Your rationalization of the Icon of Sin

Soundblock said:

Their snouts are clearly too long and they're not muscular enough - those are more likely to be Abyssal Squires, or perhaps a pack of Vehement Viceroys...

I once wrote a series of annoyed posts about how the Doom box art can be annoying deceptive and ambiguous. Literally, they couldn't have made it less clear and more confusing if they tried.

Are those creatures Barons? Are they Imps? Why do some of them have mechanical cyberdemon-like arms? Why does only one of them throw a -white- fireball which looks added there as an afterthought? Why does the Marine use a gun which looks nothing like the one(s) in the game? etc. etc.

It's almost as if the only thing the artist had to work with, was a -relatively detailed- description of the Marine, and a very generic "fire and brimstone horned devils" of the monsters. Of course, it would help to know exactly WHEN in Doom's development was this box/concept art developed.

I've started to imagine the Icon Of Sin as a sort of demon bio-tech computer server. They used human bio-tech to create a giant skull used to hold a massive brain to work as a demon computer server. When they built it though, they only created a defense system that consists of it firing teleporters out of it's brain. When Doomguy kills it, the biological fiber-optic cables they gave it ripped out of the demon computers (which are all those soul face wall textures you see) and tore up hell's surface.

I've never really thought much of the IoS besides "head in the wall," a concept with which I've never had too huge an issue.

Although, the coolest portrayal I've ever seen of it was its dialogue in Samsara:

In all my aeons, I have never met one like you. I wonder what your people would call you. Mighty? Great? Savior? Hero? Who knows how many they would have to sort through to find one for you? Some fitting word that could suit all the incredible deeds you've done.
Do you know the title I have? None.
In all the years of my life, they have never found anything suitable for my power. Call me Baphomet. Call me Gatekeeper. Satan. Demonlord. Hellfather. The Icon of Sin. Whichever name you choose for me, only one will truly fit.
Your doom.

https://github.com/SamsaraDevs/samsaraJunk/blob/master/pk3/acs/samsara.c

Maes said:

I once wrote a series of annoyed posts about how the Doom box art can be annoying deceptive and ambiguous.

My biggest problem with the Doom box art is the amount of people who seem to believe the Doomguy's armor was designed to bare his stomach (not to mention the weird hairstyle in Doom 2's cover and E4's ending).

Well its just a face on a large wall, however, because of the low tech at the time, I think it was supposed to represent a massive demon. Parts of its body like tentacles and such possibly go through hell like roots on a tree.

Its basically a massive birthing chamber.....like aliens I guess :)

Doom guy fought his way there and splattered it using rockets fired into its weak point....a conveniently exposed part of brain......death star anybody?

After it was destroyed obviously hell suffered and became confused.

Maybe it feeds on the essence of souls.....but only bad souls as their negative dark energy is powerful.....the dark side!

Happy souls are fluffy and light and float upwards away from hell.....does that mean there is a heaven in the Doom universe?

I think if I was to remake Doom the IOS would be a big squishy disgusting evil looking entity fused into the walls and foundations in the centre of hell, its head being the queen bee so to speak.

Thats my two cents on it anyway :)

PS....though I would be tempted to make it a massive Caco Demon thats just been mis understood and trapped in a large cave. Doom guy could tickle its ear and make it make purring sounds, calming it down and stopping hell from being...well evil! Everybody would live happily ever after :)

Soundblock said:
Not as reappliable as the other bosses, but definitely worth the while.

I get the impression that's the main root of why some people speak against it. The complaint seems somewhat less likely here than at ZDoom.org where the focus is more clearly oriented toward modification and, relatedly, Enjay has also complained about the archvile for being awkward to change due to its hardcoded sequences.

Maes said:
It's almost as if the only thing the artist had to work with, was a -relatively detailed- description of the Marine, and a very generic "fire and brimstone horned devils" of the monsters. Of course, it would help to know exactly WHEN in Doom's development was this box/concept art developed.

Punchatz was an established artist they hired and not part of their team so it's possible it was the other way around, and he provided the artwork of a space marine battling demos freely and they liked the artwork and based the player's sprite on the art. The logo existed in the early alphas so I bet the title picture was being drawn around that initial period too. The monsters are less similar than the marine because the id guys likely used aspects in the box art artwork to create different monsters, particularly the imps, demos, barons of hell and the cyberdemon, all of which may share partial resemblances with the demons Punchatz drew.

Today, big companies have almost full control over the artists they hire for high budget games, but back then design wasn't controlled that way and it was arguably more like our mod-making here. It may be messier and more ambiguous than in many newer games, but also more laid back and down-to-earth, which I think helps the community be more creative and fun-loving than with a more "serious business" design.

Captain Toenail said:
Just a thought - the original marble face may have been designed to resemble the generic demons from the Doom cover - notice the similarities?
http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/bb202/CaptainToenailSkulltag/marbTexture_zpsab8c0db1.jpg

Cool, that goes with my line of thought above.

bcwood16 said:
Its basically a massive birthing chamber.....like aliens I guess :)

Doom guy fought his way there and splattered it using rockets fired into its weak point....a conveniently exposed part of brain......death star anybody?

Well said, and it also works kind of like the early arcade game Space Invaders, where the bad guys fall toward you.

I'm pretty sure that Icon of Sin is not original id software art. Funny thing - you can see IOS in the old Polish tv program:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-Q7fUNX9KQ

Look at 1:17 :)

Reinchard said:

I'm pretty sure that Icon of Sin is not original id software art. Funny thing - you can see IOS in the old Polish tv program:
I http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-Q7fUNX9KQ

Look at 1:17 :)

In the words of the Doom Wiki: It is an archetype of imagined pagan deity Baphomet

Yes, but graphics used in this tv show is the same graphic which is used in Doom, maybe without hole in head in maybe in little big resolution (YT version is very low resolution, but I remember day when I see this in tv and its look much more sharper then Doom version).

Luke Dacote said:

...Most assume its the IOS since his death supposedly destroys Hell and he kind of resembles an important demon like... The Baphomet.

The Icon of Sin IS the Baphomet!

And it's not actually called the Icon of Sin, either - that's the name of the level (as in,
the Baphomet is a symbol of sinning).
^
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IMO

Janus3003 said:

(not to mention the weird hairstyle in Doom 2's cover and E4's ending).

I never could get what was up with the guy on the Doom II box art - he doesn't remotely resemble the player (I refuse to say "Doomguy")!
He looks so different, in fact, that I though it was a completely different person. Although I guess if you try, you can kinda imagine that the box art dude's head looks a bit like the one on the status bar. Kinda.