The early years of home gaming were a wild west of opportunities. With the limited technology and tools of the time, it was up to the genius and creativity of programmers and designers to push boundaries and explore expanding untapped potential. Some of these titles would set standards followed for generations to come.
Platformers had Super Mario in 2D and Mario 64 in 3D. RTS games had Dune 2, MOBAs would have DOTA, and Roguelikes had the eponymous Rogue. As for first-person shooters, there was only one game that truly stood out as the grandfather to mainstream titles. Led by the now-industry legends John Romero and John Carmack, that game was called Doom.
The Origins of a Gory Classic
Doom was built by a company named id Software. Originally formed in 1991 by John Romero, John Carmack, and Tom Hall, id Software was no stranger to the video game development process.
Driven by the creative vision of Romero and the programming genius of Carmack, this team first made a name for themselves creating fast 2D side-scrolling games for the PC. At the time, this was the domain of home consoles, which were then faster and better suited to this type of gaming.
The team then cut their teeth on 3D gaming by iterating on several impressive games and engines. This started in April 1991 with Hovertank One, followed by Catacomb 3-D in November of that year. In May of 1992, id delivered Wolfenstein 3D, which captured worldwide attention with its fast-paced Nazi-blasting action. All of this would pale, in comparison, to Doom.
Released in December of 1993, the original Doom was an expression not just of Carmack’s prodigious talent, but of Romero’s desire to do something darker. Aided by artist Adrian Carmack, id Software settled on a more horrific tone, where a lone space marine would take the fight to the forces of hell. Calling their development building “Suite 666”, id Software’s then-lengthy development cycle more than paid off.
An Enduring Legacy
Doom was more than just an upgrade over Wolfenstein 3D, it completely shifted the framework of what the world knew action gameplay could achieve. It had walls at variable angles, it had elevation changes, support for better texture work, huge numbers of varied enemies on screen, and it ran on humble hardware. It was so popular that before the term first-person-shooter entered the gaming lexicon, it was common to hear these types of titles referred to as Doom clones.
Perhaps just as importantly, Doom’s focus on more adult themes helped drive the idea that video games were more than just silly toys. Doom was scary, it was stress-inducing, and it was more approachable than any other game in its genre that came before. This naturally led to a pearl-clutching revolt, as Doom was named alongside Mortal Kombat and Night Trap in the now famous 1993-94 United States Senate hearings on violent video games. Of course, this Streisand effect just pushed Doom’s fame to new heights.
Recently seeing a new re-release by the popular retro-remakers Nightdive Studios, Doom 1 and 2 are still well-known by players of all ages. This is further helped by the gaming zeitgeist embracing Doom memes, and by the latest two Doom games being extremely well-received.
The most famous memes come from the ridiculously large number of systems Doom is playable on, both officially and with fan efforts. “Can it run Doom” is a common question whenever a new piece of digital technology is released, and whether looking at a calculator or an ultrasound scanner, the answer is often yes.
This level of multiplatform support is practically unprecedented in video games. Cross-platform play is a major selling point for video games that can offer it and is sometimes matched in other forms of digital entertainment like iGaming. The appeal of real-money casino games is the accessibility across platforms. Players look for games that they can play on-the-go on any internet-supported device. Popular slot game titles like Golden Buffalo and Dragon Hatch are built on modern HTML 5, making them playable on any system that offers modern browser support, like a smartphone, tablet, laptop, or desktop, and many smart TVs. Even without the advantage of modern tech and programming, Doom manages a hell of an impressive effort when it comes to multiplatform support.
What Comes Next?
Despite early trepidations, the recent Doom 2016 and Doom Eternal turned out as some of the greatest FPS experiences of the last decade. Like the original, these embraced the darkness in their additions to the Doom mythos, with the Doomguy becoming a kind of horrific myth that inspired terror even to the demons of hell.
It looks like the upcoming prequel to these two games, Doom the Dark Ages, will lean even further in this direction. The early trailer paints a kind of fantasy horror/science-fiction setting, building on the already intense mechanics introduced in its recent predecessors. It’s too early to tell if this new title will arrive to the same applause as the last two, but if you’re at all a fan of the originals, or just want to put fear into the hordes of hell, then it’s definitely one to watch.
