Guides
ID Software's Doom is now known as a modern classic that spawned a new genre of video game.
Concept
About Eighteen months prior, Id software had released Wolfenstein 3D which had set the new standard of what would become the first person shooter genre. Id software had hoped to try and out due their previous game with Doom. The goal with Doom was to improve upon the Wolfenstein formula in both graphic quality and game play. Even though Wolfenstein had some in cases crossed the status quo of gaming by fighting Nazis, and zombies, Doom pushed the envelope further by showing satanic imagery, increased gore, and demons as actual enemies. At the time of Doom's release through shareware, the game had skyrocketed to more downloads than first expected.Infamy
As the success was rising so was the attention of those who would use the game as a poster child to show how video games were "destroying" or "corrupting" those who played video games. This was especially a hot topic after the Columbine High School incident. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold who were the ones behind the incident, had been reported to have played Doom countless times to cope with anger or frustrations. It was also thought that Eric Harris had made levels in which he mimicked the High School they were attending to use as a sort of simulator. Though this was actually false, as Harris did make maps but none of them were like a classroom or school.First Sequels
With the initial success of Doom Id software decided to put out a sequel to further improve the new established series. Doom II: Hell on Earth was the name of the sequel and it was not that much different from it's predecessor. The game still used the Doom engine and was essentially the same game just with a different story, newer enemies, and the double barreled shotgun as a new weapon. Doom II was released October 10th 1994, except this one would actually have to be purchased as it was retail. Much like the first one, Doom II was successful and went on to sell over 2 million copies. Two years later Id made another sequel. Final Doom. Like Doom II before it, this sequel merely had a new story, and maps. There were no new monsters or weapons. This one was considered a challenge Doom game for those who had beaten Doom II in it's hard difficulty. Every since it's debut on PC, Doom as been ported to many consoles or altered itself like the Nintendo 64 version. Though in the next few years Id had shelved the series to think about it's future while working on the Quake series to further push PC limitations."Doom with new technology."
In June 2000 John Carmack had announced the Doom 3 was in development. Doom 3 was a remake of the first game but to better suit today's standards for FPS's. The game was a retelling of the first game with a improved way to tell the story especially with log's left behind from killed scientists or mine workers. Doom 3 had some new weapons, older weapons, new enemies, and remade older enemies. This game utilized the new Id tech 4 engine which had been in development for quite some time. The game was well received since it had brought a freshness to the series or a genre that many considered a "dead" one. Not long after a expansion was released entitled Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil. The expansion had brought back the fan demanded double barreled shotgun and the new grabber weapon which was like Half Life 2's Gravity gun. In terms of story it continued right after Doom 3 and even had the last boss be a key villain character from Doom 3.Legacy and Future
Recently it has been announced that Doom 4 is now in development, although no other details other than it's confirmation have been released. As a series Doom has been essential to the development and popularity of the FPS genre. In particular, "Run 'N' Gun" shooters. The series also become such a landmark in gaming, that a film was created bearing the same name. The film was not what fans of the series had hoped for, and it was not that well received by both fans and critics. Despite the movie, the lasting legacy of Doom has not only impacted the idea of what it meant for a game to be "run and gun" but the popularity of Video Games in general, especially on the PC. If someone were to compare it's impact on games with a more modern game series from today, one could say Doom and Wolfenstein 3D did to FPS's what the GTA series has done for the sandbox genre. Doom is still greatly popular today, as people continue to play enhanced versions through Zdoom and Skulltag, along with creating mods or WAD files for the series. With it's lasting impact on video games in general, the Doom series is often hailed as one of video gaming's best and many believe the first two game's to be considered important to the further advance in video games as a whole or a popular culture.Trivia
- The main Character has never actually been named in any Doom game, hence fans have referred to him as "DoomGuy"
- Every Doom game you are a lone space marine.
- Doom set the precedent for the set guns FPS today have, such as Shotguns, Rocket Launchers, etc.
- Many consider the term "Fragged" or "Fragging" to originate from Doom multiplayer.
- DeathMatch was first made in Doom.
- The main screenshot of Doom has the the main character holding a SMG which is not in the game.
- The Doom Bible has said "Buddy Dacote" as a possible name for the protagonist, "Dacote" means to "die at conclusion of episode" which happens at the end of Knee Deep in the Dead the first episode in Doom.
- The Novels indicate the character as Flynn "Fly" Taggart.
- DoomGuy appears in Quake II: Arena under the alias "Doom", and in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 with bad air stats to indicate the original Doom did not have a jump button.
- Doom has used a wide variety of Heavy Metal music in the first two games from bands such as: Pantera, Slayer, AC/DC, Judas Priest, and Metallica to name a few.
- In Duke Nukem 3d The player can find the "DoomGuy" near satanic imagery and clutching his throat (much like the death animation in the game) with Duke remarking "that's one doomed space marine."
- The Final Boss in Doom 2 the "Icon of Sin", has a opening in the head which is the only way to hurt the boss, when in fact your actually damaging John Romero's head on a pike, which can be seen with a walk in walls cheat.
- In the Icon of Sin level in Doom 2, when you first encounter the main boss he will say a sentence that can't be understood, the reason is because it's a reversed speech. What he's actually saying is "To win the game, you must kill me, John Romero."
- The Pistol and Shotgun seen in the first few Doom games were digitized toy guns bought at a Toys "R" Us store.
- The Chainsaw in the original Doom games is a digitized McCulloch brand Chainsaw.
- In 0.4 Alpha of the pre-release version of Doom, the player had a Rifle weapon and in Alpha 0.5 a rifle bayonet as melee weapon, both taken out of the final version of the game.
- The pre-release version of the original Doom had the plasma rifle fire red and green shots instead of blue, and the BFG9000 fired many shots horizontally instead of one giant shot.
- The textures in the game were mostly scanned images, one was of Adrian Carmack's snakeskin boots, another was of Kevin Cloud's wound on his knee.
- The hands and brass knuckles in the first few games were scanned hands from Kevin Cloud.
- The characters were made either made by hand drawn sprites or were sculpted by clay or latex then digitized and animated in the game. The characters in the game that were made from clay were the "Doomguy", the Cyberdemon and the Baron of Hell, by Adrian Carmack. While others like The Arch-Vile, the Mancubus, the Spider Mastermind and the Revenant, were created in latex and metal by Gregor Punchatz.
MAIN CHARACTER
Doomguy is the character that the player character controls throughout every game in the Doom series. He appears to be very angry that the forces of hell have indeed messed with him. He grits his teeth while shooting them, and is constantly on the look for more demons. He seems to enjoy using weapons, as he shows a completely badass grin whenever he picks up a new one. He has a pet rabbit, which was killed in the expansion episode "Thy Flesh Consumed" of the Ultimate Doom. However, he got revenge by killing lots of demons that invaded Earth.
