Best way to experience Doom 64 today?

EX, and on the original console with a curved CRT that's slightly green because it's starting to die.

I need to take notes for Doom Mapping. 

I think I reached the limit of "How many Pain Elementals is too many Pain Elementals?" 3 levels ago.

You know what the answer is: More Pain Elementals.

I did it. I beat DOOM64.

Only got two Demon Keys though. Guess I'm not a true Doomer q-q.

Anyway. It atleast had a decent boss fight unlike Spider Mastermind and the Icon of Sin.

I noticed that DOOM64 has level geometry that is flat out impossible in og, DOOM. That was interesting. Perhaps the DOOM64 engine allows a true 3d space?

I'd say for a DOOM game it's decent. Plays like Quake 1 too much for my liking though, not enough weapon feedback.

Maps are super pretty and detailed. The new enemy Sprites grew on me. Some didn't. E.G The Arachnotron and Imp.

I like how maps like MAP19 and 24 force you to keep moving and pick off your opponents one by one. And use them against each other.

If there's a downside; I'd say the Maps get a bit too samey? 

I really wish the terrain destruction effects were used more. 

13 minutes ago, Cerazor said:

I noticed that DOOM64 has level geometry that is flat out impossible in og, DOOM. That was interesting. Perhaps the DOOM64 engine allows a true 3d space?

Nope! It's all smoke and mirrors. And skillful level design.

The one thing it has for it is that it can render walls (and sprites) "behind" a lowered sky. This ability, combined with the sky hack, lets you see stuff both above and below a ceiling, but only in sectors where the ceiling is a sky. A good example of this is right at the start, the four hovering pads right at the entrance of Staging Area.

Another trick it uses is using macros to change a sector's floor and ceiling heights while you can't see it. This allows it to have sectors in both a "lower" position and an "upper" position and to make it feel like that you have room-over-room this way. In reality, playing the level in multiplayer would allow you to observe the fakery as another player goes through the stairway and you see the geometry sneakily reconfigure itself. Of course, Doom 64 does not support multiplayer...

I still happily play my Nintendo 64 cart on my Sony PVM. 

My preferred controls:

Analog stick for movement

Z to fire

A and B to cycle through weapons

C left and right to strafe

C down for action button

C up for map

Start for pause

It runs at a rock solid 30 FPS, which is almost unheard of for an early N64 game. 

The only pain in the ass is changing the brightness and controller settings every time you turn on the game. Saving to the memory card doesn't save user settings, which is dumb.

9 minutes ago, famicommander said:

 

The only pain in the ass is changing the brightness and controller settings every time you turn on the game. Saving to the memory card doesn't save user settings, which is dumb.

Yikes.

Also. DOOM64 doesn't have that weird nausea inducing warp to everythimg when you use Mouse look. Whats up with that?

Ahh that's just Doom64 EX using OpenGL. If you play Doom in a modern port (ie Zandronum) and select hardware rendering rather than software rendering, the world won't stretch and skew when you look around.

Explanation of the phenomenon: Y-shearing

DelphiDoom has some trickery to allow to eliminate that issue in software mode, despite not changing the rendering algorithm.

I can't be the only person here worried that Retribution might inevitably be faced with a cease and desist. 

On 8/20/2019 at 4:05 PM, Cerazor said:

Something about Doom 64 just feels off to me. It's not even Audrey Hodge's score. I wanna say it's something about the Weapon's, their sfx and feedback. I'll stick with it. 

Literally everything about Doom 64 feels off to me. It feels more like a half-baked Quake 1 clone than Doom. Glad other people like it though.

21 hours ago, Murdoch said:

It feels more like a half-baked Quake 1 clone than Doom.

I know right? 

But I can't help but feel it has some of the best level design of retail DOOM's.

There are aspects of the atmosphere and map design I like. I am tempted to try Retribution particularly due to the improved animation. I found many of the levels obtuse in design. I have not played it in years though, so this time around I might enjoy it.

But the Mancubus still looks like a giant mutant rodent.

On 9/9/2019 at 2:48 PM, Doomkid said:

Ahh that's just Doom64 EX using OpenGL. If you play Doom in a modern port (ie Zandronum) and select hardware rendering rather than software rendering, the world won't stretch and skew when you look around.

Almoat forgot to say thank you! I actually got super used to not using mouselook. Made sniping chaingunners in Plutonia very dicey.

It does make the game a bit... dark though...

On 8/23/2019 at 2:50 AM, seed said:

 

Mancubi*, same principle as succubus or incubus :p .

 

 

Yep. GEC PSX Doom/Doom 64 is meant to be a reverse-engineered source port of the games but running on an ancient version of GZDoom, unlike EX which is running on KEX. For a first try I'd recommend using one of them, then something else.

 

 

Why tho?

Sorry for late reply, friend. Thanks for explaining that about the Mancubi, it made me confused for a long time. i see English uses more Latin words than Spanish...

more

About the GEC Master Edition, I hate when people starts questioning about which is better or what's the difference between A or B for example. This Doom64 Master Edition was made for a personal cause, not for to say "Doom64 [GEC] Master Edition is the best way to experience Doom 64 nowadays" like other projects did.

If a person is gonna ask which is better or worst, better not play GEC Master Edition.

Absolution has certainly been made obsolete over the years, it was "this or nothing" for some time though- the only alternatives were the original cart, which means hardware too and dealing with the severe limitations it had, or emulation of which the N64 was/is a finicky system to find a good PC emulator for and the N64 controller was not good- it worked well for games designed for it(Zelda OOT) but we didn't get a great FPS controller until the Xbox. Absolution also locked a lot of stuff under requirements such as beating the game to get mouselook or other cheats enabled.

I know I had EX set up but can't recall if I ever played it. I have GEC now for the combo 64 & PSX in one package and they're good enough for me. I did try Retribution yesterday, I like the extra weapon animations but didn't really care for the new enemies- most looked like "Sonic" tier recolors or edits and often feel too powerful as they were mauling me too much in some levels. I know there are projects to do sprites for the missing enemies in this style, I'd prefer to see those instead of the Revenant being Tchernobog. The extra enemies need refinement, it's one area where improvement would be a major plus to the overall package.

Although I'm not a big fan of Doom 64, admittedly, I'm playing more out of curiosity but the level design is a big hit or miss for me now that I evaluate it after having skipped it over for years. Graphically the game looks good, I like the PS1 sounds/music even if I generally stick to the PC versions but the new monster designs, while many are nice, some are just a bit odd- Imp lacks a mouth and the Cacodemon looks like someone had this old Ghostbusters toy on hand when they drew it thanks to the oversized arms they glued on-

The game is also exceptionally dark by default and levels are a huge hit or miss for me. I really like some levels, while others have a horribly confusing layout that isn't helped by how dark they are- level 2 suffers from both in a bad way. A couple of levels have annoying puzzle rooms that, even with mouselook, are still tedious and far from fun, and on a console with no quicksave are even more hassle to deal with. Having to hunt down Unmaker keys with no hint where they are is more tedious than it should be and ultimately too easy to miss the things, forcing a full restart if you want them. While I intend to beat this playthrough I may not bother returning to Doom 64 for some time. I do consider it to be the weakest of the original Doom games.

Doom 64 in Doom 2 does away with the brightness issues, and the new music tracks are great, but it largely keeps the same level layout, it's a novelty to see everything done in a "what if this were like Final Doom as a retail expansion" manner but it still feels like more of a novelty project.

7 minutes ago, diosoth said:

I did try Retribution yesterday, I like the extra weapon animations but didn't really care for the new enemies- most looked like "Sonic" tier recolors or edits and often feel too powerful as they were mauling me too much in some levels. I know there are projects to do sprites for the missing enemies in this style, I'd prefer to see those instead of the Revenant being Tchernobog. The extra enemies need refinement, it's one area where improvement would be a major plus to the overall package.

What new enemies? Retribution is only the original roster. I think you have my TC confused with Brutal Doom 64 which does have enemies as you describe. I don't even include the enemies from the Absolution TC. Strictly original monsters only.

27 minutes ago, diosoth said:

The game is also exceptionally dark by default

It was entirely developed in a windowless room, with the ceiling lights off, the CRT screens being the only source of light. Being excessively dark in normal conditions was an inescapable consequence.

1 hour ago, diosoth said:

Off-topic: This toy looks beautiful <3

1 hour ago, diosoth said:

I know there are projects to do sprites for the missing enemies in this style

They are coming soon!