E1M4: Command Control (Doom)

E1M4: Command Control is the fourth map of Knee-Deep in the Dead in Doom.

Walkthrough
Start by collecting the secrets, if you like, described below.

Take any of the corridors and you will soon arrive in a round room, near the center of the map, containing a round structure with four doors. Approach any of the doors and they will all open; but be careful, there are imps inside. Go inside and collect the blue keycard. If the doors should happen to close while you are inside, simply walk again over the small lighter-colored square where the blue keycard was.

Exit the round structure to the west and continue out of the larger round room also to the west. Turn south and you will see the blue door ahead on the right.

Go through the blue door into a maze. To get through the maze quickly, take the first right and bear slightly left to go down a long corridor heading north. As you near the end of the long corridor, turn right, then immediately left, and then left again. You will notice the wall texture changes in the hallway ahead.

Go into that hallway, turn right, and you will see the yellow keycard. Collect it, continue down the hallway and up the stairs, and you will see the yellow door. But before going through it, click the red-colored switch to its left (raising the bridge leading to the exit door).

Go through the yellow door, turn right and follow the room around to the left. There will be a door on your right and stairs on your left. Optionally go through the door to see the platform that was formerly swastika-shaped (see development changes below). To finish the level, go up the stairs and across the bridge to the exit door.

Secrets

 * 1) Immediately where the player starts, there is a secret door on the south wall leading to a room containing powerups.
 * 2) In the second room (where a soul sphere is visible), take the far south corridor.  Drop down into the slime "river" and go east.  There is a room here containing a rocket launcher and various other powerups.
 * 3) While standing on the elevator it is possible to activate the switch next to it and cause the elevator to rise (although it is difficult; if done incorrectly, the elevator may rise without the player).  The soul sphere is then accessible.
 * 4) If you really want to finish this level quick: Directly run to the room in the northern east with the poison pool in it. You can do a rocket-jump right over the poison basin, thereby literrally landing on the yellow key. This will be the only key you'll need, as the exit door lies right in the next room. An alternative method for the more sensitive is a strafe jump over the steps to the southwest edge of the room, where you can reach the gap above the end of the steps and walk over to the yellow key.

Demo files

 * [[Media:e1m4secr.lmp|No monsters, 100% secrets walkthrough]]

Records
The Compet-N records for the map are:

Development changes


E1M4, started by Tom Hall and finished by John Romero, can be found in primitive versions in the 0.4 and 0.5 alpha versions of Doom, both as E1M7.

The version of E1M4 in Doom 1.0 contained a structure formed as a swastika (visible in the upper-left center of the 1.0 map to the right), inserted as homage to Wolfenstein 3D. The symbol was changed to a shape that only loosely resembles a swastika for version 1.4, as John Romero has commented :


 * "Yes, [in Commander Keen 5] there is a swastika in one of the levels, one of my levels to be exact, but I removed it shortly after the game was released because people were upset that an evil symbol was in a cute kid's game (the changed version is in the screenshot). It was a premonition of things to come, namely, Wolfenstein 3D. I also put a swastika in Doom ' s E1M4 as a Wolf3D reference, but I changed it later for the exact same reason."