Doom was released exactly 30 years ago and to celebrate this anniversary John Romero designed a successor to to his previous WAD named SIGIL: the sixth episode of Doom named SIGIL II. You can download SIGIL II for free on his website: Romero.com SIGIL.

If you fancy a big box or want to play with the THORR Soundtracks you can order a copy as well. I bought the version with the THORR soundtracks and think it suits SIGIL II very well. If you liked the first version with Buckethead you'll like this one too .

Playing SIGIL

SIGIL II's maps are too complex for the original DOS Doom version. Though you do need the original Doom IWAD you can't play it on the original-original Doom. You'll need a modern source-port to play it. I've used ZDoom/GZDoom which you can find on zdoom.org. Copy both the original Ultimate Doom IWAD (DOOM.WAD) and the SIGIL_II.WAD into the GZDoom folder. You can launch SIGIL_II.WAD by dragging it onto the GZDoom executable. If you have the MP3 version you can drag the SIGIL_II_MP3_V1_0.WAD file- it includes both the music and the new levels.

In-game I went to Options > Set Video Mode and configured the Doom Software Renderer. Default is Hardware Accelerated but I don't fancy the texture filtering that makes everything just a tad too blurry. It's a personal thing . Of course you can tune settings the way you like since GZDoom offers a lot of configuration options.

My thoughts about the game

I enjoyed playing the first SIGIL a lot so I have high expectations of SIGIL II. So far I'm liking what I'm playing (haven't finished it yet, though). On Ultra-Violence settings it's advisable to be cautious regarding health and let enemies kill each other as well to save on ammo!

Development of SIGIL II

Want to see how the levels have been created? John Romero recorded his work. You can find it on his YouTube channel. See the video down below for the first part of E6M1:

30 year Doom anniversary

An interesting chat has been recorded with John Romero, John Carmack where they blurb around the old days of Doom .

Back in the old days?

Who remembers this phenomenon? In early 1994 magazines made Doom Shareware 0.99 available for the public. Only those who were lucky enough to have a modem connection (or knew one who had) could play Doom in December 1993 .