id Software’s Doom may be old (erm.. classic!), but thanks to source ports it still lives on. Thanks community mods, it’s still able to be interesting and new. There are literally thousands of mods available for Doom, usually in the form of .WAD files or .PK3 files. All kinds of mods… Brutal Doom which makes Doom more… brutal, Mega Man 8-Bit Deathmatch which converts Doom into an arena style Mega Man themed game, Doom Mw2 which turns adds in Call of Duty MW weapons and sounds into Doom. Cool, right? Then I thought to myself, was there ever a Zelda mod for Doom? Apparently, there were a few levels made back in the 90’s but they were utter crap (so, I’ve read). But, I found some bitter sweet videos of 2 abandoned Doom mods which, while totally different, are both incredibly awesome.
First up is Zeldoom. Yeah, you read that right. It’s The Legend of Zelda being played, in first person, with the Doom engine at the heart. Impressive. Unfortunately, it never made it passed a dungeon and a few skeletons. There’s so much potential for a Doom mod like this!
Next up is Multiplayer Zelda Mod for Doom. This mod uses the Skulltag source port (now Zandronum) of Doom to do some really tricky code wizardry. It some how turns what we know as the Doom engine into a top down, arena battle game using graphics from The Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past.
Finally, there’s another Zeldoom. This one also is themed after Zelda III but in first person this time, specifically recreating the dungeon where your dad dies. Apparently, there’s a proof concept downloadable here.
It’s a damn shame those mods have never got completed and released.