Demo Recording Recommendation #4: Gathering II: Darkside of the Mind Map04
Download Gathering II: Darkside of the Mind Here | Get the -nomonsters Demo Here | Get the NM "Almost" Demo Here
Get the improved -nomonsters Demo Here | Get the Secrets Demo Here

     Game mode: Doom 2; Map04.
     Executable: No port needed.
     Recommended Categories: UV Speed (or Nightmare!, or UV Pacifist).
     Difficulty Rating: 3 (Not as difficult as it looks; both Nightmare! and, especially, UV Pacifist are really tough though).
     Par Time: 6 minutes (5 minutes if using the SR50 jump).

     This time I am serving up another golden oldie wad: the Doom2 mini-episode "Gathering II: Darkside of the Mind" by Daniel "Stormin" Norman, with the focus on the large and intimidating Map04.
     When I first played this map (some time in 1995 or 1996) I found it to be absolutely absurd: too large and confusing and too many big monsters. I returned to it some years later, with the benefit of a good deal of experience on wads like Hell Revealed, and found that it was manageable if you ran around a lot provoking monster infighting. I still found the map rather confusing though, and getting the yellow key seemed quite a hit-or-miss affair.
     Now I realize that the map can be beaten in just a few minutes, even on Nightmare! skill, if you plan your route carefully in advance. A UV Max run would take a bit longer, of course, but there are only 206 monsters, and you get all the weapons, together with plenty of health and ammo.
     Before getting on to the details, I should say something about Gathering II: Darkside of the Mind as a whole. It is an update of a three-map Doom 1 wad, which is available in the standard archives. The Doom 2 version contains two extra maps (good ones), but for some reason is much harder to find. I spent ages searching for it, until Ling happened to provide a link to Dr Sleep's page, and there it was.
     Map01 is a typical map01 - small and rather trivial. Map02 is quite a challenge, and an interesting map, but there is a bit too much waiting around for lifts to ascend and descend for my liking. Map03 is quite short as a speedrun, with Pacifist an interesting challenge (but it too starts off with a l-o-n-g wait for a lift). Map05 is fun too, and makes deliberate use of the Arch-Vile bug (one of the earliest wads to do so). I had recorded a 53-second speedrun that I was very happy with, before I realized that this was a map that Legacy didn't play properly (it disables the AV-bug).
     Unfortunately, there are a few places in Gathering II where you can get stuck with no way out, but you generally need to have made a serious mistake for this to happen. So far as design goes, it was pretty good by mid-1990s standards, and I certainly don't find it unpleasant to look at now.
     BTW, the wad file in the zip you download is called NEW.WAD. I think this is a silly name, and have renamed it Gather2.wad, and suggest you do too. If you playback my demos using the Legacy Launcher, you will need either to rename the wad, or to edit the lmp information (via the Launcher).
     I have included two nomonsters demos showing possible routes. In one of them I collect all the keys, and make the completely false claim that the yellow key cannot be grabbed using an SR50 jump. Still, if you find the jump too difficult, you may wish to use this route anyway. Also, having the blue key makes it possible to save some time later if you can get an Arch-Vile jump right. The NM "Almost" demo uses this route, but with no AV-jump.
     In fact the yellow key can be got with an SR50 jump (in fact, even a very accurate SR40 jump suffices), which is the reason for the second nomonsters demo. This route makes NM a lot easier, and should help with UV Pacifist too. I have used this route to record an NM run, and have got close enough to the exit to believe that a Pacifist run is possible. Pacifist is extremely difficult though, which some luck needed here and there.
     Regarding the SR50 jump, you need to be lined up quite accurately - the yellow key should be somewhere near the edge of your screen. Remember that SR50 requires you to be running forwards (or backwards) and simultaneously strafing right (or left) and pressing strafe on, and the turn right (or left) key.
     From inside the complex, there are two routes to the outside world. In the improved nomo demo, you see me using them both. You can experiment with the various options this gives. There is a bit less choice about getting back inside, but you can use the "goalpost" teleporter to avoid having to wait for a short lift to descend.
     It is possible that I have not found the best route, given how many options there are. I'd be really impressed with any runs under 4 minutes though. Good luck!