Wadarcheology Project

Mayan Temple was among the first selected levels for the Wadarcheology project

Wadarcheology (from the union of WAD and archaeology) is a project started by Endless on August 8, 2021 and hosted on the Doomworld forums. It is a community reviewing effort where the main aim is to find obscure, unknown and forgotten best maps hidden in the Internet, from the most known idgames archive shores to the most hidden old website available. The search is especially focused on Doom and Doom II mods, with a short appearance of Heretic mods, in the time range from 1994 to 2004. The most prominent finder and reviewer is Arrowhead.

The project is designed and inspired around archeological disciplines and aims to properly document a variety of items according to a guideline criteria. It aims to serve both as a utility and historical tool for Doom historians.

Similar to ER/iWA, some rules are added in order to review the WADs found. A listed document is ready to download and read at the first page of the thread.

WAD Archeology

Refers to the recovery, study and exposure of quality levels developed during the early stages of Doom, during which time a large number of levels were not shared on the internet, or were poorly accessible due to primitive technology and lack of resources and tools. As such, for the purposes of study and retrieval, off-site and tertiary resources, such as commercial compilations, tend to be the main target for investigation and curation in looking for notable WADs.

Wadarcheology was initiated as a project to unearth and study lost, forgotten or rare Doom levels, mostly published during the 90s. The reason behind the time selection is based around the lack of accessible and fast internet between the release of the Classic Doom games. During this time, the internet was still in a rustic, slow, and primitive state; not all homes had internet available and the overall speed was extremely slow, making downloading unstable and unreliable.

The archaeological study of WADs released during this time requires research, proper investigation, selection, and curation for their ideal recovery. A large number of levels were released during Doom's early stages, but the vast majority were forgotten or lost, and of those that can be found today, a large percentage are low quality or unplayable levels.

Purpose

The goal of the project is to explore, discover, and recover pieces of Doom WAD history that lie forgotten or hidden away in poorly accessed sources. While a large quantity of obscure levels can be found in the relatively-common shovelware disks of the era, the large majority of these levels are of very poor quality and dubious design; the project aims to look for purposely well-designed and/or notable levels. As such, a set of criteria was established to work as a guideline for participants.

Criteria

STONES.WAD is an example of a level that meets the quality criteria

1. It must be from 1994 to 2004.
2. It must have a low popularity or relatively unknown origin.
3. A not so well-known author or obscure designer.
4. Mostly forgotten or with very few citations, or generally hard to find.
5. It must have some sort of relevancy that is worth its rediscovery.

Quality criteria

Found WADs follow a soft guideline that sets a number of standards for it to be considered acceptable for proper reevaluation:

• It must be playable;
• Innovative;
• Visually pleasing for its age;
• Historically valuable;

Notable wadarcheologist

The following is a list of active members that participated and contributed greatly to the project:

• Arrowhead
• LadyMistDragon
• Roofi
• thestarrover
• Walter Confalonieri (daimon)

Wadarcheology Archive

Also known as the Wadarcheology Museum, refers to the documented and curated list of rediscovered and recovered WADs that have met the criteria to be included in the project. More than 260 WADs, ranging from 1994 to 2004, have been listed and properly documented. Among the first WADs to be included are: Villa of Pain, Mayan Temple, ENTRY.wad, Wasteland: Mountain of Fire, Street, Haunted Space Ship, etc.

External links

• Wadarcheology thread
• Official page