What if you created your worst nightmare?
Doom: a game with so much replay value. I can't tell you how many times I beat the first two Dooms. But Final Doom, I never got around to playing it because I got into Quake..... and left Doom in the dust. But recently I was cleaning out my computer's hard drive making room for more games as my computer was running low on space and memory.
I came across my Doom folder. It had the three classic Doom games. I was ecstatic that I could finally beat Final Doom. I said "Screw cleaning out my computer!" I'm going to play some Doom!
I double clicked the file and was ready for the Doom experience. The menu came up and the nostalgic music started playing. I didn't have a game save so I created a new one. I jumped into the game and it was the normal first level. I had the pistol as usual. The game seemed all around normal, the music was normal, the sound effects were normal...all the normal enemies and weapons.
The only thing that seemed off was that the screen was tinted green. I thought it was odd and tried messing around with my monitor's color settings, but it still didn't fix it. I figured since I had gotten it off a torrent website, something like this was bound to happen. Sometimes the torrent sight I use gets some files wrong when transferring the games so I passed it off as glitch or a file format error.
The green went away ten minutes into the game. I had been playing all day and had finished the main missions in only 2 hours. The rest of the time I was messing around with mods or, as the Doom community calls them; Wads. Lots of them are cool and creative but some people take advantage of Dooms creepy atmosphere and make fucked up Wads full of screamers and just all around messed up. I always curse the people who make the fucked up Wads they will have their own place in hell.
The last Wad I downloaded had the Doom 2 final boss as every enemy in Final Doom. It made the game difficult on any difficulty. The wad was a copy and paste of Final Doom but with all the enemies replaced with The Gatekeeper. It was cool but very difficult. I got quite angry with the increased difficulty and persistent deaths.
The Gatekeeper in Doom 2 (it was the final boss
The Gatekeeper was scary even though in Doom 2 he was stationary. The modder made it so he moved around land and shot fireballs that killed you instantly. They were really big and hard to avoid causing lots of deaths, and a lot of fun frustration.
Even though the wad was fun it was really creepy too , the music would occasionally stop and a creepy whisper could be heard. It sharpened the graphics making the Gatekeeper look slightly real. It just had a dark overtone, and the scream that the Gatekeeper made when its body imploded into a puddle of 8 bit blood was disturbing. It was really addicting even though but was almost impossible, and I think the most Gatekeepers I killed was three, but it was still awesome.
Even though it was awesome it was very creepy. Even though it was a copy and paste of Doom 2 it was just "darker" there were more faces if the walls that looked right at you sending chills down your spine. The eyes flashed to empty to red but that was usual for a Doom game. The eyes weren't red but ...stone grey it was very creepy. I was being paranoid of the Wad being a screamer. But there was something else pushing fear in my mind.
Faces on the wall
I only made it half way through the game when I got a message from my anti-virus software saying I had a virus. I clicked on the message and it said I had received a vicious virus from this Wad, so I clicked on 'remove virus.'
It was going to take an hour, and I hadn't the left the house all day. I got into my car and went out to a local restaurant and ordered a burger and fries and a large soda.
About a half hour later I finished eating and had a half hour to kill so I went to the small arcade in the back of the restaurant. It didn't have very good games, there was a broken Mortal Kombat cabinet and a Pac-Man cabinet. I obviously picked the Pac-Man cabinet. I stuck my quarter in and started playing.
The first few games I had no problems and came close to beating the high score but, under pressure got mixed up and ran into the damn red ghost. He would move around like a witch. From the top to the bottom in seconds. It always pissed me off. How fast he moved around. It seemed to be only the red one he also will have a special place in hell.
After a few games I had one quarter left so I slipped it into the machine. It took a minute to load up witch was odd as the game usually started right when I pressed start. When it started, Pac-Man was the Doom 2 boss (The GateKeeper).
The second I saw it my heart skipped a beat. I couldn't move my hands (or my body for that matter) in my comatose state a ghost came up and killed the sprite instantly. I was frustrated and freaked out.
I wanted to pass it off as my mind only being able to relate things to Doom and everything Doom related. I felt a little relived that I was probably right. I sat down at a booth and gathered my thoughts. I brushed my hair back with my fingers.
I almost felt like the wad was stalking me, I know a computer file, well, is just a computer file and it's not physically real. It really scared me but. I just walked away trying put it out of my mind. I don't know why it scared me so much but I had just played a strange Doom mod that had replaced enemies with The Gatekeeper my mind was racing...maybe the mod fucked up my mind with the strange green tint....like the Polybius conspiracy theory.
It had been an hour so I got back in my car and drove home. When I got home I went straight to my computer only to see... the virus wasn't gone. I was a little pissed off that I was probably going to have to take the computer to a PC repair shop and have to pay a fuck ton of money for a possibly easy fix.
Thank god the virus only messed up my internet and left my files, or so I thought. I went to delete the Wad... or I thought I did. After I left clicked on the file, I heard a noise echo in my headphones as I clicked "delete." When I clicked the delete option the computer blacked for a second it made the same echo but this time I heard the noise, and this time I made out what it said.
"We have seen you lately." It whispered.
Holy shit! , it sounded like more than one person was whispering it. It was a deep whisper. It echoed through my ears. I thought I was going to have a heart attack my heart thumping.
I was freaked out but, I was thinking about what it could be, my mind was racing. Then I breathed out and when I remembered the virus, I was relieved and proceeded to get on Final Doom. My heart pounding as the selection screen came up.
I thought it was going to be normal , and not have the Wad, but I was wrong. As I clicked on the file it said it needed an update to run properly, so I did the update. It took a good half hour. After the update the game started up and my save was still there but renamed to Pac. I was creeped out that it was named Pac as my experience earlier with the Pac-Man machine.
I thought the mod fucked up my file so I clicked it. Not expecting anything, I started up the game .. it loaded me up on the last level Final Doom. In the bottom corner the Doom guy's face was replaced by The Gatekeeper's Face, the enemies were all Gatekeepers. All around me was the Gatekeeper. Even the faces in the wall were the Gatekeeper. I was really freaked out. How could this mod take over my whole computer!?
The music had chanting and what sounded like a rusty gate sliding open after the screeching. The Gatekeeper popped up on my screen and the chanting stopped and was replaced with normal Doom music.The 8-bit music usually for me the sound if excited and kicking some cyber Demon ass. But right now it was the last thing I wanted to hear.
I checked the files for for Final Doom. The Wad was still there but... it was renamed to GaTe.Pac/Wad. That didn't seem normal I knew there was a file extension call WAD..., but not Pac...again my mind flashed to the experience with the Pac man machine.
I tried to delete it, but it would download itself back on my computer.. I was pissed off, I restarted my computer. The shut down sound was the whisper I heard just before. "We have seen you lately..." I was scared now. There's no way a virus could do this. When the computer was shut down, I unplugged it and brought it down to the computer repair place by my house.
It was late but I knew the owner, he lived in the back room of his store. He was sitting at his computer. I knocked and he signaled me in. I dropped my computer on his desk and said "I got a nasty Virus from a Doom mod." He replied "Yeah, it's an easy fix. Come back tomorrow and I will have it ready." He added before I walked out the door that the computer was extremely warm and it may be more than a virus.
When I arrived home I got on my PlayStation since my computer was a goner. About an hour of playing I got a call from Mike (The guy fixing my computer). My phone ringing made me jump off my couch. It scared me shitless,
He said the computer didn't even work. It had a fried Hard Drive from the virus. He was able to recover a text file, he said he would email it to me. I told him he could keep the computer for parts. I played a bit more PlayStation until I got a notification on my phone, it was an email from Mike. It had an attachment.
FROM; Michael Phillips
Subject: Text file
Hey dude this is the file I found on your computer it was in binary code but I was able to decode it is rather disturbing:
"Keep playing Doom, Keep playing Doom, this is the Gatekeeper. I know you can read, Play Doom! I see your lazy ass playing Call of Duty. PLAY DOOM!"
I was freaked out now. It could have been Mike, he was on my PlayStation friends list so he could see what I was playing, but I never told him how the Wad was fucked up and was pretty much stalking me.. and well it sounded like something Mike would write to creep me out. I thought maybe he saw how shaken up I was and saw the Wad while trying to fix my computer.....I went back to Call of Duty. I was playing a bot game because I wasn't in the mood to have my mom insulted by a 12 year old. The game got laggy. Very laggy.
I was lagging across the map. My PlayStation glitched and the screen turned black. It was black for a while then the Final Doom music started playing. The screen slowly faded to the selection screen. Again there was a file named "Pac", and the option for New was grayed out. My eyes were glued to the screen . I had to play it.
I let out a sigh of anger and just went with it. I started playing but it wasn't the normal Final Doom, it was the Wad with the Gatekeeper. It was laggy at first, but the controls got smooth and I was actually glad this happened. It was a pretty cool experience playing Doom in HD.
I was torturing myself with this game. Whoever created this is fucked, a game that stalks me. It's everywhere and I'm afraid to look outside the window. There could be someone looking in on me right now. I wanted to know who created the mod. But then in game I died.
When I died in the game, a message appeared; "1256 Burton Ave." That was my address. A ring at my door bell made me jump off my couch. This game really was stalking me. My melt felt melted...I was scared out if my wits. The whispering echoed through my mind. This was way more than a mod for a game.
I looked out the window to see if some creep was down there, but there was a UPS truck parked on the road. I went downstairs and opened the door. I signed for the package and went upstairs. I tore open the box... it was a copy if Final Doom and a note. The games case seemed to be drenched in water. I picked up the water damaged case. I put it down after the water started leaking on my pants . I picked up the note it said.
"My dearest friend I know how much you hate this game so consider this your birthday present, oh by the way happy early birthday your turning the big two o'." Oh, by the way you're girlfriend is getting you a new headset for your birthday. Have Fun!
I swallowed my fear, it knew how old I was going to be. It knew where I lived it knew where I liked to eat. Hell now I figured out it must be stalking my girlfriend. This was going too far!. Someone must be played a fucked up joke. I picked up the case and didn't mind the wetness this time.
The back of the game's case was a huge glossy picture of The Gatekeeper. I was done, this Gatekeeper was everywhere. It had to have been created by a demon or something.... right?
On the back of the case there was a stamp that said who created the game.......I created the Wad, I sent the note,I did everything I even messed up my sanity.
I created my worst nightmare.
Rev the Dragon Master (talk)