Best Memories of Classic Doom

When I was a kid, there were these stands with single-package shareware games on 3.5" floppies. They didn't cost a lot, so I could get a lot of cool games with my allowance! There was one in my local book store, and that's where I found the first Commander Keen games, among others. 

Naturally, I also got the shareware version of Doom, and played through the episode (certainly on ITYTD). I remember wanting to unlock the other episodes, and I got the full game from my dad as a birthday present! Later I got Doom II for Christmas, on cd-rom no less!

Well, the memory that sticks the most with me about Doom is from E1M8. Specifically the wake-up sound of the two Barons! That sound still takes me back to young me jumping in my seat and panicking because the big bads made such a hellish sound! It's still one of my favorite sounds in Doom :)

When I finally had a PC fast enough to play Doom, in color and with proper Sound Blaster 16 (that huge card) sound. The previous one ran Doom at 2 fps and the monitor was black and white (with analog knobs... now that's some old shit right there). It didn't have a soundcard so it was all loud-ass PC Speaker sounds. It was an amazing experience not only for Doom but for all the DOS games I was playing at the time. It made the games come to life.

Personally, my best doom memory was creating my first level. It was mediocre, I felt the need to hide everything you need to progress (keys, switches, doors, etc.) in the form of some absurd secret, but I didn't know better.

Playing with my father when I was a little 4yo rising doomer, and now playing with him online. He was my teacher back then, and now I'm his. This game means so much.

Beating Thy Flesh Consumed. More specifically, E4M2. That was difficult, and beating it was fun! Now, with beating BTSX, I'd probably be able to play it without getting hit. LoL

I remember I first played Doom through Steam, buying the classic Doom collection for like five dollars. Had no idea what I was doing but instantly jumped into The Ultimate Doom and messed around. I don't remember how but I ended up in one of the levels of Thy Flesh Consumed. I think it was E4M5. So yeah, playing They Flesh Consumed through DOSbox, not knowing what was going on. 

Don't know if it counts as my BEST memory, but the strongest one at the very least:

I was 7 or 8 years old. I was at a friends house, we had been playing outside all day, except for some Punch Out on the NES (Mike Tyson's). It started getting late and my dad was gonna pick me up soon. We went to pat my friends cat and we heard some videogame noise from their computer room. (Everyone who had a computer had a special room for it at this time)

We went in and we saw that his older brother was playing some fantastic looking game. It was Doom. He showed us the game and he used cheat codes to show us the weapons. We were hypnotized by it! So he played some levels, and I have to tell you: I don't know if this was Doom1 or Doom2. In my mind I see him playing Map02 of Doom 2, and this was in 94 or 95 so it could very well have been Doom2. Then he brought up a strange weapon that wiped out every fucking thing on screen. He said (in Swedish) "Know what this one is called? The BFG". And we said "What does that mean?" And he said (In English) BIG FUCKIN' GUN!

I'll never forget that.

18 hours ago, N1ck said:

I remember I first played Doom through Steam, buying the classic Doom collection for like five dollars. Had no idea what I was doing but instantly jumped into The Ultimate Doom and messed around. I don't remember how but I ended up in one of the levels of Thy Flesh Consumed. I think it was E4M5. So yeah, playing They Flesh Consumed through DOSbox, not knowing what was going on. 

What made you randomly buy an ancient game of Steam? Were you aware about Doom being the Holy Grail and you wanted to try it? Or was it just pure luck?

One of my favorite memories of DOOM was actually when we were kids, my bro and I watched my dad co-op with his brother. We thought it was so exciting that dad could play with our uncle, even though they were not in the same room! So it was like an exciting event. We sat in the computer room. Our uncle would quickly call the landline to let him know he is ready to connect (you definitely want to do this before you connect, 'cause dial-up lol). It was just a lot of fun watching them play together. Those game nights were always like a major event for us!

Bonus honorable mentions... I remember as a kid when I first watched my dad play it, I found it to be really scary lol. Well what do you expect a little girl to think? lol. But I also found it fascinating, so I always watched him play it. When I was a bit older, I think around 8-ish or so, is when he let me play the game myself. He was like "you want to try? here..." and sets me up on my first game. I was a bit hesitant at first since I still found the game scary, even though I was used to FPS games (I loved playing Jedi Knight, Unreal, UT99 etc....). That was a fun switch where it became me playing the game and him watching. And of course, I got used to booting up the game myself, and my bro would watch me. He didn't get into playing DOOM 'till much later (and out of the 3 of us, he loves it the most). But I just remember even though I got to really enjoy the game, I still had an uneasy feeling. I mean the game still is capable of scaring me to this day, but I love it, it's so cool to play a character that will face demons head on with no fear. I like that. Haha I still remember when I first played the Mancubus level and was like horrified at those ugly things lol. Or using the walk through wall cheat on the Icon of Sin level wondering "what the heck??" when I saw the head, and my dad was like "that's probably one of the staff" (and it was lol, freakin' Romero). Haa... good times...

5 hours ago, Old-Doomguy said:

 

What made you randomly buy an ancient game of Steam? Were you aware about Doom being the Holy Grail and you wanted to try it? Or was it just pure luck?

Bit of both but mainly luck. Of course I had heard of Doom before this point but for some reason I was just saying in my head "Hell yeah man". It was all down hill from there.

Edit: Actually, now thinking about it, I think it was the middle of the Doom 2016 craze. I knew my PC couldn't run it, so I just bought the original.

being a kid and typing

cd doom2

doom2

and having a blast

What are the best memories you have of any doom game? 

Chex Quest was the first game to glue me to a computer. My brother and I must have played it and Chex Quest 2 dozens and dozens of times on our old Compaq.

The first time I played, it was bright and colorful 3D. I don't remember if I played it before Turok or not, but it's rendering of an (allegedly) real space was just something I'd never witnessed before.

Other than that, I found wandering through Downtown in Doom II to be oddly comforting, not like most people perceived it at all.

Playing Doom and Doom II as a kid when the stock games were still very fresh and immersive - not that they've lost those qualities as such, but being younger it felt more realistic.

Exploring the custom WADs that were on my computer around the same time, which I think came from Maximum Doom, lots of classics like Crossing Acheron, Deimos Subway, Trinity etc.

Playing Final Doom for the first time much later.

Doom 3 coming out and being absolutely terrifying at the time.

First experiencing WADs like Alien Vendetta, Scythe II, Demon Eclipse, Equinox, Dark7 and others when I started really delving into what was out there in the late 2000s.

Spending like an entire summer in 2009 playing Armageddon Invasion on Skulltag.

I bought the Playstation port before I bought a Playstation. I remember buying it the day it came out in mid November 1995 and didn't actually get a Playstation until a few months later. I did however rent a Playstation, which some people may remember used to be a thing you could do at Blockbuster (I never had to pay the deposit as I knew someone that worked at my local Blockbuster). I thought the Playstation port was pretty amazing for the time, and continued to play it well through the 90s even as FPS's advanced.

Another good memory to daisy chain off of the above is I actually managed to play two-player on the Playstation port. I purchased the Link Cable, had a friend that had the game & a PS1, and he lugged his console and game to my house. We dragged two TVs together, hooked everything up, and... was playing multiplayer console Doom; the first time I had actually played Doom multiplayer.

First time I played Doom ever was when I bought it on Steam a couple years ago. Rainy day, cleaning my room which meant my desk was basically in the middle of my room, and I was in Thy Flesh Consumed's 6th-ish map because I was messing around with idclev. All of this was through DOSbox. Probably my favorite Doom related memory; either this or playing an early version of Bloodicide before it used Supercharge as a gameplay base.

(Correct me if I used the semicolon wrong I've been awake for like 20 hours.)

I have fond memories of playing Chosen and Sin City as a kid in 2013-4.

Deathmatch on e1m1 with friends at my parents house when I was a kid.  We started calling one of our friends "Rocket Man" because he always liked grabbing the rocket launcher, running up to you, and pulling the trigger until somebody died.  Fun times.

Beating Doom 1, especially first time beating E1M8 and E3M8. With hindsight, Dis is incredibly underwhelming, but I felt awesome finishing it the first time. 

Also beating Scythe and Demonfear in the same weekend, the first two PWADS I'd ever completed front to back. Both are very nostalgic and probably up there with Ancient Aliens and TNT: Revilution as my favorite wads ever. 

First time beating Plutonia and Doom 64 meant a lot to me as well. Both IWADs in Final Doom and Doom 64 have this journey like quality, they're always very satisfying to complete because of it. Though they can't top the Ultimate Doom as my favorite Doom game.

Oh and the first time playing Equinox was very special, and introduced me to one of my favorite mappers ever.

 Thanks for this thread, feels good to remember the fun I've had. 

My first time playing through the Community is Falling series, I have a weakness for games involving internet meta humor so it was a fun experience.