Doom Help Service
From DoomWiki.org
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[edit]
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Usenet period of the Doom community, initially operating from the alt.games.doom.newplayers newsgroup before that was superseded by the rec.games.computer.doom.help one.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[edit]
| 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[edit]
- Doom Help Service home page.
