Who knew [Doom2.exe + Dosbox] was this good?

[hardcore_gamer]

I already have lots of copies of Doom on my hard drive plus the PSX versions. However for the sake of being able to have Doom on the fly I decided to buy the "Doom complete pack" on STEAM since there was a huge discount on it.

I did not really use the STEAM versions because I figured it would be easier to just use source ports, however out of curiosity I decided to fire up the STEAM version of the Ultimate Doom. It turns out that the STEAM version uses a DosBox version that works just fine on my 64 bit Windows 7 and the music sounds different. In addition to that the game also plays the original Doom intro music and not the new lamer one! It actually feels like I am playing the original game and not just some modern source port.

Now perhaps everyone already knew this in which case I feel bad for saying something obvious, but I personally love the fact that Doom bought via STEAM seems to run via DosBox just fine right of the bat, which is great for people like me who don't know shit about Dosbox or how to get it to work.

Anyone else likes the STEAM version of Doom for its classic feel?

Discuss.

[Maes]

And exactly which part of the whole Steam/DOSBOX deal you were not aware of?

[hardcore_gamer]

Maes said:

And exactly which part of the whole Steam/DOSBOX deal you were not aware of?

I thought that the STEAM version of Doom was basically the same as what is included in the shareware Doom and the Doom collectors edition, or that is, the WAD files and a copy of Doom 95.

[Maes]

Not since a long time, AFAIK, and I don't even use Steam.

[DuckReconMajor]

um no it is all retarded

[hardcore_gamer]

DuckReconMajor said:

um no it is all retarded

I use to play the Shareware using only the keyboard (and I literally had only the shareware to play for years before getting the full thing) anyways, so no mouse support and not being able to configure the controls doesn't bother me.

The only thing that sucks a bit is that you can't increase the resolution from 320 to 640 like you can with Doom 95 so things start to look really pixelated when they get too far away. That said, this was also the case with the original Doom unless I am wrong.

[Gez]

hardcore_gamer said:

In addition to that the game also plays the original Doom intro music and not the new lamer one! It actually feels like I am playing the original game and not just some modern source port.

What the fuck are you talking about?

Doom has both D_INTRO and D_INTROA. (D_INTROA was added in Doom v1.2.) The hack to play D_INTROA instead of D_INTRO on OPL machine was removed from the linuxdoom code by Bernd Kreimeier; so source ports were built on a base that only ever plays D_INTRO. (Some may have implemented back the D_INTROA hack, I don't know for sure but I'd guess Chocolate Doom, if any, did.)

So, all source ports, presumably, play the original Doom intro (D_INTRO) and not the new lamer one (OPL-exclusive D_INTROA). I'd guess you've got them confused and think that D_INTROA is the original one. Yeah, that's not the case.

Also, you are playing the original game through DOSBox. It's the vanilla exe that's run in a DOS emulator.

[Maes]

Uhmm...you realize that you're playing plain old vanilla DOS Doom under emulation right? Of course you can't change the resolution (you never could), and there IS an official way to set the controls to mouse + keyboard via Setup.exe (if they didn't cripple it like DRM said) and even deactivating vertical movement, just like you would do in DOS.

As DRM said though, you'll probably get a better experience by just yanking the IWADs out of the package and throwing them in a source port or a better set-up DOSBOX yourself. The shareware exe can play Doom, Ultimate Doom and Doom II with no problems, AFAIK.

Only with Plutonia/TNT you will need their specific .EXEs, and I think setup.exe is the same for all versions (writes to default.cfg).

[hex11]

hardcore_gamer said:

I use to play the Shareware using only the keyboard (and I literally had only the shareware to play for years before getting the full thing) anyways, so no mouse support and not being able to configure the controls doesn't bother me.

The only thing that sucks a bit is that you can't increase the resolution from 320 to 640 like you can with Doom 95 so things start to look really pixelated when they get too far away. That said, this was also the case with the original Doom unless I am wrong.

Yeah original Doom was 320x200. I think maybe only SGI Doom had high resolutions back then. Even linuxdoom was effectively just 320x200, even if you ran it with -2 or -3 to double or triple the display. Anyway, I think the textures look better at this resolution, and the game feels more dream-like.

Lately I've been playing exactly that way, using SDL Doom, which is close enough to linuxdoom that quite a bit of the Linux Doom FAQ is still relevant, esp. the stuff about configuring the .doomrc file. It's got no music support, but I think Dave Taylor was right when he said that's not really critical. I'm using keyboard only (as always), but now don't even have the "always run" option set. I'm enjoying this a lot, just played through the first two levels of Doom Core this way. I really feels like it's 1995 all over again. :D

[printz]

Gez said:

What the fuck are you talking about?

Doom has both D_INTRO and D_INTROA. (D_INTROA was added in Doom v1.2.) The hack to play D_INTROA instead of D_INTRO on OPL machine was removed from the linuxdoom code by Bernd Kreimeier; so source ports were built on a base that only ever plays D_INTRO. (Some may have implemented back the D_INTROA hack, I don't know for sure but I'd guess Chocolate Doom, if any, did.)

So, all source ports, presumably, play the original Doom intro (D_INTRO) and not the new lamer one (OPL-exclusive D_INTROA). I'd guess you've got them confused and think that D_INTROA is the original one. Yeah, that's not the case.

Also, you are playing the original game through DOSBox. It's the vanilla exe that's run in a DOS emulator.

Excuse me, but:

- how is D_INTROA lamer than D_INTRO? They only sound slightly different, but not by quality
- exactly when is D_INTROA played and when is D_INTRO played (in vanilla DOom)? I had replaced D_INTROA with something else and sometimes D_INTRO was playing, othertimes D_INTROA was playing. Don't tell me that the awesomely sounding on OPL only tune was always D_INTROA.
- can you even tell which one of them is playing when you don't have the other as reference? They're nearly identical, but strangely different. What is the difference?

[hardcore_gamer]

hex11 said:

It's got no music support, but I think Dave Taylor was right when he said that's not really critical.

I don't agree. The music has always been one of Doom's strongest aspects in my opinion. I have tried to play Doom without music and the world just feels bland and lifeless somehow without it. Playing Doom with no music is like eating cookies with no milk, it just doesn't feel the way it should.

[Gez]

printz said:

- how is D_INTROA lamer than D_INTRO? They only sound slightly different, but not by quality

Ask HG. I merely reused his terms.

printz said:

- exactly when is D_INTROA played and when is D_INTRO played (in vanilla DOom)? I had replaced D_INTROA with something else and sometimes D_INTRO was playing, othertimes D_INTROA was playing. Don't tell me that the awesomely sounding on OPL only tune was always D_INTROA.

D_INTRO is played when the TITLEPIC screen is shown if your MIDI output is not OPL. D_INTROA is played when the TITLEPIC screen is shown if your MIDI output is OPL.

printz said:

- can you even tell which one of them is playing when you don't have the other as reference? They're nearly identical, but strangely different. What is the difference?

If you can't tell the difference, load a PWAD with new D_INTRO and D_INTROA lumps, and make them different enough for you.

The default.cfg files given by Steam use Sound Blaster for music card; which means they use OPL.



If you copy the SETUP.EXE from another packaging of Doom (for example, the shareware version you can find about everywhere), then you'll be able to change that to another type. Select General MIDI for example and you'll get non-OPL music and therefore D_INTRO.

[hex11]

hardcore_gamer said:

I don't agree. The music has always been one of Doom's strongest aspects in my opinion. I have tried to play Doom without music and the world just feels bland and lifeless somehow without it. Playing Doom with no music is like eating cookies with no milk, it just doesn't feel the way it should.

You're probably too used to having the music playing all the time, so the lack of it feels like a void. But in fact, there's a whole lot going on audio-wise in the Doom world. You've got the sounds of lifts, doors and other mechanical devices, item pickups, monster activity sounds, monster attacks, pain sounds, barrel explosions, teleports, etc. And a lot of those are very important cues as to what's happening around you in the game world. In fact, even though I happen to like Bobby Prince's tracks (in OPL3 anyway), I normally turn the music down to where it's almost imperceptible. And lately, I haven't missed the lack of it. Of course, even though SDL Doom doesn't have music, I could still play some tunes in the background if I ever want them. :)

That reminds me, when I played Quake it was always with just the sound FX. And ditto with Hired Guns back in the day on my Amiga. Well that game didn't even have in-game music, it was just sound FX and various ambient/environmental sounds (sort of like Quake).

[Gez]

hex11 said:

I haven't missed the lack of it.

I think you meant the reverse of what you said. :p

[40oz]

I typically get this same feeling from playing chocolate doom.

[Average]

40oz said:

I typically get this same feeling from playing chocolate doom.

Same here. I actually find the sound fx and sound positioning in Doom exe with DOSBox really lacking whereas Chocolate Doom emulates the sound in a nicer way... Maybe I'm wrong though and it's all just psychosomatic!

[myk]

Average said:
I actually find the sound fx and sound positioning in Doom exe with DOSBox really lacking

I use Doom on Windows 98 regularly, and when I tried it on DOSBox with a friend (we were doing coop) I don't believe it had these issues you mentioned.