[2] However, Johnsen decided against releasing this version of the project, as he was dissatisfied with the quality of many of the levels, and AV's aim had already shifted from a Hell Revealed-inspired project to being a more ambitious adventure mapset with a difficulty between that of HR and Plutonia. In August 1999, Johnsen added more mappers to the team (most notably, Brad Spencer), and began replacing some his own maps with new contributions by them. It was at this point that the WAD's name was changed to Alien Vendetta. Additionally, all existing maps were overhauled, with some receiving up to three revisions. During development, Anders Johnsen showcased maps with screenshots on the old AV web site on Geocities. Long before the release, some speedrunners and close associates of the project who got private builds of AV were already recording demos of unfinished maps for feedback and testing.

Cut maps[edit]

The most well-known cut map is Valley of Echoes, which was removed after the first release. The levels page on the GeoCities site lists a cut Brad Spencer map called "The Devil's Prayer". On the same page, many of the maps are listed under different names compared to the final release. Showdown was known as "Chain Reaction" (it originally had lots of chaingunners in the starting area), Overwhelming Odds was known as "The Swarm", Mutual Destruction as "Critical Mass", Stench of Evil was "Dark Glow", and Dark Dome was known as "Dead Mans Place" [sic]. Also, most maps were in different slots than in the final release (for example, Dark Dome occupied slot 28). The section on Beast Island mentions that the second half of it used to be its own map – "Fortress of Fury" in slot 21 – and that it used to have a different second half that was later cut. Some additional information about cut content can be inferred from various sources, including AV's own text file. For example, in the map Demonic Hordes, instead of the church area designed by Sam Woodman there used to be an arch-vile maze. In the GeoCities site's news section there is a mention of an "old city styled map" by Johnsen that was cut in favor of Entropy.

In a thread made in 2017,[3] Brad Spencer revealed that one of the cut maps was a level by Mattias Berggren, which was inspired by Resistance Is Futile (originally in slot 17, then moved to slot 31, before being replaced with Killer Colours). Another reveal was a very old Anders Johnsen's map in slot 12, which had a starting area resembling that of Lake Poison, but was otherwise completely different.

Compatibility note[edit]

To play AV with PrBoom, the complevel should be 2 (Doom v1.9).

To play it on versions of ZDoom older than 2.3.0, or ZDoom-derived ports with an old codebase, you have to set the compatibility options to "find shortest textures like Doom" (rather than like Boom) for MAP07: Showdown and to "self-referencing sectors don't block shots" for MAP15: Bulls on Parade. The current versions of ZDoom and GZDoom apply the appropriate compatibility options automatically.

Gallery[edit]

  • Credits screen

  • Intermission screen

  • MAP03 starting area

  • MAP03 starting area (aerial shot)

  • MAP04 central slime pool

  • MAP07 starting area (aerial shot)

  • MAP20, an egyptian-themed level

See also[edit]

Trivia[edit]

External links[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ↑ Not Jabba (10 December 2019). "Roots: The evolution of Doom level design." Doomworld. Retrieved 19 November 2021.
  2. ↑ Anders Johnsen (2 March 2022). Why is it called Alien Vendetta anyway?. Doomworld forums. Retrieved 16 February 2026.
  3. ↑ Brad Spencer (6 September 2017). Historical/Informational AV Crap. Doomworld forums. Retrieved 16 February 2026.
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