How and/or when did you become a fan of Doom?

[crazyflyingdonut]

Thankfully, I remember mine very well, but not as well as I wish I'd remember it, so there may be errors or inconsistencies in the story because my memory is terrible.
 

It was around 2015-2016 and I was checking out "TheISOZone" (which no longer exists) to find some homebrew releases to play on my SEGA Dreamcast. At this point in time, I had heard of Doom, and the only thing I knew about it was that it was available on multiple platforms. I then noticed that there was a file that said "Doom" for the Dreamcast. I decided, "You know what? I'm gonna check out this "Doom" game and see what all the fuss is about."

 

And... Oh boy, I'm glad I made that decision.

 

NOTE: The file I downloaded seemed to have the mail-order version of Doom 1's IWAD on it, but...

 

1: I had no idea that a demo/shareware version existed until after I had finished my playthrough.

2: I decided that if I liked the game after finishing it, I would legally purchase the game somewhere else. (More on that later in this story)

 

For me, the game was addicting and fun. I think about half-way through my playthrough, I realized why people liked it.

 

Then came E3M8. I beat the Spider Mastermind. It was glorious for me. Shortly afterwards, I saw a DEAD BUNNY'S HEAD ON A STICK. And then, I saw the "THE END" text before it got shot multiple times. At that moment, I became a fan of Doom.

 

^{also that image will be in my mind for the rest of my life}

 

After that, I looked up "Doom" on Google and found out that there were more games for me to play. Shortly afterwards, I decided to buy all of the classic Doom games legally on Steam.

 

I then removed the "Doom" file I got from TheISOZone off my SD card, because at that point I had owned the game legally, and I did not need the one that came from TheISOZone.

 

Now it's time for your story about how and/or when you became a Doom fan? Whether it be back in 1993 (before I was even born, in 2001) or if you first heard of the game recently, share your stories!

[Cruduxy Pegg]

I've been introduced to it very early in my life (3-4 year old). So I guess I always was a doom fan.

[seed]

Played it on a Windows 98 machine when I was 5 or 6 and loved it.

[4everDoomed]

Damn, I'm getting old....

 

I bought Final Doom for PSX back in 1995 or '96 (I was about 15 years old), that was the very first time I got in touch with Doom. I never had a CPU in my teenie years because I grew up with game consoles only and focused on them for a long time. 1996 was a magical year, almost any game that came out was awesome. There were so many milestones, like Resi, Tomb Raider, Blood Omen, Warhammer, Warcraft II , C&C and whatever else comes in mind. I needed to work a lot along school to earn some money for my hobby. I bought Final Doom and Disruptor (who still knows Disruptor?) at the same day and I got a discount of 20 bucks for being a regular good customer. 

I never knew that there was a Doom or a Doom II in the first place, I thought Final Doom was just the game as it was, without knowing that it eventually could be a compilation of Master levels, Plutonia and TNT... I should have read more game magazines back then, LOL (Don't forget that google and ebay weren't that present at that time :-))))

 

Almost two or three months later, I got the Ultimate Doom collection as well. I found it in a second hand store and was surprised to see another Doom game. I traded in some other games for that because I was low on cash. However, It felt like christmas in the summer. With the Doom 3 Resurrection of Evil expansion pack on early XBOX, I learned about the PC versions of the classic Doom series the first time. I noticed maps I hadn't seen before, different soundtrack and those arch-viles, which were strangely left out in the PSX version. 

 

So it was Final Doom which I played first. And I'm glad I did it. 

[wrain treck]

my dad made a throw-away remark about it while we where shopping 10 years ago, I decided to have a look two years later and i've been hooked ever since.

[FuzzySpaceRaptor]

My story is kind of strange. I first learned about Doom from some Wikipedia searching, namely how it was referenced on the I. M. Meen Wikipedia page. I had already known about Meen from a few YouTube videos, including the older YTP's using that game as a source, as well as an extremely low-quality YouTube series that I followed very closely called Greeny Phatom, made by a probably autistic manchild. Yeah, I had already found the weird side of YouTube by like age 11. Probably part of why I'm so queer today.

 

Anyway, the first '90s shooter I actively watched gameplay of was the aforementioned I.M. Meen. Though it was pretty dumbed down due to ultimately being a kids' game, it still interested me enough to want to check out that other shooter they mentioned on its Wikipedia page. I didn't actually touch Doom gameplay vids until about a year after I found out about it, though, which was a couple years after I first saw Meen gameplay. It kind of fell out of my mind for a while. My guess is that I was just too scared to watch gameplay after hearing its premise. By the time I came around to it, I must have been 13, because this was in early 2015.

 

Now, Meen's engine was more analogous to Wolf3D's, so when I did actually finally touch Doom (or rather watch it, because I still didn't have the game myself) I was immersed. I didn't know old games could be this atmospheric; I found it legitimately scary at times. That's not even mentioning the adrenaline rushes I didn't think I'd find in a pixelated game. The only thing that rivaled how much Doom drew me in was my prime nostalgia draw, the MechWarrior series. So I guess I already had experience with games older than me (from when I was 4 or 5 and playing MechWarrior 3 for the first time), but it wasn't as old. Interestingly, I remember listening to the soundtrack before watching the gameplay videos. Maybe I did them in tandem somewhat. I was hooked.

 

It took me several months after that to actually play the game myself (by this time I had turned 14). I downloaded all my IWads from MyAbandonware or other free sources rather than paying for them, using ZDoom as my source port then switching to GZDoom. I thought it would be okay, since the game is so old and it was being offered for free on a pretty high-profile site such as that. Of course, now even that site has started making you pay for it, because they now acknowledge it's not abandonware since Steam is selling it. Nevertheless, by the time that change happened I had already sunk at least dozens of hours into the game. Add on another year for beginning to play Zandronum multiplayer and interacting with the Doom community.

 

In short, when it comes to Classic Doom, by the time I actually personally sunk my teeth into it I was already well past the age where I could claim it as a nostalgia trip. This makes it all the more impressive that it remains equally as captivating to me as the two sci-fi series that I do have nostalgia for: BattleTech and Mass Effect.

[Icarium]

I remember playing the shareware version of Doom when it released while I was in 6th grade. My friend and I were a little taken aback by the violence/imagery and went back to playing more Castle of the Winds. But by a month or two later we were both huge fans of Doom. Never played ep2-3 back then, but played through Doom II in its entirety many times when it released.

 

I remember hearing about custom wads back then, but never actually played any until last month when I rediscovered the glory of Doom.

[crazyflyingdonut]

2 minutes ago, FuzzySpaceRaptor said:

It took me several months after that to actually play the game myself (by this time I had turned 14). I downloaded all my IWads from MyAbandonware or other free sources rather than paying for them, using ZDoom as my source port then switching to GZDoom. I thought it would be okay, since the game is so old and it was being offered for free on a pretty high-profile site such as that. Of course, now even that site has started making you pay for it, because they now acknowledge it's not abandonware since Steam is selling it.

 

But... you paid for the game legally afterwards, right? Please tell me you bought the game legally at some point in time!

[FuzzySpaceRaptor]

6 minutes ago, crazyflyingdonut said:

 

But... you paid for the game legally afterwards, right? Please tell me you bought the game legally at some point in time!

No, I still have not, unfortunately. I have enough Steam money to do it right now, I think. They're each only 5 dollars, right? I mean, I wouldn't actually play the Steam versions because I hear about issuses with Dosbox, I would just be buying them so I could claim "I'm good in the eyes of the law! ish" Thing is, they could probably still claim foul even if I were to buy it now, because I've played it illegally at all.

[crazyflyingdonut]

Just now, FuzzySpaceRaptor said:

No, I still have not, unfortunately. I have enough Steam money to do it right now, It think. They're each only 5 dollars, right?

Yes, they are each $5. Please, buy them and remove your illegal copies and all traces of them like I did.

 

If you want to buy Doom, Doom 2, and Final Doom, you will be spending a grand total of $15. Plus, Final Doom actually comes with two IWAD's, The Plutonia Experiment and TNT: Evilution. So Final Doom is basically 2 for the price of 1.

 

Also, please spread the message to other people who may have pirated Doom, and tell them to spread the message as well, and keep the cycle going. They are not very expensive to buy on Steam or GOG, and you won't end up in Hell for eternity with all of the other freeloaders if you buy them.

[FuzzySpaceRaptor]

27 minutes ago, crazyflyingdonut said:

Yes, they are each $5. Please, buy them and remove your illegal copies and all traces of them like I did.

 

If you want to buy Doom, Doom 2, and Final Doom, you will be spending a grand total of $15. Plus, Final Doom actually comes with two IWAD's, The Plutonia Experiment and TNT: Evilution. So Final Doom is basically 2 for the price of 1.

 

Also, please spread the message to other people who may have pirated Doom, and tell them to spread the message as well, and keep the cycle going. They are not very expensive to buy on Steam or GOG, and you won't end up in Hell for eternity with all of the other freeloaders if you buy them.

Done, and will tell friends. I always told myself it was just abandonware and that pirating it's okay, but now it's pretty clear to me that id still wants to monetize this; rightly so with how popular it still is. I ended up spending $25 because of the Serpent Rider Trilogy. At least I got the Master Levels, which I don't yet have on my PC. And a clearer conscience. Can I be a genuine community member now? Oh and also sorry for derailing thread.

[crazyflyingdonut]

2 minutes ago, FuzzySpaceRaptor said:

Oh and also sorry for derailing thread.

Wait, when did you derail this thread?

[FuzzySpaceRaptor]

Well, technically I didn't, but we've spiralled into a discussion about playing Doom legally when the thread is supposed to be about how you got into Doom. Forum etiquette, really.

[crazyflyingdonut]

Just now, FuzzySpaceRaptor said:

Well, technically I didn't, but we've spiralled into a discussion about playing Doom legally when the thread is supposed to be about how you got into Doom.

If anything, I'm the one who accidentally derailed it due to my insistence that people pay for Doom despite how old the game is.

[Pegleg]

In June, 1994, I bought a copy of Wolfenstein 3D that came with the shareware copy of Knee Deep in the Dead (version 1.2 for those keeping track at home). I've been a fan since then.

[Loud Silence]

I'm not sure what does really mean being a "fan". I think being a "fan" is buying any crap sold with help of Doom (no offense SIGIL), walking with Doom shirt everywhere etc. I love playing Doom and WADs, but i'm not so crazy to do nonsense for Doom. I'm not and won't be a Doom's "fan", i am Doomer.

[EndHack]

My Dad had it on his computer when I was like five or six and he let me play then he got rid of it or stopped using that computer and I didn't play doom for like ten years then my brother found a cd with the ultimate doom doom2 both final dooms duke nukem and quake

 

[BLλZING_DUST]

I was into old games since I was a kid, so naturally I've heard of Doom. Though, I didn't play it much because I found setting it up too confusing, so I just played Quake, Wolfenstein 3D and Half-Life instead. Then, somewhere before the release of Doom 2016 (like a month or two) and my friend asked me if I wanted to play some Doom Co-Op with him to which I agreed to. He hooked me up with the ZDL, GZDoom engine, some mods (including Brutal Doom) and the rest is history.

 

Doom somewhat inspired me to pick up the guitar, too. A few months later I've started playing the guitar and the first thing I've started learning to play is the E1M1 riff, though it was a little too complex for beginners so I started learning The Demon's Dead and the track from The Pit.

[Kira]

1 hour ago, Rimantas said:

I'm not sure what does really mean being a "fan". I think being a "fan" is buying any crap sold with help of Doom (no offense SIGIL), walking with Doom shirt everywhere etc. I love playing Doom and WADs, but i'm not so crazy to do nonsense for Doom. I'm not and won't be a Doom's "fan", i am Doomer.

What you are describing is more like a "fanboy". A fan isn't exactly gullible, else how would you have "disappointed fans" or "angry fans" for random bits and new releases in the first place? Maybe you don't like the lack of a clearly defined line for what constitutes a fan, but that's how it is, you just like the game a whole lot, enough to pay attention when the name is mentioned, and you ramble in a Doom forum.

 

As for me, I've been captivated by what id software was doing by looking at Doom/Doom 2 then Quake 1 to 3 from afar, but I've started playing the games rather late, so I have trouble telling where I consider I became one. I guess I was one from 1994/5 but more like an "unwilling secondary".

 

Edit: I guess it's better to not make a term exclusive to "fanboy" behavior when fans are a whole spectrum of attitudes anyway.

Edited February 18, 2019 by Kira

[seed]

1 hour ago, Rimantas said:

I'm not sure what does really mean being a "fan". I think being a "fan" is buying any crap sold with help of Doom (no offense SIGIL), walking with Doom shirt everywhere etc.

 

You have a strange understanding of being a "fan" of something (and thus, your last sentence makes no sense).

[crazyflyingdonut]

Please calm down before I start to regret making this thread. I won't name names.

[kristus]

Saw it in 1994 on our classroom computer and it took me over.

[SOSU]

Back in ancient greece me and my time traveler friends played it with Socrates once :) that's when i came to y'alls current time to make maps for it :D

[Nine Inch Heels]

I never really was a "fan" of doom, nor was I ever one to be particularly obsessed with this game.

Anyway, I remember playing lots of video games with my dad back growing up, and we would do that for quite some time over the years. He also played doom back then, but usually I wasn't allowed to watch him play, especially when my mom was around, but that wasn't always the case, so sometimes he'd let me watch... I guess at a young age it was a forbidden fruit for me, one I would almost entirely forget about, and rather play (bullet hell) shmups, until eventually totalbiscuit uploaded a video about brutal doom, which at the time wasn't anywhere near as bloated as it is today. So I played that for a few weeks with the iWADs that I dug out (I own the actual 3.5" floppies still) got tired of it eventually, and started looking up stuff about doom on the internet, where I would stumble upon skepticist's videos, and kmx's WAD reviews.

I remember that at the time I was fascinated with "speed of doom", especially the later maps I really enjoyed. And SoD was what would ultimately get me into slaughter maps. I still remember, with great detail, finding all keens in map 31 of SoD, and then having the intermission screen say something about "Playground", "go 2 it", and "no guts no glory"... and then I got my ass kicked by SoD32 "the pyramid of death", which was said to be an amalgamation of the previously mentioned maps. So I started looking for these maps, and downloaded the WADs, I've played and beaten them all, and then came Sunder, and Newgothic movement, and Deus Vult II, and maps made by time of death, but also stuff like Valiant, Bloodstain, or 50shadesofgraytall... At that time, I still wasn't particularly good at doom, probably not even decent, and each map took me a relatively long time to beat saveless to begin with, especially the longer and more meaty maps in Sunder really gave me trouble by virtue of just being as large as they were.

 

Anyway, I guess the tl;dr is, my dad showed me doom, I forgot about it eventually, totalbiscuit reminded me that it still exists, kmx and scepticist showed me awesome stuff, SoD got me hooked in a way, and slaughter made me stay.

[Lila Feuer]

Doom shareware via Doom95 on a 'games for windows 95' CD back in 1999 with my first computer, a Win98. It had a little 3D space with sprites and rad music as an interactive shell to roam around a space station and you'd go into different rooms with monitors showing the title screen of the games, go up to use it and it would externally launch the program files through the shell, so quitting the game would take you back into the 3D space. Saw the Doom monitor and thought to myself 'huh, I remember seeing that in a magazine with video games somewhere' and funnily enough I think it was the SNES box. I had just been coming off of Hexen via Hexen95, which was my first first-person action game, so technically Doom shareware was my first true FPS. Been hooked ever since. Also, it was the only M-rated and only really violent game featured on that disc, so once I played that nothing else compared on the CD.

[Kira]

1 hour ago, crazyflyingdonut said:

Please calm down before I start to regret making this thread. I won't name names.

No worries dear flying donut: there was no hostility in my post, just opinions.

 

1 hour ago, Nine Inch Heels said:

stuff

Did you play saveless right from the start? That and starting with SoD must have been something lol. Quality-wise too.

[Nine Inch Heels]

Just now, Kira said:

Did you play saveless right from the start? That and starting with SoD must have been something lol. Quality-wise too

Well, for easier maps it was saveless right away... the harder ones I scouted with IDDQD, and then I routed them for survival.

[crazyflyingdonut]

5 minutes ago, Kira said:

No worries dear flying donut: there was no hostility in my post, just opinions.

You can't expect an autistic to be able to tell the difference, especially after reading countless posts from ZDoom forums all about hostility.

[Nine Inch Heels]

2 minutes ago, crazyflyingdonut said:

You can't expect an autistic to be able to tell the difference, especially after reading countless posts from ZDoom forums all about hostility.

You can't expect people to somehow magically know that you're an autist either.

[crazyflyingdonut]

Just now, Nine Inch Heels said:

You can't expect people to somehow magically know that you're an autist either.

I've been repeatedly saying that I'm autistic for a while now. Problem is, nobody from Doomworld even bothers to care that I have a Twitter, which is where I spew out crap that I wouldn't dare spew out in Doomworld!