Making Doom a little more social

[CODOR]

I recall playing Doom with a friend over a modem connection while simultaneously chatting with him on a separate phone line (back in the days when I had two of them). It was pretty handy for co-op matches since we could relay information like position and health without having to type in the middle of a battle...

[Maes]

CODOR said:

It was pretty handy for co-op matches since we could relay information like position and health without having to type in the middle of a battle...

This could actually be automated with status bar and automap notifications (e.g. if your buddy died, his position will be marked on the map, or by pressing a button, if enemy players are in sight, their position can be momentarily be displayed on the map or hinted at on-screen.

In the case of a separate phone line however, you'd have the advantage of causing zero disruption to the "pure data" communication exchanged by Doom, something which can't be said of VoIP unless you're using dedicated lines or a LAN.