DOOM The Original
By Samson Lancaster – MyrddinCROW
Hardcore midi’s and pixelated gore, my kind of game. I remember loving Doom simply because of how sick and twisted it was compared to other games of its time “Finally something my style”. Before Doom we had Wolfenstein 3D, though revolutionary for its time, Nazi’s were still human. The first game I’ve ever played that had such a twisted plot and Demonic baddies. I remember the roar of bulldemons and the hiss of cacodemons. Doom was subtleties like, the trickle of adrenaline you got when you heard an imp off in the distance. The fear that doom instilled was unequalled by any game during that period and it was amazingly addicting!
The twisted abominations the game creators came up with were uncanny! Hell Knights, Lost Souls and revenants were just a few of the beasts you had to deal with. I could play Doom for days, all the levels, all the difficulties. I would set it to nightmare when I was feeling numb just to experience pain once again. And who was more Badass than the Cyber Demon? No one that’s who! I swear Doom set the standard for scary sound effects for years to come. To this day I still hear the screeching sliding door sound effect in movies and games. Also I know I have heard the same demon grunts in various media – OOooooorrgggggggg!!!!!!
Each level was more twisted than the last, human skin wallpaper and alters with various body parts and organs. OH the Pixelated Horror! The experience was truly unqiue. Black candles and skulls everywhere, you could almost smell the arid stench of decay and brimstone.
When the game couldn’t keep up with me I discovered the world of level editing. Eureka! I can now make my own twisted incarnations and labyrinths. I tried to make them as horrifically atrocious as possible. I would build large hidden platforms shaped like pentagrams that would rise on trigger to surprise my unsuspecting victims with loads of hellspawn. I started with the first DOS editor that was available I believe it came with my copy of “3D Game Alchemy for Doom, Doom II, Heretic, and Hexen”. It was the Unholy Bible of level editing. I do believe diving in the code of Doom was what sparked my interest in a career as a web developer much later on in life.
You felt so powerful creating a fresh .WAD, like an Unhallowed Game God. I even had fun with the errors. Once when I went to test my .WAD the Dos Prompt gave me the error “Bojo Hackman Yes/No?” and the test wouldn’t start. Troubleshooting my issue I found I had forgotten to add a start point for the player. My friends and I figured that his name must be Bojo Hackman since he was what we forgot? I didn’t think I’d had this much fun building levels for friends since AD&D’s Unlimited Adventures.
Doom has always been one of the best time killers I’ve ever experienced other than my first MMO… Ah, good times, I’ve actually been listening to the original Doom Midis while writing this.
I have a lot of fond memories of this game. I never beat Doom 2; I know the trick for beating the John Romero wall head, but I never had the dexterity to do it successfully.
Ever play Marathon? It was another early FPS, though it took a somewhat different tone (more science-fiction, less horror). Marathon’s plot was actually fairly involved, with the player getting directions (or sometimes just background info/speculation/rants) from various ship-based AIs, and later on fellow humans or aliens. It also had secondary fire modes and clip-based reloading, which didn’t become the norm until years later.
I have never had the pleasure of playing Marathon. I loved Doom in all it’s incarnations. I’ve played many an FPS but I still have the strongest memories from Doom. I think I’ll have a look at Marathon when I get a chance. I’m still going back and playing Half-Life since I missed it growing up… I know, how did I miss Half-Life? But I did start playing the original recently and will catch up! I think atmosphere and a solid plot and NPC interaction can really make a for a great FPS / RPG.
Doom does have a way of making an impact. Some of that is because it’s the first FPS a lot of people in our generation played, but it also has an undeniably visceral quality that later games often failed to replicate.
I never actually played Half-Life 1 (which I suppose means I should turn in my gamer card). I did play the second one, however, and quite enjoyed it. I wonder if the last episode is ever going to be released.
You can get Marathon free and legally here:
http://trilogyrelease.bungie.org/
I’m guessing you use a PC? I don’t know if you can run the first Marathon on that, but the site has both the second and third games available. If you have an old Mac lying around somewhere, this might be a good time to dust it off.
hey. you have a pretty good post there mate.