Re: More Doom (Sigil II)

On 2025-04-20, Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:

On Sun, 20 Apr 2025 12:40:32 -0000 (UTC), Borax Man
<rotflol2@hotmail.com> wrote:
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I ran Doom with a larger sreen, in fact, as big as it could be with just
the status bar.  Maybe shrunk down one level.  It ran like crap, but I
preferred that over looking at tiny, tiny screen.  AFter a while, you
got used to it, and only some levels, like E3M6 really became a major
headache.

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Oh, me too. I've always given 'quality' the edge over 'framerate', and
have been extremely tolerant of low FPS (as I said in an earlier post,
I first played "Quake" on a 486! ;-)
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I first saw Wolf3D in the school computer lab, and like you found the 3D
first person perspective exciting.  Nothing like anything else I saw
before, but I only got to play it during school breaks, ie, every 6
months just for an hour or so.

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Oh, undeniably! Wolf3D was very exciting on its release, and it got a
lot of play-time from me too. I was, perhaps, a bit less enthused than
you (games like "Catacombs 3D" and "Ultima Underworld" made the
viewpoint a bit less novel for me) but no other games on market had
the same mix of detail and speed as Wolfenstein. It was an amazing
game, technically, and felt quite revolutionary. But -again, perhaps
because I had games like "Underworld" or Bethesda's 1991 "The
Terminator" to fall back upon, it wasn't as amazing and life-consuming
as "Doom" would prove to be a few years later.
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When I first saw Doom, early April 1994 I think, it looked next
generation, something phenomenal and clearly for a far more powerful
computer.  It was like watching black magic, how these "realistic"
scenes were rendered.  But I didn't quite get drawn into the aesthetics,
the demons, the shotgun, and found it to be like a Wolf3D rip off.  A
couple of weeks later, after playing it a little and deleting it, I
suddenly realised the game was pretty good and got the shareware version
again and finished it.  I was hooked from then on in.  More immersive
levels, flowed and played better.  No huge mazes!

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Actually, I admit, my initial day-one impressions of "Doom" weren't
too far from yours either. It was very much an "ehn, it's just more
Wolf, but darker and trying too hard to be edgy,* what with the demons
and gore". For all that it's layout is now infamous, E1M1 doesn't
really present "Doom's" strengths very well. I actually remember
playing the game that first time (after a long and arduous download
and install**), and quitting after the first level quite disappointed
at the result.
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But Usenet was full of talk about how great this game was, so I
eventually returned to the game.*** The next few levels were similar
(E1M3, which starts in a box-filled warehouse, felt like it could have
been a Wolf3D level). It wasn't until E1M7 that I _really_ started
getting into the game, groking its gameplay and atmosphere fully. By
then I'd started seeing "Doom" more than just "Wolf 4" and more as its
own thing; I could see the technical changes (again, the lighting and
elevation changes) and loved how everything came together to create a
mix of brooding, atmospheric horror and off-the-wall non-stop action.
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And I've never lost my admiration of the game since, even if I've not
always enjoyed playing it as much.
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Wolf3D was neat... but Doom was magic.
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* did we even use the word edgy in 1994?
** one of the archives I downloaded was corrupt but I only realized
that after I started installing, requiring me to go back online and
download it again.
*** IIRC, in between bouts of "Wing Commander Privateer" ;-)

They were my thoughts of Doom too.  I thought the "former humans" were
just the Brownshirt SS, the Shotgun Guy, the equivalent of the blue SS
guards, and no submachine gun?  It seemd a Wolf3D rip off, but it took a
bit before I realised it was the same company that made Wolf 3D.  I
suppose they had the right to 'copy' the game format!  Once I had tried
to stop drawing parellels, and appreciate it for what it was, thats when
my opinion changed, and I really got drawn into the dark atmosphere,
particularly on level 7 and 8.  I also like how you could look through
windows, see into other rooms, see into secret areas (such as the soul
sphere on the plinth in E1M3, which made you wonder how to get there).
The world was more detailed, cohesive, passages turned back on
themselves, that pit of waste could have a ledge that leads to a tunnel
that leads to a room you saw.  Wolf3D had nothing like that.

We called it "Wolfenstein in space" but it was more than that.  I hadn't
played any other 3D shooters, perhaps only seeing a screenshot of Blake
Stone and a bit later, trying Depth Dwellers.  But you could also
download mods, and make your own levels!  I did make a few, quite a few.
Gaming had matured, and Doom was more "serious".

To this day, it is probably my favourite game of all time, maybe only,
perhaps, losing to Quake.

I can't remember using edgy in 1994.