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Contmotore

E1M1 - A different version?

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Hey guys!

 

I always remembered a different version of Doom E1M1, which I played back in the 90's. So, I decided to investigate and made a video about my findings. Are you an old fart as well and also played Doom back in the 90's? What do you remember about the game that was later changed?

 

Hope you enjoy!

 

 

Doom E1M1.1: A little update

Spoiler

 

Doom: Unedited E1M3 Clip (All-ghosts effect)

Spoiler

 

 

Edited by Contmotore : Updates

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It's funny how sometimes you can't tell if your mind is playing tricks on you, isn't it? How old were you when you played it in the 90's? I find that I mainly misremember things from when I was a kid.

 

You aren't the first person to have this experience, the e1m1 thing just isn't discussed much compared to other things. A lot of people are completely unaware of the changes that were made. It's not a hardcore secret, or even really that obscure, it just doesn't get mentioned much since the changes weren't very impactful.

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5 minutes ago, TheMagicMushroomMan said:

How old were you when you played it in the 90's? I find that I mainly misremember things from when I was a kid.

I think I was around the age of 12 or something when I first played Doom, but I really started playing it when I had my own PC(386) when I was around 14/15.

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Seeing this thread really made me paranoid. My head was filled with such questions as, "were there two pillars in the armor room?" and "was there a third secret with armor bonuses" and "were there fences in the second to last room?!??!?!!???!??!??" I had to double check the map in Slade to be sure it was exactly as I remembered it.

 

Spoiler

rKCYGuC.png

And it is. Phew.

 

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@BeefGee has a great video on all of the changes in the maps of Doom 2. Check it out:

 

Just goes to show how many differences, minute as they may be, there are. 

 

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25 minutes ago, Dusty_Rhodes said:

@BeefGee has a great video on all of the changes in the maps of Doom 2. Check it out:

 

Just goes to show how many differences, minute as they may be, there are. 

 

Very nice! Thanks for sharing.

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In the hundreds upon hundreds of times playing e1m1, I've not pressed that first switch more than maybe five times, partly because it breaks the flow of the rest of the map, and because I'm more accustomed to it not even being there from earlier versions.

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Yes, the registered version didn’t have some of the additions found in The Ultimate Doom. All of the changes were primarily geared towards making the map even more enjoyable for multiplayer deathmatch by opening up the map a bit more.

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3 hours ago, SiFi270 said:

Seeing this thread really made me paranoid. My head was filled with such questions as, "were there two pillars in the armor room?" and "was there a third secret with armor bonuses" and "were there fences in the second to last room?!??!?!!???!??!??" I had to double check the map in Slade to be sure it was exactly as I remembered it.

 

  Reveal hidden contents

rKCYGuC.png

And it is. Phew.

 

Ah yes, that must have been the pre-alpha build of E1M1 lol

Sorry I made you paranoid though.

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i mean there were some small changes between official versions of DOOM

there is the pre-alpha build, there is the original shareware build of E1M1 (without button) and then there is the Ultimate DOOM build of E1M1 (the one with the button in the armor room)

there is also the truncated version of E1M1 from a lot of the console ports (jaguar, gba, ps1, 3do, 32x, saturn; the snes version is the only console port from the 90s with the original version of E1M1)

Edited by TheCarsEdge

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4 hours ago, SiFi270 said:

Seeing this thread really made me paranoid. My head was filled with such questions as, "were there two pillars in the armor room?" and "was there a third secret with armor bonuses" and "were there fences in the second to last room?!??!?!!???!??!??" I had to double check the map in Slade to be sure it was exactly as I remembered it.

 

  Reveal hidden contents

rKCYGuC.png

And it is. Phew.

 

The pinnacle of entertainment.

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I can remember those changes to E1M1 vividly. The elevator was introduced in v1.2 and the button & door outside was introduced in v1.9. To be honest, I like the lift in v1.2 but I don't like the button & door in v1.9. That latter was clearly made for Deathmatch purposes and although it is a small map (perfect for 4 players), it was never suited for Deathmatch play on account that E1M1 still has a very linear design and that is a thing that affects the whole game and not just E1M1 itself.

 

On another topic: I have seen a lot of "E1M1 remakes" over the years and yeah, I dare say it: a lot of them really suck! For many it was their first attempt into making maps for Doom (believe me, my first maps sucked just as much) and a lot of people simply didn't understand what E1M1 was supposed to achieve and that is a simple given. E1M1 introduces you into the world of Doom (geometry), so that you can get acquainted to the surroundings of the level. It introduces you to the basic weapons and how to use them and it introduces you to the interaction you can have within, such as doors, buttons and secret areas. That is why there are only three types of enemies and two types of weapons in the level (not counting multiplayer).

 

I have seen countless "remake" maps that have a Baron of Hell, Cacodemon and/or even a Cyberdemon right of the bat. Turn around the corner and Wham! there you have it. It may be funny, perhaps a challenge for experienced players but under no circumstances a fine introduction in the world of Doom as John Romero has envisioned it . . .

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12 hours ago, Apprentice said:

I have seen countless "remake" maps that have a Baron of Hell, Cacodemon and/or even a Cyberdemon right of the bat.

Yep, Maximum Doom has literally dozens and dozens of E1M1 remakes with like hordes of enemies in that outside courtyard, and all kinds of hideous twistings and contortions, changing the shape of the level, adding in more rooms and corridors, and of course retexturing it in the most disgusting ways

On 11/10/2022 at 8:12 PM, Contmotore said:

What do you remember about the game that was later changed?

What about that extra switch in one of the baron rooms in E1M8?  That was added after initial release too, right?

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This is super interesting. I originally played Doom on PC with the windows 95 port on my uncle PC.

 

My first copy of it was the psx version, and later on the GBA port. When I got back into PC Doom I remember that some of the stages were different and was unsure if they were fake memories or not.

 

Gets more curious when you discover that even the PC version had different map variations.

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1 hour ago, Maximum Matt said:

What about that extra switch in one of the baron rooms in E1M8?  That was added after initial release too, right?

Hmm... Extra switch?

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This is a great thread. I have come back to Doom having played it when it came out originally and I was definitely haunted by things being slightly different. Very interesting to see the changes over the different versions the WAD was released at. The videos here are a great reference, thanks for sharing!

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I don't really remember any layout differences, but I could've sworn that back in 90s the game was so dark that it was barely visible... For example that e1m1 room after the first gate - I vividly remember a trooper standing on a blue floor illuminated by the bright lamp in the absolutely dark surroundings (on an easiest difficulty).

 

But it's not...

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i think that the e1m1 version that you're talking about is from the  ms dos version, in that version there isn't any secret, that's why the button is not on the pillar

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5 minutes ago, YANDOR04 said:

i think that the e1m1 version that you're talking about is from the  ms dos version, in that version there isn't any secret, that's why the button is not on the pillar

It's in the OP's video...

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I never really thought much about this before, but I did a thorough secret hunt of E1-E3 in 1996 and eventually found every secret, but I never noticed the secret switch at the beginning of E1M1, and remember being surprised when I stumbled upon it later when playing Ultimate Doom.  This thread confirms that I didn't miss it, because it wasn't around in the version of Doom that I played in 1995 and '96 (I think it was either 1.0 or 1.1).  

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I remember playing a version where there are hanging corpse textures in the Baron rooms in E1M8. Turns out, it was the 32X version.

 

I also remember the red key room in E1M2 having bloody/corpse textures as well. But i played almost every console port and beta PC version and couldn't find it. Maybe that one is just me remembering things wrong?

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I'm not sure what I am allowed to post here (a little confused how the copyright laws work since I thought this was all open source now, but people freak out if an original iwad is included in a wad) but on archive.org you can find old versions of everrrrryyything. Including betas, and older versions of stuff like SIGIL. It's great, as I like to have a pre-UDoom version with only the original 3 eps on hand.

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This explains a lot!

 

When I started playing DOOM again in late 2019, after playing through a bunch of Cocowards winners, I decided to replay through the original games. And I was really surprised when I found the switch and the elevator.

I originally played DOOM around 1995 and 96, when I was in second grade—me and a friend would skip school and go through Shareware CDs. We finished Episode 1 a couple of times, but we played through E1M1 a LOT, so when I saw the switch and the raising wall in the courtyard, I just figured I was really inattentive back in the day. I guess we had some old version of the shareware.

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8 hours ago, Captain Keen said:

I'm not sure what I am allowed to post here (a little confused how the copyright laws work since I thought this was all open source now, but people freak out if an original iwad is included in a wad) but on archive.org you can find old versions of everrrrryyything. Including betas, and older versions of stuff like SIGIL. It's great, as I like to have a pre-UDoom version with only the original 3 eps on hand.

The engine is open-source, the IWADs are not.

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4 hours ago, Shepardus said:

The engine is open-source, the IWADs are not.


Still seems weird to me, but copyright and patent laws in my country are half nuts imho so I guess it is what it is. I’ve bought Doom multiple times, so shouldn’t it be legal for me to download older versions to compare and contrast just for fun? Anyway check out archive.org if you’re interested, they have every version imaginable as a wad and you can run it in a modern source port like GZDoom. I just tried version 1.1 out of curiosity and it works great. You get one pop up error about the Nightmare text, since this is the version from Dec 16, 1993 before that mode was added. Was actually really interesting to look at it. I forgot that the pentagram room in E1M5 was added and also it’s weird to see the eaaaarrrllllyyy first version of E1M1. In many ways 1.1 feels like the advance beta release and 1.2 feels like the first truly solid all around version, and it’s the one I remember the best.

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