DOOM Turns 30…

This year has been full of amazing anniversaries. Still fresh off the heels of Half-Life and Thief’s big 25, we’re excited to say, HAPPY 30TH BIRTHDAY DOOM!

DOOM is a game that disrupted everything in some way, with games like Half-Life owing their entire existence to this game! It’s true that Wolfenstein 3D created the FPS as we know it, but DOOM solidified the foundation of the genre. Curvy, fully textured colorful angled rooms, excess ultra violence, refined gunplay, and not-so-subtle covers of famous metal staples was something not really seen before in a “3D” video game, especially one that did all this all blazing fast (for the time).

It was also one of the first Co-op or Deathmatch experiences many people ever had, with even ourselves having memories of playing it with our siblings, parents, etc. In addition to that, it also allowed anyone to mod it. While modding was not initially something id had planned or supported, their dedication to being open and accepting of community creations led to Quake having a proper SDK for code changes, the sanctioning and selling of community creations that helped fund the creators, and the realization within the industry how important communities are. Even I (Xylemon) started making my first levels for any video game with DOOM when I was just 11.

Like I said, it changed almost everything and everyone who was graced by it’s presence.

Looking Back

We could write paragraphs about DOOM, but it’s a game everyone has talked to death about. So instead, we’re gonna highlight some of our favorite retrospective pieces that you should check out if you haven’t seen or read them before:

• The Children of DOOM series by Chris Franklin (Errant Signal) is a wonderful indepth look at what led up to DOOM, and the influence left on the industry. He also made a standalone thought-provoking retrospective on DOOM long time ago now.
• The Doom Wiki is a great resource for not only reading the history and technical details of DOOM itself, but the community as well. Definitely bookmark this site if you haven’t before
• Masters of DOOM by David Kushner, one of the de-facto books about DOOM, but probably the most important books regarding id Software’s history. A raw and fascinating look at how id grew to obtain the legendary status they once held, and how it ripped them apart. Currently, a sequel is being written for and published online for free by David Kushner himself. Check out Masters of Disruption here!
• DOOM Guy: Life in First Person is a recently released book by John Romero detailing his personal perspective while creating the games we all love.

What the Community Says

We at Frag-Net are avid DOOM fans, but the DOOM community is huge, and they are always busy releasing interesting new projects. Here is some headlines you should know about:

Cacowards 2023

Doomworld has revealed their annual Cacowards, where the best of the DOOM Community is honored. As always, we have a heartwarming introduction, this year’s being written by @Cardboard Marty, one of the judges. The highlights of this year include:

• Lifetime Achievement award goes to Chris “@lupinx-Kassman” Kassap
• myhouse.wad
• TNT2: Devilution
• The Sunder Generation

Just to name a few of the winners and special mentions, go on ahead and read the rest for yourself

SIGIL II

John Romero has released SIGIL II, the sequel to his popular 2019 DOOM WAD, SIGIL.

This is pack of 8 levels for the original DOOM created by Romero doing what he loves and does best. It can be bought in a physical form or downloaded for free.

The good stuff:

• SIGIL II is intended as the unofficial sixth episode for DOOM, thus making SIGIL the fifth.
• It was made to match the original 1993 style, designs and methods of level design.
• If you bought the Megawad Beast Box you could have gotten “A pewter statue of John Romero’s head on a spike”.
• The website has a Q&A with the man himself talking about the design/thought process on the WAD.
• There’s a video interview with John Romero in this video by Apogee Entertainment which you might want listen to!

Check SIGIL II out here! You can also find there original SIGIL there, or alternatively over at the file archive of Doomworld /idgames.

Eviternity II

In a surprise no one saw coming, Eviternity II released! This massive 36 megawad is a sequel to the original Eviternity. With huge, beautiful, and clever level design, this is a must download. Check out the wonderful site here! Be sure you have a compatible source port installed.

Yes, you need DOOM II for this one. Shouldn’t stop you from playing it though!

Events

We are going to be playing some classic DOOM deathmatch on Odamex today. So watch out in the list for the ‘Frag-Net’ branded server.

We’ll start playing at 5 PM (PST) / 1 AM (UTC).

Hurt Me Plenty

So with all that out of the way, go on then and boot up DOOM. Whether you play it classic with Chocolate DOOM, like to go all out with GZDOOM or Zandronum, crazy/weird enough to boot it on a printer or iPod, or are a true hardcore player and have it open in DOS, it doesn’t matter as long as you slay a few demons today!