hobomaster22 has just released the latest version of DoomLauncher, the number one doom frontend for organizing and playing all your favorit wads and projects (which are currently 563 pieces in my archive to give you an idea how useful this can be). The author has fixed various issues and added a load of different new features, including

17 years ago Russel_P released a map called Doom Raider which somehow managed to scrape into DoomWorlds top 100. It's safe to say the map is looking somewhat dated these days. It was his first non vanilla map and he only really achieved part of what he was aiming for. Over many ZDoom (and subsequently GZDoom) updates, many of the maps features have become diminished or broken. The original map is now unplayble due to GZDoom changes which leave the poison clouds in the level with infinite height, which makes it almost impossible to survive without cheats.

So here's an unpdate/new version/reimagining/reboot/whatever. This started out as an exercise in updating his doom mapping knowledge, but ended up becoming a complete obsession. Russel_P has undoubtedly spent more time on this new version than he ever spent on the original and, if he was to produce a list of changes, it would be quicker to list the things he hasn't tinkered with. If it wasn't for the cuurrent lockdown, which has given him a large amount of free time, he doubts this map would have been released this year. But hey, here it is, the remaster of Doom Raider and it definitely was worth the wait.

Batandy, the master of SNESNES-game conversions strikes again. A few days ago, he opened a development thread for his latest creation entitled Castlevania - Simon's Destiny. From what I can already tell, it's one of the most ambitious console reinventions that I have ever seen since Final Fantasy Doom or Golden Souls. Batandy says, it is a non-profit GZDOOM based fan game born as a love letter to this legendary franchise. This mod aims to reinvent the very first NES title of the franchise with a nostalgic yet brand new first person gameplay. All the classic subweapons and items are in, same thing for the monsters. You want to see more? Check the official development thread or read on for a live demo video.

Another year passed by. A different one, with a lot of challenges, a lot of changes, a lot of differences. Still, there are durable and stable traditions that keep you pleasant. And so is Doom's birthday and the Annual Cacowards that have just been posted over at Doomworld. Congratulations to the winners, congratulations to the nominees and also congratulations to the authors who wrote that article again this year. It was a pleasure to read and I can only say that everyone, who has been mentioned, totally deserved the praise. I am glad that this community is so much alive! Thank you all, and keep doomin' - stay save!

PS: Thanks kindly for mentioning my remasters of 2020, glad that they were that well received!

And so 2020, the year of stunning new releases like Ar Luminae and Bastion of Chaos, has also been a year of remasters for many of the classics. Tormentor667 has been working on a wave of renovations that includes City of the Damned and its sequel as well as Sapphire and Austerity. These updates take advantage of more modern port additions like brightmaps, dynamic lights, and widescreen graphics, but they also make bigger improvements under the hood: new palettes, improved scenery and textures, a new gun for Sapphire, new boss monsters in the original CotD, and even new areas in some maps. 

Some of the more frequent visitors to the major Doom community sites might have already noticed that one of their favorite pages Doomworld.com got a modern facelift - not only visually but also technically. To be honest, the page has alaready seen better days as the layou and technique was already 20 years old. The site staff must have been aware of this for a while now and out of nothing the new system and layout has been made public a few days ago.

At first it's a bit confusing as the landing page directly leads to the forum but overall I have to admit that I really like what people have done there. It's intuitive, it looks modern, it works on tablets and smartphones and a lot of work seems to be involved with the improvements. From what I can see so far it's not perfectly done yet and the team is still working on it but it's a very good start. Congratulations to the effort, you've done a very good job!

Here it is, my present for the 1st Advent: Tango has released his second release candidate of his mapset Drought. 3 short, Boom compatible maps built with the excellent D4V mod and using the wonderful OTEX texture pack. Each map is originally a ~1 hour speedmap that has received tweaks and refinement over the last month since their initial version. Should work in any Boom compatible port - tested in PrBoom+ and GZDoom, might be bugs in other ports still. Truecolor hardware rendering recommended, if only for the sake of color quality in MAP03. Also skill levels have been implemented but not extensively tested outside of UV, so most settings probably still need balance adjustments. For more information just read on and give Tango some feedback for finetuning.