[NNC]

Out of the mappers who didn't release anything of the past 10+ years, who are the ones you would love to see returning? I mean to the level you would pay for their work? Other than the obvious answers of "Allen Blum and Levelord", or the lame answer "all of'em"?

My personal picks:

Pipeline - I would even pay to see his Day After maps somehow lost in the multiverse (if they exist in full form), but also would love to see new maps by him. I think his style was pretty strong for an official episode, a bit of novelty here and there, that's what they need, but in terms of aging, they still look fresh, like the original maps, because of their clean design.

Ben Roffelsen - another obvious pick... would love to see his Aqua series continue, but in a more polished form with new Mapster elements. I thought his work back in 1996 was a level above in that era, and also has a commercial quality feel to it even with the shortcomings of the maps.

George Bernard - his legendary LRWB series probably didn't age that well, yet, I think the effort put in the second episode was amazing, seeing more of that (with some polish and less dick-ish gameplay elements) would be awesome.

Ian Boffin - he was a semi-commercial mapper with the creation of Plug and Pray. Out of these addon mappers, he would be extremely interesting IMHO. The PnP maps have their flaws, but bear in mind, he had to build them with limitations of the PSX console which included limited texture choices etc. The way he created mini-worlds with unique themes like Wipeut racetrack or Resident Evil mansion was awesome, also with the clever use of cyclers and shading.

Robert Travis - kinda cheater pick, because he was another semi-commercial author, but would be gorgeous to see his unique mapping style with Atomic Edition elements and more details here and there. I always felt that Travis managed to create the ultimate spinoff to classic Blum-esque mapping with his massive hallways and giant buildings.

[Bloodhaeven]

Roch for sure

[blizzart]

Maarten Pinxten
Kevin "Kef Nukem" Cools
Billy Boy - would be interesting what insanity he would create with new sector limits and features like TROR

[Aleks]

Well the only one I would be inclined to actually pay for would be Pascal, it would be extremely interesting to see what he would come up with given EDuke/TROR and the passage of time.

Also Kuffi and Alejandro Glavic (I remember Alejandro showing some neat screenshots years ago that never come to fruition).

BillyBoy is someone I'd like to see new stuff from, but also feel that whatever map he creates with extended limits and TROR would be taking players days to complete...

[Danukem]

 Aleks, on 14 March 2026 - 05:48 AM, said:

Well the only one I would be inclined to actually pay for would be Pascal, it would be extremely interesting to see what he would come up with given EDuke/TROR and the passage of time.

Also Kuffi and Alejandro Glavic (I remember Alejandro showing some neat screenshots years ago that never come to fruition).

BillyBoy is someone I'd like to see new stuff from, but also feel that whatever map he creates with extended limits and TROR would be taking players days to complete...

Alejandro Glavic would be my vote if I'm voting on just one person. Although he may have released a map slightly less than 10 years ago (I don't feel like looking it up) -- but that's an outlier and every other map was way before that.

[ck3D]

I typed a whole post just a few hours earlier and the website ate it, now a lot of my picks have been mentioned. Long story short Billy Boy also would be one of mine although it is unlikely to happen I am pretty sure. Ben Roffelsen would blow my mind. KuFFi/Kev Cools would be great, also released maps that formerly were classics but now seem completely slept on. Geoffrey/Fakirbaba logged in a few years back to post unfinished map scraps and I always figured someone (maybe familiar with his style or who used to work with him) would Frankenstein some kind of monster out of that at some point but it hasn't happened. In a parallel universe where I would have infinite time that would be my kind of thing to get into, but realistically I am way too busy with my current projects. There even is someone else's map I have been meaning to help finish for years but I have been just out of focus as them it turns out.

Maarten Pinxten is another author I've been thinking about lately that didn't make my favorite levels, but had a cool eye for fresh ways to progress and micro detail and so I would put him in the same boat as Ale who had a similar style. Still I think authors with a more conceptual approach to TROR than detail-oriented would be the ones who would really milk out of what is possible with it. I do lament that Ale's never finished Rio map is gone and so are all released screenshots of it, it looked fantastic.

It did the scene a lot of good a few years back when WG returned (perfect transition with my former point about TROR strengths it just so happens). Oostrum 1 & Oostrum 2 are back in business as OGBBait worked, Taivo last I heard is shaking off the rust and experimenting with TROR. Lots of new faces and fresh blood that learns everything about the level editor and engine within months if not weeks because it is this much more accessible now via EDuke32. C3P0 came back to release a level a few years back, I see tons of old names just casually still hanging around but now instead making random YouTube accounts and Facebook comments. BobSP still undercover, lezing and Eddy still at it, dannyfromneworleans being discreet but efficient, High Treason releasing episodes. jimbob, dandouglas, MC84, Leon for IF for examples of WIP Build projects stacking up. Lots of randos timidly popping up in Nacho/TLOD's streams chats and engaging about Build projects of their own, sometimes single maps, sometimes large TC's. Things are pretty cool. Just scattered including between platforms and so it is natural to get lost wherever you aren't paying so much attention. Personally it is shit like Steam I never check out but I know from YouTube there are some exclusive maps and even authors on there. On ModDB too. Dear Konotori Labs person who deleted their history out of embarrassment, we also miss you. But it isn't like the classic times back when websites actually held weight and Dukeworld, AMC, DN-R, MSDN were mandatory references. Nowadays people most commonly search Reddit and sometimes catch the one thread that isn't about a meme but a user map they will play (and sometimes the map is a meme). Systemically they are conditioned to and so it is not so much a generational thing. It is still (timelessly) important that the websites exist.

quakis I think would be sweet to see a map from sometime. Even (especially?) if constructed within constraints. Heck I am curious what a speed map episode by the author would look like, might sound random but it exactly would be the change in comfort zone that tends to be interesting.

Also (more) maps by normally-not-mappers like NNC or dnskill. Get in. We will teach you everything and you spontaneously will pick up on more than you expect. (But maybe you know it and that is why you're scared, honestly very justified, more so than fear of being incapable of results)

How about LAW, Rusty Nails, people who used to make levels solely for TC's (those seemed to be an entire subset for a while, maybe to this day). Or Mikko coming back to D3D mapping and releasing an MSSPX map.

[Perro Seco]

Eye del Cul, known for making almost one hundred maps for games like Duke, Doom, Quake, Unreal or Blood, and also for creating a website with more than a thousand of commented maps for those games, including an old episode he did for Duke around 1996-2001, which is not as good as his later maps Shock Mortal or CyberDuke, but it's still interesting.

Arrovf, who said his map Cathedral was going to be the beginning of an episode that I'm still waiting for. He also created other cool maps, like Subsuelo or Rescate en Kazakhstan, and his own website filled with Duke maps, which I'm using here for the links.

Jean-Marc Gruninger, who only made two maps in 1996: City (the first user map I ever played) and City II. In my opinion they deserve some credit considering they are pretty decent and were made only some months after the game's release.

[ck3D]

Perro Seco, on 14 March 2026 - 08:29 PM, said:

Jean-Marc Gruninger

One of those names I was including in those who still lurk, out of plenty of other ones that I also know do but won't list out of decency. But I would say out of all people who ever released a Duke map, it is a very small minority that no longer looks at the game at all, even if they haven't launched it, or Build, in 30 years. They are all over Duke Facebook pages, YouTube comments, Reddit threads etc... and down to interact for those who know who they are or can connect the dots, most are still around in some more or less distant capacity (I literally exchanged comments with J.M. just last month; honestly blew me away too), including most former Duke4 'mappers of the month'. It is crazy, maybe scary how once this game and engine have informed you, there universally seems to be no coming back when in reality it is such a frivolous hobby and preoccupation. It reminds me of the compulsive nature of mice that drives them to instinctually gnaw, rip, dig and bury stuff as soon as given the opportunity and material to, except we make virtual nests and showcase them on the Internet instead of investing in housing with no mice. Whoever tries sector-over-sector once automatically becomes floorboard gang like Midas' touch but turning your social life into Enforcer feces.

City II is a classic and does a lot of things better than most people's first maps to this day (scale...). Closest thing to a user map release to LameDuke L6 we ever got in terms of concept/execution, I actually studied it a little whilst making some of the later (on dev timeline terms) BR open city maps (SF, Norilsk).

How about papamonos? Strange, strange brand of level design, very old school but made it kind of work.

You want to hear one of my crazy brainfart theories even I just laugh about? Sometimes I suspect Blum actually is active and among us, just under an alias or maybe a few. (If correct, that would be a coincidence; just so I don't risk blowing it. No specifics except it's a way history has demonstrated the human brain can work.)

[Merlijn]

I agree with a lot of these picks, but I'm surprised that Gambini hasn't been mentioned yet. Perhaps "It lives" still feels like a modern map, but it's actually 10+ years old
I think he could do a lot of cool stuff with TROR, sloped sprites etc. Although we now do have mappers inspired by his style, like pepsodent.

Quote

Arrovf, who said his map Cathedral was going to be the beginning of an episode that I'm still waiting for. He also created other cool maps, like Subsuelo or Rescate en Kazakhstan, and his own website filled with Duke maps, which I'm using here for the links.

Good shout out, I loved Cathedral!

Quote

You want to hear one of my crazy brainfart theories even I just laugh about? Sometimes I suspect Blum actually is active and among us, just under an alias or maybe a few. (If correct, that would be a coincidence; just so I don't risk blowing it. No specifics except it's a way history has demonstrated the human brain can work.)

Ha, that would be pretty crazy. We do know Bob Averill uses an alias (even released stuff under an alias) so you never know..

Quote

Oostrum 1 & Oostrum 2 are back in business as OGBBait worked

EDIT: I missed this quote I suppose there is some truth in it, altough the earliest version of Cliffs of Dover is older than OGBB2

[Aleks]

ck3D, on 14 March 2026 - 02:14 PM, said:

I typed a whole post just a few hours earlier and the website ate it, now a lot of my picks have been mentioned.

...and you still did manage to write an essay on the state of Duke's mapping!

I mostly mentioned people who seem to be completely out of loop now, hence no mentions of Gambini (who I do see from time to time), Mikko, Quakis or Forge (I'm yet to play his levels, but from what I've seen they do seem quite particular... and now thinking of it, I haven't seen Forge in a while either!).

It's interesting that Ben Roffelsen gets mentioned a lot - I've never found Aqua series to be something particularly great (they were good for 1996 standards, but also not what I would count as "outstanding"). I could probably pick about a dozen of 1996(ish) authors which I would rather see, but considering they are 1996ish, they kind of missed several eras of Duke mapping really... Matt Harris, Robert Carter, Chris Muir, John Mooney, Bud Drakir, Patrick Clemons, Greg Hoyer, Mike Beaulieu or Enric Alvarez (apparently an industry pro now) all made extremely cool maps back in 1996 (and most of them continued for a couple more years as well).

[ck3D]

Aleks, on 15 March 2026 - 05:24 AM, said:

...and you still did manage to write an essay on the state of Duke's mapping!

I mostly mentioned people who seem to be completely out of loop now, hence no mentions of Gambini (who I do see from time to time), Mikko, Quakis or Forge (I'm yet to play his levels, but from what I've seen they do seem quite particular... and now thinking of it, I haven't seen Forge in a while either!).

It's interesting that Ben Roffelsen gets mentioned a lot - I've never found Aqua series to be something particularly great (they were good for 1996 standards, but also not what I would count as "outstanding"). I could probably pick about a dozen of 1996(ish) authors which I would rather see, but considering they are 1996ish, they kind of missed several eras of Duke mapping really... Matt Harris, Robert Carter, Chris Muir, John Mooney, Bud Drakir, Patrick Clemons, Greg Hoyer, Mike Beaulieu or Enric Alvarez (apparently an industry pro now) all made extremely cool maps back in 1996 (and most of them continued for a couple more years as well).

Ha yeah I just ended up retyping most of it then adding more ideas on top.

I think Ben R. gets bonus points (justifiably I would say) not just for being early onto clean design and thoughtful SP layout (1996 most user maps still were made with DM in mind), but also for being one of the first to make an actual numbered series out of his levels, for some reason it seems like people love seeing instances of (project title) 2, 3, 4 etc., maybe because it anchors a continuity and so gives them something particular to look forward to/remember, I don't know, anyway it is its own brand of attention grabbing by implying storytelling. Robert Carter also did a series before (or after? can't be arsed to double check) moving onto just single user maps, he used to be one of my favorite mappers for years during which I had no idea Beam Me Up Scotty even existed, I only knew of the 'Bob' maps. Either way yes, plenty of other 1996-1998 names would be worth a mention, for instance the Caraballo bros., Piroska (still lurks), Ivan P. came back a few years back, it looks like most everyone is still gravitating and potentially mapping if the stars just want to align. It is funny trying to think of comebacks that would be absolute wildcards if they happened, e.g.. surprise new map by Brett Gmoser or Kevin Farnfield. Or if eras do not matter then I don't know, Corey Eddy.

Oh and I still see new streams or playthroughs of Mr. Zero's Azneer Building pop up in my Youtube news feed regularly, people still play it a lot.

How about the Bug Team? Psychose?

[pepsodent]

Merlijn, on 15 March 2026 - 01:54 AM, said:

I agree with a lot of these picks, but I'm surprised that Gambini hasn't been mentioned yet. Perhaps "It lives" still feels like a modern map, but it's actually 10+ years old
I think he could do a lot of cool stuff with TROR, sloped sprites etc. Although we now do have mappers inspired by his style, like pepsodent.

Gambini worked on Aftershock, which released.. 3 years ago now. damn. Utilized all the fancy new features as well as those scripts that are made for Ion Fury specifically. One of those maps is my top favourite in all of Build mapping.






I'm too much of a newfriend to your little community to know of any old mappers that left the scene but I wish there were more people around.

[William Gee]

My first thought was Andras Piroska.
But also Ale or Geoffrey.

Did Ale ever use TROR? would love to see what he could do with it.

[William Gee]

ck3D, on 14 March 2026 - 02:14 PM, said:

quakis I think would be sweet to see a map from sometime. Even (especially?) if constructed within constraints. Heck I am curious what a speed map episode by the author would look like, might sound random but it exactly would be the change in comfort zone that tends to be interesting.

I was thinking just the other day would be good to have a new Quakis map.

[ck3D]

Just thought of a few more.

Mike Beaulieu - Legends 1 & 2 guy (in fact I just realized I don't think I ever played his Bobafett.map that's on MSDN). Now I see Aleks had already mentioned him. Imagine the kind of sector monster freak the author could do now with TROR, instead of just giant heads could be made entire organisms.

Bob Masters - no doubt all the trickery he was trying to achieve at the time with 2121 A.D. would reach new levels now with how much easier .con got with EDuke, and given that he liked to break sectors (a bit too much for my taste at times) or has made playable Escher stairs with no less than old school silent teleporters before it is likely he would be into experimenting with TROR too.

[NNC]

Lots of interesting posts and picks.

While I would love to see people like Alejandro (who got me into Duke 3D modding community and has the same birthday as me ), Pascal, Gambini, Bob Averill to be back (actually they are doing things randomly, except for Pascal), their styles are a bit too modern to my liking, I mean when I saw Ale's last ADG06 map, it felt like a modern community map with all it's advantages and shortcomings.

I picked my people who were mappers before modern style took over, from 1997-98, with distinct styles. I wonder how any of them would cope with the "bells and whistles" of today's maps, or maybe they would continue in their own 1997 style, which would be as mighty IMHO. Something that is totally different to what we are regularly getting.

From the picks I saw, Piroska and Beaulieu are the closest ones to the oldschool people, not sure if I like their work, but would be great to see them returning too.

EDIT: Pinxten is an oldschooler too.

[NNC]

 ck3D, on 14 March 2026 - 10:39 PM, said:

One of those names I was including in those who still lurk, out of plenty of other ones that I also know do but won't list out of decency. But I would say out of all people who ever released a Duke map, it is a very small minority that no longer looks at the game at all, even if they haven't launched it, or Build, in 30 years. They are all over Duke Facebook pages, YouTube comments, Reddit threads etc... and down to interact for those who know who they are or can connect the dots, most are still around in some more or less distant capacity (I literally exchanged comments with J.M. just last month; honestly blew me away too), including most former Duke4 'mappers of the month'. It is crazy, maybe scary how once this game and engine have informed you, there universally seems to be no coming back when in reality it is such a frivolous hobby and preoccupation. It reminds me of the compulsive nature of mice that drives them to instinctually gnaw, rip, dig and bury stuff as soon as given the opportunity and material to, except we make virtual nests and showcase them on the Internet instead of investing in housing with no mice. Whoever tries sector-over-sector once automatically becomes floorboard gang like Midas' touch but turning your social life into Enforcer feces.

City II is a classic and does a lot of things better than most people's first maps to this day (scale...). Closest thing to a user map release to LameDuke L6 we ever got in terms of concept/execution, I actually studied it a little whilst making some of the later (on dev timeline terms) BR open city maps (SF, Norilsk).

How about papamonos? Strange, strange brand of level design, very old school but made it kind of work.

You want to hear one of my crazy brainfart theories even I just laugh about? Sometimes I suspect Blum actually is active and among us, just under an alias or maybe a few. (If correct, that would be a coincidence; just so I don't risk blowing it. No specifics except it's a way history has demonstrated the human brain can work.)

Actually this crazy theory went through me as well. Not sure who is the alias that can be Allen Blum in real. Pipeline has traits (Doomcity especially, also the extended shrinker in Mothership), but overall, no, for various reasons (I just don't think Blum would do a milder Occupied Territory...). Duncan has some Blum-esque style (mostly because of Hostile Waters), but no, his maps are too rough for a Blum level. Andrew Orman, creator of the very Blum-alike Atmospheric Processing Facility was another suspicion, but again, his style is too rough, and it's closer to Duncan's than to Blum's. From modern mappers I originally thought of Dan Skladany, but when I contacted him, it became clear he is a real guy.

Not sure who others can be like that. Haven't played anything from papamonos, I think I may try it one day.

Other comparable styles: Ryan Isenberg (Moonland is amazing), Alan Bellows (who made Dukebots as enemies, and has the same initials ), C3PO, Chris Allcock.

[ck3D]

Maybe time will prove me wrong but I would be surprised if you liked most maps by papamonos, to be fair I mostly remember Criaturas de la Noche from him although I remember playing all of them back in the day, in a sort of strange way they sort of blended in Doom II Downtown/Hexen navigation style (so maze-like and depending on taste and patience not so good) with proto-2000's user map looks. Neither the cleanest nor the more functional but very unique in a manner that I can't really think of anyone replicating since (but maybe because by now people have accumulated level design theory and so no longer explore alternatives so much, let's not give naivety too much credit either but with this author it's oddly endearing what is done to try and mask it). Definitely nothing like Blum.

Looking up his other maps now I actually realize I probably should replay some of them like Mission Perejil https://dnr.duke4.ne...n:_Perejil.html that look better (in the DN-R screenshots at least) than what I remember on average for now.

About the alias thing I am not going to get into any more detail about it, it would really suck to happen to be correct and expose it, I have a lot of respect for Blum's public reserve. Probably making it up anyway. It would be a lot funnier if Pitchforks had been passionate enough to release user maps under aliases but no one knew because they never made MSDN Hot Maps. But hey even most of the guy's official mapping is not really his, so.

New MetHunter or Sang map would be cool.

[NNC]

 ck3D, on 17 March 2026 - 09:52 AM, said:

Maybe time will prove me wrong but I would be surprised if you liked most maps by papamonos, to be fair I mostly remember Criaturas de la Noche from him although I remember playing all of them back in the day, in a sort of strange way they sort of blended in Doom II Downtown/Hexen navigation style (so maze-like and depending on taste and patience not so good) with proto-2000's user map looks. Neither the cleanest nor the more functional but very unique in a manner that I can't really think of anyone replicating since (but maybe because by now people have accumulated level design theory and so no longer explore alternatives so much, let's not give naivety too much credit either but with this author it's oddly endearing what is done to try and mask it).

Looking up his other maps now I actually realize I probably should replay some of them like Mission Perejil https://dnr.duke4.ne...n:_Perejil.html that look better (in the DN-R screenshots at least) than what I remember on average for now.

About the Blum thing I am not going to get into any more detail about it, it would really suck to happen to be correct and expose it, I have a lot of respect for Blum's public reserve. Probably making it up anyway. It would be a lot funnier if Pitchforks had been passionate enough to release user maps under aliases but no one knew because they never made MSDN Hot Maps. But hey even most of the guy's official mapping is not really his, so.

New MetHunter or Sang map would be cool.

I remember Criaturas (it was a dark city map, right?), don't think it would fit the style.

What if Bob Averill himself as Blum? That would be the biggest plot twist ever. Now, you say it, I can see Pitchfork as an alias mapper even more, but in his case, I don't care.

[ck3D]

 NNC, on 17 March 2026 - 10:09 AM, said:

Now, you say it, I can see Pitchfork as an alias mapper even more

I don't think so, I get the feeling that if such a character made and released Duke 3D maps for free on their spare time, they most likely would be publicizing the hell out of it for cool/core points farming. Appears closer to reality that most of the guy's E4 'work' is Blum/LL material recuperation or copy that he ruined so hard it took new detailed art to make look good, which is something else I suspected for the longest time then later realized is mostly true and documented online if you can find and trust it (this page is an interesting portal if you have time to invest into reading detailed per-level dev history, I underestimated its contents for too long). It's not just the infamous Pigsty thing, apparently he just really never directly made so much, which of course then makes me think that someone's drive must have been to maximize profit off the franchise and perhaps inject themselves into the branding, but not so much create something for it that would have to be so respectful of its origins. Would also align with how somber things at 3DR notoriously got post D3D release and success, and before Atomic, in that strange period of time where it can be observed they started firing important artists and placing nobodies. What we do know already sucks pretty hard, I don't want to start imagining what we don't. World Tour dev commentary in some parts sounds like half the room has Duke Nukem's gun to the head and it's loaded with damage control. My point being Pitchforks seems like an entrepreneur to me but not a creative without incentive.

But because the new art in E4 is less abstract than 1.3D since they needed visually explicit props to help tie the Birth layout mishmashes together with coherence, must also mean it (naturally) is the most accessible part of the tileset to use for new mappers and so it is no wonder why so many user maps (usually people's first levels) are so chock full of E4 art, and then usually takes some wisdom to realize how it isn't necessarily in a good way that it is so detached from the rest. It's not exactly stylistic influence from P.'s maps as much as it is the easiest and most pedestrian way of making a Duke map look presentable until you've acquired a taste for free form jazz.

[Aleks]

 NNC, on 17 March 2026 - 09:18 AM, said:

Actually this crazy theory went through me as well. Not sure who is the alias that can be Allen Blum in real. Pipeline has traits (Doomcity especially, also the extended shrinker in Mothership), but overall, no, for various reasons (I just don't think Blum would do a milder Occupied Territory...). Duncan has some Blum-esque style (mostly because of Hostile Waters), but no, his maps are too rough for a Blum level. Andrew Orman, creator of the very Blum-alike Atmospheric Processing Facility was another suspicion, but again, his style is too rough, and it's closer to Duncan's than to Blum's. From modern mappers I originally thought of Dan Skladany, but when I contacted him, it became clear he is a real guy.

Not sure who others can be like that. Haven't played anything from papamonos, I think I may try it one day.

Other comparable styles: Ryan Isenberg (Moonland is amazing), Alan Bellows (who made Dukebots as enemies, and has the same initials ), C3PO, Chris Allcock.

I think the only person who I could suspect of being Blum was Alan Page (even first name corresponds!) who made very clean-looking levels back in the 90s - but I would say the probability of Blum undercover is below 1%.

[Merlijn]

 pepsodent, on 15 March 2026 - 09:33 AM, said:

Gambini worked on Aftershock, which released.. 3 years ago now. damn. Utilized all the fancy new features as well as those scripts that are made for Ion Fury specifically. One of those maps is my top favourite in all of Build mapping.

I honestly forgot that he worked on this. The screenshots are beautiful indeed! Still, I wouldn't object to seeing a modern DN3D map from him (probably not gonna happen though).

Quote

BillyBoy is someone I'd like to see new stuff from, but also feel that whatever map he creates with extended limits and TROR would be taking players days to complete...

To be honest, the thought of a BillyBoy map with those extended features kinda.. scares me

I could see Maarten Pinxten using TROR to remake his train station map and make it look closer to the actual Amsterdam station.

[ck3D]

 Merlijn, on 17 March 2026 - 12:46 PM, said:

I could see Maarten Pinxten using TROR to remake his train station map and make it look closer to the actual Amsterdam station.

I had completely forgotten about MPrail (assuming it is the map you are talking about) and as soon as I went to MSDN to find it, the screenshot hit me instantly, now I remember I used to play that map quite a bit in the 2000's, must have been one of the first ones I downloaded. Looking at the map list in fact, I didn't remember much of MP's 1.3D phase and mostly remembered his latest maps, but his classic levels really look more, well, classic than I remembered his style to be. I actually kind of feel like replaying them all now. Looks like he used Atomic as an opportunity to expand also in scope. I mostly remember a map with a tank I think, off the top of my head maybe was MPresort? I remember thinking it felt very Ale-styled but in the Military Madness sense which isn't the 'mode' of Ale's that I like the most (I always very much preferred his approach on looser levels like Blackened).

edit - am watching some footage of MPresort as a memory refresher. I kind of stand by my point, there is contrast between how good some of the areas look and how interesting the progression is, for instance that one outdoor area with the trees and sprite bridge looks cool but might as well be a tech section in some base and it would play the exact same. I think it is the linearity that ruins it for me, I equate it to the general step back commercial level design took in the 2000's ('which was the style at the time'); didn't age so well, as in, in the moment stripping D3D of its interconnected spaces to instead favor on-rail type progression felt like a novelty to make/play as it emulated an emerging trend, but now it is just generally acknowledged as boring as shit.

More names that would be cool to see pop up again: Stranger/Radon (Ruin/Decay), Gabriele Giaminardi (DaikariN), Conrad Coldwood (Back Alley/Needle Time/Insurance Overload).

[NNC]

Aleks, on 17 March 2026 - 11:17 AM, said:

I think the only person who I could suspect of being Blum was Alan Page (even first name corresponds!) who made very clean-looking levels back in the 90s - but I would say the probability of Blum undercover is below 1%.

To be honest, I never played Alan Page's levels (even with double check), so it might flew under my radar.

None of my mentions are fits. Bellows, Orman and Duncan styles are way too rough, Allcock and C3PO are way too modern, Isenberg is way too different. If pipeline only released Doomcity, he would be a good suspect, but Blum certainly wouldn't created an Occupied Territory B.

Overall it was fun to play around with this theory, but the reality is (with 99% possibility) IMHO that none of these guys created stuff under aliases. I also agree with ck about Pitchfork. The guy is too narcissistic to not brag about his own greatness, and the reason he is humble about his Duke maps is largely because he didn't do any valuable work with them.

[NNC]

ck3D, on 17 March 2026 - 03:17 PM, said:

I had completely forgotten about MPrail (assuming it is the map you are talking about) and as soon as I went to MSDN to find it, the screenshot hit me instantly, now I remember I used to play that map quite a bit in the 2000's, must have been one of the first ones I downloaded. Looking at the map list in fact, I didn't remember much of MP's 1.3D phase and mostly remembered his latest maps, but his classic levels really look more, well, classic than I remembered his style to be. I actually kind of feel like replaying them all now. Looks like he used Atomic as an opportunity to expand also in scope. I mostly remember a map with a tank I think, off the top of my head maybe was MPresort? I remember thinking it felt very Ale-styled but in the Military Madness sense which isn't the 'mode' of Ale's that I like the most (I always very much preferred his approach on looser levels like Blackened).

edit - am watching some footage of MPresort as a memory refresher. I kind of stand by my point, there is contrast between how good some of the areas look and how interesting the progression is, for instance that one outdoor area with the trees and sprite bridge looks cool but might as well be a tech section in some base and it would play the exact same. I think it is the linearity that ruins it for me, I equate it to the general step back commercial level design took in the 2000's ('which was the style at the time'); didn't age so well, as in, in the moment stripping D3D of its interconnected spaces to instead favor on-rail type progression felt like a novelty to make/play as it emulated an emerging trend, but now it is just generally acknowledged as boring as shit.

More names that would be cool to see pop up again: Stranger/Radon (Ruin/Decay), Gabriele Giaminardi (DaikariN), Conrad Coldwood (Back Alley/Needle Time/Insurance Overload).

Coldwood is another guy with some 3DRealms vibes, unfortunately his maps suffered from rather pedestrian gameplay. His textures in Needle Time and Insurance Overload are brilliant though, could be a great fit for the classic game.

Stranger and co. were the guys with the sentry drone obsession, right? Ruin almost exclusively used those which gave the map an oppressive feel. There was a map called Power Station, which looked cool, but it was more a DN map than an SP one.

[ck3D]

Yeah, was those guys. Never really understood why so many people remember Ruin which is DM-oriented over Decay which is SP (maybe release date/order), but they kind of Pokémon Green/Red it in a funny way, Decay actually always was one of my favorite maps (also one of the first I ever downloaded and it left quite an impression) - strong shading, minimalistic environments, perfect texturing, no need for bloat nor anything organic even, just collapsed rubble, beams, Sentry Drones and 'no more fuckin' aliens', just you survive in this maze of grey you're thrown into and good luck. Once you're inside is like the entire level turns into the E1L2 secret in the dark (back of adult shop), the grim everywhere is a constant callback to E1 vibes and I don't know, it just works on me although I can also see the limits. It is a bit like Piroska's Warzone where the map is proof of concept, except in the case of Warzone was that and perfect execution at the same time.

I will need to look into more of their maps, they were one of those who mostly did TC stuff I never bothered to check out at the time (downloads were heavy). But the talk about Power Station just led me to check out the DM Maps section on MSDN for the first time in what felt like decades and oh boy. Way more of a time capsule of the AMC days than I remembered or realized it was at all, tons of early works by now legends that most everybody has seemingly forgotten even happened. Actually hits pretty hard, would be an interesting idea for some of those authors to go back and maybe stitch some layouts together into SP viable levels which shouldn't be so difficult now thanks to Mapster features/JonoF limits, it's quite a bit of rare and now obscure material on there.

[ck3D]

Replayed MPrail. Wow the nostalgia. Really a pretty good basic level, regarding detail I appreciate the author didn't push clutter so much but instead insisted on lighting/shading. Perhaps a bit too much so, some of the shadows are a bit overdone in the sense that the author probably could have added a whole extra leg to the layout hadn't they spent so many wall splits on unnecessary gradient lighting inside the vents (it is fine around the whole map but laughably excessive in there, as though the goal was to use up all of the spare walls), would have spiced things up a little - map is fun but feels like a tour of the areas in succession rather than something of a higher dimension, more lateral traversal possibilities would have been awesome. Still impressive the author did so much with so little (DOS limits), train platform area was my favorite because it looped around and the enemies coming up from the stairs in waves emerging from inside the station was a nice touch. Last city block also looked great and the RPV's shine there in spite of a very simple path, although I'm not sure why not have the door loop back to inside of the station (unless I missed it) and/or why provide a jetpack that only serves to go notice wall/sprite alignment errors at that point.

Died to: first sewer hole SE7 that I hit by accident (didn't even notice I could swim up to something, just grazed ceiling and died), and surprise RPG inside trash can automatically selecting itself upon pickup as I already was hitting fire to kick the next trash can.

Really feels like Blackened but same exercise different person. I kind of want to replay that one soon too now and then maybe I can compare.

[dnskill]

A Jolteon comeback would be cool

[dnskill]

 ck3D, on 14 March 2026 - 02:14 PM, said:

Also (more) maps by normally-not-mappers like NNC or dnskill. Get in. We will teach you everything and you spontaneously will pick up on more than you expect. (But maybe you know it and that is why you're scared, honestly very justified, more so than fear of being incapable of results)

I'd certainly like to make more maps. I did have some ideas over the years but even the one map I've released was incredibly scaled down from what I had initially envisioned. I'll definitely be buzzing in the ears of you and others when I have more free time to map again. Honestly this is something I think needs to be encouraged more is getting people to try to map and see what sticks so we can keep up the flow of user maps.

[Mark]

Gambini, Davox, DanM, quakis, Diehard, Diaz

Make them a team with the task of finishing all my unfinished projects. They might still be young enough to get to them all.