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DoomEd was a program written by Carmack and Romero in 1993, to directly build the levels from the original Doom. Twenty seven years later, the developers behind Twilight Edge Software are releasing a free and independent port based on that program, appropriately called ReDoomEd, which is based on DoomEd's source code, publicly released by John Romero himself on 2015.

Here you can see a video showing ReDoomEd running on Linux:

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At a personal level, I remember experimenting on DoomEd a long time ago, and I actually managed to create a massive Doom level that is stored on a floppy disk somewhere... waiting for one day to be polished to current standards and published. The first weeks I had a love-hate relationship with this editor, because when compiling the level sometimes it crashed or due to the technical limitations of the time I wasn't able to implement all the features I wanted, but after some insistence I managed to overcome these problems and succeed. They were highly rewarding moments, and I remember being genuinely happy about it; because of these memories I'm totally confident to say that everyone should create a level or add-on at least once in their lifes. The joy of exploring a world that you created from scratch simply cannot be described, only experienced.

Besides, as of 2020, there is still a strong demand for new levels on the Doom community, and people across the years released absolutely masterpieces that are honoured on a yearly celebration called the Cacowards (an obvious reference to the legendary floating demon). And obviously, let's not forget the release of the effective SIGIL (GOL articles here) just a few months ago, which had a very positive reception as well. You really can say Doom is eternal, if you think about it...

Here are the links for the install scripts for Debian based-distros and for Fedora. Don't forget that you need to download either Zandronum or GZDoom to be able to play Doom on Linux. Also, you will need a copy of the original games, because nothing can be done without the .IWAD files - you can find Doom easily on GOG.

And finally, just keep in mind DoomEd was limited to the vanilla version of Doom. There are already newer Doom editors out there; I can mention PrBoom (although it was lastly updated more than a decade ago) and Eureka (which had its last update on 2018), which might have new capabilities and functionalities; even Romero mentions some limitations on one of his tweets, but still ReDoomEd theoretically may be a good place to start before moving to more advanced features. 

I will most likely cover these two other editors on another article, provided I have the time to do so, but in the meantime feel free to create your own Inferno...

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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About the author -
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Just a regular Linux user (not even a programmer at the moment of contributing) who used to mostly write about obscure but still interesting games with native support, in an effort to help them gain a bit of deserved exposure.

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9 comments

KayKay91 Jan 26, 2020
Yo ya forgot to mention SLADE which also can be used for map editing.
x4mer Jan 26, 2020
27 years
axredneck Jan 26, 2020
I just want the GZDoom Builder for Linux (or at least a good way to get it working via Wine).
Ultimate Doom Builder works for me under Wine
Cyril Jan 26, 2020
Yo ya forgot to mention SLADE which also can be used for map editing.

Briefly, what are the differences between SLADE3 and ReDoomEd (or any other Doom level editor)?
walther von stolzing Jan 26, 2020
I wonder if this pulls in mountains of GNUstep dependencies.
axredneck Jan 26, 2020
Briefly, what are the differences between SLADE3 and ReDoomEd (or any other Doom level editor)?
- Slade is not only a level editor.
- Slade has 3D mode.
- Slade supports some of GZDoom features.
ElectricPrism Jan 27, 2020
That's pretty dope. I really love modder content in my feed, probably because it feels like "secrets" -- special software few know about. (And before anyone argues with me over them not being amazed because XYZ and they knew about this for years even Linux itself historically represents a "secret", or a "select elite" few know about which creates allure.)
Purple Library Guy Jan 27, 2020
Oh no! We'Re DoomEd!


Last edited by Purple Library Guy on 27 January 2020 at 7:38 am UTC
-Daniel-Palacio- Jan 28, 2020
Yo ya forgot to mention SLADE which also can be used for map editing.

I'm not sure if the wording made it totally clear, but it wasn't meant to be a comprehensive list; in fact, there might be even more editors with Linux support "hidden" somewhere...

Still, thanks for mentioning SLADE, so that now other people can check it out. :)

27 years

Hmmm... it seems we had a disturbance in time!

It's fixed now. Just please remember to use next time the "For spelling, grammar and other corrections to our article—click here" button near the bottom of the article. At a personal level I don't mind people posting corrections on the comments, but it's just a requirement made by the editors.

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