Doom2/Quake going portable!

[Manik999]

There's been news on Doomworld a short while ago about Doom2 coming to the Gameboy Advance. This has spurned something in me to look at the GBA's capability in the 3D area. The fruits of my findings include a small website(agbgames.com) which presents a few 3D engines specifically for the GBA.

Their crowning achievement is the recreation of Quake's Portal level. It hasn't got the scrolling sky or the swelling lava, but it definitely has the slopes and platforms and the true 3D architecture(I mean the engine). No word yet on if it supports 3D models, but I'm sure it's in progress.

Browsing around, you'll find other incarnations of the engine, such as an advanced Doom engine, a Carmageddon-type landscape engine, and another one with polygon cars running around(gee, I wonder which game they were hoping to license THAT to).

The engine, unfortunately, features the stretched pixels that the first Doom had. It effectively cuts the rendering area in half, resulting in higher FPS. Doesn't seem too bad, since now it's running full-screen and may feature a masked HUD(as opposed to a status bar).

And if that weren't enough, they also offer Windows-native development software with its own compilers. I'm still waiting on a reply about how much it'll cost, but I'm sure it won't be cheap.

All this makes me wonder why Sony isn't incorporating their MiniDisc technology into a true 3D handheld. They'd better get on this train before they miss it...

[Jonathan]

Manik999 said:

Their crowning achievement is the recreation of Quake's Portal level. It hasn't got the scrolling sky or the swelling lava, but it definitely has the slopes and platforms and the true 3D architecture(I mean the engine). No word yet on if it supports 3D models, but I'm sure it's in progress.

Actually if you pay close attention to the screenshots and the video it appears that true 3d architechture is not present, all the properly 3d elements of the portal level have been removed. It looks more like they've used a doom/build style engine that has support for sloped surfaces. Its still impressive, but its a long way from true 3d, which I'm skeptical would even ever be possible on the gba. But here's hoping.

[Amr0d]

I have Doom for Gameboy Advanced but the Game has one mistake: Green blood i makes a lot of fun to play a little deathmatch on way to school i am waiting for wolfenstein for gba (more on idsoftware.com)

[Lobo]

Amr0d said:

I have Doom for Gameboy Advanced but the Game has one mistake: Green blood

I seriously doubt that it's a mistake! You have to remember that the GB and GBA are primarily aimed at children and RED blood would obviously traumatize these poor children beyond belief! GREEN blood on the other hand doesn't traumatize as much(obviously?!)

Same thing happened with Carmaggedon for the PSX. They gave all the civilians a greenish tint and green blood, and said that they weren't people, they were zombies. Apparently it isn't as shocking to run down zombies. This was too avoid damaging sensitive young minds (or more accurately set-in-their-ways old minds)

[mmnpsrsoskl]

And why do zombies have green blood, that is just stupid. Censoring games is pointless. You can go down to the video store and hire out movies with a ton of violence, blood, gore in them. And if you can't, you can get your parents too :) But I don't need too, just in example there.

Aren't zombies just resurrected dead humans?

[GooberMan]

Yeah but for some reason zombie blood goes gangrenous...

[mmnpsrsoskl]

GooberMan said:

Yeah but for some reason zombie blood goes gangrenous...

Oh yeah! I forgot about that...

[Sephiroth]

i have thought about a sony hand held. however i would expect it to be slightly better than a PSone. why, well technology is much better. plus the electroncs of a PSone are very small and light. also the use of minidisk(hey they finally have a good use) I would also expect better prosessor power and openGL( or other 3d chipsets) It could be done and i bet the thought has crossed sony's mind. however i hope, if it is ever done, that they do not fall short like they did on the PS2. i would love to play parasite eve or final fantasy VII on long plain/car rides. also i would expect such a product to be around $140-$200 US but would it be worth it. as for the gameboy and the quake screens. yes there is NO TRUE 3d in the quake shots. like the other guy said it may have slopes and still be impressive but it is far from true 3d. also i am very sure the 3d modles would not be put into games. even if the GBA could display a 3d model it would be extreamly slow. The GBA was not made for 3d, whish it was but it isn't.

[læmænt]

Visor Edge (with PalmOS) kicks ass! I have a spinning 3d cube demo in LispMe.

[fodders]

The Compaq iPAQ will have tomb raider :)

[Naked Snake]

fodders said:

The Compaq iPAQ will have tomb raider :)

BOOB RAIDAR!!!

[Goat]

Does the GBA Doom have the monsters that always look at you, and never turn away like the SNES and 32x Doom?

[elbryan42]

No, you get to see all sides of them, unlike SNES Doom and 32x Doom.

[Naked Snake]

I hope Doom II is going to be released soon, because for my B-Day I want GBA Doom, Doom II and Wolf 3d ^_^

[elbryan42]

What? No Castlevania Circle of the Moon, Castlevania Harmony of Dissonance or Metroid Fusion? :P

It looks like the GBA's future is looking better than all of the next-gen systems.

[Livo]

Well, if Sony make a handheld based on the PS1, I'd just hope that they'd put in more RAM, a better CPU and a decent screen capable of 640x480 resolution. Unfortunately, having a screen that could do that would probably cost way too much for it to sell commercially.

[elbryan42]

A portable PSX/PS1 has been made, but not by Sony:

http://www.classicgaming.com/vcsp/PSp/PSp1.htm

Pretty groovy. :)

[spank]

It's a 2.5D engine. You can notice the shearing in this pic.

Edit: that PSp thing is stupidly awesome!

[zark]

Nuno Correia said:

It's a 2.5D engine. You can notice the shearing in this pic.

Uh... looks like a mess of grey and brown pixels to me.

Oh shit, I forgot, that's what Quake is :P

[spank]

And blue. The blue Quake levels in E3 (?) rule.

[zark]

It's E4 you're thinking of. And it's azure, not blue :P

[spank]

I was such a Quake nut. Heh.

[mmnpsrsoskl]

elbryan42 said:

A portable PSX/PS1 has been made, but not by Sony:

http://www.classicgaming.com/vcsp/PSp/PSp1.htm

Pretty groovy. :)

Damm...you know you can get a LCD screen that plugs into the back of a PSOne, and I think you can get a battery pack...

[darknation]

GBA is the only "current" console I own. It's teh shiznit.

[mmnpsrsoskl]

darknation said:

GBA is the only "current" console I own. It's teh shiznit.

Heh. It sure is. Can't wait for Metroid Fusion, and Metroid Prime for GameCube...YEAH!