How much of a DOOM purist are you?

I would put myself around 4/10. I have three sourceports on my PC, namely Chocolate, ZDoom 2.7 and GZDoom. I can't touch Chocolate because DIMS and I usually play on ZDoom for a very particular, maybe "purist" reason: I want to play the games, or at least with the classic HUD on a 4:3 ratio. Take that HUD away and half of the magic is gone to me, and I couldn't bring myself to finish the vanilla games on GZDoom. When I want something a bit more heretical, I launch Brutal Doom on GZDoom, desactivate all the bullshit in the options and have fun with rechargeable weapons. Unfortunately it doesn't seem you can desactivate the bosses so I never finish an episode that way.

10 hours ago, Scorpinax said:

Some things to consider:

-do you play with autoaim or do you use mouselook?

-do map sets that incorporate jumping and crouching as something you HAVE to do bother you? 

-does it bother you if a map set has some things in it that don't perfectly fit the DOOM style?

-do scaled sprites bother you?  Do you want everything that old doom pixel way? 

-Do custom monsters or weapons affect your enjoyment of the wad you're playing?

-do you prefer the music to be MIDI?

I play on autoaim on ZDoom, not only because it feels like the intended way to play the game but also because I consider autoaim as a good alternative to freelook. To me Doom is less about shooting and more about surviving, intelligent movement and overall the decyphering of a locked level. Maybe some kind of hybrid between survival horror and a shooter.

I don't freelook so I'd rather have maps with no jump. But jumping is a gameplay mechanic which can have some purpose if it's more than a useless hump that you have do not to get punished and if the level mapper incorporated it in an intelligent way. Non-automated crouching is useless and dumb IMHO.

Total conversions and sprite changes don't bother me as long as there is a logic to it. For instance, I'd gladly play some Doom wad of The Citadel if the weapons and level design were interesting. People aren't afraid anymore of Archviles and talk about them like jaded surgeons talk about yesterday's mangled corpse. Shaking things a little like for instance Eviternity did is good. But once again, it has to be done in a good way by the modder and not be some frankenmod.

As for the music, I think it's more a matter of it fitting in the mood than the quality of it. MIDI files tend to go very well with the game and support that unique 90s PC game ambiance. But after looking at Icarus review of Sigil I think the Buckethead soundtrack gave an exceptional ambiance to Hell that is worth exploring. Also the best way to play Underhalls is with babyonemoretime.wav, fight me.

I keep repeating the same thing. If it is done in a tasteful and intelligent way, it's good. If it's throwing things together with no taste, no logic, and no goal, then it's not. If it's the same thing all over again, then it's boring. The most memorable works in all domains come from material or arbitrary limitations, as these give focus and allow the realization of the potential of each ingredient. Doom is incredibly well-paced, has an incredibly diverse roster and mechanics while being fairly straightforward. It's a good foundation to build on, but you still have to build something which is the continuation of the Doom rules, not a chaotic charge that looks like a cool idea if you squint really hard, or trying to make it another game it is not. Then it's nothing.

Overall I think Doom is more about an ambiance and a playstyle than "doing things the 93 way". I was playing Vanilla Doom as a elementary school kid as early as 97 and we didn't do it the 93 way. We didn't deathmatch, we didn't know about Quakecon, we weren't listening to metal nor worshipping John Romero, and we sure didn't find Cacodemons cute. Kids don't do this, they just wanted the Doom thingie or the more salacious Duke Nukem thingie. Seriously I learned about Ion Storm only years after finishing Deus Ex, and I didn't know that unplayable dll missing demo of Daikatana that intringued me so much was linked to the Mane King himself. And yet we were playing the Vanilla Doom on keyboard-only, how much more purist than that can you get?

What I mean is that I don't think there never was a proper way to play Doom and that the purism doesn't make sense. Even your perception of Doom is yours and yours alone, not matter if you bought the PC box, downloaded it or got a sourceport bundled with Brutal Doom. To me, Doom is a violent survival horror set in an unstable reality, and I always saw the game as some kind of SciFi Berserk. I mean, Doomguy and Guts even have the same smile:
 

Make Doom yours and your interpretation of it yours. Because your experience of one of the most solid game of all times in both art and gameplay is, in the end, only yours.

Only rule I have is whatever I want to play has to work in PrBoom+, make of that what you will.

I'm not sure what I'd put myself on a number scale, so I'll just answer the "things to consider" from your post~

-do you play with autoaim or do you use mouselook?

Autoaim! I'll only look up and down if a wad requires it, but I do prefer if I don't have to look up and down--it's not a dealbreaker though.

-do map sets that incorporate jumping and crouching as something you HAVE to do bother you? 

Not really. Again, it's nice if I don't have to jump and crouch, but it's not a dealbreaker, especially if it's a TC I don't care since it's not DOOM to begin with in that manner, but if a wad wants it, I don't freak out about it. It's a bonus to me if I don't have to have those on of course lol.

-does it bother you if a map set has some things in it that don't perfectly fit the DOOM style?

Honestly, it can be amusing lol, so no it doesn't bother me. 

-do scaled sprites bother you?  Do you want everything that old doom pixel way? 

Either way is fine honestly.

-Do custom monsters or weapons affect your enjoyment of the wad you're playing?

Nope! It can be extra fun!

-do you prefer the music to be MIDI?

Yes. Although non-MIDI music is not a dealbreaker, I really LOVE maps that use MIDI files. Not only does it keep the wad smaller, but you can change how the music sounds depending on the MIDI engine you're rendering with, which is so cool. I love using the engines that give off an older feel. 

12 hours ago, Scorpinax said:

On a scale of one to ten, how purist are you when it comes to your preferred way of playing classic DOOM? 

1- will play anything with the doom engine

10- absolute purist, classic controls only, no extra enemies/weapons/mechanics

 

Some things to consider:

-do you play with autoaim or do you use mouselook?

-do map sets that incorporate jumping and crouching as something you HAVE to do bother you? 

-does it bother you if a map set has some things in it that don't perfectly fit the DOOM style?

-do scaled sprites bother you?  Do you want everything that old doom pixel way? 

-Do custom monsters or weapons affect your enjoyment of the wad you're playing?

-do you prefer the music to be MIDI?

 

I'm curious because I've seen it both ways here.

I'm like a 8.5

• I always play in DOSBox if possible, using either vanilla or Doom-plus (sometimes I'll play on PrBoom-plus or Eternity, mostly for stuff like Ancient Aliens or Sunlust, also zdaemon and zandro for multiplayer with the USDQC, with as vanilla settings as possible)
• I almost ALWAYS use vertical autoaim
• I prefer maps that don't require jumping, that belongs more in Quake imo
• I don't mind if a WAD departs from Doom's style, but I have a bias towards vanilla/some limit-removing WADS
• Fuck scaled sprites, the fuck is wrong with you? 
• I honestly don't mind custom weapons/monsters at all (I fucking love Doomkid's Rowdy Rudy II), as long as they're via dehacked instead of decorate and I can run it in vanilla/limit-removing ports
• I think most of the time yes, unless it's the Buckethead soundtrack for SIGIL. Those tracks give a very unique feel, like a final odyssey through hell's deepest circle

12 hours ago, Scorpinax said:

-do you play with autoaim or do you use mouselook?

-do map sets that incorporate jumping and crouching as something you HAVE to do bother you? 

-does it bother you if a map set has some things in it that don't perfectly fit the DOOM style?

-do scaled sprites bother you?  Do you want everything that old doom pixel way? 

-Do custom monsters or weapons affect your enjoyment of the wad you're playing?

-do you prefer the music to be MIDI?

I don't use a mouse. I rarely look up or down. When I'm actually on a port that supports manual vertical aim, I don't use it.

I do not play maps that require jumping or crouching, but their existence doesn't exactly bother me.

I prefer maps that do fit the Doom style, but not at the absolute expense of playing those that don't

I don't really need everything that old Doom pixel way.

I generally dislike custom monsters and weapons.

Doom music was a huge factor of my enjoyment in the 90s, but today I care very little about it, and I only listen to the Doom music if I'm recording someone else's wad. Otherwise I put on my own and turn the music volume off.

So that's probably 6-8.

40 minutes ago, HAK3180 said:

I don't use a mouse.

Really? Dude, you must be really quick with your fingers to have such mad skills with keyboard only! I could never play that well using only the keyboard. 

23 minutes ago, spd7693 said:

 

Really? Dude, you must be really quick with your fingers to have such mad skills with keyboard only! I could never play that well using only the keyboard. 

maybe he uses a joystick lol

24 minutes ago, spd7693 said:

Really? Dude, you must be really quick with your fingers to have such mad skills with keyboard only! I could never play that well using only the keyboard.

1 minute ago, OpenRift said:

maybe he uses a joystick lol

I use only the keyboard. But in considering the "madness" of my skills, realize that I'm not a WASD+mouser who lost his mouse the other day and now has to do it this unfamiliar way temporarily. Rather, I've had the same keyboard only setup for nearly 20 years.

9 minutes ago, HAK3180 said:

Rather, I've had the same keyboard only setup for nearly 20 years.

That was what I was talking about. I remember doing it that way and I was very clumsy. Eventually I did switch to mouse movement and I suddenly started doing things in a way I never imagined. I remember all of that - arrows for moving, Spacebar for doors and switches, numbers for weapons, Ctr for shooting, Alt for strafe run, Shift for run. And Tab for automap of course. I also have played games in the DOS times. I played all of my first Doom that way. I just eventually discovered I could use the mouse and found it easier. 

I also have to note at some point when I switched to my old Toshiba in 2011, the fourth year of usage, the left arrow broke down. So I had to do things on a separate keyboard. Then is when I started using ASDW more often. I don't know how it all happened. For me the switch from DOS gaming to mouse gaming was so drastic that I never understood how I immediately found myself more comfortable in the latter. 

@spd7693, I think it's all about a comfortable setup. When I first played Doom, it was in DOS and I had no idea how to customize controls, so I was really bad at Doom. That all changed when I bought Collector's Edition and starting Dooming from Windows. I tried out a keyboard setup that was similar to what I was using for emulated NES and SNES, and I improved immediately. I have also played mostly on laptops since then, so there was often not a mouse to be found even if I had wanted one. 

15 hours ago, Biodegradable said:

I prefer to play with GZDoom because I love the OpenGL screen support and dynamic lighting, but I do prefer to keep texture filtering off because Doom's more crispy old-school pixel art looks much better without it. I love playing with gameplay[snip]

pretty much what you said. i use gzdoom because it runs pretty much every map, had good graphics and crisp controls. mouselook because i like being in control and no mlook feels weird to me (i oviously played vanilla first but since quake i like to be able to move my neck). jumping and crouching - when they're necessary.  i play in 1440p because that's my monitor's native resolution (perhaps down to 1080p for some slaughter maps lol). i'm all for custom monsters and weapons but they have to fit the game and not stick out like a sore thumb, or break maps. don't care about the format as long as the music is good.

My scale it's around 2 or 3 lol. I really enjoy Total Conversions or full gameplay wads that's changes Doom.

-do you play with autoaim or do you use mouselook?

30% AutoAim, 70% Mouselook, autoaim if im playing a mostly Vainilla map or wanna do a less challenge map, but Mouselook mostly as that's how im playing a lot of FPS.

-do map sets that incorporate jumping and crouching as something you HAVE to do bother you? 

Only if the mapper does bad implementation of thoses mechanics, like say, jumping a lot of small plataforms with not so much space to land to get to a level door or secret, for example, Extermination Day MAP 13 OR 14 if i remember correctly. 

-does it bother you if a map set has some things in it that don't perfectly fit the DOOM style?

Nah, mapper imaginantion and implementation should be extended more on how we want to create instead of being specific to Doom, but if the mapper want it to fit in the Doom Style, im sure he will get a lot of praise too.

-do scaled sprites bother you?  Do you want everything that old doom pixel way? 

Vainilla Scaled spirtes look's weird in comparation to old pixel, but some .wads that uses 3D weapons or custom monsters sprites, have good looking scaled prites, so, just personal preference on how it's loooking on my PC.

-Do custom monsters or weapons affect your enjoyment of the wad you're playing?

No, and im sure i'm not enjoy it some map sets if they not had like custom monster, like Cyber Baron of Evil Marines.

-do you prefer the music to be MIDI?

If the map it's done by .MIDI yes, but im not trouble with .MP3, unless it's have a really high size!

prboom complevel 2 or chocolate doom. Nothing with Z in it installed.

@HAK3180 Yeah, now I understand how I actually came up playing more often with a mouse. Because I played a lot of RTS games as well, especially StarCraft. And in RTS games you have to be skilled with it and constantly have your left hand on the keyboard and your right on the mouse and act quickly. BTW, that's how I learned to spider-handle a keyboard. I have relatively big hands (and I'm 6' tall), which also helps me as an adult. Hell, I can type "Bruce Dickinson" with one hand only and even not move it. Except my fingers of course.  

1 or 2 sometimes i leave baddies to live but that's only in place were there too many to comprehend

but yeah pretty much 1 or 2

also because i like shooting demons in the face with the super shotgun 

3 minutes ago, Doomduck12367 said:

1 or 2 sometimes i leave baddies to live but that's only in place were there too many to comprehend

but yeah pretty much 1 or 2

also because i like shooting demons in the face with the super shotgun 

Wut

oh i thinking something else

1 minute ago, Doomduck12367 said:

oh i thinking something else

i like LZDoom

and keyboard only so

5/10

1 minute ago, Doomduck12367 said:

oh i thinking something else

OP was asking how closely to adhere to "classic" Doom gameplay, not how much of of a sadist you are to the poor demons :P

Just now, TheMagicMushroomMan said:

OP was asking how closely to adhere to "classic" Doom gameplay, not how much of of a sadist you are to the poor demons :P

i know that now

I think I am somewhat purist but it depends on the definition I suppose. But to clarify, I use either GzDoom or Prboom since they are just easy to use and don't require anything more than drag-and-drop to play.

Beyond that though I don't use freelook, nor jump/crouch (unless the wad requires it).

I generally speaking don't like custom weapons or mods that change the weapons sprite/behavior since to me Doom is all about the feel of the weapons, changing that is almost sacrilegious to me.

Once in a while I will try BrutalDoom or wads that have extensive changes to it but it soons tires me out so I will go back to the more vanilla stuff.

So yeah, not sure where that places me on that scale but for OG Doom I am definitely on the more puritan side.

However, I am definitely not purist when it comes to the newer games since I think Id should evolve and change it up. Overall I like Eternal and the DLC (though I dont agree with everything but that's for a different topic.

I'm probably a 7. 

My favorite source port is (gl)prboom+ although I do sometimes use crispy doom for vanilla stuff. Mouse aiming is a no go for classic-style wads. I do bind left-alt to mouse look if I want to look at something more intently, but it's not gameplay related. I do like the option that gives knights green blood, cacos blue, and lost souls no blood. Usually with Doom 2 compatibility, unless it's a newer project that uses lots of Boom stuff. 

I usually play at 70fps on a CRT monitor. Multiples of 35fps make the most sense because Doom's tick rate is 35. My setup has three 20" 4:3 monitors in a row. Even if I used a 16:9 monitor, I would still use 4:3. Maybe if I played some heavily modified Zdoom mods I would consider 16:9. 4:3 just looks right. My most common resolution is 1600x1200. The highest I can go up to is 2048x1536. [Plug] I do stream, so having multiple monitors is nice. [Plug]

I have two versions of gzdoom. One has very classic settings: no mouse aiming, no jumping, no crouching, no particles, no dynamic lights, strafing and turning bound for sr-50, no decals, and strict compatibility setting.

DEFINITELY no texture filtering in any port. 

The other has pretty typical GZDoom settings. While I mostly play classic-style level sets, I do love the very creative ZDoom-style projects and play them sometimes. "Purity" is not an issue once you dive into that realm. It's all about what the devs intended. 

I don't like Brutal Doom... Or really any gameplay mod. I respect them- they have a lot of fine work put into them, but it's hard for me to willingly ruin a map author's design by playing with such mods. Also, Brutal Doom just feels sadistic. I'm all for a blood mod that turns the visceral up to 11, and Brutal Doom delivers that; but do the imps really have to scream? Brutal Doomguy's personality is just really off-putting, not fun. 

I do plan on playing Roguelike Arsenal with a full Oblige megawad. It makes sense. I wouldn't want to ruin a good megawad and the roguelike nature fits well with AI generated maps. If I die. Game-over. Permadeath. 

I usually do it like this:
If a mapset/megawad is vanilla, then I just boot up my DOS PC and play it there.
On anything else - anything goes.

@VonHeer Gee willikers, how did you get FOUR PVM's?

i like jump and crouch :D also i like gzdoom hd filters and easy moddability

3 hours ago, VonHeer said:

I'm probably a 7. 

Oh wow, I just love that setup you have going there. Is that dwarf fortress? And I see some smash amiibos I think, very aesthetically pleasing and I imagine a very 90s experience for doom haha.

@Vic Vos

@Scorpinax

I can't really imagine playing retro games on anything other than a CRT. I got most of my PVMs while working at a university surplus store. I also got lucky getting other monitors for cheap or for free. The most I've spent ($150) is on my main PC monitor- a Viewsonic P225f. It does 2048x1536@75hrz. Really amazing how well it holds up to (and in some ways over performs) today's displays. Check out r/crtgaming for more freaks like me. :)

Yep, it's a world map from Dwarf Fortress that I use for my background. My main games that I intend to play on my streaming channel *cough* plug *cough* is Doom and Dwarf Fortress. Maybe Super Smash Bros Melee. I have a pretty mean Luigi. My stream embraces the CRT AESTHETIC pretty well.

To stay on topic. Doom is great on a CRT. I guess that gives me some purity points. Although the first time I played Doom was on a shitty early 2000s Toshiba Satellite laptop with a terrible LCD that displayed Doom in the wrong aspect ratio. Doom 95. Windows XP. Keyboard only. Kinda nostalgic for me but I wouldn't be able to stand that today. 

Below is another view of my setup. I am in the slow process of "completing" my setup. All of my consoles will be able to be put on any display in RGB quality, using Extron matrix switchers. I will be able to put my computer's output on any display too. I'll be making a block diagram soon to keep track of the setup, cus it's gonna get very very complicated. What fun.

Also is a picture of my CRTs in storage. Most of these I want to sell.

Edit: I guess it's very decadent that I use four PVMs just to raise two of my PC monitors. But it works.

Depends on the WAD, on anything that's not for GZD i default to something close to the original, using either PrBoom+ or a GZD version i have with the vanilla compat settings on to make it close to the original behaviour, with no freelook or jumping, autoaim is on, and i play with a low resolution with software mode since i like the pixelated look of the game. 

On GZD maps i don't play like that, no vanilla compat settings, freelook and jumping are fair game, no more autoaim and i don't use a low pixelated resolution nor software.

TBH i enjoy playing both on a classic and a more modern way, i have no problem switching between those 2 styles or anything different, it all comes to what the WAD asks and requires.

On 11/2/2020 at 10:54 AM, Mr. Duk said:

I don't like Crispy Doom, I prefer to have widescreen 1080p and an unlocked framerate. The 35fps hurts my eyes in 2020.

Crispy does have uncapped frame rate and widescreen rendering (though no 1080p, granted).

To be honest, I guess I'm the only one with the biggest grip about GZDoom or any source port with OpenGL settings is the sprite clipping issues.