Eric Harris's DOOM II WADs (partially found video game mods; 1996-1998): Difference between revisions
(When researching the unproduced Doom film, I stumbled upon a source stating that Harris allegedly also worked on Duke Nukem 3D levels, including one based on Columbine. Might be worth expanding this article with this information in the future.) |
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|title=<center>REALDETH.WAD</center> | |title=<center>REALDETH.WAD</center> | ||
|image=realdeth.png | |image=realdeth.png | ||
|imagecaption= | |imagecaption=Screenshot of "REALDETH.WAD", one of Eric Harris's lost custom ''DOOM II'' levels. | ||
|status=<span style="color:orange;">'''Partially | |status=<span style="color:orange;">'''Partially Found'''</span> | ||
}} | }} | ||
The Columbine High School shooting occurred on April | 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' 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' America Online webpage was taken down shortly after the shooting and only about half of his WADs known to exist were downloaded by internet users for preservation's sake beforehand. Very little is known about these aside from their titles with only three screenshots of the lost WADs being preserved.<ref name=":0">http://acolumbinesite.com/eric/doom.php</ref><ref>http://history.com/topics/columbine-high-school-shootings</ref> | ||
==Alleged Columbine High School level== | |||
[[File:TIER.WAD.jpg|thumb|Notes from Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold during the development of their ''DOOM II'' level pack "TIER"]] | |||
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 be 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. Another potential candidate comes in the form of "TIER.WAD", a level pack Harris developed throughout the summer of 1998 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 is only conjecture and, as with "REALDOOM", there is no direct evidence of a Columbine-based map being part of "TIER". However, a possible resemblance to the school's second floor by a hand-drawn map of Klebold's made while collaborating with Harris on "TIER" (seen on the bottom-left of the image to the right) has been noted, perhaps lending some credence to the theory.<ref name=":0" /><ref>http://acolumbinesite.com/reports/cr/p7001-7100.pdf, page 43</ref><ref>https://doomworld.com/forum/topic/6889-worst-wad/</ref><ref>https://doomworld.com/forum/topic/42668-did-the-columbine-killers-program-a-chs-level-of-doom/</ref><ref>[https://denverpost.com/1999/04/25/columbine-high-school-shooting-plot-planned/ Booth, Michael (25 April 1999). "Columbine High School shooting plot planned for more than a year". ''The Denver Post''.] Retrieved 15 Jul '24</ref><ref>[https://columbinemassacre.forumotion.com/t3860-eric-harris-doom2-wad-s sororityalpha (19 January 2017). "Eric Harris' Doom2 WAD's (sic)". ''Columbine High School Massacre Discussion Forum''.] Retrieved 15 Jul '24</ref><ref>["936 Pages seized from Harris (sic) and Klebold's homes and cars". ''ResearchColumbine.com''.] Retrieved 15 Jul '24</ref> | |||
==List== | |||
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center" | |||
|- | |||
! style="background-color:lightblue" |Filename | |||
! style="background-color:lightblue" |Title | |||
! style="background-color:lightblue" |Date | |||
! style="background-color:lightblue" |Notes | |||
! style="background-color:lightblue" |Status | |||
|- | |||
|realdeth.WAD||N/A||Pre-1 March 1996||Unknown aside from title and screenshot||<span style="color:red;">'''Lost''' | |||
|- | |||
|REALDOOM.WAD||REALDOOM||Pre-1 March 1996||Level pack||<span style="color:red;">'''Lost''' | |||
|- | |||
|bricks.WAD||DEATHMATCH IN BRICKS!||Modified 1 March 1996, uploaded 22 July 1996||Deathmatch map||[http://acolumbinesite.com/eric/doom.html<span style="color:green;">'''Found'''] | |||
|- | |||
|hockey.WAD||Hockey.wad||Modified 13 June 1996, uploaded 22 July 1996||Deathmatch map||[http://acolumbinesite.com/eric/doom.html<span style="color:green;">'''Found'''] | |||
|- | |||
|fightme.WAD||Mortal Kombat Doom!||Modified 16 July 1996, uploaded 22 July 1996||Deathmatch map||[http://acolumbinesite.com/eric/doom.html<span style="color:green;">'''Found'''] | |||
|- | |||
|Killer.WAD||KILLER||Modified 19 July 1996, uploaded 22 July 1996||Deathmatch map||[http://acolumbinesite.com/eric/doom.html<span style="color:green;">'''Found'''] | |||
|- | |||
|outdoors.WAD||OUTDOORS||Uploaded 22 July 1996||Deathmatch map, original metadata and readme lost||[http://acolumbinesite.com/eric/doom.html<span style="color:green;">'''Found'''] | |||
|- | |||
|station.WAD||Station||Modified, uploaded 25 July 1996||Deathmatch map||[http://acolumbinesite.com/eric/doom.html<span style="color:green;">'''Found'''] | |||
|- | |||
|UACLabs.WAD||U.A.C. Labs||Modified 1 September 1996||Level pack||[http://acolumbinesite.com/eric/doom.html<span style="color:green;">'''Found'''] | |||
|- | |||
|assault.WAD||N/A||Pre-26 November 1996||Unknown aside from title||<span style="color:red;">'''Lost''' | |||
|- | |||
|techout.WAD||Techout||Pre-26 November 1996||Deathmatch map (based on screenshot)||<span style="color:red;">'''Lost''' | |||
|- | |||
|thrasher.WAD||Thrasher||Pre-26 November 1996||Singleplayer map or level pack (based on screenshot)||<span style="color:red;">'''Lost''' | |||
|- | |||
|truechamp.WAD||N/A||Pre-April 1998||Mentioned in Harris' yearbook note to Dylan||<span style="color:red;">'''Lost''' | |||
|- | |||
|whiskey.WAD||N/A||Pre-April 1998||Mentioned in Harris' yearbook note to Dylan. May not have been created by Harris.||<span style="color:red;">'''Lost''' | |||
|- | |||
|TIER.WAD||TIER||Developed June–September 1988||Level pack. Development described in Harris' journal entries. A hoax version of "TIER" resembling the "Techout" screenshot has circulated on some ''DOOM'' fansites.||<span style="color:red;">'''Lost''' | |||
|} | |||
==See Also== | ==See Also== |
Revision as of 18:32, 15 July 2024
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' 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' America Online webpage was taken down shortly after the shooting and only about half of his WADs known to exist were downloaded by internet users for preservation's sake beforehand. Very little is known about these aside from their titles with only three screenshots of the lost WADs being preserved.[1][2]
Alleged Columbine High School level
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 be 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. Another potential candidate comes in the form of "TIER.WAD", a level pack Harris developed throughout the summer of 1998 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 is only conjecture and, as with "REALDOOM", there is no direct evidence of a Columbine-based map being part of "TIER". However, a possible resemblance to the school's second floor by a hand-drawn map of Klebold's made while collaborating with Harris on "TIER" (seen on the bottom-left of the image to the right) has been noted, perhaps lending some credence to the theory.[1][3][4][5][6][7][8]
List
Filename | Title | Date | Notes | Status |
---|---|---|---|---|
realdeth.WAD | N/A | Pre-1 March 1996 | Unknown aside from title and screenshot | Lost |
REALDOOM.WAD | REALDOOM | Pre-1 March 1996 | Level pack | Lost |
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 | Deathmatch map | Found |
fightme.WAD | Mortal Kombat Doom! | Modified 16 July 1996, uploaded 22 July 1996 | Deathmatch map | Found |
Killer.WAD | KILLER | Modified 19 July 1996, uploaded 22 July 1996 | Deathmatch map | Found |
outdoors.WAD | OUTDOORS | Uploaded 22 July 1996 | Deathmatch map, original metadata and readme lost | Found |
station.WAD | Station | Modified, uploaded 25 July 1996 | Deathmatch map | Found |
UACLabs.WAD | U.A.C. Labs | Modified 1 September 1996 | Level pack | Found |
assault.WAD | N/A | Pre-26 November 1996 | Unknown aside from title | Lost |
techout.WAD | Techout | Pre-26 November 1996 | Deathmatch map (based on screenshot) | Lost |
thrasher.WAD | Thrasher | Pre-26 November 1996 | Singleplayer map or level pack (based on screenshot) | Lost |
truechamp.WAD | N/A | Pre-April 1998 | Mentioned in Harris' yearbook note to Dylan | Lost |
whiskey.WAD | N/A | Pre-April 1998 | Mentioned in Harris' yearbook note to Dylan. May not have been created by Harris. | Lost |
TIER.WAD | TIER | Developed June–September 1988 | Level pack. Development described in Harris' journal entries. A hoax version of "TIER" resembling the "Techout" screenshot has circulated on some DOOM fansites. | Lost |
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)
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 http://acolumbinesite.com/eric/doom.php
- ↑ http://history.com/topics/columbine-high-school-shootings
- ↑ http://acolumbinesite.com/reports/cr/p7001-7100.pdf, page 43
- ↑ https://doomworld.com/forum/topic/6889-worst-wad/
- ↑ https://doomworld.com/forum/topic/42668-did-the-columbine-killers-program-a-chs-level-of-doom/
- ↑ Booth, Michael (25 April 1999). "Columbine High School shooting plot planned for more than a year". The Denver Post. Retrieved 15 Jul '24
- ↑ sororityalpha (19 January 2017). "Eric Harris' Doom2 WAD's (sic)". Columbine High School Massacre Discussion Forum. Retrieved 15 Jul '24
- ↑ ["936 Pages seized from Harris (sic) and Klebold's homes and cars". ResearchColumbine.com.] Retrieved 15 Jul '24