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All Articles: Doom (1993)
Pre-order Doom 2016 on Xbox Games Store and get original Doom and Doom II for free
Doom first delivered a shotgun blast of innovation to the game industry all the way back in 1993. Which means that many of today’s most voracious first person shooter fans weren’t even alive when John Carmack, John Romero, and the rest of id Software asked players to fight back against the denizens of Hell with a minigun and a whole lot of moxie.
Thankfully, anyone who was planning to pre-order the upcoming reboot through the Xbox Games Store will receive a Doom history lesson at no additional charge, as every Xbox One owners who pre-purchases Doom 2016 will receive a download code for the original Doom and Doom II: Hell On Earth for the Xbox Live Arcade. Best of all, both games will be backwards compatible on the Xbox One.
Players who pre-order Doom 2016 on the Xbox One (or any other platform) will also receive the “Demon Multiplayer Pack,” which includes a “unique Demon-themed armor set with three skin variations, six Hack Modules, six exclusive metallic paint colors, and three id logo patterns that can be applied to weapons and armor.”
Bethesda will digitally deliver the download codes for both games to your Xbox Live inbox roughly a week after Doom’s May 13th launch date.
Posted in News, Xbox One
Tagged Doom (1993), Doom (2016)
John Romero created a new map for Doom… his first in 21 years
“Phobos Anomaly” is the memorable climax to Doom‘s first episode, “Knee-Deep in the Dead.” The map itself is pretty simple, but it ends with the first appearance of the Barons of Hell, one of Doom’s most terrifying demons. A little over 22 years later, Doom developer John Romero thought he could do better.
Romero recently uploaded the WAD file for a sprawling new version of “Phobos Anomaly” that he likes to call “Tech Gone Bad.” The map’s insane descent into Hell really delivers that grand finale feel you want for the end of an episode. But don’t just take my word for it, check out the great playthrough by YouTube user “VarianSanctuarium” I’ve embedded above. And definitely download it yourself if you’ve still got Doom installed on your machine.
“Tech Gone Bad” is the first Doom map created by Romero since 1995, and he refers to it as “a warm-up” in the WAD notes. He also wrote up a very Romero-esque description:
My boss level replacement for E1M8… 22 years later
After exiting the Computer Station you knew the worst was up ahead. You still hadn’t reached the place where the demons were coming from. The steel door shuts behind you as you realize you’re there; you’re at the Phobos Anomaly. Cracks from hell are all over the place as seepage from the portal invades the entire installation. Now it’s time to find the portal and stop the demons from coming through. You know UAC had hundreds of scientists working at a high-tech lab somewhere in this area, and the portal must be connected to it somehow. Time to lock and load.
I don’t know what “Tech Gone Bad” is supposed to be a warm-up for, but maybe Bethesda’s Doom reboot is going to have some competition this Spring!
Posted in News, PC
Tagged Blackroom, Doom (1993)
World Video Game Hall of Fame’s Class of 2015 is Tetris, Super Mario Bros, Pong, Doom, WoW, Pac-Man
The World Video Game Hall of Fame, which is administered by the International Center for the History of Electronic Games and The Strong in Rochester, New York, has announced its inaugural list of inductees. Drum roll, please.
The 2015 Class of the World Video Game Hall of Fame includes…
- Doom, id Software’s pioneering first person shooter.
- Pac-Man, the dot-eating, ghost-chasing hero of every 80s arcade.
- Pong, one of video gaming’s earliest arcade hits.
- Super Mario Bros., the side-scroller that put the NES on the map and made Mario a household name.
- Tetris, the falling block puzzler that’s surely invaded your dreams at least once.
- World of Warcraft, Blizzard’s MMO made the genre what it is today and is still going strong after a decade.
While all of the games are at least ten years old, it’s amazing how important they still are to video gaming’s current climate. Bethesda will pull the curtain back on the next game in the Doom series at this year’s E3 Expo. Pac-Man recently celebrated his 35th anniversary and will star in a new mobile game this Summer. Super Mario Bros. is also celebrating a big anniversary this year and will influence this September’s Mario Maker. The Tetris Company, and Alexey Pajitnov, continues to license new version of Tetris and the latest, Tetris Ultimate, was released last year. Finally, Blizzard released World of Warcraft’s fifth expansion, Warlords of Draenor, in November and a sixth is already in the works.
These six games represent gaming at its greatest and are excellent choices for the Hall of Fame’s inaugural class. As part of their selection, the inductees will be on permanent view (and in playable form) at The Strong’s “eGameRevolution” exhibit.
Nine other finalists were considered for inclusion by the international committee including Angry Birds, FIFA International Soccer, The Legend of Zelda, Minecraft, The Oregon Trail, Pokemon Red/Blue, The Sims, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Space Invaders. I’m sure it’s only a matter of time until all of them are enshrined in the Hall of Fame. But if you want to campaign for your favorite game, nominees for the Class of 2016 are currently being accept at the World Video Game Hall of Fame’s website.
Posted in News, PC, PS3, Retro, Wii, Wii U, Xbox 360
Tagged Doom (1993), Pac-Man, Super Mario Bros., Tetris, World of Warcraft, World Video Game Hall of Fame
The Strong announces finalists for the World Video Game Hall of Fame’s Class of 2015
The Strong National Museum of Play and the International Center for the History of Electronic Games have announced the finalists for the inaugural class of the World Video Game Hall of Fame. More than a dozen classic games passed this first test on their way to video game immortality, which were selected from thousands of nominations that poured in from gamers all across the world. Nominations for the Class of 2015 were accepted from February 17 through March 31, but in case you missed out, the Hall of Fame is already accepting games for next year’s class.
This year’s inductees to the World Video Game Hall of Fame will be chosen from the finalist pool by an “international selection committee” made up of journalists, scholars, and other individuals. The inaugural class will be announced on June 4 at 10:30 AM (Eastern Time) during a ceremony at The Strong.
The finalists for the World Video Game Hall of Fame’s Class of 2015 include:
- Angry Birds
- Doom
- FIFA International Soccer
- The Legend of Zelda
- Minecraft
- The Oregon Trail
- Pac-Man
- Pokemon Red/Blue
- Pong
- The Sims
- Sonic the Hedgehog
- Space Invaders
- Super Mario Bros.
- Tetris
- World of Warcraft
“The 15 finalists for the World Video Game Hall of Fame span decades, gaming platforms, and geographies… but what they all have in common is their undeniable impact on popular culture and society in general,” said Jon-Paul Dyson, the Director of the International Center for the History of Electronic Games.
Inductees into the World Video Game Hall of Fame will be selected based on the following criteria: “Icon Status,” “Longevity,” “Geographical Reach,” and “Influence.” All 15 finalists certainly qualify, but I know I’ll be rooting for Tetris.
Posted in 3DS, Mobile, News, PC, PS3, PS4, Retro, Vita, Wii, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Angry Birds, Doom (1993), Minecraft, Pac-Man, Space Invaders, Super Mario Bros., Tetris, The Legend of Zelda, World of Warcraft, World Video Game Hall of Fame
John Carmack reminisces on 20 years of Doom and what happened with Doom 4
On this day twenty years ago, gamers everywhere felt a sense of Doom that they haven’t been able to shake since. Doom may not have created the first person shooter genre, but it popularized it like no game had before. In fact, it made such an impression on gamers that other FPSs were known as “Doom clones” for years.
To mark this momentous occasion, John Carmack, one of the driving forces behind the creation of Doom at id Software, sat down with Wired‘s Chris Kohler to discuss the story behind one of his earliest accomplishments. The interview is certainly worth a read, and Carmack even gives readers an inside look at what went wrong with Doom 4 before his departure from id earlier this year:
“That’s something I can’t really go into much in detail. It’s been hard—one of the things that was a little bit surprising that you might not think so from the outside, but deciding exactly what the essence of Doom is, with this 20-year history, is a heck of a lot harder than you might think. You get multiple Doom fans that have different views of what the core essence of it is, and there’s been a design challenge through all of it.”
If you’re interested in the full story behind the making of Doom, I highly recommend checking out the book Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture by David Kushner. I also highly recommend playing some Doom today, and not just because its the 20th anniversary of its release. Everyday is a good day to play Doom.
Posted in News, PC
Tagged Doom (1993), Doom (2016)
Doom is once again available on the XBLA
Back when Bethesda completed their purchase of id Software, the developer’s most famous game, Doom, was pulled from the Xbox Live Arcade. No reason was ever given for the delisting, but it more than likely had something to do with the title originally being published by Activision.
But all that’s in the past as the greatest FPS of all-time (for those not paying attention, I mean Doom) is once again available to download from the XBLA.
Doom is available to download for a supercheap (and totally worth it) 400 Microsoft Points ($5).
Posted in News, Xbox 360
Tagged Doom (1993)