Doom Turns Nine

Well, I'm not sure if Ling wants me to do this, but he's not around and it's past midnight, so I'd just like to quickly make note that the game we all know and love is nine years old today. As is the usual for a birthday update, I'll just go over some of the history of Doom to the best of my knowledge. Feel free to post comments such as your first time playing Doom, fondest memories, the times it scared the crap out of you and the like.

So of course the release was in 1993. Doom pretty much revolutionized first person shooter games when it came out. Not only was the world truly immersive, but finally free of right angles and single floor and ceiling heights. Everything about it pushed the limits of games at the time. On top of that, people found ways to build levels, add new graphics, change the sounds, add new music and create entirely new games on their own. People found ways to push the limits of the engine that id had never imagined. It even got a few people jobs in the industry. Another first time aspect of the game was the concept of deathmatch. Now you could get together with your buddies and frag each other until you puked.

After that there were sequels, and many, many projects and megawads. Web sites like Doomworld were created. Other games like Quake and Duke3D came into the picture, but Doom was still tops for many. And then there was the source release.

Arguably the single most important event in Doom history since the creation of Doom, the source release has spawned numerous source ports. Ports such as Legacy, Boom and WinDoom were released. Some of them evolved into things like MBF, SMMU, Eternity, prBoom or ZDoom. And yet still ports allowing Doomers features they had never seen before came to be. Playing Doom in OpenGL or with TCP/IP support was now a reality. Indeed, the source release gave Doom new life, and is one of the major reasons the game still remains popular.

What does the future hold? id, the original creators, announced Doom 3 a while back. The game, like the original, features a cutting edge engine like nothing seen before. As for classic Doom, it's not going anywhere any time. Many, many projects show great promise, and source ports are improving and adding features and optimizations all the time. Yes folks, the last nine years have been something all right.