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samtheslug

Best Doom Console Port?

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samtheslug said:

In my opinion, I think the Playstation port of Doom is the overall best. It's lighting, music and sound really creates atmosphere. It also featured alot of new sound such as new enemies grunting and moaning and it also had some new weapon sounds.


I agree on everything, except the sounds. Maybe it's just me having played nothing but PC Doom, but I can't get used to the new sounds. Explosions sound lamer, sounds were actually only replaced (I thought every monster now had their own unique sounds, but it turned out that the demon, cacodemon, baron, cyberdemon, etc. still shared the same active and hurt sounds), and I keep getting distracted by the "new" active demon sound because that's what I normally hear when chaingunners ambush me.

That said, I wouldn't mind giving that PSX Doom TC a shot. But I'd like to find a way to play that with the original PC audio; the music can stay.

Also, lol at the nightmare spectre; it's just a demon with inverted colors.

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I'll concede that, but personally I'd only want the new pistol and shotgun sounds. Along with the chaingunners using the new pistol sound, but the spiderdemon should've stuck with the shotgun sound what with the super chaingun and all.

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I'm always gonna be impressed that the humble Super Nintendo managed to pull off Doom, not only that but the map layouts are pretty much identical to the PC version. This is something that even the mighty PSX version struggled with.

I know that the floors and ceilings weren't textured and that the enemies could only face you, and that the controls were shit, but c'mon. It was friggin Doom on the Snes!

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Lantern Jaw said:

I'm always gonna be impressed that the humble Super Nintendo managed to pull off Doom, not only that but the map layouts are pretty much identical to the PC version. This is something that even the mighty PSX version struggled with.

I know that the floors and ceilings weren't textured and that the enemies could only face you, and that the controls were shit, but c'mon. It was friggin Doom on the Snes!


Don't forget it needed the FX2 chip.

Besides, the PSX version was only missing four levels from E3, and had five levels from E4 as well as five all new levels in exchange. You're also forgetting it had most of the Doom 2 levels, plus three more new levels for Doom 2.

By comparison, the SNES version is missing levels E1M6, E2M2, E2M5, E2M7, and E3M5. No E4... no Doom 2. I'm not sure why everyone keeps thinking the SNES version has so many more levels than all other versions.

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The only reason the PSX didn't have PC accurate levels was because it reused the Atari Jaguar levels. This was either because the mappers were either too lazy to convert the PC levels or it would have been too much for the system to handle. The only modifications that the PSX version had to have were the shortening of height on some levels (really noticeable in the crusher room on the Doom II map level The Crusher).

I think the SNES port is good in its own way, but gets frustrating with the jerky controls, and also how you can only play the later episodes on a harder difficulty. Also, the game relied heavily on the FX2 chip, if it didn't have that, then the game wouldn't have happened. It is still amazing how they were able to pull it off though.

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Mattfrie1 said:

Also, the game relied heavily on the FX2 chip, if it didn't have that, then the game wouldn't have happened.

What's wrong with that? Wasn't that why it was ported in the first place?

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Chilly Willy said:

Don't forget it needed the FX2 chip.

Besides, the PSX version was only missing four levels from E3, and had five levels from E4 as well as five all new levels in exchange. You're also forgetting it had most of the Doom 2 levels, plus three more new levels for Doom 2.

By comparison, the SNES version is missing levels E1M6, E2M2, E2M5, E2M7, and E3M5. No E4... no Doom 2. I'm not sure why everyone keeps thinking the SNES version has so many more levels than all other versions.


I'm not forgetting anything, I had the PSX version and used to play it all the time. My point was that the maps it did have were accurate in layout and detail, which is why I was supprised when I had my first encounter with the PSX version.

There are many plus points with the PSX version too, such as the atmospheric music (which I still enjoy in WAD form) and coloured sector lighting.

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DuckReconMajor said:

What's wrong with that? Wasn't that why it was ported in the first place?


There wasn't anything wrong with that, I guess I just put it in the wrong place. ;)

It's actually amazing how they were able to pull off this port, as the SNES was such an "Inferior" machine (I of course don't believe that). Even more amazing was how they pulled off a port of Wolfenstein 3D for the SNES, as that version ran off the hardware of the SNES alone without any help.

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For a long time it was PSX Doom for me, but the XBLA Doom has now surpassed it. It feels the closest to the PC experience to me and I love that it has 4-player splitscreen co-op and deathmatch.

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My only problem with the PSX version is that it doesn't contain half the textures the PC version possesses. What gives? This was the same system that had fully 3d games like Metal Gear Solid, Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon. Yet it couldn't handle a fully detailed PC version lookalike?

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bones58 said:

This was the same system that had fully 3d games like Metal Gear Solid, Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon. Yet it couldn't handle a fully detailed PC version lookalike?

That's a good point actually. I wonder why something as crap as a 486/25 could run Doom, yet the 33Mhz PSX struggled to eke out full detail?

Even modern ports of PrBoom (which are supposed to be 300% more efficient) need at least a couple of hundred Mhz to get decent performance. It runs great on my dual 400Mhz GP2X, though my 528Mhz Android phone kinda does chug.

Maybe it's just the quality of the original Jagdoom code they're all based off? The GBA's little 16.8MHz processor runs that system's Doom 2 with pretty much PC-like detailing, and far better performance than GBA Doom 1, which seems to just be a direct port of Jagdoom.

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Super Jamie said:

That's a good point actually. I wonder why something as crap as a 486/25 could run Doom, yet the 33Mhz PSX struggled to eke out full detail?

Even modern ports of PrBoom (which are supposed to be 300% more efficient) need at least a couple of hundred Mhz to get decent performance. It runs great on my dual 400Mhz GP2X, though my 528Mhz Android phone kinda does chug.

Maybe it's just the quality of the original Jagdoom code they're all based off? The GBA's little 16.8MHz processor runs that system's Doom 2 with pretty much PC-like detailing, and far better performance than GBA Doom 1, which seems to just be a direct port of Jagdoom.


The PSX version was based off the Jaguar version because of memory constraints. Remember, the PSX only has 2MB of RAM total. There really wasn't enough room for all the textures. Also, pulling textures from a harddrive into 4 to 8 MB of RAM on a 486 is much faster than trying to pull textures from a CDROM into 2 MB of RAM.

Also, I'm not sure what you're referring to, but all the 25 MHz 486s I ran Doom on never came close to being as detailed or smooth as the PSX. It was 50 or 66 MHz 486DX4s that ran Doom in high detail fairly smoothly. You put your 486/25 into low detail mode and put up with how slow the frame updates were.

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Ah, good point.

I recall running Doom on at least one of my old DOS-era boxen, though perhaps it wasn't the 386/SX-25 I am thinking of. I think I went to a really fast 486/DX2-66 after that. My memory of computer specs as an 11-yearold is not perfect :)

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Hey,

Out of curiosity I have just played the Sega 32X version. It is the same simplified version as PSX (and Jaguar) except that the view screen is reduced to the size of a CD box and the music sounds like you have a severe ear infection ...also, no strafe, not even single button strafe, no god damn strafe!

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Lantern Jaw said:

Hey,

Out of curiosity I have just played the Sega 32X version. It is the same simplified version as PSX (and Jaguar) except that the view screen is reduced to the size of a CD box and the music sounds like you have a severe ear infection ...also, no strafe, not even single button strafe, no god damn strafe!


A = FAST
B = FIRE
C = STRAFE
X = Prev Weapon
Y = Next Weapon
Z = Map
START = Menu

The Jaguar/32X/SNES console ports use low detail mode (pixels are doubled horizontally), and the 32X display is larger than the SNES version. The music is identical to the original AdLIB/SB music. You're just used to modern wavetable synthesis and MP3s. :)

But it's still not that good a conversion. Once I'm done experimenting with Wolf3D on the 32X, I'll move on to Doom. Like Wolf3D, it'll run in high detail mode, and allow you to set the display size (default to one click down from max, more than likely).

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Chilly Willy said:

A = FAST
B = FIRE
C = STRAFE
X = Prev Weapon
Y = Next Weapon
Z = Map
START = Menu


Oh, I missed that, maybe I configured my controller badly. I have to say one thing the 32X version does have going for it is its smoothness. Good luck with the tinkering.

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Lantern Jaw said:

Oh, I missed that, maybe I configured my controller badly. I have to say one thing the 32X version does have going for it is its smoothness. Good luck with the tinkering.


What I listed is the default controls.

An earlier beta of Doom is supposed to run in high detail mode. They supposedly switched to low detail because they though it more important to have a consistently high frame rate.

I'm looking through PrBoom+ to see what can be hacked out for consoles that leaves things like BOOM/MBF level compatibility in place while getting rid of what can't be used on said consoles.

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