Power Pak
4 HN recommenders · recommended in 6 months, 2023–2026
1:42:01 · 19M views · May 11, 2023
A long video essay on MyHouse.wad, a Doom II mod uploaded by an anonymous user that hides unsettling secrets in its walls. It tells the story of the map, its mystery and its liminal horror.
Strongly recommended as a gripping story and art piece worth watching even if you do not care about games.
6 comments from Hacker News
If you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend checking out the story of MyHouse.wad: this video If you want to go in spoiler free, I'd recommend downloading the WAD and playing it through blind. But if you don't have the time for that, there's a ton of great youtube videos that covered the topic.
If anyone's curious, start here: this video If you don't care about Doom (or even video games, honestly): I haven't even thought about Doom in 20 years. Just click the link and watch. One of my favorite YouTube rides of all time.
I wonder if it can play through MyHouse.wad. Which, if you haven't seen before, is an incredible art piece. this video If you've read House of Leaves, do yourself a favor and check it out.
Equally though, when you think you've finished it; have a read / watch about all the fantastic things that you missed. The entire project, and including the journal on the Google drive, is just incredible. I very much enjoyed this video that goes through all the content: this video Also, this one to learn about the methods used to create "myhouse" in the doom2 engine.
The thing that introduced me to the aesthetics of liminal spaces was a video about the DOOM mod "MyHouse.WAD"[0], it's a technical fascination as much as it is an aesthetic one. There is no mention of it in the article, despite 18M views on YouTube. It was inspired by the novel House of Leaves [1], released in 2000, which "redefined modern horror". I think that aesthetic follows a natural progression from creepypasta[2], mixed with some nostalgia for the eeriness playing Resident Evil -type of games as a kid, the satisfying feeling to watch empires collapse, going nowhere yet being nowhere, and the constant desire for the internet to long for niche cultures. [0]: this video [1]: [LINK] [2]: [LINK]