Doom

Doom (sometimes written DOOM){{ref|title}} is a computer game developed by id Software in 1993, and is one of the seminal titles in the first-person shooter genre. Combining immersive 3D graphics with graphic violence{{ref|ESRB}}, it became both controversial and immensely popular, with a shareware release version that is estimated to have been played by 15 million people. Beyond defining many gameplay elements of first-person shooters, Doom established a subculture by popularizing networked gaming and allowing player-created expansions called WADs. The game's success influenced the mid-1990s boom of first-person shooters to the degree that these games are sometimes known as "Doom clones".

Release and later history

Initial popularity

The development of Doom was surrounded by much anticipation. The large number of posts in Internet newsgroups about Doom led to the SPISPOPD joke, to which a nod was given in the game in the form of a cheat code. In addition to news, rumors, and screenshots, unauthorized leaked alpha versions also circulated online. (Many years later these alpha versions were sanctioned by id Software because of historical interest; they reveal how the game progressed from its early design stages.) The first public version of Doom was uploaded to an FTP run at the University of Wisconsin on December 10, 1993.

Related Topics:
Newsgroup - SPISPOPD - Cheat code - Screenshot - Alpha version - FTP - University of Wisconsin - December 10 - 1993

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Released as shareware, people were encouraged to distribute Doom further, and did so: in 1995, Doom was estimated to have been installed on more than 10 million computers. Although most users did not purchase the registered version, over one million copies have been sold, and the popularity helped the sales of later games in the Doom series which were not released as shareware. In 1995, The Ultimate Doom (version 1.9, including episode IV) was released, making this the first time that Doom was sold commercially in stores.

Related Topics:
Shareware - 1995 - The Ultimate Doom

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In a press release dated January 1, 1993, id Software had written that they expected Doom to be "the number one cause of decreased productivity in businesses around the world". This prediction came true at least in part: Doom became a major problem at workplaces, both occupying the time of employees and clogging computer networks with traffic caused by deathmatches. Intel and Carnegie Mellon University are among many organizations reported to form policies specifically disallowing Doom-playing during work hours. At the Microsoft campus, Doom was by one account{{ref|MoDMicrosoft}} equal to a "religious phenomenon".

Related Topics:
January 1 - 1993 - Computer network - Intel - Carnegie Mellon University - Microsoft

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Doom was also widely praised in the gaming press. In 1994, it was awarded Game of the Year by both PC Gamer and Computer Gaming World. It also received the Award for Technical Excellence from PC Magazine, and the Best Action Adventure Game award by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences.

Related Topics:
1994 - Game of the Year - PC Gamer - Computer Gaming World - PC Magazine - Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences

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In addition to the thrilling nature of the single-player game, the deathmatch mode was an important factor in the game's popularity. Doom was not the first first-person shooter with a deathmatch mode—MIDI Maze on the Atari ST had one in 1987, using the MIDI ports built into the ST to network up to four machines together. However, Doom was the first game to allow deathmatching over ethernet, and the combination of violence and gore with fighting friends made deathmatching in Doom particularly attractive. Due to its widespread distribution, Doom hence became the game that introduced deathmatching to a large audience (and was also the first game to use the term "deathmatch").

Related Topics:
Deathmatch - MIDI Maze - Atari ST - 1987 - MIDI - Ethernet

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WADs

Main article: Doom WADs

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The ability to create custom levels and otherwise modify the game, in the form of custom WAD files, turned out to be a particularly popular aspect of Doom. Gaining the first large mod-making community, Doom affected the culture surrounding first-person shooters, and also the industry. Several to-be professional game designers started their careers making Doom WADs as a hobby, among them Tim Willits, who later became the lead designer at id Software.

Related Topics:
WAD file - Mod - Game designer - Tim Willits

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The first level editors appeared in early 1994, and additional tools have been created that allow most aspects of the game to be edited. Although the majority of WADs contain one or several custom levels mostly in the style of the original game, others implement new monsters and other resources, and heavily alter the gameplay; several popular movies, television series and other brands from popular culture have been turned into Doom WADs by fans (without authorization), including Aliens, Star Wars, The X-files, The Simpsons and Batman.

Related Topics:
Level editor - 1994 - Aliens - Star Wars - The X-files - The Simpsons - Batman

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Around 1994 and 1995, WADs were primarily distributed online over bulletin board systems or sold in collections on compact discs in computer shops, sometimes bundled with editing guide books. FTP servers became the primary method in later years. A few WADs have been released commercially, including the Master Levels for Doom II, which was released in 1995 along with Maximum Doom, a CD containing 1,830 WADs that had been downloaded from the Internet. Several thousands of WADs have been created in total: the idgames FTP archive contains over 13,000 files{{ref|idgamesCount}}, and this does not represent the complete output of Doom fans.

Related Topics:
1994 - 1995 - Bulletin board system - Compact disc - FTP - Master Levels for Doom II

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Clones and related products

Main articles: Doom clones, Versions and ports of Doom, Doom spin-offs and homages

Related Topics:
Doom clone - Versions and ports of Doom - Doom spin-offs and homages

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The popularity of Doom led to the development of a sequel, ' (1994), as well as expansion packs and alternate versions based on the same game engine, including The Ultimate Doom (1995), Final Doom (1996), and Doom 64 (1997). Doom became a killer application that all capable consoles and operating systems were expected to have, and versions of Doom have subsequently been released for the following systems: DOS, Microsoft Windows, QNX, Irix, NEXTSTEP, Linux, Apple Macintosh, Super NES, Sega 32X, Sony PlayStation, Game Boy Advance, Atari Jaguar, Sega Saturn, Nintendo 64, the Tapwave Zodiac and 3DO. The total number of copies of Doom games sold is unknown, but may be well over 4 million{{ref|sales}}; Doom II alone has sold for over $100 million.

Related Topics:
1994 - The Ultimate Doom - 1995 - Final Doom - 1996 - Doom 64 - 1997 - Killer application - Console - Operating system - DOS - Microsoft Windows - QNX - Irix - NEXTSTEP - Linux - Apple Macintosh - Super NES - Sega 32X - PlayStation - Game Boy Advance - Atari Jaguar - Sega Saturn - Nintendo 64 - Tapwave Zodiac - 3DO

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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. There is also a Doom-based game released by a breakfast cereal maker as a product tie-in called Chex Quest, and the United States Marine Corps released Marine Doom, designed to "teach teamwork, coordination and decision-making".

Related Topics:
Heretic - HeXen - Strife - HacX - Cereal - Chex Quest - United States Marine Corps - Marine Doom

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Dozens of new first-person shooter titles appeared following Doom's release, and they were often referred to as "Doom clones" rather than "first-person shooters". Some of these were certainly "clones"—hastily assembled and quickly forgotten about—others explored new grounds of the genre and were highly acclaimed. Doom's principal rivals were Apogee's Rise of the Triad and Origin Systems' System Shock. The popularity of Star Wars-themed WADs is rumored to have been the factor that prompted LucasArts to create their first-person shooter Dark Forces. {{ref|GamespyClones}}

Related Topics:
''Doom'' clones - Apogee - Rise of the Triad - Origin Systems - System Shock - Star Wars - LucasArts - Dark Forces

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When, three years later, 3D Realms released Duke Nukem 3D, a tongue-in-cheek science fiction shooter based on Ken Silverman's technologically similar Build engine, id Software had nearly finished Quake, its next-generation game, which mirrored Doom's success for the remainder of the 1990s and significantly reduced interest in its predecessor. The franchise remained in that state until 2000, when Doom 3 was announced. A retelling of the original Doom using entirely new graphics technology, Doom 3 was hyped to provide as large a leap in realism and interactivity as the original Doom, but received mixed reactions when released in 2004.

Related Topics:
3D Realms - Duke Nukem 3D - Ken Silverman - ''Build'' engine - Quake - 1990s - 2000 - Doom 3 - Hype - 2004

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Doom has appeared in several forms in addition to games, including a comic book, four novels by Dafydd Ab Hugh and Brad Linaweaver, and a film starring Karl Urban and The Rock due to be released in 2005. The game's development and impact on popular culture is also the subject of the book Masters of Doom by David Kushner.

Related Topics:
Comic book - Dafydd Ab Hugh - Brad Linaweaver - A film - Karl Urban - The Rock - 2005 - Masters of Doom - David Kushner

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Controversy

Doom was and remains notorious for its high levels of violence, gore, and Satanic imagery, which have generated much controversy from a broad range of groups. It has been criticized numerous times by Christian organizations for its diabolic undertones and was dubbed a "mass murder simulator" by critic and Killology Research Group founder Lt. Col. David Grossman.{{ref|Grossman}} Doom prompted fears that the then-emerging virtual reality technology could be used to simulate extremely realistic killing, and in 1994 led to unsuccessful attempts by Washington state senator Phil Talmadge to introduce compulsory licensing of VR use.

Related Topics:
Violence - Gore - Satanic - Christian - Killology Research Group - Lt. Col. David Grossman - Virtual reality - 1994 - Washington - State senator - Phil Talmadge

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The game again sparked controversy throughout a period of school shootings in the United States when it was found that Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, who committed the Columbine High School massacre in 1999, were avid players of the game. While planning for the massacre, Harris said that the killing would be "like fucking Doom" and that his shotgun was "straight out of" the game{{ref|Columbine}}. A rumor spread afterwards that Harris had designed Doom levels that looked like the halls of the high school, populated with representations of Harris's classmates and teachers, and that Harris practiced for Columbine by playing these levels over and over. However, although Harris did design Doom levels, they were not simulations of Columbine (see Harris levels).

Related Topics:
School shooting - United States - Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold - Columbine High School massacre - 1999 - Harris levels

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Continued legacy

Doom is widely regarded as one of the most important titles in gaming history. It was voted the "#1 game of all time" in a poll among over 100 game developers and journalists conducted by GameSpy in July 2001{{ref|no1}}, and PC Gamer proclaimed Doom the most influential game of all time in its ten-year anniversary issue in April 2004. However, several game journalists have also contrasted the relatively simplistic gameplay in Doom unfavorably with more story-oriented first-person shooters such as Half-Life.

Related Topics:
Most important titles - GameSpy - July - 2001 - PC Gamer - April - 2004 - Half-Life

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Although the popularity of the Doom games dropped with the release of Quake (1996) and afterwards, the games have retained a strong fan base that continues playing competitively and creating WADs (the idgames FTP archive receives a few to a dozen new WADs each week as of 2005), and Doom-related news is still tracked at multiple websites such as Doomworld. Interest in Doom was renewed in 1997, when the source code for the Doom engine was released (it was also placed under the GNU General Public License in 1999). Fans then began porting the game to various operating systems, even to previously unsupported platforms such as the Dreamcast and the iPod, and adding new features such as OpenGL rendering and scripting, which allows WADs to alter the gameplay more radically. There are well over 50 different Doom source ports, some of which remain under active development.

Related Topics:
Quake - 1996 - WADs - As of 2005 - Doomworld - 1997 - Source code - GNU General Public License - 1999 - Porting - Dreamcast - IPod - OpenGL - Scripting - ''Doom'' source ports

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Devoted players have spent years creating speedruns for Doom, competing for the quickest completion times and sharing knowledge about routes through the levels and how to exploit bugs in the Doom engine for shortcuts. Achievements include the completion of both Doom and Doom II on the Ultra-Violence difficulty setting in less than 30 minutes each. In addition, a few players have also managed to complete Doom II in a single run on the Nightmare! difficulty setting, on which monsters are twice as fast and respawn some time after they have been killed (level designer John Romero characterized the idea of such a run as " impossible"{{ref|Nightmare}}). Movies of most of these runs are available from the COMPET-N website.

Related Topics:
Speedruns for ''Doom'' - Bug - John Romero - COMPET-N

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