How did Doom change gaming for you?

When Doom came out, i remember what grabbed me the most was the fps aspect of it, looking from behind the gun instead of from above, or watching a side scroll. On my forums, someone asked me what sets Doom apart from all others.. basicly he wanted to know "whats so special about Doom". It made me think, i know what i like about it, and what it did for gaming, for me. How about you? Where did you first see Doom, and what was your reaction to it? What caught your eye and what do you think makes Doom so great, after so many years. Theres gotta be some kind of formula, games just dont last as long as Doom has, so whats the catch, any ideas?

I had personally never felt so immersed in a dark, sci-fi environment. It was the best play ground for imagination I'd ever seen. Not to mention the gore, which was particularly cool back then.

Not to mention the gore, which was particularly cool back then.

Yea, that was definately an eye catcher back than. One perticular thing that kept happening to me was after playing for a few hours, my right eye would be solid blood red. It spooked the crap outta my wife. So, due to making my eye bleed, i would have to stop playing it for a while. After i felt "healed" i would only play untill i felt my eye gettin all fukked up again. Weird shit. I contributed it to the lighting effects and how fast i was moving around, it was almost like a strobe light goin off.

i remember when DooM just came out, my cousin getting the full edition. I wanted it too, but i had to just go to his house and play it. I think doom lasted this long because people could make their own WADs. That's what stuck to us all. Can we create new Star Wars levels? I think not, but lets not get into the DEEP discussion of star wars.

The dark atmosphere definitely. Not many games up 'till then had such a evil feel about them. The gothic textures, light effects, music, sounds, and the gore contributed greatly to that atmosphere.

I also enjoyed using realistic weapons (i.e. chainsaw, shotgun and rocket launcher) against foes, as opposed to the futuristic fantasy weapons of other games.

Plus, the fact you played YOURSELF in the game. Not some made up character you lived the game through, I think that made it much more immersive.

I know what you mean, the first time I played DOOM, it had a gloomy dark forbidding atmosphere, and the sound of a monster growling right around the corner; that is what got me hooked in to this genre.

Gamma control!

And plus you could size your screen to the fullest without anything in the way. Screw HUDs!

Just the astounding graphics, the gore, the awesome sound effects and the fact that you could literally feel that this was going to change gaming, no more samey platformers, no more lame 'mortal kombat is the best on the market!' as my friend regurigtated whenever i said i didnt like fighting games, the feeling that games where growing up with me, i was getting older, and games where no longer 'just for kids' (well, all the psycho 80's games like Custer's revenge notwithstanding)

When I first played Doom, it changed my perspective of gaming forever. Before, I was the all-too-common platformer fan of Sonic and Mario (still am, but not as much as before).

When I played Doom... man. Now look at my massive shooter collection, which even chronicles tons of non-Doom games: http://www.geocities.com/BBrown9326/shooters.html

So, yeah. I bet it was the dark atmosphere and stuff.

Holy shit on a stick, you people are still awake at 5:53 AM?

Never heard of time zones, then?

Before DooM the only FPS I played a bit was Wolfenstein 3D. But even that grew stale. All the levels were the same. The enemies were pretty much the same.

But then DooM came out. I was blown away. It was 3D, but rooms weren't square. There were steps! There were windows! The skies were photorealistic (as about as much as you could get back then)! The enemies and effects were better than anything ever seen! And I first saw all of this on a friend's 486 without any soundcard (so it was completely silent). After hearing the sound effects and music, it raised it's status up even further.

Other games came out around that time and TRIED to capture what DooM had. BlakeStone, Rise of the Triad, hell even Dark Forces (and to anyone who remembers all these games, you're truly a hardcore old-timer), all tried to capture what made DooM special. All of them failed (Dark Forces came close in its own way... but still fell a bit flat).

There is just something deeply satisfying about blowing an imp away with that shotgun. I don't know what it is. It's some sort of feedback you get deep down in your gut that no other game has been able to replicate.

-Jomero

Personally, it was the editing that did it for me; It opened some floodgates, I can tell you. Being on the OTHER side of a game can give some real insight as to what goes into them.

True, editing only furthered my love for DooM. But I was already hooked long before then.

The only problem with editing and truly diving into the game's ins and outs is that it forever takes away a lot the magic of the game. As Hagar from Voltron once said: "When magic is explained it is no longer magic." Once you get into editing your view of the game changes completely. It becomes more technical.

I do wish I still had my original levels I made for DooM. I still remember my very first level that I created with a Windows 3.1 editor (it pre-dated Deu... can't remember it's name. It was like WinEd or something). It wasn't the best, but I was proud of it.

Oher levels I made later were a little bit better. I remember one instance where I just messed with the player's minds. He'd grab a key from a tight hallway, but then the walls would drop and he'd hear two sounds: One of barons roaring, and the other of cacodemons hissing. The 2 barons were in cages, but they'd teleport out immediately. The player either didn't notice this because he was preoccupied with the cacos, or he'd eventually forget that they teleported out. By the time he's done and goes back to the beginning (which was a crossroads), he'd open a door and waiting for him (usually RIGHT at the door... the barons couldn't open it) were the barons.

Oh how I loved watching people jump every time that happened. And to make matters worse, if they ran straight backwards, they'd fall into a pit of lava which they'd have to teleport out of.... into the room the barons ported to! :-D

I was an evil, evil bastard!

-Jomero

First FPS I played was Duke3d. I liked it very much. Then a friend introduced me a game called Doom 2 when we were having a conversation about games. We went to his place and we played it. I loved the feeling of heavy armament on you (the marine couldn´t jump) and the sci-fi environment. It was great when you could just put your brains at ease and just prowl around the levels and take the keys from the glutches of the demons with a fair rocket-in-the-stomach-trade.

DMFDxUconn said:

When DooM came out, i remember what grabbed me the most was the fps aspect of it, looking from behind the gun instead of from above, or watching a side scroll.

Wolfenstein 3d pretty much did that for me, but as Jomero pointed out, Doom took the whole thing to a new level:
The guns were more varied, using different ammo types so that you wouldn't just use the best gun all the time after you got it, there were more enemies that were much more varied and with more personality, the environments were a lot more exciting and immersive and it had, omfg, LIGHTING (!!!).
The lighting really added to the immersiveness. I'd say it was the most important of elements to make the game atmospheric and immersive.

(That's why I think it's fitting that Doom 3's graphical revolution lies in its lighting).

Also, the sounds were much better, cooler and detailed, the music ten times more awesome to listen to than Wolf3d's and the addition of the "idle sounds" (monster growling) was certainly a big thing.

The list goes on, but I think Doom made me widen my creative perspective a lot. It inspired me on so many fronts and my demands as to what I wanted to see in computer games were raised to a new level.

Years ago, I first saw DOOM at my old dentist's house (his family is friends with mine), and i saw one of his kids playing Ultimate DOOM and oh my god was i just blown away on how the game looked. I never seen an fps at the time and the graphics, textures, lighting, monsters, and gameplay was all so more advanced that the usual sidescrolling games of Mario or Sonic. Got the Game ASAP the next day.

I like eggs! I want this post to go to my favorite place, POST HELL!!!

If there was no DOOM then I wouldn't be here.
If there was no DOOM then I wouldn't spend hours and hours of my life downloading people's stuff & creating my own stuff.
If there was no DOOM then I would've probably turned out to be a more outgoing person...
But I'm happy that DOOM came into existance, and I don't want to travel back in time to change history. What was meant to be was obviously meant to be. Never turn your back on destiny.
Peace.

P.S.: And why the HELL would you ever want such a classic & wonderful thread to go to POST HELL?

DarkJedi188 said:

P.S.: And why the HELL would you ever want such a classic & wonderful thread to go to POST HELL?

I agree. Why?

"Grr! Thou shalt not talk about DooM in thy DooM forums! How DARE you keep these classic games alive by sharing your thoughts and feelings on them!"

-Jomero

Darkhaven said:

Holy shit on a stick, you people are still awake at 5:53 AM?

Was up till 7AM here ;)

DarkJedi188 said:

P.S.: And why the HELL would you ever want such a classic & wonderful thread to go to POST HELL?

Cause he's a dumbass nooblet.

It was the first PC game besides solitare i EVER played and it stuck to me throughout the many years i've played it.

dsm said:

Wolfenstein 3d pretty much did that for me, but as Jomero pointed out, Doom took the whole thing to a new level:
The guns were more varied, using different ammo types so that you wouldn't just use the best gun all the time after you got it, there were more enemies that were much more varied and with more personality, the environments were a lot more exciting and immersive and it had, omfg, LIGHTING (!!!).
The lighting really added to the immersiveness. I'd say it was the most important of elements to make the game atmospheric and immersive.

(That's why I think it's fitting that Doom 3's graphical revolution lies in its lighting).

Also, the sounds were much better, cooler and detailed, the music ten times more awesome to listen to than Wolf3d's and the addition of the "idle sounds" (monster growling) was certainly a big thing.

The list goes on, but I think Doom made me widen my creative perspective a lot. It inspired me on so many fronts and my demands as to what I wanted to see in computer games were raised to a new level.

Perhaps DOOM's greatest graphical achievement -- diminished lighting.

I think the overall reason DooM stands up to this days is because it looked "complete". I mean, somehow,most recent 3d games, from quake to farcry, try to look realistic and fail to do so (each generation fails less and less), whereas doom had some sort of comic book feel, that it just was what it was. It didn't strive for realism, it achieved its own reality. Hard to explain, but i think that's it.

For me Doom was THE turning point in the history of videogames as we know them today.

Doom was released and wow'd the world... except Ken Silverman, who decided he could create a better engine and went on to create the BUILD engine. And so the graphical arms race began...

I totally agree--Doom was very original and way ahead of it's time--it turned the gaming world upside down--a revolution if you like. The long life is mainly due to the large community of fans in my opinion. People who play the game have kept it alive this long and it's also why such a simple game has evolved into things we see in deus vult and action doom etc

Doom didn't change my gaming at all. It began my gaming

Didn't really ;)

it waisted many years of my life... and it was great... it didnt change my gamming, cause it was pretty much the first game i ever played...