John Romero teased, and then revealed, a new Doom megawad late last year called Sigil, “an unofficial spiritual successor” to the fourth episode of Ultimate Doom. At the time it was expected to be out in February, but Romero announced today that because of complications with the physical editions, everything is being pushed back to April.
First things first: A Doom WAD is a package file that contains all the data required to make the game run—graphics, levels, audio, that sort of thing—and they’re called WADs because, as the kids said back in the early ’90s when all this stuff was new and weird, Where’s All the Data? (Seriously.) A megaWAD is simply a bunch of WADs wadded up into one big, game-changing bundle—basically a total conversion, although the official Doom releases were megaWADs too. Doom was designed that way specifically so that players could mod the game as they saw fit, which contributed greatly to its long-term success.
Anyway, back to the matter at hand.
“There were a few snags in production trying to make sure everything is top-notch for fans! I just wanted to let everyone who purchased either the Big Box or the Beast Box know that it is now looking like it will ship sometime in April. Thank you for your patience, and I am sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused,” Romero wrote. “This also means the free version of Sigil will have to wait until after the boxes are in the hands of customers.”
The Big Box is a standard $40 boxed edition that includes the game on a USB drive and a few extras; the Beast Box—which is actually what it’s called—is a kitted-out version that includes a t-shirt, a demonic coin, and Romero’s head on a spike. Neither of them are available for purchase any more, but if you just want to play the game it won’t cost you a thing: Sigil itself will be free for everyone.