Uploaded August 2011 | Updated September 2026, 3 days ago
After fooling around with the shareware beta releases of Vanilla Doom and the Doom 1 and 2 IWADs, i managed to get a (partially) working beta version of Doom 2. Keep in mind that this is NOT an actual Doom 2 beta wad, I just used the -file command line parameter with the wads to get it to work, since beta Doom 2 uses data from the first game as placeholders. Here are some known differences between the betas (v1.4, v1.5, and in this case; v1.6) and the final release. (v1.666)
*Doom 1 music is being used as a placeholder
*The Episode selection from Doom 1 is used
*The intermission screens are different, using a darker title screen image instead of the later INTERPIC lump.
*Super Shotgun's animation is incomplete and uses normal shotgun sound as a placeholder
*Many features have not yet been implemented, such as the Wolfenstein secret level stuff
*Arachnotrons' animations are incomplete and use Spider Mastermind sounds as place holders. They use a chaingun instead of a plasma rifle. Game will crash when one dies.
*Doom 1's map names are used as placeholders.
*Pain Elementals and Hell Knights use Cacodemons' and Barons' sounds as placeholders
*Revnants and Archviles use Cyberdemon and rocket/barrel explosion sounds as placeholders.
*Only the first three maps are playable by default, the game will crash after MAP03. Though certain other maps are accessible through the IDCLEV cheat, but not all of them.
*(NOT SHOWN) Sky lumps from Doom 1 used as placeholders.
*(NOT SHOWN) Preliminary box art is different from the final
*(NOT SHOWN) Revnants fire rockets. :V
To get this to work, do the following.
1. Go to doomworld.com/idgames/index.php?id=647 and download the v1.6 shareware beta. Put the game files into a folder called D2BETA in your DOS Games directory, which you mount with DOSBox.
2. Delete the shareware IWAD and place your Doom 1 and 2 IWADs into the folder.
3. Set up your game settings through SETUP.EXE and type the following command at the DOS prompt: doom -file doom.wad doom2.wad.
If you did all of this correctly, it should work. Keep in mind as with every beta, it is very buggy and only some of the levels are playable due to a lot of the code not yet being in the final release.
After fooling around with the shareware beta releases of Vanilla Doom and the Doom 1 and 2 IWADs, i managed to get a (partially) working beta version of Doom 2. Keep in mind that this is NOT an actual Doom 2 beta wad, I just used the -file command line parameter with the wads to get it to work, since beta Doom 2 uses data from the first game as placeholders. Here are some known differences between the betas (v1.4, v1.5, and in this case; v1.6) and the final release. (v1.666)
*Doom 1 music is being used as a placeholder
*The Episode selection from Doom 1 is used
*The intermission screens are different, using a darker title screen image instead of the later INTERPIC lump.
*Super Shotgun's animation is incomplete and uses normal shotgun sound as a placeholder
*Many features have not yet been implemented, such as the Wolfenstein secret level stuff
*Arachnotrons' animations are incomplete and use Spider Mastermind sounds as place holders. They use a chaingun instead of a plasma rifle. Game will crash when one dies.
*Doom 1's map names are used as placeholders.
*Pain Elementals and Hell Knights use Cacodemons' and Barons' sounds as placeholders
*Revnants and Archviles use Cyberdemon and rocket/barrel explosion sounds as placeholders.
*Only the first three maps are playable by default, the game will crash after MAP03. Though certain other maps are accessible through the IDCLEV cheat, but not all of them.
*(NOT SHOWN) Sky lumps from Doom 1 used as placeholders.
*(NOT SHOWN) Preliminary box art is different from the final
*(NOT SHOWN) Revnants fire rockets. :V
To get this to work, do the following.
1. Go to doomworld.com/idgames/index.php?id=647 and download the v1.6 shareware beta. Put the game files into a folder called D2BETA in your DOS Games directory, which you mount with DOSBox.
2. Delete the shareware IWAD and place your Doom 1 and 2 IWADs into the folder.
3. Set up your game settings through SETUP.EXE and type the following command at the DOS prompt: doom -file doom.wad doom2.wad.
If you did all of this correctly, it should work. Keep in mind as with every beta, it is very buggy and only some of the levels are playable due to a lot of the code not yet being in the final release.
