Other games that used DMX

[shadow1013]

The DOOM sound library, as we all know was DMX, created by Paul Radek, and the way it was written (having a million functions which DOOM did not use) suggests that it was not only for DOOM. Maybe it was sold to other companies as well? Not only that but I could have sworn I heard one example of such a game a while back

[Technician]

It was a common sound library that can be bought to be used for any project. TV, music, games, etc. all take advantage of common sound libraries. When you buy the disk, you buy the license you use the sounds in your media. The sound library used for Doom can be heard in countless forms of multimedia.

[Tango]

yeah, as a kid i remember hearing the doom door closing sound in a Recess movie on disney channel. i think that's probably the most common one i've heard

[Csonicgo]

shadow1013 said:

The DOOM sound library, as we all know was DMX, created by Paul Radek, and the way it was written (having a million functions which DOOM did not use) suggests that it was not only for DOOM. Maybe it was sold to other companies as well? Not only that but I could have sworn I heard one example of such a game a while back

The only other game I remember it being used in was Raptor.

[esselfortium]

It's worth clarifying that DMX is a library of code, which Doom used to play sound. It's not a library of sound recordings, and not the source of the sounds Doom shares with other media. It just plays them back.

[Technician]

esselfortium said:

It's worth clarifying that DMX is a library of code, which Doom used to play sound. It's not a library of sound recordings, and not the source of the sounds Doom shares with other media. It just plays them back.

Ahhhhh my mistake. I understand what he's getting at now. OK. So was it written exclusively for Doom?

Tango said:

yeah, as a kid i remember hearing the doom door closing sound in a Recess movie on disney channel. i think that's probably the most common one i've heard

I don't know how many times I've heard that camel grunt.

[Porsche Monty]

Moby Games also credits Radek for Galactix (1992) but only God knows if it has any DMX in it.

[Gez]

Technician said:

It was a common sound library that can be bought to be used for any project. TV, music, games, etc. all take advantage of common sound libraries. When you buy the disk, you buy the license you use the sounds in your media. The sound library used for Doom can be heard in countless forms of multimedia.

That was Sound Ideas' The General 6000 series.

As far as DMX goes, the name is so common that Google will give you thousand of false leads. Digital Expressions, Inc. will also give you false leads -- apparently the company disappeared, and the one you'll find by this name was founded in 2001, so it can't have been Radek's.

I found this, though.

I wonder why Id didn't go with the Miles Sound System (known for its XMI files) or the Sound Operating System (HMI or HMP). Maybe DEI was a startup just created by Radek, and Id were his first customers? And given that Romero called him an "incompetent shithead sound dork", he didn't find more business afterwards and disappeared?

[Porsche Monty]

Calling people names doesn't seem to mean much in the video game world or the business world in general. Look at American McGee, he spent like years talking ill of EA because of the canned PlaySatation 2 Alice port and look where he's now.

[shadow1013]

Maybe someone should drop Romero a message and ask him whatever happened to Radek? I'd honestly be curious to know. And yes! I kept confusing Raptor with Descent though... Paul Radek really did seem to disappear of the face of the Earth

[Gez]

If you enter his name in a search engine, you'll find a few people named Paul Radek here and there. There are profiles on LinkedIn and Google+. So if you're really curious, you could try contacting these persons and asking them if they are the Digital Expressions guy.

[Technician]

Gez said:

That was Sound Ideas' The General 6000 series.

I'm actually going to see if I can track down a copy somewhere in the used market. Thanks.

[shadow1013]

Meh, Paul Radek seems to be someone who never existed almost. lol

[fraggle]

Csonicgo said:

The only other game I remember it being used in was Raptor.

Mobygames lists Paul Radek as having worked on Galactix as well. It doesn't seem that it actually uses DMX, although he's credited for the sound code (the install program also credits him for "Windowing routines and VGA detection").

Other than that, Raptor and the various Doom engine games are the only ones listed. A while back I extracted the GENMIDI lump from Raptor - it's different to Doom's one. It doesn't sound very nice in Doom though.

Both Galactix and Raptor seem to be credited to "Cygnus Studios" (later renamed to "Mountain King") - apparently the original developers of Strife. This was a company founded by Scott Host.

On a side note, Raptor has an oddly familiar looking setup program. If you look in the interview I linked to, there's this interesting fact:

Scott was a local developer. His company at the time (Cygnus Software) was based in the same building that id Software was while they were working on Doom and Doom II.

If I had to speculate, perhaps Radek started off doing the sound code for Galactix, then spun off this work into a DOS sound library (DMX) which got picked up by Id. The games industry is certainly very incestous.

[shadow1013]

Well, you were speaking about the setup program, I'm almost sure it's based on the same code, and even further, the program used to make the screens is probably the same. Laughing Dog software or some thing was used to make all text screens. Including ENDOOM

[Gez]

Yeah, if DMX was just that sound code system written by the guy next door, it'd explain why Id just used it instead of writing their own code ("it'll save us some time") or using an industry-approved system like John Miles' or Nick Skrepetos'.