IWAD
From ZDoom Wiki
An IWAD - short for Internal WAD - is the main resource file for a Doom-engine game, containing all the game's original sounds, levels, and graphics. ZDoom needs an IWAD file in order to play; without one the ZDoom Engine has no game data to use.
Supported IWADs
- Doom (Shareware) — doom1.wad†
- Doom (Registered) — doom.wad
- Ultimate Doom — doom.wad or doomu.wad¹
- "Ultimate" Freedoom — doom.wad or freedoomu.wad†¹ (development version r1619+ only)
- Doom II — doom2.wad
- Final Doom — tnt.wad and plutonia.wad
- Freedoom — doom2.wad or freedoom.wad†²
- French Doom II — doom2f.wad
- Heretic (Shareware) — heretic1.wad†
- Heretic (Registered or Commercial) — heretic.wad
- Hexen (Demo) — hexen.wad, hexdemo.wad or hexendemo.wad†³
- Hexen (Full) — hexen.wad
- Hexen: Deakhkings of the Dark Citadel — hexdd.wad (Requires Hexen)
- Strife (Teaser) — strife0.wad†
- Strife (Full) — strife1.wad (also loads voices.wad)
- Chex Quest — chex.wad
- Chex Quest 3 — chex3.wad†
† This IWAD can legally be acquired for free: Doom shareware, Heretic shareware, Hexen demo, and Strife teaser at /idgames; Freedoom at Sourceforge; Chex Quest 3 at Chucktropolis.
¹ This IWAD is named doom.wad, however you can rename it to doomu.wad or freedoomu.wad if you wish to also use Doom (Registered) or separate between Doom and Freedoom.
² This IWAD is named doom2.wad, however you can rename it to freedoom.wad if you wish to also use Doom II.
³ This IWAD is named hexen.wad, however you can rename it to hexdemo.wad or hexendemo.wad if you wish to also use Hexen (Full).
ZDoom will detect any of those present in its search path and let you choose at startup which game to play (if it doesn't, see the FAQ). In addition to them, some "total conversion"-type mods can be played as their own IWAD; however since they are not detected as such by ZDoom, you need to use the -iwad command line parameter. These include Action Doom 2: Urban Brawl and Wolfenstein 3D TC.
In order to play a custom level designed for any of the above games you have to have that particular game's full IWAD (loading PWAD with shareware, demo or teaser versions is disabled). If you do not have the necessary IWAD, or if you have an old, unpatched version of the IWAD in question, you will get an error message on startup. (But often old versions are accepted too.)
The IWAD file(s) should be placed into the same directory as the ZDoom executable. You may also configure other directories for ZDoom to search in the zdoom.ini file. On Linux, the directories $HOME/.zdoom and /usr/local/share are checked by default. Finally, if you have bought Ultimate Doom, Doom II, Final Doom, Heretic, or Hexen from Steam, ZDoom is able to find the IWADs directly in the Steam folder and you do not need to move or copy them to ZDoom's folder.
Obtaining IWADs
As noted aboved, some IWADs can be downloaded freely; however most "full" games are not and must be bought from one of the following sources:
- Id Software Store
- This store offers downloadable versions of Ultimate Doom, Doom II: Hell on Earth, Final Doom, Heretic: Shadow of the Serpent Riders and Hexen: Beyond Heretic.
- Steam
- This store offers downloadable versions of Ultimate Doom, Doom II: Hell on Earth, Final Doom, Heretic: Shadow of the Serpent Riders, Hexen: Beyond Heretic and Hexen: Deathkings of the Dark Citadel; as well as the Master Levels for Doom II which is a set of PWAD, not an IWAD.
- Note: The version of Hexen: Death Kings available on Steam is not patched. You need to download and apply the Death Kings 1.1 patch first. (The "readme.txt" file it tries to patch has been renamed readme-dk.txt by Steam, but is not important.) All other IWADs from Steam are fully patched.
- Amazon.com, eBay.com, etc.
- Second-hand copies of the original games can be found on such sites. While less reliable than the official Id Software and Steam stores, they are the only remaining sources for legitimate copies of Strife: Quest for the Sigil and the original Chex Quest.
- Flea markets, used-games bins in brick-and-mortar stores, etc.
- It's mostly a matter of luck, but they can still sometimes be found this way.
