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wildweasel

Doom on Droid? Not Anymore

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Up until recently, it was possible for users of smartphones running Google's Android OS to download unofficial ports of Doom, Quake, and Wolfenstein 3D, as well as a Doom-themed soundboard, from the Android app database. That has changed, however, according to this GamePolitics article, in which id Software parent company ZeniMax Media has issued a DMCA takedown notice on the above applications. While Doom, Quake, and Wolfenstein are all considered open source, it is presumably other factors that lead to the takedown of these programs from the app list.

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Evidently people are providing the registered version game data with these apps. That's not legal, and it's hardly a surprise that id would shut that down - it is within their every right to do so.

Now if they were to try to do this to a simple port, that is, just the code, they would be in breach of the terms of the GPL under which they themselves placed the code. I don't think we'll see that happening, or at least, I hope not. It would be a dark day for the source port community, and possibly a legal battle to boot.

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I know doom-for-android allows users to download the Plutonia and Evilution wads (in addition to the shareware wad). It also comes with sounds and music extracted from the games, which probably didn't help their case either...

(I have no idea about any of the other games listed.)

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Wouldn't they be able to just supply the shareware versions of the game along with the ports and offer capability to play the full version if you have it? I haven't looked at these apps (don't own a droid) but that seems like the best way to go. Or maybe someone can convince someone at iD to offer a pay one with the full game.

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That's how smart people would do it. But some of these people aren't smart and think they can do what they want.

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One on the comments here says:

the game didn’t include any non-free levels. it would download DOOM1.WAD, PLUTONIA.WAD, and TNT.WAD. The first file is the shareware demo for doom 1, the later two are mods for doom2, that were later released by id as Final Doom. The files are still freely available on the internet.

Huh. Yeah, Plutonia and TNT are freely available on most friendly local warez sites. Doesn't make them actually free.

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I had already spoken to clarkdawg (the developer of doom-for-android) about his illegal supply of TNT and Plutonia IWADs, and he'd removed them from his code repository and from the launcher app. He has done the right thing, and I've suggested on the Google Group that he can offer the GPL engine for download legally.

This is well and truly the work of the infamous whingey faggot Vladmir Silva (aka Sharky) who not only took issue that others were expanding on his GPL'ed port of PrBoom to Android and wanted to retract his sourcecode, but was offering the Ultimate Doom and Doom 2 commercial products for sale on the Android Market to profit by himself.

Spread the word this is all Vladmir's fault. I hope he gets fucking sued.

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My only question: is it better then the port for the iphone? That one really blows...

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Yay for force-close on launch :|

Still, early days.

Edit: Updated to version 1.6 of Android and it works now, yay.

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I still have it, so woo. I don't know if it allowed me to download final doom for free but I did let me get freedoom and the doom shareware.

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It seems like whenever a new platform comes out (phone, console, media player, camera, whatever), someone ports Doom to it.

Are any of these ports done by people in the community? I have a feeling that most of these ports are just to satisfy the techblog crowd with IT RUNS DOOM LOL and are then promptly abandoned. How many of them are actually usable?

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david_a said:

It seems like whenever a new platform comes out (phone, console, media player, camera, whatever), someone ports Doom to it.


Yup. Whenever there's a new platform, the following software are developed for it, in this order:
1. Operating system
2. C compiler
3. Program that says "Hello World"
4. Doom port

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david_a said:
How many of them are actually usable?

Not many, unless there's a full-sized keyboard and/or mouse available (although I might be biased since that's the way I prefer playing on a PC). Between Rockbox on a Sandisk Sansa, the Wii, and the G1 Android phone, the phone is the most playable (probably because of the slide-out keyboard, even if it is pretty tiny)...

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Apparently everything iPhone can't do, Droid can. This also works vice versa.

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Doom is pretty much a modern-day "Hello World" for proof-of-concept programming. Once a platform gets C and SDL, someone does a PrBoom port for it.

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Super Jamie said:

Doom is pretty much a modern-day "Hello World" for proof-of-concept programming. Once a platform gets C and SDL, someone does a PrBoom port for it.

Yeah, I guess that's what I was getting at. I think only a small subset of these ports are actually created with the intention that people will play them.

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