What are your memorable moments from playing DooM for the first time?

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Thought this thread was a duplicate and posted without realizing I already had. Here are some other memories though:

 

Trying out all the source ports. PrBoom+ was the default on Debian when I first started. I landed on Doomsday because it came with a launcher and everything, and played like a modern FPS; most of the others I gave up on after dying or getting stuck in Freedoom's first level, because I couldn't figure out the controls, let alone how to load WADs... and Chocolate Doom at the time loaded FreeDM (because it was fully vanilla before Phase 2 was) so I was just confused by the lack of monsters.

 

Even after figuring out those more vanilla source ports, I distinctly remember having trouble navigating Freedoom's E1M1. It wasn't that hard, but I still sometimes miss the door on the side of the opening room that leads to the area with the blue key. I'd always jump down to the lift in front of me and think that was the whole map.

[Hawk of The Crystals]

It'll always be getting surprised by those Cacos in E2M1.

[Pegleg]

These are the things that stand out in my mind from June 1994 (when I played shareware Doom). I first started on ITYTD.

• E1M1: Pressing the differently colored section of wall and finding the secret passage to the mega-armor, thus learning that walls that look different may hide secrets.
• One of the E1 maps: Slowly approaching the soulsphere, because I didn't know what it did. Same thing with the blursphere.
• E1M5: The secret inside a secret. I didn't find a lot of secrets (and I'm still bad at finding them), so they were cool when I found them.
• E1M8: Shooting the barrels and killing all the demons at the beginning of the map.
• E1M8: The soulsphere secret.
• E1M8: Walking down the long hallway that leads to the Barons, with Sign of Evil playing, feeling like I was heading toward something.
• E1M8: Killing the barons with then chaingun. After they died, the walls lowering was really cool.

 

After finishing it on ITYTD, I decided to jump to UV.

• E1M2: Getting the chainsaw, and figuring that (somehow) they had made it an item that you could only get on UV.
• E1M8: Being shocked by the spectres that accompanied the Barons.

 

A few months later (still in 1994), I got a copy of the rest of the game and began playing TSoH on ITYTD. These are what stand out in my mind about that and Inferno.

• E2M1: Wondering if the big red cross-shaped doorway would hurt, because it stood out that it seemed like a structure that might cause pain. So I stood there and confirmed that yes, it did.
• E2M5: Stumbling on to the entrance to the secret map. I'm not sure how I managed to do it, but to this day, it remains the only secret map that I have found in the course of normally playing.
• E2M9: Thinking "Fortress of Mystery" sounded like a cool name, and very different from the rest of the map titles to that point.
• E2M9: Being shocked by the hot start with the Barons.
• E2M8: Seeing the disemboweled Baron of Hell. The Baron was the strongest thing, by far, that I had seen to that point. I remember thinking, "What could do that to a Baron?"
• E2M8: Hearing something moving around outside, and figuring something big must be out there. With the music playing, it was very suspenseful.
• E3M2: Realizing the map was shaped like a hand.
• E3M4: Being transfixed looking through the window into the blood room with the people crucified on marble pillars. I stared at it for a long enough to be attacked from behind by a demon.
• E3M8: Going into the map, I was excited for an epic final map. I ended up disappointed.

[continuum.mid]

20 minutes ago, Hawk of The Crystals said:

It'll always be getting surprised by those Cacos in E2M1.

I first encountered Cacos - or rather, Trilobites -  in Freedoom Phase 1. I hated them because they took seven shotgun blasts to kill and I never seemed to have enough rockets or bullets to kill them a better way. I called them "Flying Fucks."

[IHave10Shells]

19 hours ago, D0M0 said:

My greatest memory was when I played E3M8 and just instantly killed the spider mastermind with the BFG.

I was so confused since I thought the boss was going to be tough, but it ended up being a complete pushover.

Yeah, this is the kind of level that one can pass through nightmare & keyboard only first try whilst eating pringles. 

[incel]

I was just scared shitless — it was the most immersive horror experience little incel me have ever encountered.

 

Of course, all my previous games were on NES.

[ShotGunGoBewm]

Being in the 2nd grade in like, 95? And finding a "Games for Windows" disc in my dads CD folder. Had a bunch of shitty games you could pick from. I remember Doom being the only one to catch my eye. E1M7 (Computer Station) is still my favorite Doom 1 map.

[Danfun64]

I don't really remember my first experience with Doom proper, but I can say I've done some other stuff beforehand.

 

I started out finding Sonic Robo Blast 2 1.09.4. From there I learned about Sonic Doom 2, Freedoom, various source ports. I might have tried plain Freedoom. It's all such a blur (no pun intended).....

A few years later I had a Chex Quest phase. Later still I truly got into Classic Doom, but even so, I can't remember when I first really properly played them.

[peach freak]

I had the Shareware copy of Doom and my grandmother had the registered copy of Doom on her PC. When playing Doom on her computer as a kid, I always got excited by the title screen after opening up Doom. The title screen just lets you know right out of the gate that you're playing a kickass, epic game. Also, when running Doom.exe, you get that window that pops up showing everything that the game is loading, and on her computer it had that disclaimer of "This is NOT the Shareware version of Doom, do not distribute." I always got excited as the prospect of finally being able to play episodes 2 and 3.

 

As for individual levels, I think episode 2 was the most memorable episode for me, I think a lot of it had to do with the excitement of being able to play it for the first time after being limited to the first episode on Shareware Doom.

 

-E2M2 was definitely memorable, the music track made the level creepy, the crate maze always stuck out to me, and I always felt like there were Barons of Hell crawling around the crate maze when they weren't (the level is literally limited to Imps and Demons, and a few stray Lost Souls).

 

-E2M3 was memorable largely because of the track, it's the only level in the game that used the intermission music. I remember being confused hearing the song while playing this level, thinking "Doesn't this song only play when you beat a level? Why is it playing during a level?"

 

-E2M4 was a little creepy for me too, again, largely because of the music track in the map.

 

-E2M6 was the creepiest map in the set for me, I felt like around every corner there was a Cacodemon or a Baron of Hell ready to ambush me, so I'd do the bare minimum to beat the level and run like hell to the exit, and not explore any optional areas out of the fear of encountering strong monsters.

 

I definitely had an OMG moment when I found the first BFG in E3M3, I went and grabbed my little brother from whatever he was doing to show him that I found it, I just stared at its sprite in all its glory for a minute or so.

[volleyvalley]

Being scared shitless in E2M4, mainly because of the uncanny texturing and the .MIDI, which is probably the reason E2M4 is my favorite E2 level by a mile. I always appreciated the computer crusher room, the red room, and the final skirmish with a few barons and cacos. If I remember correctly, the level took me ~30 minutes to beat my first time, because I was playing keyboard only with the default controls and all. 

 

[PeterMoro]

It was my first time even seeing an FPS. I remember thinking: "Holy shit....it looks like I'm holding the shotgun!".

[MAN_WITH_GUN]

Well, there's a couple of things:

1) Due how well designed the game is - it's the first game where i really wanted to survive even tho i was playing it for the first time, always being terrified not only by gore graphics and creepy design of some levels but also doomguy almost being dead with so much wounds on his face. His death scream almost scare me to death when i was like 7-8 years old, especially when i played Doom 2 and didn't know about second death sound when you loose more than -50hp, i shit my pants there it was so loud lol. That's some experience that i think made me a saveless and deathless player.

2) Barons with their alert sound is definitely a baby's first screamer, hands down :^)

3) Skyboxes, specifically hell ones. They are so damn uncanny being for me when i was a kid just starring at the sky for a couple mins imagining what hides behind it. Delightfully creepy.

[Kor]

I remember seeing the E1 sky for the first time, and not knowing anything about the game's setting, I thought the game took place in South America. I also remember wandering the corridor area of E1M4 (that leads to the yellow key) and thinking how real it looked.

Edited April 29, 2023 by Kor

[DNSKILL5]

I remember physically dodging the imp, caco, and baron projectiles from my seat as if it were instinctual. That was how fresh FPS games were for me at the time. I wasn’t yet adjusted fully to such a perspective in games. 

[Ankha]

I was fascinated by the blue potions and the glowing supercharge, and the map in the intermission screen.

I also remember collecting the items awarding points, but I wonder if it's not a fake memory as it was only in an early version of doom.

[DoomPlayer00]

I don't remember much about playing Doom as borderline toddler but I remember E1M3 kicking my ass hard. Felt like such a giant leap in difficulty from the second map.

[aboyes1989]

First Doom game I played was Doom 2, and the things that were most memorable and really stuck with me were the title pic and opening music, and the chaingunners.

[namsan]

I started playing the classic Doom games in 2009 or 2010.

I can remember...

• The infighting of monsters in Doom games is really amusing.
• I got disturbed by "fused face" textures in various levels, they are indeed, still one of the creepiest things in Doom.
• I stuck in the teleport maze in E3M7 and got very frustrated, and ultimately resorted to use noclip cheat.

[Johnny Cruelty]

On 4/6/2023 at 9:46 AM, IHave10Shells said:

For me, it was the cyberdemon fight at E2M8. I did not know about the idclev cheat, so I turned God mode on and played through the whole 2nd episode. Then when I finally came to E2M8, and turned God mode off so I could fight the cyberdemon legitimately. I was using DOSBox (with keyboard controls) and so fighting the cyberdemon was a nightmare. It took me several attempts to finally beat it. Was pretty angry when I found out that I could have just typed in a few letters and saved myself many days of playing >:(

 

Plus, the laptop I was using was actual trash and could not handle being plugged out of power for too long, sometimes DOSBox would completly crash, and I would have to use Ctrl+Alt+Delete to open up the task manager and shut it down.

 

(Btw this wasn't too long ago, I'm not a veteran.)

for me was when I played it on a dos emulator at school one time

it was fun

 

[ICID]

I started with Doom II on Windows 95. My mind was blown immediately but maps 7 and 8 really stand out in my memory - 7 was scary with all the big monsters that you had to kill and I thought the whole idea of "tricks and traps" was just so cool, with each room being its own goofy little puzzle. Plus, it's where you discover your first BFG and get to use it against large numbers of monsters - finding that secret was so exciting! The outpost section of Doom II is still my favorite and I'm sure this nostalgia is a big part of it.

 

I also remember I really loved the song "The Demon's Dead", which played while you were installing Doom95, so hearing that in Refueling Base was a big deal.

 

Oh, and I'd already played the shareware episode of Wolfenstein several times by that point, so the secret levels made me really happy.

[DeathWalkerGT]

Starting the game for the first time...

The screen becomes the level (E1M1) and the music starts.

Priceless to this day.

[bLUEbYTE]

Tooth brush & chicken launcher as a weapons. I didn't even know it was a bootleg named Mr. Smiley Head's Head Hunt Safari at the time.