Eric Harris's DOOM II WADs (partially found video game mods; 1996-1998)

This article has been tagged as NSFL due to its disturbing subject matter/visuals.

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Screenshot of "REALDETH.WAD", one of Eric Harris's lost custom DOOM II levels.

Status: Partially Found

The Columbine High School shooting occurred on 20 April 1999, perpetrated by Columbine senior students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold and resulting in the deaths of 15 people (including the shooters) with several more injured. Before the massacre occurred, Harris was an avid player of the first-person-shooter video game DOOM II and was known to create custom levels for the game which were packaged in its default "WAD" file format. Most of Harris's WADs were designed for the Deathmatch game mode in which multiple players battle against one another, although a few were made as single-player level packs. The majority of these are now lost as Harris's America Online webpage was taken down shortly after the shooting and only seven of his approximately 20 WADs known to have existed were able to be downloaded by Internet users for preservation's sake beforehand. Very little is known about these aside from their titles with only minimal details and three screenshots of the lost WADs being available.

Alleged Columbine-based level, REALDOOM.WAD, and TIER.WAD

Notes made by Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold during the development of their DOOM II level pack "TIER" Clockwise from top-left: Notes by Harris including a list of WADs, map of the first level of "TIER" by Harris, various notes by Klebold, map by Klebold noted as resembling the CHS library

According to page 7043 of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's 11,000-page Columbine Report, Eric Harris was quoted by witness David Proctor as saying that "he had designed a level in Doom that was Columbine High School" in early 1999, leading some to believe that Harris and Klebold had "practiced" their mass murder in the game. No other concrete information concerning this supposed morbid level has ever emerged, leading to much speculation. The lost "REALDOOM.WAD", a multi-level patch for "realdeth.WAD" which Harris would only give out if requested by email, has been rumored to be the WAD in question since at least as early as 2002 and is even sometimes stated to contain the fabled Columbine map as a matter of fact. This is incredibly unlikely as "REALDOOM" is mentioned in the text file for "BRICKS.WAD" which bears a modification date of 1 March 1996 while Harris and Klebold are believed to have begun plotting the shooting about two years after that time. The same can be said of "UACLabs.WAD" which remains publicly available and whose level design is believed by some to vaguely resemble the school building, although "UAC Labs" also has a 1996 modification date.

FBI diagram of the Columbine High School library during the shooting

Another potential candidate comes in the form of "TIER.WAD", a level pack Harris developed in collaboration with Klebold throughout mid-to-late 1998 and of which he wrote "Lots of the rooms and secrets in this place come directly from my imagination, so you are basically running around in my own world. … a person could write a freaking book on all of the symbolism and double meanings used in these levels," albeit this proposition is largely conjectural and, as with "REALDOOM", there is no direct evidence to confirm a Columbine-based map being part of "TIER". However, a possible resemblance to the school's second-floor library (where Harris and Klebold would kill the majority of their victims and, ultimately, themselves) by a hand-drawn map made by Klebold while working with Harris on "TIER" has been noted, perhaps lending some credence to the theory. Harris's notes also contain what seems to be a list of WADs created by himself and/or Klebold containing otherwise-unknown titles such as "achthung", "champy", "doom333", "Gravity", and "orbit4", although at least two of these, "idmap01" and "dchronix", seem to refer to WADs known not to have been made by them. "TIER" remains lost despite having been available for download on Harris's AOL page up until its removal.

List

Filename	Title	Date	Notes	Status
realdeth.WAD	N/A	Pre-1 March 1996	Unknown beyond title and screenshot	Lost
REALDOOM.WAD	REALDOOM		Level pack, patch for "realdeth"
bricks.WAD	DEATHMATCH IN BRICKS!	Modified 1 March 1996, uploaded 22 July 1996	Deathmatch map	Found
hockey.WAD	Hockey.wad	Modified 13 June 1996, uploaded 22 July 1996
fightme.WAD	Mortal Kombat Doom!	Modified 16 July 1996, uploaded 22 July 1996
Killer.WAD	KILLER	Modified 19 July 1996, uploaded 22 July 1996
outdoors.WAD	OUTDOORS	Uploaded 22 July 1996	Deathmatch map. Original metadata and text file lost.
station.WAD	Station	Modified, uploaded 25 July 1996	Deathmatch map
UACLabs.WAD	U.A.C. Labs	Modified 1 September 1996	Level pack
assault.WAD	N/A	Pre-26 November 1996	Unknown beyond title	Lost
techout.WAD	Techout		Deathmatch map (based on screenshot)
thrasher.WAD	Thrasher		Level pack (based on screenshot and mention in NBK.doc)
truchamp.WAD	Truechamp	Pre-April 1998	Unknown beyond title. Mentioned in Harris's yearbook note to Klebold.
whiskey.WAD	Whiskey		Mentioned in Harris's yearbook note to Klebold. Sometimes conflated with another lost WAD not by Harris, however, in another note from around the same time, he explicitly says "Whiskey" is his work. Given that he associates it with "Thrasher", "U.A.C. Labs", and "TIER" (which he calls his "worlds"), it was likely a level pack.
achtung.WAD	N/A	Pre-23 September 1998	Unknown beyond title
champy.WAD
doom333.WAD			Unknown beyond title. Seemingly available as late as 2007, albeit this casts doubt on it being made by Harris as it is not associated with any of his known internet activity.
Gravity.WAD			Unknown beyond title
orbit4.WAD
TIER.WAD	TIER	Developed c. June–September 1988	Level pack. Development described in detail in notes by Harris and Klebold. A hoax version of "TIER" resembling the "Techout" screenshot has circulated on some DOOM fansites.

See Also

• Doom (lost FMV scenes and original work of 3DO port of first-person shooter game; 1994-1995)
• Doom (lost prototype of Sega Saturn port of first-person shooter; 1996-1997)
• Doom (lost reference photographs for first-person shooter game cover art; 1993)
• Doom (partially found production materials of cancelled first-person shooter game film adaptations; 1994-1999)
• Doom and Doom 2 (partially lost original sound files of first-person shooter series audio; 1993-1994)
• Doom 4 (lost build of cancelled sequel based on "Doom" first-person shooter series; 2007-2014)
• Doom Absolution (lost build of cancelled Nintendo 64 sequel to "Doom 64"; 1997)
• Doom "Episode 5" (lost build of cancelled expansion to first-person shooter; 1995)