John Romero releases new Doom II map to ‘support the Ukrainian people’

In a surprising treat for fans of first-person shooters in the ’90s, the death Series co-creator John Romero debuted this week with an all-new map for the 1994 classic second death. While its price is rather high for this type of content –€5 for one old school map—There is a good reason.

Romero states in the release form file that this WAD sale is intended to “raise funds to support the Ukrainian people.” can be purchased from His personal store website, where he says all proceeds will go to two humanitarian organizations: the Ukrainian Red Cross and the United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund. (On the non-charity front, the Romero store also sells a group of the deathSee the good stuff.)

Romero makes it clear early that we’re here second death Earth, no death 1.

John Romero

A day after its launch on Wednesday, the download was updated to add much of the same readme information found in 2019 his death 1 Map package sigilThis explains to newcomers how to easily make the new map work in Windows or macOS. (As I found in my unofficial testing, the same instructions don’t work on Steam Deck, which currently requires a semi-closed Arch Linux app to dive into its command line.) To run Romero’s new map, “One Humanity,” you’ll need the original retail second death Installation (which comes as part of the latest second death version on steam And the Gog), moreover you can apply a file source port Such as GZDoom.

Different kind of humanitarian aid

Pro tip: Don’t use the engine’s mouse shape switches to peek below and aim straight at the enemies in the pit of despair with this map. This breaks the classic tension second death maps.

John Romero

Although Romero’s map was originally designed second death Not necessarily as lovable as him death 1 Mastery, “one humanity” you see the death The co-creator of the chain returns to the model with a clever design at the loop level. Most of the level’s content looms over a pit of desperation, which the Doomguy can fight through and get out of in the event of a wrong fall (although he’ll need to descend hard to find the level’s only rocket launcher). But the upstairs room series is necessary to find the keys and triggers that will open doors and raise bridges to the level exit door.

Along the way, players will find the deathLevel classics like a gorgeously lit square maze and one of those amazing lanes that ends with flipping a switch and hearing loads of enemy sound effects on the other side. Its arrangement of enemy spawns and narrow passages emphasizes its brutality second deathThe super rifle, which is always good to re-acquaintance. And yes, if you engage in grunting along enough doorways, you will indeed find the BFG useful.

All this means: This level looks and plays like a solid classic exploration second death Mechanics, as opposed to including graphics or structures that refer to the events of any given era in real life (although on a graphic level, ‘One Humanity’ pushes second death Engine with cool tricks like broken doors and broken floors).

version joins increasingly Aloud choir of votes in games And the Technique To support the Ukrainian people in the midst of the Russian invasion – and while we’ve documented recent efforts and fundraising efforts by other tech companies, we at Ars Technica welcome more links to such humanitarian efforts in the comments section below. I’ll conclude this with a “One Humanity” sample file quote for those of you who might not choose to buy an older version second death For one reason or another:

If you get this file for free, please consider donating to Ukrainian Red Cross or the United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund.