Doom

Title:	Doom
Released:	1994
Genre:	Corridor Shooter
Developer:	Id
Publisher:	Sega
Regions:	USA, UK, Japan
Availability:	Common

It's Doom. If you haven’t heard of it, you need to get out more. Doom is the father of all first-person corridor shooters (Castle Wolfenstein is the grandfather), the progenitor of Quake,Unreal, and countless other imitators. Doom originally appeared on the PC way back in 1993, followed by its first console appearance on the Atari Jaguar. The 32x version is fast and fun, marred only by a static border around the edges of the screen, some missing enemy characters and levels (17 levels present out of 27), and a tendency towards excessive pixilation when viewing enemies and objects up close. The game is creepy and gory, with wave upon wave of 2-D monsters coming at you relentlessly. The frame rate is high and the control is tight, leaving one to wonder why Sega couldn’t get rid of the border and clean up the graphics a bit. Inexplicably, Sega left out minor features that should have been easy to implement, such as side views of the monsters (you only see them face-on), crushing ceilings, and several of the cooler “boss” monsters. In all likelihood, the 32x is capable of a PC-quality conversion, but Sega had to rush production of this important title in order to meet the launch date (Doom was a key launch title for the 32x and one of its biggest sellers.) Whatever the case, Doom is one of the better games in the 32x library and a blast to play, especially with its eerie soundtrack turned up high.


Japanese Box Art	European Box Art	Brazillian Box Art	Promotional Box Art

How does Doom compare on other platforms?

Nintendo 64: Considered by many to be the finest console version of all, featuring beautiful graphics, completely new levels, and a darker feel than the original. Flat, sprite-based monsters never looked so good.

Playstation: The best version of the “original" Doom. Followed by a sequel, Final Doom. There is even a hidden level set in a nightclub, aptly titled “Club Doom.” One of the earliest showcases for the 3-D prowess of the Playstation.

Saturn: A pretty poor effort by GT Interactive, considering what the programming gurus at Lobotomy were able to accomplish with the Saturn versions of Powerslave, Duke Nukem, and Quake. Similar to the PSX effort, except for choppy graphics and sloppy control. The Saturn IS capable of quality 3-D games in the hands of a talented team of programmers, but this port is just plain lazy.

Jaguar: A key launch title for the cat, and the first Jaguar game that demonstrated the graphical improvement over 16-bit. Quite similar to Doom for the 32x, with slightly better graphics. Not as good as Alien Vs Predator, though.

3DO: The worst of the Doom conversions, by far. The game options include the ability to shrink the playing field down to the size of a postage stamp in order to speed up the incredibly slow and choppy frame rate. (3DO Doom Cheat- Press Up, Right, LS, Up, Right (2), RS, A, Left at the auto-map screen during game play. Do not pause. A sound will confirm correct entry. You can now play the game with two additional larger screen sizes, including full screen, rendering it virtually unplayable). The 3DO is capable of more.

Super Nintendo: Both the ugliest and the most impressive version of Doom. The Super FX chip that is built into the cart pushes the 16-bit SNES hardware to the max, terrible graphics and all. Surprisingly playable.

Atari 2600: Just kidding. There is an interesting story behind this image- A game enthusiast by the name of James Catalano was given a school assignment involving 3-D computer images. He designed some box art and ads for a phony port of Doom for the ancient Atari 2600. Realizing that the artwork was damned convincing, James started a hoax, claiming to have programmed the complicated corridor shooter for the 8-bit 2600, as well as several other classic consoles. He even whipped up some phony screen shots using an old Atari computer. Quite a few people were fooled by the hoax, and some even offered large sums of money to get a copy of the nonexistant game.

Phony 2600 Doom Screenshots

	Nintendo 64: Considered by many to be the finest console version of all, featuring beautiful graphics, completely new levels, and a darker feel than the original. Flat, sprite-based monsters never looked so good.
	Playstation: The best version of the “original" *Doom. Followed by a sequel, Final Doom*. There is even a hidden level set in a nightclub, aptly titled “Club Doom.” One of the earliest showcases for the 3-D prowess of the Playstation.
	Saturn: A pretty poor effort by GT Interactive, considering what the programming gurus at Lobotomy were able to accomplish with the Saturn versions of *Powerslave, Duke Nukem, and Quake*. Similar to the PSX effort, except for choppy graphics and sloppy control. The Saturn IS capable of quality 3-D games in the hands of a talented team of programmers, but this port is just plain lazy.
	Jaguar: A key launch title for the cat, and the first Jaguar game that demonstrated the graphical improvement over 16-bit. Quite similar to *Doom* for the 32x, with slightly better graphics. Not as good as *Alien Vs Predator*, though.
	3DO: The worst of the *Doom* conversions, by far. The game options include the ability to shrink the playing field down to the size of a postage stamp in order to speed up the incredibly slow and choppy frame rate. (3DO *Doom* Cheat- Press Up, Right, LS, Up, Right (2), RS, A, Left at the auto-map screen during game play. Do not pause. A sound will confirm correct entry. You can now play the game with two additional larger screen sizes, including full screen, rendering it virtually unplayable). The 3DO is capable of more.
	Super Nintendo: Both the ugliest and the most impressive version of *Doom*. The Super FX chip that is built into the cart pushes the 16-bit SNES hardware to the max, terrible graphics and all. Surprisingly playable.
	Atari 2600: Just kidding. There is an interesting story behind this image- A game enthusiast by the name of James Catalano was given a school assignment involving 3-D computer images. He designed some box art and ads for a phony port of *Doom* for the ancient Atari 2600. Realizing that the artwork was damned convincing, James started a hoax, claiming to have programmed the complicated corridor shooter for the 8-bit 2600, as well as several other classic consoles. He even whipped up some phony screen shots using an old Atari computer. Quite a few people were fooled by the hoax, and some even offered large sums of money to get a copy of the nonexistant game.