Oblige Level Maker April 17, 2011: After a decade of silence, the Co-Op Certification Laboratory returns with test results for over 2000 DOOM II maps! Well, sort of. Here is our review of Oblige, Andrew Apted's amazing random level generator for DOOM II that brought us back to the game. So far, we've played more than 70 full megawads it created.

Evil Chemistry Nov. 3rd, 2001: The Co-Op Certification Laboratory's "Evil Chemistry" Doom II mapping contest is over. We received two entries, from Manny Miranda and Gregory Dick. Without further ado, the winner is: Gregory Dick, author of "Payback"! We were deeply impressed with Gregory's attention to detail, use of appropriate textures and architectures for the contest theme, interesting puzzles, special co-op features (which we won't spoil for you), and challenging gameplay. Gregory will receive an original CD of "Hell to Pay", the classic, out-of-print commercial megawad by WizardWorks/Wraith. We wish to thank Manny and Gregory for their hard work, and Doomworld for helping us name the contest and posting announcements for it. Download the official contest wad containing both entries. And now, back to the regular Co-Op Certification Laboratory main page...

Mission Statement Primary Objective: We certify First Person Shooter (FPS) add-ons "pass" or "fail" based on one objective criterion: no cooperative play conflicts during our testing. We must be able to play through the entire add-on on the first try without cheating. (Dying is OK; having to restart the game is not.) A "pass" certification does not guarantee that an add-on has no co-op problems, only that we did not encounter any. We test levels reputed to be of high quality, so most add-ons shown here are worth playing. We usually test twice a week, so check back often for updates! Secondary Objective: We also test, review, and recommend hardware and software of special interest to co-op gamers.

Test Results Click the links for co-op-friendly maps and product reviews! Voice-Over-IP Software for Games We try 4 different applications that let us talk to each other while we play cooperative games. This is a 6 page report; click "Continue" at the bottom of each page to see the next. Or go straight to the June 1, 2000 update, the last page. Quake II Co-Op Cam Blinky's amazing mod adds DOOM's F12 "spy" feature & other co-op-friendly featues to Quake II. Quake II Maps Client-server architecture with prediction makes Quake II great for co-op games over the Net. Doom II Maps Peer-to-peer architecture, "spy" feature, and automap make Doom II superb for modem-to-modem and LAN-based co-op games.

Status Reports April 17, 2011: The Co-Op Certification Laboratory returns at last for a review of Andrew Apted's amazing Oblige Level Maker. November 3, 2001: Gregory Dick is the winner of our Doom II mapping contest, "Evil Chemistry". Get the contest wad here. October 17, 2001: See the announcement of our mapping contest at the top of this page! June 27, 2001: We've tested the maps in the Doomworld Co-Op Speedmapping exercise. We were amazed by the high quality of many of these maps and found it difficult to choose a winner...but here he is: Fredrik Johansson, author of MAP06! We were deeply impressed by Fredrik's use of multiple co-op switch problems, extremely challenging combat, and a nasty trap at the end that took us totally by surprise. If you haven't done so already, grab the wad here. You might also like to visit Fredrik's website. Fredrik will receive the (slightly used) 100% genuine original Perdition's Gate CD-ROM by WizardWorks. We wish to thank everyone who participated. It was an extraordinary experience to play levels custom-built to our specs by these great map designers. We also wish to thank Linguica and the rest of the Doomworld team for their cooperation. June 23, 2001: Reports of our deaths have been greatly exaggerated. Seriously: Sorry for the lack of updates (and responses to e-mails), but Real Life gets in the way. The big news is that we're currently sponsoring a small prize in the Doomworld Speedmapping Contest, with the theme "Co-Op Insanity". The prize is our own personal copy of Perdition's Gate, the great Out-Of-Print commercial megawad from WizardWorks. More details when we have a winner! Meanwhile, our deepest thanks to everyone who participated, whether you finished a map or not. December 8, 2000: We passed two great co-op Doom wads, each containing 11 maps, "City of Doom" (COD1-11) and "Co-Op Quickies" (COOPQ1). We also passed (and failed) a bunch of Quake 2 maps, our favorites of which were "Tab 3: Radioactive" and "Space Odysseys." November 15, 2000: Good news for co-op DOOMers! We've taken the classic Mission maps (all 6 of them), combined them into a single wad, added co-op starts, and certified the whole thing for co-op play. It's pretty darn good, too! Grab it in the DOOM II section. Kudos and thanks to Follereau Dominique for creating the Mission maps and for granting permission to modify and distribute them. November 2, 2000: Sorry for our long hiatus. Bryan had phone line problems which Southwestern Bell had difficulty diagnosing; they prevented us from playing for a while. And then his computer got destroyed by lightning! He replaced it with a nice new HP Pavilion 6735. Fortunately, BattleCom works well with this computer's built-in sound, and the built-in i752 video provides solid OpenGL compatibility. We also wasted lots of time trying to get Heretic and Hexen to work, but all the 32-bit TCP/IP source ports we tried were too unstable and/or lacked co-op savegame capability. Anyway, after all the dust has settled, we do have results from testing several DOOM II wads and megawads (only two passed) as well as several Quake 2 maps (the majority of which passed). August 11, 2000: Huge update! Blinky's Co-Op Cam adds DOOM-like co-op support to Quake II. And we've passed and failed a ton of new levels on our Quake 2 and DOOM pages. Enjoy! June 1, 2000: Updated the Voice-Over-IP software report. Passed 7 Quake 2 add-ons consisting of 14 maps, and failed 5 Quake 2 add-ons consisting of 21 maps. May 13, 2000: Passed 4 Quake 2 add-ons (13 maps) and 2 DOOM II single-level wads, and failed one Quake 2 add-on. May 1, 2000: Reorganized the website, added Voice-Over-IP software report, passed 3 add-ons (10 levels) for Quake 2, and failed 2 units (8 levels) for Quake 2. April 12, 2000: Biowar for Doom II failed miserably, but we've passed the 5 level "All Hell is Breaking Loose" as well as three Quake 2 levels.

Co-Op Certification Laboratory Staff
Blake Wilfong Director of Research Houston, Texas, USA wondersmith@gmail.com	Bryan Shelton Lead Scientist Bellaire, Texas, USA
All constructive comments are welcome, though time may not permit individual replies.