Freedoom Manual

Installing Freedoom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Using the Freedoom Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Starting a new game . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Loading and saving the game . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Quitting the game . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Keyboard shortcuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
How to Play. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
A Tutorial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
The Status Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Weapons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Ammo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Health . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Armor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Color blind accessibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Special Items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Enemies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Using the map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Environmental Hazards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Dying . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Tactical tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Playing with fan-made WADs and mods. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Suggested resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Cheats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

1
Freedoom is about freedom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Contributing to Freedoom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Reusing portions of Freedoom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
BSD 3-Clause copyright licence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Welcome to Freedoom, a complete game that is free and open

source software. Freedoom is made available under the
modified BSD license, meaning that anyone is free to share it,
modify it and reuse parts of it.

For more details, see the website at https://freedoom.github.io/.

Installing Freedoom
Freedoom is distributed as three files named freedoom1.wad,
freedoom2.wad and freedm.wad which contain the artwork, levels,
music and sound effects that make up the game.

To actually play the game, you can use one of many adaptations
("source ports") of the original Doom program that fans have
developed for modern systems.

2
The Doom Wiki source ports page has a comprehensive list of
such programs. As a starting point, you can try:

• GZDoom, a modern source port that includes hardware

rendering and extended mod capability.

• Crispy Doom, a more minimalist source port that retains an

“old school” feel.

Setup depends on the source port you use, and it’s best to refer
to the instructions for that source port. Generally though, you
can try one of the following:

• Place the Freedoom .wad files into the same folder as the
source port before launching. The source port may be able to
automatically detect them.

• If launching from the command line, try eg. my-favorite-port

-iwad freedoom1.wad.

Freedoom is split into Freedoom: Phase 1 (freedoom1.wad) and

Freedoom: Phase 2 (freedoom2.wad). Phase 1 is split into four
separate episodes of eight levels each, while Phase 2 is a single,
30 level campaign. This gives 62 levels to play through, plus the
secret levels — if you can discover how to reach them.

FreeDM (freedm.wad) is a monster-free set of levels, made

specifically for player-versus-player. For how to host a
multiplayer game, check the instructions on your source port.

3
Using the Freedoom Menus
The main menu can be brought up at any time by pressing the
Esc key on your keyboard.

New game Start a new game, abandoning the current

game (if you’re already playing).

Options Brings up the options menu. The appearance

of this menu and the available options
depend upon the source port you’re using.

Load Game Load a saved game.

Save Game Save your current game, so that you can

continue playing later.

Read This! Brings up a help screen showing the items

you’ll encounter in the game.

Quit Game Exit to the operating system.

4
Starting a new game
[Shortcut: On most source ports, if you repeatedly hit Enter
after the program has started, you will start a new game on the
default skill level (in the first episode if you’re playing Phase 1).
You do not need to do this quickly.]

To start a new game, press Esc to bring up the main menu, and
choose New Game.

When starting a new game, you may be prompted to choose

which episode to start playing.

If you’re new to the game, start with Phase 1 Outpost Outbreak,

the first episode (and easiest). There is no requirement to play
episodes in order.

After choosing an episode, you need to pick a skill level. Skill

level affects several factors in the game, most importantly the
number of monsters you’ll encounter.

5
 1 Please Don’t The easiest skill level. This is
Kill Me! effectively the same as Will This Hurt?,
except that damage is halved.

2 Will This Easy skill level.

Hurt?

3 Bring On The default skill level.

The Pain.

4 Extreme Hard skill level.

Carnage.

5 MAYHEM! Not Recommended. This is equivalent

to Extreme Carnage except that
monster attacks are up to twice as fast,
and killed monsters come back to life
after around 40 seconds.

Loading and saving the game

It is a good idea to save the game regularly — for example, at the
start of each new level. You may also want to save the game
after completing a challenging section of a level so that you do

6
not have to repeat it again if you die.

To save the game, press Esc to bring up the menu, select Save
Game and choose a slot to save in. Type a memorable
description for the save game (e.g., “E1M3 - Blue Key Door”) and
press Enter. If there are no free slots, you can overwrite an
existing one, destroying the old data.

To restore your saved game, select Load Game from the main
menu and choose your saved game.

If you find yourself saving the game often, you may want to use
the Quicksave feature. Press F6 during play to quicksave. The
Save Game menu appears as usual; choosing a slot makes that
your quicksave slot. Pressing F6 again in the future will
overwrite your quicksave slot without navigating the menu.

You can restore your quicksave slot with the menu or by

pressing F9.

[Warning: Chocolate Doom emulates an original Doom bug that

makes it crash when you save a game while too much is going
on in the level. This can be disabled in chocolate-setup under
"Vanilla savegame limit".]

7
Quitting the game
When you’re finished playing Freedoom, press Esc to bring up
the main menu and select Quit Game to exit. (You may want to
save your game first.)

Keyboard shortcuts
The function keys instantly open some common menu items:

Esc Menu Bring up the main menu.

F1 Help Bring up the help screen that shows

information about the in-game items.

F2 Save Bring up the Save Game menu.

F3 Load Bring up the Load Game menu.

F4 Volume Bring up the sound and music

volume sliders.

F6 Quicksave Save the game to your quicksave slot.

F7 End Game End the current game and return to

the title screen.

F8 Messages Toggles showing on-screen messages

for pickups, keys, cheats, etc..

F9 Quickload Load the game in your quicksave slot.

F10 Quit Game Quit the game and return to the

operating system.

F11 Gamma Cycle through the in-game display

brightness levels.

8
How to Play

Freedoom is a real-time first-person shooter (FPS). You’ll be

exploring a series of levels, in each one trying to find the way to
the exit. An assortment of monsters will try to stop you, and
you’ll need to use weapons to defend yourself. Portions of the
levels may be inaccessible until you find a particular key, or find
a switch to open a passage. Gameplay will involve hidden-object
exploration puzzles as well as real-time action puzzles about
placing and timing the shots of your weapons.

A table of the core in-game controls follows. Doom's defaults

are widely considered suboptimal; check your source port for
how to reconfigure them. Common alternatives are provided
but no single "best" solution works for everyone — you need to
experiment. At minimum you must be comfortable moving in
any one of the four directions while turning and shooting.

9
Function Default Default Common
control 1 control 2 alternative
1
Move forward Up/Down Move mouse W/S
/ backward (or Mouse2 for
forward)

Move ("strafe") ,/. Alt (or A/D

left/right Mouse3) +
Left/Right
2
Turn left/right Left/Right Move mouse Move mouse

Fire Ctrl Mouse1 Mouse1

Use Space Double-click E

Mouse2 or
Mouse3
3
Run Shift <none> Shift

1
On a QWERTY keyboard the W, S, A and D keys form a second
set of arrow keys for the left hand.

2
If you have a monster, a barrel or a PvP opponent crossing the
middle of your screen when your weapon discharges, the game
will adjust your vertical aim for you. Some source ports will let
you disable this behaviour and aim manually instead.

3
Most source ports have an "Always Run" option where holding
this key makes you go slower instead. Since the player character
does not get tired, going slow only helps for increased precision.

10
A Tutorial

This tutorial will introduce you to every basic action you need to
play and beat all of Freedoom.

Start a new game in Phase 1, Episode 1 on easy and follow the

steps. Skip anything that bores or confuses you, and redo
anything you find challenging as long as you like, before moving
on to the next thing or redoing a previous thing.

1. Try moving forward, backward, left, and right. Trace a

square. Try both directions. Try doing a figure eight. (Don’t
leave the cage yet — there are monsters outside.)

2. Turn around in a circle to examine your surroundings. Go at

your own pace, stopping or reversing to look at anything
whenever you want. Do a second circle, moving a little bit as
you go, and watch how that changes the perspective and

11
 how sideways movement can help you see how long a wall
or how far away an object is.

3. Move back to the middle of the cage. Turn to point your

handgun directly at one of the doorframe columns.

4. Move — without turning — so that your handgun is pointed

at the other column. (Bonus points if you can come to a
natural stop on target.)

5. Move a bit left or right, then turn to point at the column

again. Do it again, but start turning before your momentum
wears off. Do this again a few times, cycling through all four
directions and turning sooner and sooner until you are
pointing and the moving seamlessly. (Move backwards or
forwards to reset if you start running into walls.)

6. Try doing a square (or figure eight, etc.) while pointing at the
column the entire time. Prioritize smoothness over
precision — it’s better to be close most of the time than
perfect some of the time.

7. Move to one of the corners with the beds on them so that the
column is no longer in your line of sight. Move in and out of
sight with the column playing "Peek-A-Boo" with it. Mess
with distance and timing. Try to stay pointed at the column
even when you can’t see it.

8. Play around with the above for a bit. Try pressing the Fire
key to shoot at the column, both standing still and moving,
and note where and when the bullet puffs appear. (Stop
shooting before your ammo count goes below 30 or so — you
will need those for later!)

9. Tap the 1 key on the keyboard to switch to your fist, and try
to punch the column and see how far away you can do it.

12
 Tap the 2 key to switch back to the handgun.

10. Try to do everything while holding down the Run key.

11. Enter the trench and kill a zombie. Try not to get hit.

12. Once you’re safe, look near the zombie’s body to see if it may
have left a clip. If it has, move over it to pick it up.

13. Go back the way you came. Go up to the lift like you’re going
to punch it, then hit Use to call it down. Get on it and it will
take you back up. Pick up the items in the upper area to
restore or boost your health.

14. Explore the rest of the area. You will find two doors, which
can be opened with the Use key just like the lift. The lower
door will take you closer to the exit, while the higher one
leads to a more difficult but more rewarding detour.

15. Once you’ve decided which way to go, open the door — and
get ready to start playing Gun Peek-A-Boo again…

13
The Status Bar
At the bottom of the screen, you’ll see the status bar, which is
divided into the following sections:

Ammo Number of units of ammunition

remaining for the current weapon.

Health If this reaches zero, you’re dead! See the

health section for power-ups you can
find to replenish your health.

Arms Which weapons you’ve found so far.

Check out the weapons section for more
information.

Freedoomguy A quick visual indication of how your

health is.

Armor The more armor you have, the less your

health will suffer if you’re injured. See
the armor section for more information.

Ammo counts How much you’re carrying of each of

the four types of ammunition, and the
maximum of each you can carry.

14
Items
Within the game you’ll encounter various collectible items:
weapons, ammunition, health, armor, keys and some rarer
power-ups which give you special abilities.

Picking something up is a simple matter of walking over it — an

on-screen message and a brief flash of the screen indicate that
you’ve done so successfully. If you don’t pick it up, it’s likely you
don’t need it right now (for example, you can’t pick up a health
refill when you already have 100% health). If an item gives you
more than you can carry, the difference is lost.

Weapons
You start the game with only a handgun, 50 bullets and your
fists. Exploring the level will reveal more weapons and ammo
that you can pick up and use.

Pressing the number key on the keyboard switches to the given

weapon (if you have it). Apart from the melee weapons, each
weapon consumes a certain type of ammo, which may be found
somewhere in the level.

Weapon Key Description

Fist 1 If you have no ammunition, you can always

fall back on punching the monsters with
your bare hands. Ammo: None

Ripsaw 1 Designed for cutting through wood, the

ripsaw also works well as a melee weapon
for cutting through flesh. Ammo: None

15
Weapon Key Description

Handgun 2 Your starter weapon. Its main purpose is to

let you fight your way to a better weapon,
and to hit shootable switches without
wasting a second bullet. Ammo: Bullets

Pump-action 3 Shoots seven pellets in a fan pattern, letting

Shotgun you hit multiple targets or one big one.
Ammo: Shells

Double- 3 Stronger tolerance for powerful loads

barrelled means better projectile fragmentation for
Shotgun almost 50% more hits per shell across a
wider spread. Good for short range against
groups of enemies. Ammo: Shells

Minigun 4 A much better use for your bullets than the

handgun. Up to forty seconds of bringing
the pain to keep you safe. Ammo: Bullets

Missile 5 Fires missiles that deal a lot of damage on

Launcher impact, then explode to take out any
smaller monsters nearby. Be careful not to
get caught in the blast! Ammo: Missiles

Polaric 6 Produces a continuous stream of polaric

Energy energy projectiles which are very effective
Weapon against stronger monsters. Ammo: Energy

SKAG 1337 7 Experimental weapon that launches a

single massive polaric energy ball, then
releases a secondary energy blast in the
same direction! Slow to shoot, but worth
the wait. Ammo: Energy

16
Ammo
Ammo type Small Large

Bullets

Shells

Missiles

Energy

Backpack -

The backpack gives one small pickup’s worth of every ammo

type. Once you have one, you can carry twice as much ammo as
normal for the rest of the game.

Health
You start with 100% health. You die if your health reaches 0%.

Picking up any health item will give you the number shown, up
to its limit. The refills are limited to 100%, but the boosts (1%
and 100%) are limited to 200%.

1% 10% 25% 100%

Armor
You start with 0% armor. Picking up a vest will get you up to the
number shown, while each small boost increases your armor

17
until you reach 200%.

1% 100% 200%

Normal armor absorbs one third of damage you receive,

rounded down. if you have 100 health and 100 armor and are
hit for 50 damage, you’ll lose 34 health and 16 armor.

The attuned armor has slightly different behavior: in addition to

being worth 200% armor, it also absorbs half of all damage.
Because the small boosts add the same armor type you already
have, it may be good to pick up the attuned armor vest
immediately if you don’t already have one.

Keys

Keys you to open certain locked doors and activate locked

switches. Usually essential to be able to progress, although they
sometimes allow access to shortcuts or secret areas.

Color blind accessibility

Freedoom’s keys are designed to be distinguishable not just by
color but also by shape, to make the game more accessible to
color-blind players. Each key color has an associated shape:

18
 Key color Shape

Blue Diagonal cross

Yellow Vertical lines

Red Horizontal lines

These shapes are used consistently in the status bar icons, the
key sprites and on walls indicating keyed doors.

For the skeleton keys, pay attention to the direction that the
horns point. For example, here is how the different key icons
appear in the status bar:

Special Items
You may also encounter any one of these while exploring:

Low-Light Let you see in the dark.

Goggles Lasts 2 minutes.

19
 Area Survey Reveals unexplored areas of the map,
Map including some secret areas that may not
be immediately visible.
Lasts the entire level but effective only for
the current level.

Rescue Protects you from heat, toxins and

Operations radiation from damaging floors.
Suit Lasts 1 minute.

Strength Increases your health back to 100%, and

Symbiote enhances your fists to do ten times their
normal damage.
Health lasts until removed by damage;
enhanced fists last only for that level.

Invisibility Makes you almost invisible. Monsters still

Cloak detect your presence, but they’ll find it
much harder to aim.
Lasts 1 minute.

Negentropic Maxes you out to 200% health+armor.

Surge Lasts until removed by damage.

Vanguard Makes you immune to all damage,

Device allowing you to get past overwhelming
defences and unavoidable traps.
Lasts 30 seconds.

20
Enemies
The levels are filled with monsters who have no goal apart from
stopping you from completing your mission. Here’s a selection
of some of these monsters who you can expect to encounter.

Zombie
These brain-dead workers of iniquity are
armed with a handgun and intent on your
destruction. Drops a bullet clip when killed.

Shotgun Zombie
These guys traded their handgun for a
shotgun and pack far more of a punch.
Drops a shotgun when killed.

Minigun Zombie
As soon as you’re in sight of one of these,
he’ll lock on with his minigun and keep on
firing until you’re dead. It’s best to take
cover quickly or take him out. Drops a
minigun when killed.

21
Serpentipede
Rank and file footsoldiers of the alien
invasion. Let them get close and they’ll tear
you to shreds; at a distance they’ll instead
rain down fireballs.

Flesh Worm
Tough and fast-moving, these worms attack
at close range and take several shotgun
blasts to take down. It’s best to keep back.

Stealth Worm
Some flesh worms can bend light around
them, making them nearly invisible in
darker and noisier environments.

Hatchling
Ionized alien larvae that bodyslam you for
surprising amounts of damage.

22
Matribite
What sick mother sends her own babies to
fight? Thus is the duty of empire.

Trilobite
These flying orb-like things spit plasma and
bite if you get too close.

Pain Bringer
These guys take at least three rocket blasts to
take down, and while you’re trying they’ll
shower you with energy projectiles.

Pain Lord
If the Pain Bringer wasn’t tough enough, this
one can take five rocket blasts.

23
Octaminator
Fast moving, tough, and fires homing
missiles. Do not get into a boxing match with
one of these guys.

Necromancer
If he’s not setting you on fire, he’s undoing
all your hard work by bringing his friends
back from the dead.

Combat Slug
These genetically-engineered living,
slithering tanks have been fitted with long
distance flame throwers.

Technospider
These cybernetic creatures fire high-capacity
polaric energy support weapons, making
them a deadly challenge.

Large Technospider
This tank on legs is equipped with a rapid-
fire minigun and will take a lot of effort to
bring down. Immune to explosions from
rockets and barrels.

24
Assault Tripod
The ultimate blend of military technology
and genetic engineering, these three-legged
creatures are fast-moving, heavily armored
and equipped with a missile launcher that
you’ll want to avoid. Immune to explosions
from rockets and barrels.

Using the map

When exploring Freedoom’s levels, it is sometimes possible to
get lost, especially if the level is particularly large or complex.
Fortunately, the map is available to help you find your way.
Press the Tab key during play to bring up the map.

Your current position and orientation are shown by a white

arrow. Areas of the map are usually color coded as follows:

25
 Red Walls (or possibly secret doors)

Yellow Changes in ceiling height,

including doors.

Brown Changes in floor height (eg.

steps)

Grey Undiscovered areas (not

normally shown, but may be
revealed if the Tactical Survey
Map item is discovered).

While using the map, the game continues as normal. Controls

work as usual, in addition to the following:

Tab Toggle map.

- Zoom out.

+ Zoom in.

0 Maximum zoom out.

F Toggle whether the map follows the

player. When turned off, you can use
the cursor keys to pan the view of the
map around independent of your
current position.

G Toggle map grid.

M Add map bookmark at your position.

C Clear all bookmarks.

26
Environmental Hazards
If the monsters weren’t enough, the environment itself poses
hazards which can hurt or even kill you!

Barrels These exploding barrels litter

many of the levels. Several
shots with a handgun are
usually enough to make them
detonate, damaging anything
in their immediate vicinity.
Make sure when engaged in
combat to never stand too
close, or a stray shot from an
enemy may cause one to
explode in your face! Be aware
too of the potential for chain
reactions when several barrels
are clustered together.

Damaging Red-hot lava and radioactive

Floors sludge are just two of the types
of damaging floor you can
encounter in Freedoom’s
levels. If walking over it is
necessary, try to find yourself a
rescue suit, a shorter path
through the area, or way to
run over the area without
touching the floor.

27
Crushing Many of the levels have been
Ceilings rigged with traps and this is
just one of them. These moving
ceilings are often placed above
tempting-looking items. Be
very careful not to get caught
beneath one, or it will quickly
crush you into a paste!

Dying
Eventually you will get into a situation you can’t handle and
your player avatar will be killed. You can take this as a sign to
take a break from playing, or reload your last saved game, or
press Use to restart the level with full health but no gear except
your handgun and 50 bullets. (Some source ports don’t do this
last one, but instead save your game at the start of every level
and pressing Use loads that game instead.)

There is no lives limit.

In multiplayer pressing Use will reset your health and inventory

and put you at the starting position, but the game itself
continues normally. It is possible to pick up ammo and die
without using it so many times that your team is forced to finish
the map using only handguns, dying in order to reload.

Tactical tips
If you’re struggling with the difficulty of the game, it may be
worth looking into some of these suggestions:

28
• Put time into setting up your controls — both button/key
assignment and mouse/joystick turning sensitivity. No one
configuration is best for everyone and it is a good idea to
experiment: whatever helps you dodge projectiles and pop
in and out of cover while keeping your weapon pointed at
the enemy, and provides the least distraction as you move
about the map looking for things, is good.

• Play with headphones. The game’s stereo separation can give

helpful audio cues about the positions of enemies and alert
you to incoming projectiles. Headphones give you a more
precise way to pick up on these cues.

• Do not button-mash! Nearly every weapon has a slight

cooldown period when you let go of the Fire key, costing you
time and giving your target more opportunity to return fire.
Holding down Fire will let you shoot any weapon
continuously until your ammo runs out or you let go.

• Take cover! Monsters only attack when you’re in their line of

sight. You’ll want to find hard cover (most opaque things that
show up on your automap without cheat codes) that you can
put between yourself and any enemy you’re not actively
hitting with your own weapon. Cover is particularly
important when facing certain monsters which can “lock on”
to you (minigun zombie; necromancer) and finding cover
may be the only way to get them to stop shooting long
enough for you to return fire. Monsters with guns are also
not any better or worse at hitting you whether you are
moving or standing still, so you can’t continuously dodge on
open ground the way you can against visible projectiles.

• Many of the levels are littered with exploding barrels. While

these can pose a danger to you, they’re equally dangerous to

29
 your opponents. A single, well-timed shotgun blast aimed at
a barrel can take down several enemies at once. One barrel
explosion can trigger another, so it can sometimes set off a
chain reaction that takes down a whole crowd — but be
careful that doesn’t include you!

• If a monster gets injured by another monster, it’ll retaliate

against the one that injured it (this is called monster in-
fighting). If faced with a crowd of enemies, an effective
strategy can be to stand in just the right place so that those at
the back shoot those at the front. Do it right and they’ll spend
more time fighting each other than fighting you, and the
survivors will be significantly weakened. Be aware though,
that a monster cannot be injured by a visible projectile
launched by another of the same species.

• Sometimes you’ll face crowds of monsters, which can be

overwhelming and also drain your ammo supplies. Learn to
master crowd control. The primary instinct of all monsters is
to move towards you. Circle around the crowd
continually — this encourages them to cluster in a single spot
that’s easier for you to target. It also encourages monster in-
fighting; if done effectively, they’ll spend their energy killing
each other and you’ll save on ammunition.

• If you encounter flesh worms or stealth worms and are not

at immediate risk of being surrounded, the ripsaw is a great
way to conserve ammo and avoid taking damage. Worms
can’t attack while being sawed, and if you back into any
corner that is roughly as wide as or narrower than a right
angle, they can only come at you one at a time.

30
Playing with fan-made WADs
and mods

Figure 1. Scythe MAP09 playing with Freedoom.

One of the nicest features of Freedoom is its compatibility with

the catalog of thousands of fan-made levels made for the classic
Doom games. Most popular mods and levels for Doom and Doom
II can also be played with Freedoom.

For mods designed for the original Doom, use Freedoom: Phase
1 (freedoom1.wad); for others designed for Doom 2 or Final Doom,
use Freedoom: Phase 2 (freedoom2.wad). If you’re using the
command line, use the -file parameter when you start the
game. For example, to load the file scythe.wad:

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 my-favorite-port -iwad freedoom2.wad -file scythe.wad

If you’re not using the command line, you can try dragging and
dropping the .wad file onto the source port icon in your file
manager — several source ports support this.

Suggested resources
Over more than two decades, literally thousands of Doom levels
have been made, and there are so many that it may seem
difficult to know where to start. The following are some
suggestions for where to look for the best content:

• Doomworld’s Top 100 WADs Of All Time was written in 2003

and aimed to list the best works from the first 10 years of
fan-made mods. It’s still a great list of classic mods.

• The Cacowards are Doomworld’s annual award ceremony

that recognizes the best releases from the Doom community
over the past year. This is a great way to find out about more
recent developments, including some of the more unusual
mods that people are releasing.

• The Doom Wiki’s List of notable WADs contains an extensive

list of fan-made WADs and includes screenshots, maps and
per-level statistics.

• Doomworld’s interface to the idgames archive includes the

ability to list the top levels based on five star rankings by
visitors to the site.

32
Cheats
If you can’t get through a spot regardless of skill level, or if you
just want to experiment with game mechanics, try typing any of
these ingame (case insensitive, do not use any console):

IDDQD God mode. You take no damage other

than telefrags.

IDFA Gives all weapons and ammo.

IDKFA Gives all weapons, ammo and keys.

IDCLIP Noclip mode. You are not stopped by

collisions with walls or actors.

IDDT Reveals full map; type twice to reveal

all enemies and items.

IDCLEVxy Starts a new game (which resets

everything) on ExMy (Phase 1) or
MAPxy (Phase 2).

IDMUSxy Change music to that of ExMy (Phase

1) or MAPxy (Phase 2).

IDCHOPPERS Gives the ripsaw weapon.

IDBEHOLDV Gives the vanguard device powerup.

IDBEHOLDS Gives the strength powerup.

IDBEHOLDI Gives the invisibility powerup.

IDBEHOLDR Gives the rescue suit powerup.

IDBEHOLDM Gives the area survey map.

IDBEHOLDL Gives the low-light goggles.

33
Freedoom is about freedom
When people hear about Freedoom, they often assume the name
refers to price — that the only thing this project aims to do is to
provide an alternative to Doom that can be obtained without
paying money. But this is not the case.

The word "free" has two different meanings in English. We say

"free" to mean that something costs nothing, but we also use it to
refer to freedom — like "free speech" or "the free press".
Freedoom is about the latter. That might sound confusing. What
does it mean?

Imagine a world where artists could only buy paints from a

single company. A monopoly like that would mean paints would
probably be more expensive, but the price wouldn’t be the main
concern. The bigger issue would be the power that it would
grant to that company. The freedom of those artists to express
themselves would depend on the company supplying them their
paints.

For over 30 years now, the Doom modding community has

produced thousands upon thousands of levels, mods and even
entirely new games built upon the original Doom games. These
are works of art and ought to be recognised as such. Doom is an
art scene. The raw material these works of art are made from is
not paint or ink, but the original game itself — endlessly
modified, reused and remixed into new variations.

The authors of Doom, id Software, have historically been very

generous to the Doom community. From the time of the game’s
release they went out of their way to share technical details with

34
fans, and they later released Doom’s source code under a free
software license — something that was unknown in the games
industry at the time and should be commended. But despite this
benevolence, they have always held a position of power. Today,
rather than being a small independent studio, they and the
Doom franchise are owned by a large multinational corporation.

Everybody deserves to be able to experience the wonder that is

Doom and take part in its vibrant modding community that has
endured for so many years. But that community also deserves
its freedom and independence. By providing a free alternative
that anyone can play, share, modify and reuse, we hope that’s
something that Freedoom can help to provide.

Contributing to Freedoom
Freedoom is a free content project contributed to by many users
around the world. It is available as both free in cost (free as in
free beer) and in modification and redistribution rights (free as
in free speech) to end users, provided that the original software
license is included and/or viewable by users of modified or
redistributed versions.

If you’d like to contribute to the Freedoom project, please check

out the following community hubs:

• Freedoom’s source repository:

https://github.com/freedoom/freedoom

• the Freedoom discussion forum on Doomworld:

https://www.doomworld.com/forum/17-freedoom/

• the Discord guild:

35
 https://discord.gg/9DA3fut

For more information on how to submit an addition, please see

the following pages on how to use GitHub:

• How to use Git version control for contributions:

https://help.github.com/en/github

• How to fork a project and create a pull request with Git:

https://guides.github.com/activities/forking/

Reusing portions of
Freedoom
Since Freedoom is free, some other projects have used
Freedoom’s assets. We think this is a great use of the project and
should be encouraged. If you use portions of Freedoom in your
project, please let us know by filing an issue or pull request on
Freedoom’s website project page at https://github.com/
freedoom/freedoom.github.io.

BSD 3-Clause copyright licence

Copyright © 2001-2024 Contributors to the Freedoom project. All
rights reserved.

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or

without modification, are permitted provided that the following
conditions are met:

• Redistributions of source code must retain the above

copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following

36
 disclaimer.

• Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above

copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following
disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials
provided with the distribution.

• Neither the name of the Freedoom project nor the names of

its contributors may be used to endorse or promote products
derived from this software without specific prior written
permission.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS

AND CONTRIBUTORS “AS IS” AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED
WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS
FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT
SHALL THE COPYRIGHT OWNER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL,
EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT
NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR
SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS
INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR
TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN
ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF
ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

For a list of contributors to the Freedoom project, see the file

CREDITS.

37