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Doom (1993 video game) | HearLore
Common questions
When was the first episode of Doom uploaded to the internet?
The first episode of Doom was uploaded to the internet on the 10th of December 1993. The development team at id Software worked for thirty straight hours to complete the upload at midnight.
Who created the 2.5D graphics engine for Doom?
Lead programmer John Carmack developed the new engine that rendered 3D graphics while keeping enemies and objects as 2D images. This technique known as 2.5D graphics allowed walls and floors to exist at any angle or height.
Why was lead designer Tom Hall fired from Doom?
Lead designer Tom Hall was fired in July 1993 after internal conflict regarding the game's story and design. John Carmack dismissed the importance of story, leading the team to focus on technological innovation and fast gameplay instead of Hall's science fiction plot.
How were the enemies and textures in Doom created?
Adrian Carmack and Kevin Cloud sculpted models of enemies and took stop motion photos from five to eight different angles to create realistic in-game rotation. Developers also photographed themselves and children's toys to create weapon textures and character models.
When was the swastika removed from the original Doom levels?
The swastika-shaped structure in level E1M4: Command Control was removed in later versions out of respect for a military veteran's request. This change was made by Romero after the initial release of the game.
When was the source code for Doom released to the public?
The source code for Doom was released under a non-commercial license in 1997 and freely released under the GNU General Public License in 1999. This release allowed for unofficial ports to esoteric devices such as smart thermostats and pianos.
Doom (1993 video game)
On the 10th of December 1993, the development team at id Software uploaded the first episode of Doom to the internet at midnight after working for thirty straight hours. The network administrator at the University of Wisconsin-Madison was forced to kick off all users to make room for the upload, as ten thousand people attempted to download the game simultaneously, crashing the university's network. This event marked the beginning of an overnight phenomenon that would redefine the video game industry. The game itself was a technical marvel for its time, utilizing a new engine developed by lead programmer John Carmack that rendered 3D graphics while keeping enemies and objects as 2D images, a technique known as 2.5D graphics. Unlike previous titles, the engine allowed walls and floors to exist at any angle or height, creating a sense of immersion that had never been seen before. The lighting system did not use ray tracing but instead calculated the light level of small areas to modify color palettes, making distant surfaces appear darker and creating a claustrophobic atmosphere. This technological innovation was the foundation upon which a cultural revolution was built, allowing players to traverse labyrinthine areas and fight hordes of demons in a way that felt visceral and immediate.
The Deathmatch Revolution
The multiplayer component of Doom was not part of the original design document but was added by John Carmack just a month before the game's release in late 1993. This addition introduced the concept of deathmatch, a mode where two to four players competed to kill each other's characters as many times as possible. John Romero termed the act of killing other players as fragging, a term that would become standard in the gaming lexicon. The mode was inspired by fighting games such as Street Fighter II and Fatal Fury, transforming the single-player experience into a social phenomenon. Within hours of the game's release, university networks began banning Doom multiplayer games because the rush of players overwhelmed their systems. The morning after the release, John Carmack quickly issued a patch to address complaints of network congestion, yet the damage was done to the existing infrastructure. This mode led to a widespread community of players who had never experienced fast-paced multiplayer combat before, sparking the rise of online games and communities. The deathmatch mode was an important factor in the game's popularity, creating a legacy that persists decades later and establishing the framework for modern competitive gaming.
The Creative Schism
The development of Doom was marked by a significant internal conflict that resulted in the firing of lead designer Tom Hall. Hall had initially written a science fiction plot and created a design document he called the Doom Bible, detailing the project's plot, backstory, and design goals. However, John Carmack dismissed the idea of having a story at all, stating that story in a game was like story in a porn movie, expected to be there but not that important. The team eventually agreed to drop the story and most of the design, focusing instead on technological innovation and fast, continuous gameplay. Hall was upset with the reception of his designs and how little impact he was having as the lead designer, leading him to spend less time at work. In July 1993, the other founders of id fired Hall, who went to work for Apogee. He was replaced by Sandy Petersen in September, ten weeks before the game was released. Petersen and Romero designed the rest of the Doom levels, with different aims: the team believed that Petersen's designs were more technically interesting and varied, while Romero's were more aesthetically interesting. This schism highlighted the tension between narrative depth and gameplay mechanics, a debate that continues to influence game design to this day.
The artistic direction of Doom was a mixed media approach that combined sculpture, photography, and digital art to create nightmarish enemies and realistic graphics. Adrian Carmack and Kevin Cloud sculpted models of some of the enemies and took pictures of them in stop motion from five to eight different angles so that they could be rotated realistically in-game. The images were then digitized and converted to 2D characters with a program written by John Carmack. The weapons were made from combined parts of children's toys, and the developers photographed themselves as well, using Cloud's arm for the marine's arm holding a gun, and Adrian's snakeskin boots and wounded knee for textures. The cover art was created by Don Ivan Punchatz, who worked from a short description of the game rather than detailed references. Romero was the body model used for the cover, posing during a photoshoot to demonstrate to the intended model what the pose should look like. The music and sound effects were composed by Bobby Prince, who directed to make the music in techno and metal styles. Many tracks were directly inspired by songs by metal bands such as Alice in Chains and Pantera. Prince created the sound effects based on short descriptions or concept art of a monster or weapon and adjusted them to match the completed animations. The monster sounds were created from animal noises, and Prince designed all the sounds to be distinct on the limited sound hardware of the time, even when many sounds were playing at once.
The Shareware Phenomenon
Id Software planned to self-publish Doom for DOS-based computers and set up a distribution system leading up to the release. Jay Wilbur, who had been hired as CEO and sole member of the business team, planned the marketing and distribution of Doom. He believed that the mainstream press was uninterested in the game and bought only a single ad in any gaming magazine. Instead, he gave software retailers the option to sell copies of the first Doom episode at any price, in hopes of motivating customers to buy the full game directly from id. This strategy leveraged the shareware market to its fullest extent, allowing the game to reach millions of players. By May 1994, Wilbur said that the game had sold over 65,000 copies, and estimated that the shareware version had been distributed over 1 million times. By late 1995, Doom was estimated to be installed on more computers worldwide than Microsoft's new operating system, Windows 95. The game became an overnight phenomenon, making a profit within a day after release. Although the company estimated that only 1% of shareware downloaders bought the full game, this was enough to generate initial daily revenue, selling in one day what Wolfenstein had sold in one month. The success of this model changed the way games were distributed and marketed, setting a precedent for future releases.
The Cultural Controversy
Doom was notorious for its high levels of graphic violence and satanic imagery, which generated controversy from a broad range of groups. Doom for the 32X was one of the first video games to be given a Mature 17+ rating from the Entertainment Software Rating Board due to its violent gore and nature, while Doom II was the first. In Germany, shortly after its publication, Doom was classified as harmful to minors by the Federal Department for Media Harmful to Young Persons and could not be sold to children or displayed where they could see it, which was only rescinded in 2011. The game again sparked controversy in the United States when it was found that Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, who committed the Columbine High School massacre on the 20th of April 1999, were avid players. While planning for the massacre, Harris said in his journal that the killing would be like playing Doom. A rumor spread afterward that Harris had designed a custom Doom level that looked like the high school, populated with representations of Harris's classmates and teachers, which he used to practice for the shooting. Although Harris did design several custom Doom levels, which later became known as the Harris levels, none were based on the school. Doom was dubbed a mass murder simulator by critic and Killology Research Group founder David Grossman. In the earliest release versions, the level E1M4: Command Control contains a swastika-shaped structure, which was put in as a homage to Wolfenstein 3D. The swastika was removed in later versions, out of respect for a military veteran's request, according to Romero.
The Modding Community
The versatility of Doom's WAD files enabled user-generated levels and other game modifications, creating a community that has persisted for decades since. John Carmack and Romero had strongly advocated for mod support, overriding other id employees who were concerned about commercial and legal implications. Although WAD files exposed the game data, id provided no instructions for how they worked. Still, players were able to modify leaked alpha versions of the game, allowing them to release level editors within weeks of the game's release. On the 26th of January 1994, university student Brendon Wyber led a group to create the first full level editor, the Doom Editor Utility, leading to the first custom level by Jeff Bird in March. It was followed by countless others, including many based on other franchises like Aliens and Star Wars total conversion mods, as well as DeHackEd, a patch editor first released in 1994 by Greg Lewis that allowed editing of the game engine. Soon after the first mods appeared, id CEO Wilbur posted legal terms to the company's website, allowing mod authors to charge money without any fees to id, while also absolving the company of responsibility or support. Doom mods were widely popular, earning favorable comparisons to the official level additions seen in The Ultimate Doom. Thousands of user-created levels were released in the first few years after the release, with over 3000 such levels for Doom and Doom II included in the official retail release Master Levels for Doom II in 1995. The community has continued to produce mods, with the community Cacowards awarding the best of each year.
The Speedrunning Legacy
In addition to WAD files, Doom includes a feature that allowed players to record and play back gameplay using files called demos, or game replays. Although the concept of speedrunning a video game existed before Doom, its release coincided with a wave of popularity for speedrunning, amplified by the online communities built on the nascent Internet. Demos were lightweight files that could be shared more easily than video files on internet bulletin board systems at the time. As a result, Doom is credited with creating the video game speedrunning community. The speedrunning community for Doom has continued for decades, with community members breaking records originally set in 1998 as recently as 2019. Doom has been termed as having one of the longest-running speedrunning communities as well as being the quintessential speedrunning game. The game's influence extends beyond its initial release, with ports to numerous platforms including Linux, Windows 95, PlayStation, and modern consoles like the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 5. The source code for Doom was released under a non-commercial license in 1997, and freely released under the GNU General Public License in 1999, leading to unofficial ports to esoteric devices such as smart thermostats and pianos. This legacy of community engagement and technical innovation has ensured that Doom remains a relevant and influential title in the history of video games.