Which pre-FPS game reminds you the most of Doom?

I thought this would be an interesting question: Which pre-FPS (before 1991 when Wolfenstein 3D came out) game reminds you most of Doom, and why?

For me, it would be Contra for the NES. It's a high-action sidescrolling game, involving one or two soldiers fighting against an alien invasion, with the ultimate goal of destroying Red Falcon, the alien leader. There was an arcade version, but I never really played that enough to say more than that it's different from the NES version. There are also several sequels, not all of which are good.

Things about Contra that remind me of Doom:
- Lots of action
- Hordes of enemies
- Hideous alien creatures (not too frequent, but they're there)
- Weapon powerups (Including spreadshot, which is sort of like a shotgun)
- Player's character is a tough-guy soldier
- A few similar environment themes, like tech and organic
- Two stages are in (very primative) 3D

What about you? What pre-FPS game reminds you most of Doom?

Well, any 3D game of course. Some of them date to the early 80's and are pretty bad but some were good. I had a great flight sim that was simply called Jet. All polygons in 4 colours.

Any game drippping with atmosphere would remind me of DooM. So probably anything based on Alien, or whatever was dark and creepy.

Battlezone (wasn't too good at it though)
Faceball 2000 for the SNES
Super Contra - I actually played this in the arcade before the original. The arcade version was a bit better than the NES version, but it was a lot shorter.

Yep, Battlezone. By far the clearest predecessor IMO. And surely the earliest. I would actually call it a FPS though, with the minor distinction that you're a tank (or a person in a tank), rather than a person.

Super Mario Bros 2. The tropical levels make me think of Doom E1 heh.

I would have to agree and say contra for nes reminds me most of doom

Pretty much all I played before Wolfenstein was Commadore 64, and those were all silly arcade games I had on there. So I'll say...Shamus 2?

I used to like the FPS RPG's like Dungeon Master, Eye of the Beholder and others that probably came after Wolf, maybe even Doom. Not really Doomish. Maybe Hereticish?

I also remembver a game on the Amiga. Sort of like a futuristic RPG/doom crossover, but 4 little windows on one screen. One window per character you played. Hmmm that was probably post doom too.

Enjay said:

I used to like the FPS RPG's like Dungeon Master, Eye of the Beholder and others that probably came after Wolf, maybe even Doom.

Dungeon Master was released 1989. Eye of the Beholder 1 in 1990 and 2 in 1991. The 3rd one was released in 1992 like Wolf 3D, so I couldn't tell you which came out first :)

That reminds me. I forgot to mention Wizardry. I played that old game on the Apple 2E, and I never could get past the second or third level without being poisoned, decapitated (not fun), or falling into a pit (worse when you fall into a pit and meet an enemy at the same time, then when you kill the enemy, you automatically fall in that same pit).

Blakestone, I guess. Since it featured a base of some sort on another planet if I remember correctly.

Umm, since Blakestone is based on the Wolf 3D engine, I'd have thought it would be obvious that it isn't pre-Wolf :)

NiGHTMARE said:

Umm, since Blakestone is based on the Wolf 3D engine, I'd have thought it would be obvious that it isn't pre-Wolf :)

Oh shit, I got the whole idea of this thread wrong.

/slaps himself in the face with Michael Jackson.

Intellivision's Night Stalker. Actually this game might have been even more like DOOM in some respects, as you even entered a series of different maps and it ends with a "boss" map where the winged dragons dwell.

Basically both games have DOOM's idea of being in a maze/map where you have to blast away monsters and you have to get ammo to keep doing that.

NiGHTMARE said:

Dungeon Master was released 1989. Eye of the Beholder 1 in 1990 and 2 in 1991. The 3rd one was released in 1992 like Wolf 3D, so I couldn't tell you which came out first :)

Heh, yeah I knew DM and EOB were certainly before Wolf, wasn't sure about EOB2, and the main thing I remember about EOB3 is that the new engine was so bad and clunky that even my friend's spiffy new 486 didn't run it particularly well when he bought it. I'd been trying for months to get it to run on a 386.

Damn! IMO, EOB3 was such a let down as the final part of what had up 'til then been a fantastic, absorbing set of games. The games that really got me into PC gaming, and made me want to mod games too. I really wanted to create my own dungeon for EOB. In fact, my first game mod (I think) was screen grabbing the EOB wall graphics and importing them into Wolf.

Anyway, I'd taken my party through EOB1 and EOB2 and almost felt I had done them a disservice by importing them into EOB3 and forcing them through it. It should have been good, it had a good, horrific concept, but a slight change in artwork style, the awful engine, and lacklustre implementation (possibly as a result of it being the first non Westwood Studios/ SSI collaboration in the series) left it as just another game and not the crowning glory of a great series of games it should have been. Still annoys me!

What I actually meant by "others that probably came after Wolf" was that there were other games such as "Elder Scrolls: The Arena", "Ultima Underworld" and maybe "Ishar", though some of those would have been around '92 as well.

http://www.mobygames.com/ is a great place for checking release dates.

BTW, an updated and expanded version of EOB1 was (relatively) recently released for the GBA :)

Oh yeah, and there are fan-make recreations of both Ultima Underworlds in progress too.

NiGHTMARE said:

BTW, an updated and expanded version of EOB1 was (relatively) recently released for the GBA :)

That I did not know. After a quick google, it looks odd. FPS for the wandering around, but isometric for the combat.

Edit: In fact it looks very odd. Quite unlike the original in many aspects. Even elements of the story seem different, with different npc names being mentioned in reviews, being able to use money, changes to bring in D&D 3rd edition rules, quite different graphics and so on. Very unlike the original.

Oh yeah, and there are fan-make recreations of both Ultima Underworlds in progress too.

Yes, I've come across one or two of them. I also recently found Dungeon Master redone and revamped using Java. Works very well, and allows you to make your own dungeons too. Someone has done an EOB1 and an EOB2 dungeon for it, but the links for them are all dead. :-(

Here's the DMJava site for anyone interested.

http://www.cs.pitt.edu/~alandale/dmjava/index.html

NiGHTMARE said:

Oh yeah, and there are fan-make recreations of both Ultima Underworlds in progress too.

Fuck yeah! I loved the Ultima Underworld games, they're two of my favourite games EVER, along with Dungeon Master too. I love that genre.

I don't know really, I didn't really play arcade style games before doom and wolf 3d, I always played Flight simulators...

Man, times have changed.

Robotron

Aliens on the Spectrum.

Enjay: maybe you're thinking about Space Hulk...? That's post-Doom though.

Tough call. Let's see, there are a few games, actually, each of which in my opinion captures a different side of Doom. They are Biomenace, Contra/SuperC, and Castlevania. Biomenace, well that's more like Doom II, with mutants devastating a city, and it's plenty gory, with corpses everywhere and whatnot, and enemies that go splatter. Of course Contra/SuperC has the whole soldier fighting aliens to save the Earth aspect, and Castlevania really has the mood of Doom, with evil satanic creatures and very creepy environments and whatnot.

Enjay said:

I also remembver a game on the Amiga. Sort of like a futuristic RPG/doom crossover, but 4 little windows on one screen. One window per character you played. Hmmm that was probably post doom too.

I think you're referring to Hired Guns.