Can someone explain ports?

[womanmarine]

I am just an old housewife with a new XP computer who wants to play doom. I have looked at and installed zdoom and prboom, but don't know how to use them. Is there anyone kind enough to help step by step?

If I am in the wrong place, please point me in the right direction.

Many thanks!!

[Darkman 4]

First, find a file on your PC that's either called doom.wad or doom2.wad. Once you find it, right click and click on copy. Then, go to the folder where ZDoom or prBoom is stored. Right click and click on paste. Double click the ZDoom (or prBoom) .exe, and you're all set!

[Terra-jin]

For ZDOOM, I suggest using the Launcher to come with it. It's very easy to use, and allows you to find all the files you need, and set all the necessary parameters. It's for download at the ZDOOM site.

Also, the ATTN'd thread in this forum might help you with any XP-related issues you could encounter.

Enjoy the legendary FPS!

[Grazza]

In order to play Doom, you need to have a copy of one of the original game(s), such as Ultimate Doom, Doom2 or Final Doom.

A source port is an executable file that takes the place of the executable (Doom.exe or Doom2.exe) from the original games. In order to work, they need at least one of the main data files (called iwads) from the original games. These iwads are called doom.wad, doom2.wad, tnt.wad and plutonia.wad.

It is simplest to have the source port and your iwad(s) in the same folder. Then you can launch the game from the command line, generally with all the same options (and some extra ones) that you could in the original game. Thus, if everything is in C:\DOOM2, typical command lines are:
c:\doom2\prboom.exe -iwad doom2.wad
c:\doom2\prboom.exe -iwad plutonia.wad
c:\doom2\prboom.exe -iwad doom2.wad -playdemo 30uv1617
c:\doom2\prboom.exe -iwad doom2.wad -file av.wad -deh av.deh
The first launches standard Doom2; the second launches the Plutonia Experiment (from Final Doom), while the third plays a demo called 30uv1617 (in which Sedlo completes Doom2 in just over 16 minutes), while the fourth launches a well-known pwad for Doom2 called Alien Vendetta.

[Kristian Ronge]

A little addition to Grazza's instructions... If you want to play standard Doom2 the "-iwad doom2.wad" is not necessary. PrBoom, ZDooM (and other ports) will look for the IWADs in a specific order. For ZDooM the order is (IIRC):

doom2.wad
plutonia.wad
tnt.wad
doom.wad

Therefore, the "-iwad" parameter is only needed when not playing doom2.

Anyway, there should be quite thorough documentation to both PrBoom and ZDooM. Do you have any specific problems? For example, does the problem lie in general unfamiliarity with the command prompt or something else not necessarily Doom related?

[Mivalekan]

Holy shit. A woman playing Doom. A housewife at that. I'm astonished...

[NiGHTMARE]

Uh, where have you been? There are quite a few female Doomers: Bahdko, Lil' White Mouse, Nanami, Silverwyvern, etc.

Unfortunately, as a certain relatively recent incident proved, there's always the possibility that someone claiming to be a female Doomer could in fact be a guy (of course someone claiming to be a male Doomer may really be a girl ;))

[Bucket]

I'm more astonished that no one has decided to flame her whilst linking to the FAQ.

[myk]

NiGHTMARE said:
(of course someone claiming to be a male Doomer may really be a girl ;))

Yes, and I'm really, really hot too.

[womanmarine]

I just came back to thank you all for the help.

FYI: I had read the FAQs, and still needed this wonderful help.

I really am a 57 year old housewife, ex-marine, and a few other things, ROFL. I would probably not be considered "hot" except when the hot flashes kick in.

I do understand command prompt generally, just not in this circumstance. Where does the command prompt show up?

Can I install each doom to a seperate folder, then install a copy of zdoom in each folder to get around this command prompt business?

Ruth

[Captain Red]

womanmarine said:
Can I install each doom to a seperate folder, then install a copy of zdoom in each folder to get around this command prompt business?

Yes, but you will have to tell thr port where it is:

if, lets say, you install doom 2 in a folder called C:\doom2 and install zdoom in the folder C:\zdoom then, to play doom 2, you would go to the start menu, select run, and type:

C:\zdoom\zdoom.exe -iwad C\doom2\doom2.wad

I think that’s what you are asking...

[Espi]

womanmarine said:

Can I install each doom to a seperate folder, then install a copy of zdoom in each folder to get around this command prompt business?

Yeah, that's very possible. If there's only one IWAD in ZDoom's folder, it'll load that.

[dsm]

Terra-jin said:

It's for download at the ZDOOM site.

Wrong url - it's: http://www.zdoom.org/