For the Doom 2 episode Perdition's Gate by Alex Mayberry (NB: not the commercial megawad of the same name)

Files required: pdgate.wad
Download link: http://www.digital-eel.com/zdim/levels/pdgate.zip

Perdition's Gate Map06

Skill: Nightmare! Speed

Kills       113%
Items        22%
Secrets      50% and Time 09:08

Recorded with Legacy 1.32 beta 5; plays back with Legacy 1.40.
Legacy download link: http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/doomlegacy/legacy_140_win32.zip
Note: The map has some see-through walls in OpenGL mode, so I'd recommend software mode to play it back - reduce your resolution if it gets "choppy" (800 x 600 was nice and smooth on my system).

Description: A Nightmare run of a big map with lots of cybers, spiders, archies and stuff. Full of action - it may take over 9 minutes but you won't get bored watching it. I'm quite pleased to have done this, especially since my best previous attempt ended when I reached the blue key door and so was on the home straight - only to realize that I'd forgotten to pick up the blue key. That was a bit upsetting.
No real route or other tricks - I use the invuls in the natural way, and just take my time early on, and tough it out in the red key area without the invul. Alex Mayberry's text said nothing about the map being designed for NM, but the power-ups seem to be well arranged for it - they are a bit excessive for UV.
I suppose I must have been a bit nervous towards the end, since I miss the jump that I'd managed in every previous run on lower skill levels. Annoying, but it only costs a few seconds.
I admit I'm new to NM. I found it very hard to strike a balance between just running and clearing monsters out of the way and collecting power-ups. I suppose you just develop a knack for that with experience. With this run, it was mostly trial and error.
Possible improvements? Certainly it could go a fair bit faster - for a start, just run through more of the areas, and don't miss that jump. I dare say the green armour could be skipped - it just reduces the margin or error considerably. I wouldn't recommend skipping the backpack and megasphere, but who knows...

Graham "Grazza" Burgess
GKBurgess@compuserve.com
