DOOM
DOOM is a first-person shooter computer game released by id Software on December 10 1993. Featuring huge advances in gameplay and graphics compared to its predecessor Wolfenstein 3D, it was widely regarded as a quantum leap in video game technology at that time. Doom is a controversial video game series.
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2 Sequels 3 Technology 4 DOOM culture 5 Competitors 6 Doom Movie 7 External Links |
DOOM title screenOverview
The game was released (with varying degrees of modification) for many systems and consoles, which included the following: MS-DOS, MS Windows, QNX, Irix, NEXTSTEP, Linux, Apple Macintosh, Super NES, Sega 32X, Sony PlayStation, Game Boy Advance, Atari Jaguar, Sega Saturn, Nintendo 64, and 3DO. An arcade version using a "virtual reality headset" (an LCD screen an inch from the player's face) also existed.
DOOM II title screen
A sequel to DOOM, titled DOOM II: Hell on Earth, was released on October 10 1994. DOOM II consisted of thirty regular levels, plus two "secret" levels, which nearly duplicated episode 1 level 1 and episode 1 level 9 of Wolfenstein 3D; the engine and gameplay were the same as DOOM, with some additional weapons and monsters added. The two secret levels were missing from the version marketed in Germany because they depicted Nazi symbols, illegal under German law (see the article on Wolfenstein 3D for more information).
Due to its heavy graphic violence, DOOM II, like the original DOOM, received an ESRB rating of "M", with the exception of the Gameboy Advance port, which was rated "T". The game also marked id's departure from the shareware marketing strategy, releasing this game through Activision.
In 1995, a new version of DOOM was published; titled The Ultimate DOOM, this release included the three original episodes as well as a new, fourth one, named "Thy Flesh Consumed". Another year later, in 1996, two new 32-level episodes for DOOM II were released: "The Plutonia Experiment" and "TNT: Evilution", collectively known as Final DOOM, both developed for id Software by TeamTNT. None of these were available as shareware; like DOOM II, they were only sold as commercial versions.
DOOM³ is scheduled to be released in 2004 ("when it's done"); it will use a completely new and proprietary graphics engine. However, classic DOOM retains a loyal following up to the present day, and along with Wolfenstein 3D is credited with making the first-person shooter a computer game genre in its own right.
DOOM introduced to a wide audience the concept of playing over a network together ("co-operative mode") or against each other ("deathmatch mode") into the genre of first-person shooter games. It was not the first first-person shooter to do so, though; a game called MIDI Maze on the Atari ST did so in 1987, using the MIDI port built into the ST.
The software method used to present a 3D visual experience was clever, but sacrificed generality for speed. Levels were two-dimensional; and even though each section could have a different height, no part of the map could extend above or below another part. This compromise was made necessary by the fact that most computers were too slow to be able to handle a game engine with six degrees of freedom, as used in modern first person shooters, but careful level layout kept this constraint from being apparent to the player, giving the impression of an actual three-dimensional level.
These constraints also made the method unsuitable for generalized 3-dimensional applications such as CAD; they were, however, quite workable for a pre-built game environment, where the designers could dance around the limitations, and the commercial success of the game, as well as the abundance of third-party levels and add-ons that followed, demonstrated that these constraints did not detract from the gameplay experience.
The DOOM engine continued to be developed even after the initial release of the game; there were a total of 11 versions, from the original 1.0 that was released on December 10 1993 to the final 1.9 release. Version 1.1 of the engine, released only 6 days later, on December 16, mostly included fixes for bugs and compatibility problems (although it also introduced new ones); it also featured the ability to run DOOM on three computers at once in single player mode, adding left and right screens for the player, but this feature was removed again in later versions.
Version 1.2 followed two months later on February 17 1994, adding support for modem play, better network play and the Nightmare! difficulty to the game. Versions 1.4, 1.5 and 1.6 were beta releases made available only on the Internet, leading to the release of 1.666 in September 1994, which, among other things, further improved modem and serial play and also introduced a refined Deathmatch version, dubbed "Deathmatch 2.0".
Four pre-release versions also exist, consisting of three alpha and one press-release version. The first alpha, 0.2, was released on February 4 1993; it consisted of a single level, but was not yet playable in the sense that later versions were. Two months later, on April 2, alpha 0.4 featured a new logo, a few more, new levels (including a very early version of E2M2 from the final game), and finally, on May 22, version 0.5 was done. The press-release version, containing three levels that looked much like the final ones was released on October 4 for journalists only; it was programmed to stop working after October 31. All of these versions have been made available by id Software, and can be downloaded from Doomworld.
The game engine was licensed to several other companies as well, who released their own games based on it, including Heretic, Hexen, Strife and HacX.
The source code of DOOM was published by id Software in 1997 under a proprietary license. The game was then ported to various other operating systems; in late 1999, the source code was re-released under the terms of the GPL. Several ports have been developed, the most notable being TeamTNT's Boom, Lee Killough's Marine's Best Friend (MBF), and later on, PrBoom, Eternity, jDoom, ZDoom, Doom Legacy, ZDoomGL, ZDaemon, and Skulltag. Most ports contain considerable changes to the game, including bug fixes, the removal of engine limitations, and various new features.
Ports have also been created to allow DOOM to run on a different type of machine. One of those is a port to the Game Park 32, a Korean hand-held similar to the Game Boy Advance). A British company called WildPalm has also produced a port to the Nokia 7650 and 9210 cell phones. There is a port to the Sega Dreamcast as well.
Equally acclaimed by critics and players, DOOM and its sequels spawned a rich culture that lasts until today; literally thousands of modifications and add-ons (in the form of WAD files) have been produced by fans, available for download from the /idgames archive ([1]). There have even been DOOM gaming miniatures produced by Reaper Miniatures.
Ever since the first release of DOOM, players competed to compare their DOOM playing skills; this was greatly aided by the game's ability to record demo files during play that could then be played back by every other player with the same game version. Eventually, a number of DOOM honorific titles were proposed that everyone could apply for and would then be asked to justify his application by recording and submitting a demo to show that he was able to accomplish a certain feat. The following titles were issued:
The honorific titles were not the only recognition of outstanding players, though; although the process was less formalized, a player could also achieve fame by making available demos showing them performing other interesting or difficult tasks, ideally in as little time as possible. These demos became known as speedruns; typical tasks include just finishing levels as quickly as possible (usually on Ultraviolence or Nightmare! difficulty), scoring 100% kills and secrets on a level before finishing it, or doing "Tyson" runs in which only the fist and pistol (and, under some rules, the chainsaw) are allowed as weapons. A collection of demos is being maintained at the COMPET-N database; also see the External Links section for other sites.
Many level editors were and still are available for DOOM; one of the first, and for a long time, one of the most widely-used, was DEU, the Doom Editor Utility, initially programmed by Brendon Wyber and improved by Raphael Quinet, who forked off a version called NewDEU in spring 1994, which soon got remerged into DEU to combine Wyber's and Quinet's efforts. DEU has been ported to a number of operating systems, but lost significance over time; however, many of today's editors still have their roots in DEU and its editing paradigm, including DETH, DeePsea, Linux Doom Editor, and Yadex. Other level editors include WadAuthor and the relatively young Doom Builder (initially released in summer 2003), which, among other things, features a 3D editing mode.
A number of other, specialized editors also were created over time to modify graphics and sound lumps, most notably Wintex and XWE. Things, such as monsters and items, and weapon behavior can also be modified to some degree using executable patching utilities such as WhackEd and DeHackEd.
DOOM spawned many imitators and competitors, some based on the game engine licensed from id (see below). Duke Nukem 3D, a more tongue-in-cheek game based on Ken Silverman's Build engine, and Apogee's Rise of the Triad were its principal rivals. id Software created a completely new 3D engine, then released the successor to DOOM: Quake, in 1996. Quake's success mirrored that of DOOM for the remainder of the 1990s, though the success of competitor Unreal Tournament seduced a large segment of Quake's audience.
It was reported in 2002 that Warner Brothers acquired live action movie rights to Doom from id Software. If Warner Brothers were to start filming a Doom movie, it would be the first time in years that an attempt to put a Doom movie in production would be made. In 1994 or 1995, id Software sold Doom movie rights to a movie studio, but the rights expired because the movie studio apparently was untimely in getting the movie into production. It has been speculated that the Doom movie will be based on the events depicted in the upcoming Doom 3 game.
Sequels
Technology
Engine changes
Early history
Source Ports
DOOM culture
DOOM honorific titles
Speedruns
Editors
Competitors
Doom Movie
External Links
