Some Doom 2 GBA Oddities

[Roebloz]

I always like playing Doom 2 GBA and you probably know that by now. And while it is a faithful port, it still has a few oddities I haven't seen documented, so I decided to make a short video showcasing some of my findings. Enjoy.

 

[Dark Pulse]

Funny thing is it's less of a port as opposed to a recreation, seeing as it runs on an engine called the Southpaw Engine.

 

(Ironically, the same engine powers the GBA port of Duke 3D, and I think a few other games like Ecks vs. Sever.)

 

The first Doom, on the other hand, is an actual, proper port, based off the JagDoom source.

[Roebloz]

Just now, Dark Pulse said:

Funny thing is it's less of a port as opposed to a recreation, seeing as it runs on an engine called the Southpaw Engine.

 

(Ironically, the same engine powers the GBA port of Duke 3D, and I think a few other games like Ecks vs. Sever.)

Yeah I know that but considering they had to port the mechanics, enemies, etc. it can be seen as a port anyway. SNES Doom wasn't on the Doom Engine either, and its still a port.

[Dark Pulse]

3 minutes ago, Roebloz said:

Yeah I know that but considering they had to port the mechanics, enemies, etc. it can be seen as a port anyway. SNES Doom wasn't on the Doom Engine either, and its still a port.

I'd hold it technically as a recreation for the exact same reason, but the basic gist of it is that it's gonna be a bit wonkier than normal due to not running on the same engine/codebase as the original, of course :P

 

They're still pretty faithful, and the fact they're not running on the original engines at all would be unknown to most people (certainly most of the people who aren't diehard fans of the game/tech like us).

 

Definitely good to just make sure to remind people that some of it CAN be explained by that. After all, ain't like Duke3D running on the same engine is entirely faithful either :P

[Roebloz]

1 hour ago, Dark Pulse said:

I'd hold it technically as a recreation for the exact same reason, but the basic gist of it is that it's gonna be a bit wonkier than normal due to not running on the same engine/codebase as the original, of course :P

 

They're still pretty faithful, and the fact they're not running on the original engines at all would be unknown to most people (certainly most of the people who aren't diehard fans of the game/tech like us).

 

Definitely good to just make sure to remind people that some of it CAN be explained by that. After all, ain't like Duke3D running on the same engine is entirely faithful either :P

Yeah I know. The goal of this video is to show off oddities that I find interesting, not get mad at them

[cybdmn]

On 7/14/2020 at 7:58 PM, Dark Pulse said:

(Ironically, the same engine powers the GBA port of Duke 3D, and I think a few other games like Ecks vs. Sever.)

 

What's even more ironic is, that in Duke Nukem Advance they left many references to Doom stuff like item names. The third game using Southpaw isn't Ecks vs. Sever, it's Ice Nine.

[Avoozl]

I kind of wish they'd release the source code to GBA Doom 2.

[taufan99]

7 minutes ago, Avoozl said:

I kind of wish they'd release the source code to GBA Doom 2.

Or perhaps someone could reverse engineer it...

[Roebloz]

6 hours ago, InDOOMnesia said:

Or perhaps someone could reverse engineer it...

If so we would be able to make our own levels probably, and I'd be the lord of Doom 2 GBA Rom Hacking even more than right now.

[Dark Pulse]

2 hours ago, Roebloz said:

If so we would be able to make our own levels probably, and I'd be the lord of Doom 2 GBA Rom Hacking even more than right now.

Nominally reversing the engine would probably let you mod all the games using that engine, so in this case Doom 2, Duke 3D, Ice Nine (thanks for correcting me cybdmn), etc.

 

Of course, that's not accounting for that there may be game-unique stuff you have to deal with, but basically at that point you got the core components reversed and the rest is just a matter of sorting out the differences.

[Tic]

My old gba was the first model white (without backlight). Really in these days I not view much in the screen,so these details are hidden.Only time to thinking in sun light position that the  engine. 

 

The gba doom/s play well  in the snes. But i don't have view these details, thanks fo the video 

 

[Hellektronic]

Fun fact: the (pump action) shotgun shoots in a cone pattern instead of a line, kind of cool for GBA.

 

The port of the first Doom was pretty awful comparatively, I had both once upon a time.

[Roebloz]

2 hours ago, Hellektronic said:

Fun fact: the (pump action) shotgun shoots in a cone pattern instead of a line, kind of cool for GBA.

 

The port of the first Doom was pretty awful comparatively, I had both once upon a time.

Huh that's gonna be something to add to the next vid I guess. The port of the original Doom on GBA apparently was supposed to have a custom engine but John Carmack decided to pull a Thanos on it and requested the Jaguar Doom engine to be used instead. But hey, at least we got those official Deathmatch maps (The only ones)