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schmerr

What was your first experience with Doom?

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My first experience with Doom was in 1996, I was in 6th grade and man was it the best thing ever. It was Doom 2 (I was introduced to Doom 2 before Doom) I remember being in school and it was all I could think of through out the day. Then I came across Doom Mania, Thats where I played Doom(1) for the first time (shareware). Some time later I saw it at Blockbuster Video on SNES and like every Friday for a couple years me and some friends would rent it and have a fat sleep over and play Doom late into the night. ahhh.. The good ol' days.

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Early shareware Doom. I remember reading promos for Doom on one of the shareware game exit screens, don't remember which one. But my Dad grabbed the demo off the BBS as he was wont to at the time. That's how we saved a lot of money on games, by just cycling through the shareware releases, especially Apogee stuff. To date the only games I think we registered were Doom, Wolfenstein 3d and Halloween Harry / Alien Carnage. Oh, and Blake Stone.

My Dad wouldn't let me play it at first, but I got to soon after, I just don't remember when. I remember the Barons being intimidating just because they didn't die in a single rocket hit and I spent a lot of time using idbehold l and iddqd, and finding it weird that the death room in E1M8 ate through iddqd but not idbehold v. The abstract architecture of E1M8 impressed me most out of any of the levels, and I'm pretty sure I got lost a lot in E1M7.

I was kind of obsessive-compulsive while playing, too. I'd fire off rounds to pick up unused ammo just to make sure that every pickup at the level's end had already been picked up.

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My first experience with Doom was me starting the game on E1M1. What else could be said?

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When I was about 4, my dad bought a computer back home, and it was the first computer ever used by us. I am not sure why there's a doom in the computer, my dad said that a friend of him installed it for a child of having fun, and this child is probably me.

My first time playing is E1M1 in doom, I was amazed by the beaufiful techbase. At that time I was new in doom so I just play on "ITTYD" skill. I remember that I was killed mysteriously in E1M6, which I don't know that a spectre is attacking me.

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I remember playing with my Uncle a long long time ago, and constantly killing him in co-op because I was too trigger happy with the BFG.

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Chex Warrior said:

I remember playing with my Uncle a long long time ago, and constantly killing him in co-op because I was too trigger happy with the BFG.


...and a ZDaemon Brit10 griefer was born ;-)

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I couldn't really say, actually. It must have been 1995 maybe? All I know is I was very young, enough to where I'm surprised I remember as much as I do. Anyways, somebody must have been playing, because I somehow ended up playing it. I roamed around in the first area of E1M1 (blue carpeted room and armor room). Eventually I decided to move onto the next area. I saw a Zombieman. I ran back into the beginning room and hid behind one of the "pillars". I don't recall if he made it to me or not, but I'm sure he would have killed me. I played it a few more times later on, but it never really caught my attention.

About 6 or 7 years ago, my neighbor of the time showed me ZDaemon. It was pretty much the first time I had ever played a game online, or a game with user-created content. Got hooked. That's pretty much where it really started for me. Made me get into modding, FPS's, PCs, most of my interests I have now. Go Doom or something.

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My first experience? Just a picture found in a game magazine: A shotgun blasting an imp. I was amazed. I WANTED that game. (i think that was '93)

A few months later, my cousing told me: "ey, i bought a PC (486) and im playing a cool game".

When i saw that game he told, yes, it was DooM. I was in a sock, the game was as perfect as i could imagine from the first picture.

And the first map i played, was e3m1. But for some reason, i can only remember playing e3m2, the hand-mapped was a shock for me. So scary. So great! :)

I needed to wait until snes doom to play it on my own. But that was change afterward with my pentium. And DooM II was my first pc game to test it! :)

(The loudspikers where so loud from the shop, that the first blast of supershotgun almost give to me an heartbreak!!!)

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Naitguolf said:

My first experience? Just a picture found in a game magazine: A shotgun blasting an imp. I was amazed. I WANTED that game. (i think that was '93)

A few months later, my cousing told me: "ey, i bought a PC (486) and im playing a cool game".

When i saw that game he told, yes, it was DooM. I was in a sock, the game was as perfect as i could imagine from the first picture.

And the first map i played, was e3m1. But for some reason, i can only remember playing e3m2, the hand-mapped was a shock for me. So scary. So great! :)

I needed to wait until snes doom to play it on my own. But that was change afterward with my pentium. And DooM II was my first pc game to test it! :)

(The loudspikers where so loud from the shop, that the first blast of supershotgun almost give to me an heartbreak!!!)



I was in sock while reading this statment, as well!

but anyways, I too believe I had that same magazine with that picture quite a while back. Idk, must've been one of my brothers.

mmm, is it the one in the tech base?

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I sadly do not remember my first DOOM encounter, although that's understandable considering I was 2 years old.

Apparently my father would let me sit on his lap while he played on his new (and first) PC. My mother did not appreciate him exposing me to a violent game at such a young age, and made that perfectly clear. However, these complaints only amused my father (as often happens in my household), and he continued the practice for a while until he lost interest in DOOM, and video games in general.

As I got older I played DOOM every once in a while, but was never too crazy about it. Also I usually played DOOM 2, although I'm not sure why since I consider DOOM 1 to be a bit better...

Then, a little after DOOM 3 came out, my dad talked about getting it. Unfortunately, he found we had an inadequate graphics card, and put me ("the computer expert") on the job. It was only then, after stumbling across Doomworld that I revisited DOOMs 1&2, and fell in love with DOOM.

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I recall when I was 6 or 7 watching my dad play the game, putting it in '96 or '97 or thereabouts. He said I could play the game with -nomonsters, assuming that it would be less scary without the demons out to kill me. As such, I mostly played the game to explore the environments, which was cool for me at the time. I remember most enjoying KDitD, probably because I was really into tech/scifi environments and the episode had plenty of that. I think I got as far as E1M5 before getting lost. I found E2 interesting but strange, and only got up to E2M2. I remember the crushers scaring me, and running away until I could no longer hear them. It was E3 that ended up giving me nightmares, though...even without the monsters, the environments with all the flesh and corpses and blood and other hideous things scared me shitless. E3M4 was what really did it: years later, I still had that music seared into my brain, and it was somehow so horrifying that I wouldn't play Doom again for almost 10 years.

I think I rediscovered the game when I was rooting through old game CDs and found a shareware promo for Doom in there. I played all through the episode, and a flood of memories came to me...only this time I was older and, although it was still scary especially with the monsters, I loved it and convinced my dad to get me the entire game (I guess we'd lost the old copies we'd had.)

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Being a poorfag I/my parents couldn't afford a PC, so I initially had to settle for Jag' Doom*. Blew me away nevertheless.

*I was torn between buying a Jaguar and a 32X. I think I played the better version of the two ports in hindsight.

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My first experience seeing Doom was in some rinky-dink computer shop in northwest Indiana, when I was about 13 or so. I'd been playing a buttload of the Wolfenstein shareware episode, so when I saw the shop staff playing something that looked a world above and beyond that it piqued my curiosity. I went up to one of them and asked, "Is that a sequel to Wolfenstein?" "Kinda," he mumbled in response, and went back to playing what I now recognize as E2M1.

Not too long after that my mom bought me the full version of Wolfenstein as a gift, and shareware Doom just happened to be bundled with that. I did eventually finish all six episodes of Wolfenstein, but I played a lot more hours of Doom shareware. And then came Doom 2, and then PWADs, and... well, it just kept rolling from there.

By the way, guys: Way to make me feel old. :P

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It was around '95 I think. We had just gotten a new computer with Windows '95 on it, and somehow, Dad got a hold of the shareware version of Doom. I remember that I was astounded by it, and wanted to play it. When I finally did, I remember that I got to E1M2 and couldn't find the red key (hey, I was five years old, okay?).

Unfortunately, Mom found out and forbade me from playing. Eventually, I got out of the ban somehow, and was allowed to play again.

One day, while at my dad's workplace, I discovered that they had Registered Doom on one of the computers, and I played it all the way to the end, without sound (the computer had no speakers).

Finally, sometime later, we went to a local Software Etc. and I saw Ultimate Doom on the shelf. I begged my dad, and I got it!

After playing the hell out of it* (pun intended), I went back to Software Etc. and got Doom II. I beat it, also.*

My last important first of playing Doom came when I discovered the PWAD. One day, Dad told me that people had made their own levels for Doom and showed me a website (back when the web was new) where a guy had posted the levels he'd made. My first PWAD ever was The Hoover Dam, which still holds a special place in my heart.

Thanks for bringing back those wonderful memories!

* All instances of beating a Doom game for the first time were achieved on "I'm Too Young To Die."

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Hmmm... I was probably about, 11? 12? 13? I don't remember. What I do remember is playing a copy of the shareware on Kongregate at the library (our home computer was a piece of crap). I would play the levels on ITYTD (I always play everything on the easiest difficulty first). I would be looking over my shoulder constantly to see if my mom was coming up on me, as my parents, especially my dad, didn't like video games. I think she found out a couple days later, but I still played it. I managed to finish the shareware in a couple hours, and I think she warmed up to it (after I convinced her how I thought It was so unrealistic and how it's really not that bad). When I was about 13, I got a DS Lite, and one of the first games i got was Doom for the GBA. It really wasn't that bad (as it was all i could play) even though it was missing music and a few enemies, most notably the spider mastermind. The final level was like 5 Barons and in another room with 3 keycards for doors maybe 7 Cacodemons. I also got Wolfenstein 3d, but was never able to get the Doom 2 GBA copy. It's pretty rare too, found it for $40 used! I am seeing if I can get copies for my computer, but I have a Mac OS X and am unsure about downloading things like PrBoom.

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I bought Doom 64 when searching for old N64 games to buy. I then got quickly into the PC games after downloading the shareware, then bought Doom Collectors Edition from Ebay.

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My dad would bring home games on 3.5" floppy disks back in the 90s; they were almost always cute Apogee Software games. But in 1994, he installed Shareware Doom, and my life changed forever. I played the hell out of the demo on my clunky 386, which was so slow (20 megahertz!) that I had to run the game in low-res mode and with a small window. It kinda sucked, and there was no music; just PC internal speaker bleeps and bloops.

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I'd have to say, sadly, that my very first one came with me playing the 3DO port of Doom for the first time. I actually quite enjoyed it. (I didn't know what the word 'lag' meant at the time)

The first time I played it, i was stuck with either the pistol or shotgun for the majority of the time, since i would have shot out all the chaingun ammo i could find. I usually just fired it for fun, due the fact that I was playing on I'm too young to die, (though on the 3DO, it was "I'm a wimp".)

The first time i got to e1m8, I proceeded forward into the level to be greeted by a cluster of zombiemen and shotgun guys, who took the place of the demons from the original. I thought: "Well hey, this is easy! just shoot at the barrel in the center of em all, and they'll be done!".
So i did just that.

I eventually went into the weapon corridor, where i got my things. I tell ya, i was in for a treat when i got to the baron room.
The first time i went in there, the elevator lifted, I went forward ever-so-slightly, and those bull-headed bastards came out. The first time i heard em scream, I literally dropped the controller, with my eyes as big as friggin' tennis balls. When i discovered I couldn't shoot em down with just a few shotgun shots like every other guy, I panicked. Ran everywhere, pressing random buttons, when i came across the Rocket Launcher i never knew i had in my inventory. i used it, and killed both of em. That was the first sense of victory i'd ever felt.

However, the only strange thing is: You don't die at the end of Episode one on 3do Doom! So when i first played the computer version, i seriously thought I was screwed when i first entered the "Death-Room".

Sorry to post such a long thread, just good recollections.

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DoomUK said:

Being a poorfag I/my parents couldn't afford a PC, so I initially had to settle for Jag' Doom*. Blew me away nevertheless.

*I was torn between buying a Jaguar and a 32X. I think I played the better version of the two ports in hindsight.

You couldn't afford a PC but you could afford a Jaguar?

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Hey man, maybe he luckily got one of those things at dirt cheap, but just didn't(doesn't) realize it's(was) of high value.

Anyway, my first experience with Doom was way back in 94. I was playing the original 3-episode edition and at first, it wasn't such a big deal. My interest began with enemy ambushes.

It was while working at the office that I became infatuated with monster ambushes after having played E1M8 til the end for the first time. I would dream... and then I would eat some crackers... and then I would dream some more.

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A good PC in 1994 costed well over $1000. That's when I bought mine, and it wasn't terribly extravagant: 486DX/33, 4 MB RAM, PAS16 audio, 1 MB VESALB video, 15-inch SVGA monitor, 400 MB HD. After including case/PS, keyboard, mouse, etc. (it was my first PC) the total came out a little under $1500. I speced it out and bought the parts that offered the best bang for the buck, and then had fun assembling it when the package arrived. That hardware was good enough to play all the FPS games until Quake. By then I had upgraded to 8 MB RAM, but the CPU on that mobo could only be upgraded to 486DX2/66, which would still have been too slow for Quake.

About the only place I could have reasonably cut my costs would have been to downgrade the monitor to a 14-inch screen, and maybe save $100 or so. But that would have been a poor choice, as over the years that monitor survived through several system-class upgrades (486 -> p120 -> AMD K6).

Moral of the story: PC wasn't all that cheap, unless perhaps you were just upgrading your old system.

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I remember being really excited when I finally heard the midi soundtrack and "proper" sound effects. Still, I'm strangely fond of those old PC internal speaker sounds.

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I've really enjoyed reading this thread. Pretty interesting.

My first experience with Doom was back in late January or early February 1995. (I think) Doom2 had just been released about a month previously.

Anyway, at the time I was heavily involved in a play-by-mail game called Duelmasters. Each winter in either January or February the company that ran Duelmasters (RSI) would hold a convention/tournament. So any excuse to escape the cold of New Jersey for Arizona sounded good to me.

At this particular convention, one of the guys there had set up a PC in the corner of the room and it was attracting quite a crowd. So I went to see what was going on. Up until this time, my only experience with computer games were the old commadore computer games like Pitfall Harry, Superman, Ka-Boom etc.

Anyway, I looked over someone's shoulder to see what was going on that had everyone's attention, and saw Doom for the first time and I was so blown away by what I saw. I stood there like in a trance for hours as different people all took turns playing.

Talking to the guy who had set it up, I later found out what I was seeing was actually Doom2 and of course that meant there was a Doom1. Once I got home, I immediately went out and bought both Doom and Doom2.

I remember starting on Doom2 first, altho I don't know why. I think I chose HMP and got as far as map07 before being ripped to shreds by the arachnotrons. I then switched to Doom and actually played Doom's original 3 episodes numerous times before going back to Doom2. I eventually bought Ultimate Doom, but was disappointed in the 4th episode. I don't think I've ever made it past e4m2 before losing interest. To much brown and way to tight on the maps. No room to move. Oh well. heh.

At any rate I was so in love with both games, that here I am nearly 20 years later, still playing the originals and also hundreds of player made wads, as well.

One thing that is obviously a personal preference, is I really like and prefer the episode setup in Doom much more than the one long continuous 32 level slog that is Doom2. However, I like the SSG and the additional monsters in Doom2. Makes me kind of schizo on which I prefer. lol

I've often thought if it were possible to convert Doom2, SSg and new monsters and all, to a Doom1 episode format and place it in Doom1 and have these newly created episodes show up on the episode choice screen. Now that would be awesome!

I also discovered back around 1997, I think, the ability to make my own wads. So I've enjoyed messing around with map editors on and off for years. I think it's one aspect of Doom that has kept my interest alive. I've also enjoyed being a lurker mostly on DoomWorld forums just to stay in touch with what other doomers are up to and projects being worked on. It has been a blast and I certainly look forward to many more years of Dooming.

EDIT: Just wanted to add, I remember the immersion I experienced playing Doom. Closed doors and the lights turned down low, it was so easy to get sucked into the Doom enviroment. I remember at times almost falling out of my chair as I tried to look around the corners in the game map. lol Being literally scared to the point of feeling the hair on the back of my neck and even my arms, almost come alive with the dreadded anticipation of the monsters. Hearing the imps chatter and that OMG feeling of "what the hell is that" the first time I heard the Cyberdemons footsteps. Let's not forget almost jumping out of my skin, let alone off the chair when a monster would surprise the hell out of me as I rounded a corner not expecting to meet anything. Great times that unfortunately are darn near impossible to duplicate today. Still, I love playing Doom. :)

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Well, the first time I played doom was two years ago (now I am 12), in about December. I got a new computer for Christmas, iMac with Windows XP installed too, for playing Halo. Meamwhile searching for Halo 2 for windows XP, my dad gave me free games from a web-site. One day he got me a folder called "All 4 doom games" (that were 1 Doom shareware, 2 Doom II, 3 The Ultimate Doom and 4 Final Doom). I started playing the shareware after having installed Doom 95. I was really scared. I was thinking about creepy monsters coming from the door to the left and blocking me. I couldn't move for 5 minutes. I was too scared. Well, when I started moving I found no monsters in the area (I'm too young to die). I got all things and I tried open the door. I didn't know HOW TO OPEN THAT DOOR. 2 days later, after having tried all keys (thought that space was for jumping) I tried space. I opened the door. I was not scared playing. I killed the zombies and I finally killed the imp. Then the FUCKING IMP2 SCARED THE SHIT OUT OF ME FROM BEHIND! I exited the map after killing him. Then, some months later, I started playing zdoom.
Then, when I got internet connection, ZDaemon. Now I play skulltag.

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You're 12? You must be the youngest one here. I kind of assumed that most all of the Doomers here were around my age (I'm 26). Not to sound condescending, but that's really cool that someone your age can appreciate Doom. I would figured that most 12-year-olds would find Doom to be corny, or too outdated.

Another memory I have is the initial flood of Doom-themed dreams I had after first getting hooked on the game. I still dream about Doom numerous times a year, but in the beginning it was more frequent. I recall having a Doom dream, I think in 1994, where a bunch of pinkies were running around in our above-ground pool (this was before our dog chewed a hole in it that was bigger than she was).

I also had a pretty bizarre experience a couple of years later, in '96 or '97, when I awoke my parents in the middle of the night, claiming I could hear arachnotrons in the backyard. My mind was playing some pretty bizarre tricks on me that night, as I was awoken by the sound, which really seemed to be emitting from the backyard and not in my head or in my room. My parents banned me from Doom for six months, and lemme tell you, those were some hard six months. I'm not crazy!

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Well, if it's for that, I had dreams like that too when I played doom95, for example a forest-like map with revenants and mancubus (the strange fact is that before that dream I haven't played plutonia, tnt or doom II!) or my charachter (when I started playing ZDoom) jumping to the end while the mancubus shooting in camera-style. That was lol. Well, I like Doom because is an old great game. I have only Call of duty 4 of that series, and I don't like it because there's no action there. You just do war there. In doom you kill the demons from hell. I love this game, it's so awesome.

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Well, Doom does have an age rating on it for a reason; when age ratings were added to video games here, it got a 15 (when Doom was originally released here, there were no age ratings for video games).

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The funny thing is, as violent as some of today's games are (God of War 3, Dead Space 2, Left 4 Dead 2, the Gears of War games), I don't see any reason why a 12-year-old would be too young to play it. Of course, back in 1993, it was just about the goriest game in existence.

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A playable demo of PSX doom from a cover CD (I forget which magazine.)

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