Doom 64 | Cheerful Ghost

Recommended: Doom 64

Azurephile gives this an astounding "Must Play" on the Ghost Scale

This achieves something special, and it would be a shame to miss it.

Azurephile gives this a "Must Play" on the Ghost Scale

This achieves something special, and it would be a shame to miss it.

I’ve recently taken a trip back into the 90’s by getting some gaming nostalgia. Recently, I got the Doom Classic Complete collection, which contains Doom, Final Doom, Ultimate Doom, Doom II, and the Master Levels for Doom II. I write a post about getting it to run as it was actually a bit difficult to play right away and without a source port. Having copies of the games on Steam is quite helpful, because it gives you the .WAD files you’ll need to use with a source port. If you’d like, you can check out my post about that here: https://cheerfulghost.com/GregoPeck/posts/4401/getting-the-doom-complete-collection-to-run-on-windows-10

As for Doom 64, I never played this... Read All I’ve recently taken a trip back into the 90’s by getting some gaming nostalgia. Recently, I got the Doom Classic Complete collection, which contains Doom, Final Doom, Ultimate Doom, Doom II, and the Master Levels for Doom II. I write a post about getting it to run as it was actually a bit difficult to play right away and without a source port. Having copies of the games on Steam is quite helpful, because it gives you the .WAD files you’ll need to use with a source port. If you’d like, you can check out my post about that here: https://cheerfulghost.com/GregoPeck/posts/4401/getting-the-doom-complete-collection-to-run-on-windows-10

As for Doom 64, I never played this when it originally came out, even though I still have my N64. I wish I had gotten this game back then. I don't know why or how I ignored it, after all I played the Doom and Quake games during high school. This looks and feels much like the Doom and Quake games, although it’s unique and possibly not what you’d expect for a N64 game. Granted, everything in the game looks different from the original, it’s still wonderful. The game controls beautifully with a mouse and keyboard with no need to use a source port. Although, you can check out Doom 64 EX, if you’re interested. The embedded video goes into some detail about porting EX and making it as close to the original game as possible. For just $5 on Steam, this is a must own if you’re a fan of the series!

There are ways in which this iteration of Doom surpasses the original, especially when it comes to keyboard and mouse controls. I also really appreciate the excellent distinction between yellow and red keys, in the original games these colors looked way too similar, yellow looked more orange. Perhaps the one thing that this game does not match the original is when it comes to music. This game doesn’t exactly have music as the original did, instead it’s more of a scary ambiance, which is still nice, but it’s not the awesome rock riffs we’re used to.

One thing I’ve always loved about these games was being able to cheat. Gaming can be fun and challenging, separately or in balance, but for me I have more fun when I’m able to ease and relax without much of a challenge. I did try the game out without cheats, but I knew I’d reach a point where I’d enable them. The only downside is that this disables your ability to get achievements on that save file, but I’m ok with that, there seems to only be 10 of them anyway and I already got one. Doom 64 has the ability to save and load games, but it also uses a password system. You can look online for passwords to input into the game. One of them will open a “features” option on the main menu and you can select the cheats you want to use or you can press ` to access the debug screen and type them in such as “noclip” (without quotes). I believe I read that you have to get all three keys in level 32 without cheating to unlock “feature” in the main menu without having to input a password, but it really looks tough to do. There are also other passwords that will bring you to different levels or just do different things. You can check the guides section on Steam or you can also refer to IGN’s N64 cheat guide here: https://www.ign.com/wikis/n64-cheats/Doom_64_Cheats

I really do give this a strong recommendation. I can’t stress enough how even a base price of $5 for this game is extremely and surprisingly low. I think it’s worth a bit more at least, but this just adds it to the list of great games that are at or under $5. Do yourself a favor, if you like the Doom and Quake games and haven’t checked this out, do so, I don’t think you’d regret it.

Also, credit to Jon for posting about this before I even played it.

https://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/4395/nightdive-studios-brings-an-incredible-port-of-doom-64

If you’ve played this, feel free to share your thoughts about this, too. If you haven’t let me know why or if you’re interested now.

Nightdive Studios Brings An Incredible Port Of Doom 64!

Digital Foundry has another incredible review of Doom 64 up on YouTube and as with most of their coverage, you need to watch it. As the interview unfolds they bring in some really fun perspectives of the Nightdive developers working on this port. Nightdive studios doesn't just emulate these old games but ports them brining new features and enhancements to old games giving them a level of love and polish games like Doom 64 deserves.

"In a DF Retro exclusive, John Linneman talks with Nightdive Studios about the process of bringing the classic, totally original Nintendo 64 rendition of Doom over to the current-gen platforms. In this video, you'll see what made the... Read All