In the appendixes of Frank Herbert's Dune, the importance
of space travel on history is emphasized by the term being bolded and set
apart from the normal text. Accordingly, the video game which changed PC
gaming should thus be written:
================= =============== =============== ======== ========
\\ . . . . . . .\\ //. . . . . . .\\ //. . . . . . .\\ \\. . .\\// . . //
||. . ._____. . .|| ||. . ._____. . .|| ||. . ._____. . .|| || . . .\/ . . .||
|| . .|| ||. . || || . .|| ||. . || || . .|| ||. . || ||. . . . . . . ||
||. . || || . .|| ||. . || || . .|| ||. . || || . .|| || . | . . . . .||
|| . .|| ||. _-|| ||-_ .|| ||. . || || . .|| ||. _-|| ||-_.|\ . . . . ||
||. . || ||-' || || `-|| || . .|| ||. . || ||-' || || `|\_ . .|. .||
|| . _|| || || || || ||_ . || || . _|| || || || |\ `-_/| . ||
||_-' || .|/ || || \|. || `-_|| ||_-' || .|/ || || | \ / |-_.||
|| ||_-' || || `-_|| || || ||_-' || || | \ / | `||
|| `' || || `' || || `' || || | \ / | ||
|| .===' `===. .==='.`===. .===' /==. | \/ | ||
|| .==' \_|-_ `===. .===' _|_ `===. .===' _-|/ `== \/ | ||
|| .==' _-' `-_ `=' _-' `-_ `=' _-' `-_ /| \/ | ||
|| .==' _-' `-__\._-' `-_./__-' `' |. /| | ||
||.==' _-' `' | /==.||
==' _-' \/ `==
\ _-' `-_ /
`'' ``'
id Software's first self-published game rocked the gaming world with its
improvements over predecessor
Wolfenstein 3D and set the stage for
incredible
revolutions in the
PC gaming industry over the second half of
the
90s.
History
The first official release was made early in the morning on December 10, 1993. Eager gamers, having heard snippets about the game, logged into
anonymous FTP servers and waited for the game to be uploaded. So many
filled the main distribution site that id developers were denied access.
A quick phone call and the limit was raised. Users were downloading the
two 1.4 megabyte files before they were completely uploaded.
The software they downloaded changed the world. Where the flat, blocky
levels of Wolfenstein introduced the gaming community to id's creative and
technical skills, DooM shocked everyone with variable lighting,
non-orthogonal walls, stairs, traps, and -- in the mail order version --
the mother of all staffs of killeverything,
the BFG9000. The variety of hellspawn thrown at the player scared
many in ways they weren't expecting. (Who remembers the first time they
saw the enormous2, pink Demons or their semi-invisible3 brethren, Spectres?)
Less than a year later, a commercial shrink-wrapped "sequel" was
released with new levels, more weapons and eviler monsters. DooM II
became a popular multiplayer FPS -- for many players, their first taste of
a game which allowed more than two people to compete.
By the time DooM II was released, rumors were already circulating in
gaming magazines about the successor, a Gothic adventure set in a true 3D
world. But if not for DooM in its variety of forms, id Software would
never have transformed from the garage start-up to the champions of
PC gaming through the 90s.
The Game
As a penalized Space Marine, the player has been assigned to babysit a
military research facility on the Martian moons. The major scientific
project being studied involves inter-dimensional gateways. The gateways
get out of hand and open a portal to Hell.
The player's unit gets wiped out by the critters that poured out of the
gateway, and now it's time to push 'em back. The first of the three
episodes in DooM cover the Phobos research facility. The second and
third, which are purchased in the mail-order version of the game, force
the player to descend into Hell and teach the demons a lesson before they
come back.
After defeating the game, the player enters another
inter-dimensional portal that happens to leave back to Earth.
Unfortunately, the hellspawn got there first.
DooM II picks up immediately afterward, with the demon army trashing
Earth and leaving the player to pick up the pieces.
Responsible Parties
1 DOOM ASCII logo Copyright 1994 Frans P. de Vries. More info
available at http://www.gamers.org/~fpv/doomlogo.html
2 "Enormous" being a relative term. These creatures were significantly wider than any monster encountered thus far in the game.
3 Yes, vladkornea, invisible would be hard to see.