Doom

Happy Halloween! Now Play Doom!

Wanted to wish everyone a very Happy Halloween! This year I had a get together at my place with some friends and to celebrate this spook season we played co-op of the original Doom. It was fun to play Doom with friends and if you wanted upgrade things a bit you could play one of these Halloween / Horror themed Doom WADS reviewed by The Dean of Doom himself. I'm a sucker for the original Doom campaign but there are some really incredible WADs that in a lot of ways are better than the original campaigns but require you to be a bit of a Doom expert to complete.

Tangerine Nightmare: https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/s-u/tn
Wormwood: ... Read All

I Am Save-Scum: The Art of Cutting Yourself A Break

Quite enjoyed the latest video by MtPain27 where he admits he is Doom Save-Scum. Save-Scum refers to a play style of Doom where you save and reload to complete a level. In some hardcore circles of Doom Save-Scumming is frowned upon as playing the whole level start to finish with pistol start on incredibly high difficulty is seen as one holy grail. MtPain talks about that and admits his Save-Scumness and it's nice to hear because I am too. I don't mind challenging games these days but I play games to have fun and sometimes that means... being Save-Scum.

"Some thoughts on save-scumming, Doom difficulty, and being too hard on yourself.

"I am save-scum. When I play Doom,... Read All

Doom Is Now Running On The New Nintendo Game & Watch

Doom historically has been ported to everything from the Super Nintendo to pregnancy tests and now the new Nintendo Game & Watch. The new Game & Watch isn't very powerful and it looks like quite a bit was required to get it to run at all. The system isn't as easy to hack as the NES or SNES classic but if you have some time on your hands it looks like Doom will run but doesn't play very well as of yet.

The Game & Watch is also quite limited in terms of storage (1.1 Mb) so even if you do hack it doesn't seem like it would be able to store an entire NES ROM set.

iD Adds Rekkr To The Official Doom & Doom II Ports!

When iD Software added download addon/mod support in the Doom & Doom II official ports they included some historically incredible mods available for free. They said over time they'd add more community mods and since the community has made some absolutely incredible stuff it seems like a nearly limitless prospect. Today iD added it's first total conversion Mega Wad called Rekkr that legit turns Doom into an incredible Hexen inspired Sword & Wizardry FPS straight outta the 90's.

"A total conversion of DOOM (1993), REKKR takes on a Norse-inspired setting casting you as a mighty warrior who, after narrowly surviving a shipwrecked expedition, encounters a terrible... Read All

Go Deep In Historic Doom Mapping With The Dean of Doom

A week ago I discovered YouTuber MtPain27 who has recently published a new YouTube series of videos that looks back at classic Doom megawads and reviews them on some fun criteria. Most YouTubers focus on Doom or Doom II and the main wads and there hasn't been someone that has gone deep on the community megawads.

MtPain started things out reviewing The Plutonia Experiment and recently TNT Evilution which are the two megawads featured in the Final Doom release by iD Software created by community wad teams. On a fun side note if you want to play these they are available as free downloads in the recent Doom Unity remasters.

So far MtPain has reviewed the original 1993 3... Read All

Doom Source Port Breakdown

Recently I completed the original 1993 Doom campaigns Knee Deep in the Dead, The Shoes of Hell & Inferno. My recent dive back into the original Doom and subsequent focus is still going strong and one fun part of that is that I've tried out many of the major Doom source ports. If you want to dive back in to Doom it might not be obvious the best way to play so I hope this post helps that.

I'm going to order the Doom ports top to bottom as a sort of recommendation system where the top most, I recommend most.

The Official Doom Unity Port

iD Software worked with Nerve to create these modern Doom ports built on the Unity Framework. Whereas originally these ports weren't... Read All

Official Doom Unity Ports Get Widescreen & Steam Release

iD Software is continuing to improve the official Doom & Doom II Unity ports with a fresh new patch that brings the game out of the 4x3 aspect ratio and in to a full 16x9 widescreen experience. You can also play the new ports on Steam so if you own The Ultimate Doom or Doom II on Steam you will get the new versions as an automatic update.

These ports don't support mouse aim or jump as some modern source ports do but since the original Doom and Doom II didn't allow that these ports are becoming one of the best ways to play Doom and Doom II in a very authentic way.

https://slayersclub.bethesda.net/en/article/Cfuf9wL5enNxkx90hfJ21/doom-and-doom-ii-update-september-3

The Origins of Doom's Sound Effects

I know what you are thinking right now. "Hey Jon can you share a 23 minute video about the origin of the sound effects in Doom?" Sure Internet friend I can do that and while you are flexing your finger ready to tap play on the video I encourage you to check all the other Doom content I've posted recently as well.

Doom on a Digital Camera From 1998

Doom is one of those games that is historically ported to just about every system you can imagine. Modern gamers joke about the many Skyrim ports but Skyrim has nothing on Doom. I've been on a bit of a Doom binge recently and decided to share this LGR video of Doom running on a very old digital camera from the 90's.

The New Doom Source Ports Are Incredible + Knee Deep in the Dead Complete

Last year iD Software released new source ports of Doom, Doom 2 and Doom 3 on iOS, Switch, PS4, XBox One and PC on the Bethesda launcher. I wanted to give these ports a try and was able to because I picked up Doom and Doom II on sale during Quakecon 2020. I also decided to focus my time playing the original Doom and to finally complete the first mission Knee Deep in the Dead. I've played a ton of that first mission as it was released for free as Shareware back in 1993 but, for whatever reason, I never actually completed it. I always had enough fun just playing and replaying the first few levels and never had the desire to actually beat it until recently. Knee Deep in... Read All Last year iD Software released new source ports of Doom, Doom 2 and Doom 3 on iOS, Switch, PS4, XBox One and PC on the Bethesda launcher. I wanted to give these ports a try and was able to because I picked up Doom and Doom II on sale during Quakecon 2020. I also decided to focus my time playing the original Doom and to finally complete the first mission Knee Deep in the Dead. I've played a ton of that first mission as it was released for free as Shareware back in 1993 but, for whatever reason, I never actually completed it. I always had enough fun just playing and replaying the first few levels and never had the desire to actually beat it until recently. Knee Deep in the Dead is a great mission and the only level I really had a hard time with was Central Processing. That said, I was able to complete Central Processing giving it about 6 or so attempts and was able to make it to the end to defeat the two Barrons of Hell bosses to wrap it up. Right now i'm making my way through The Shores of Hell and find it to be a really nice difficulty update from Knee Deep in the Dead. I know Doom has been reviewed a lot already but I still find the original level design to be top notch along with the streamlined gameplay on the Switch.

And the gameplay improvements might be the best part of playing Doom on the Switch because compared to playing it on a keyboard in DOS, the Switch controls are a massive improvement. It's fairly easy to switch between weapons as those are mapped to the L and R triggers. Doom feels like it was made to be played on the Switch, which is a testament to how well the game feels along with the high quality of the port itself.

Many of you have played Doom ports on Steam and the like that essentially wrap the game in DOSBox which, frankly, it's a great experience. You can feel the game down res your monitor and the controls and preferences are the best 1993 had to offer. The new Doom remaster ports are not simply wrapped in DOSBox and it really shows as the games feel like they belong on the Switch.

Doom is one of the greatest games every created and deserves a modern port that gives it the attention to detail it deserves. I've included the DF Retro Doom remake update patch review as originally iD Software launched the new Doom ports to some very negative feedback. Since then iD has not only fixed the ports but improved the considerably to be one of, if not the best way to play these classic games.

https://slayersclub.bethesda.net/en/article/6Wmc158EnPeBpNBaOJpF4W/add-ons-quick-saves-60-fps-and-more-doom-and-doom-ii?sf115664653=1