Editing Doom modding (section)

===Utilities and WADs===
Immediately after the initial [[shareware]] release of ''Doom'' on December 10, 1993, players began working on various tools to modify the game. On January 26, 1994, Brendon Wyber released the first [[public domain]] version of the Doom Editing Utility (DEU) program on the Internet, a program created by ''Doom'' fans which made it possible to create entirely new levels. DEU continued development until May 21. It was made possible by Matt Fell's release of the Unofficial ''Doom'' specifications. Shortly thereafter, ''Doom'' players became involved with further enhancing DEU. Raphaël Quinet spearheaded the program development efforts and overall project release, while Steve Bareman led the documentation effort and creation of the DEU Tutorial. More than 30 other people also helped with the effort and their names appear in the [[README]] file included with the program distribution. Yadex, a fork of DEU 5.21 for [[Unix]] systems running the [[X Window System]], was later released under the [[GNU/GPL]] license.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.teaser.fr/~amajorel/yadex/ |title=Yadex's Homepage}}</ref> Carmack released the [[source code]] for the utilities used to create the game, but these were programmed in [[Objective-C]], for [[NeXT]] workstations, and were therefore not directly usable by the mass userbase of [[IBM PC compatible]].

Jeff Bird is credited with creating the first custom WAD for ''Doom'', called ''Origwad'', on March 7, 1994.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Hrodey |first=Matt |title=A Brief History of Doom Mapping |url=https://www.escapistmagazine.com/v2/a-brief-history-of-doom-mapping/ |website=Escapist Magazine |date=11 February 2019}}</ref> Soon, many players were creating custom WADs and sharing them over [[AOL]], the [[CompuServe]] forums, and other Internet-based channels. Many of the WADs were made in the style of the base game, others were based on existing [[television program|TV series]], [[film]]s, or original themes. Some of the id Software staff were impressed by some of the WADs. John Carmack later said the following about a ''[[Star Wars]]''-themed modification:

{{quotation|I still remember the first time I saw the original ''Star Wars'' DOOM mod. Seeing how someone had put the [[Death Star]] into our game felt so amazingly cool. I was so proud of what had been made possible, and I was completely sure that making games that could serve as a canvas for other people to work on was a valid direction.|[[John D. Carmack]]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://slashdot.org/interviews/99/10/15/1012230.shtml |title=John Carmack Answers |date=15 October 1999 |publisher=[[Slashdot]] |access-date=2007-04-13}}</ref>}}

Another early modification is ''Aliens TC'', a [[total conversion]] based on the film ''[[Aliens (film)|Aliens]]''.

Even though WADs modified ''Doom'' by replacing graphics and audio, the amount of customization was somewhat limited; much of the game's behavior, including the timing and strength of weapons and enemies, was hard-coded in the ''Doom'' [[executable]] file and impossible to alter in WADs. [[DeHackEd]], a ''Doom'' editing program created by Greg Lewis, addressed this by letting users modify parameters inside the ''Doom'' executable itself, allowing for a greater degree of customization.