D!ZONE

D!ZONE was a series of unofficial compilations compiled and published by WizardWorks, Inc. and were released throughout the 1990s. The disks of the compilations contained varying amounts of WAD files for Doom, Doom II: Hell on Earth, and occasionally Hexen from the internet. Their creation came from the internet not being as widespread as it was today, so WAD files were released unofficially by WizardWorks, Inc. as a way to gain easy money. They have been a subject for controversy over the years for the reasons below.

History
After the original release of Doom II: Hell on Earth on MS-DOS in 1994, id Software had released tools to allow players to create their own levels, which could be published on the internet for download and playing. However, at the time, internet usage was not widespread and it was common for people not to have access to it. Because of this, a company known as WizardWorks decided to compile fan created WAD files (Files used to contain Doom levels) from the internet and sell them at retail price, and went on to release several of these compilations, including some for other games. However, id Software themselves had learned of WizardWorks' products and of other similar ones, and in turn decided to create The Master Levels for Doom II, a compilation of 21 levels created by WAD developers under contract by as a way to combat the creation of these and other unofficial Doom level compilations. Later, WizardWorks would create partial conversions of the Doom engine and create new unique campaigns with these compilation disks. The last of these compilations to be released for the D!ZONE´ series was D!ZONE GOLD''.

Versions

 * D!ZONE: 75 levels for Doom I & II.


 * D!ZONE 150: 150 levels for Doom I & II.


 * D!ZONE 2: 150 levels for Doom I & II, with some versions having about 1,000 levels.


 * D!ZONE Collector's Edition: About 900 levels for Doom I & II, with an estimated 2,000 for Doom and The Ultimate Doom in the Macintosh version.


 * D!ZONE 3: About 1,000 levels for Doom I & II.


 * D!ZONE GOLD: About 3,000 levels for Doom I & II.


 * D!MATCH: About 500 deathmatch levels for Doom I & II.

Why They Suck

 * 1) To address the elephant in the room, these compilation disks were illegal to make in the first place. The disks themselves are user-made levels for the Doom games that were ripped from the internet at absolute random and sold together as their own thing, which violates id Software's EULA. It doesn't help that some of the WAD files in the compilations include text that specifically state that they do not want their levels to be distributed in any way, but were included in the compilation disks anyway, making it seem like WizardWorks didn't really care about how the creators of the level would feel having their WAD included without permission.
 * 2) * In addition, D!ZONE GOLD included demos for two partial conversions of Doom and Doom II, called Premonition's Gate and Hell to Pay. However, these conversions themselves were also illegal due to also being in violation of the Doom EULA, which forbids modifications of the Doom engine to be sold without the permission of id Software.
 * 3) There are quite a number of instances of false advertising throughout the lifespan of the products.
 * 4) * All of the compilations state that they contain a large number of WAD files and levels included, usually a number like 750, 900, or even 3,000 levels included. However, this actually isn't an exact number and was rounded up from what it actually was.
 * 5) * The box claims that the levels included are the best ones you can find on the internet, but all of the levels themselves were picked at complete random and a lot of them are incredibly low quality.
 * 6) * Some of the levels included are also counted twice because they are compatible with both Doom and Doom II, which seems to artificially stretch out the amount of levels included.
 * 7) * Later of in the lifespan of the products, WizardWorks tried to be sneaky and added simulated screenshots onto the packaging. To clarify, the packaging included screenshots that were created by WizardWorks themselves rather than actually being screenshots from the levels included in the compilations, which tricks the consumer into thinking that the compilation will include an upgrade to the graphics for Doom and Doom II, and felt ripped off after installing. However, WizardWorks found a loophole by including a disclaimer that the screenshots were not from the actual disk, but it was printed so small that the consumer will likely not notice at all until they have actually bought the software.
 * 8) Little to no quality control whatsoever. It seems that all of the levels themselves were just randomly downloaded from the internet without any kind of voting process, leading to the large amount of low-quality levels that overtake the entire compilations and far outnumber the good levels that are included.
 * 9) * Due to the non-existant quality control, some textures are also missing when some of the maps were converted from Doom to Doom II or vice versa, leading to some of the levels having an out of place look in some areas.
 * 10) Many of the levels included in the D!ZONE compilations were of incredibly poor quality and do not match the description on the front of the box for being the best user-created Doom levels. The levels themselves can suffer from having design flaws such as having way to many power-ups that makes the levels to easy, a large gauntlet of enemies and little items that make a level nearly impossible to finish, poor placement of textures on the map that give the level an incredibly inconsistent look that often is even worse than Final Doom's "Habitat" map from TNT: Evilution, and even some levels that are just edits of the official levels of Doom, just with different enemies and items, which technically counts as plagiarism.
 * 11) While the idea of D! Frontend is somewhat of a unique idea, it actually is a mechanic ripe for problems. Developed by Simply Silly Software, the D! Frontend program was included with all releases of D!ZONE and was able to randomize levels to include enemy and item placements to have different ones instead (For example, Imps in a room being replaced by Cacodemons and BFG-9000 at the start instead of a shotgun), put resources from the amount of WAD files together to create a brand new one, and convert levels between Doom and Doom II, and even between Heretic and Hexen in later versions. However, many problems can come out if this randomizer. For example, it can make some levels incredibly hard or actually completely impossible to complete in some cases, such as if you are given only the basic starter pistol and have to kill rooms, arenas, and hallways full of Mancubi or Cyberdemons. It can also lead to making some levels to easy if you get powerful weapons with incredibly weak enemies or enemies even getting stuck into the walls or ceilings of the level, making them easy to defeat without even taking a hit.
 * 12) * Also due to the program running on Borland Turbo Pascal 7.0, if your machine has a CPU faster than 233 MHz, an error will cause a message to pop up stating "Runtime Error 200" and will quit out of the program. However, this can be fixed by a patch or use software to slow down your CPU.

Redeeming Qualities

 * 1) Due to the internet not being wide-spread at the time, this was a good way to get access to what Doom levels people were creating on the internet, even if most of the levels themselves were of poor quality.
 * 2) It may take a long time to get there, but there are a few good or even great levels in the compilations that equal in quality to the levels id Software created for the base Doom games.
 * 3) Even if it can be poorly executed at times, the idea of D! Frontend is admittedly a good one, as a level randomizer is a good way to increase replayability.

Release and Controversy
The D!ZONE compilations were released with mostly negative views from players, with some feeling like they have been ripped off with the product, as the levels included within the compilations were mostly of poor quality, and a later complaint was of the false advertising in the newer releases. As well as that, there have been a number of legal issues surrounding the existence of the products as mentioned above. Nowadays, the products are often seen as a joke within the Doom community. Author "retro" of Retro Unite called the D!ZONE series to be one of gaming's biggest scams, pointing out the lack of quality control throughout the level disks, as well as criticizing the level design and look of the levels found in the compilations.

Trivia

 * WizardWorks would also create compilations like this for other games, such as H!ZONE for Heretic and Hexen, Q!ZONE for the original Quake, Duke!ZONE for Duke Nukem 3D, W!ZONE for Warcraft I & II, and even S!ZONE for SimCity 2000.

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