But, nevertheless, DOOM turns 15 today. It’s been a decade and a half since a lone Space Marine first decided that he was all that stood between the legions of Hell and the conquest of Mars. With a shotgun and chainsaw, he fought his way into Hell, and into our hearts.
DOOM was a big leap forward from it’s FPS predecessor, Wolfenstein 3d, and with a rockin’ soundtrack and explosions a-plenty, there were few gamers (especially of the teenage boy persuasion, such as myself) who could resist.
For me, DOOM also holds a special place as the first FPS I ever played multiplayer; a friend of mine who worked in the school library smuggled a copy onto a couple of computers there, so after school we could all hang out and use the pre-assembled LAN to our heart’s content. Thank goodness the librarian didn’t care. DOOM taught me some valuable lessons about trashtalking and telefragging.
Anyone else out there have any warm and fuzzy DOOM memories? Share them today as we wish it bon anniversaire.
December 10th, 2008 at 5:46 pm
I think my most vivid memory of Doom was the fact that it was the one of the first games to make me physically jump when something scary happened, or something jumped out of nowhere.
When you get to the first episode’s boss, and you open the door into his room it plays his “I’m an enemy, and I’ve noticed you” noise, which was a loud, demonic roar. It literally made me jump in my chair. After which, I remember actually hitting the space bar again to close the door and collect myself before I went charging back in, BFG-a-blazing.
That boss of course, would show up in later levels as a regular enemy, which was even more terrifying.
December 16th, 2008 at 3:41 pm
Same for me. I missed that scaring-the-crap-out-of-myself gameplay years later and ran out to buy Doom 3 when it was released in 2004. My brother and I decided to skip work the next day so we could stay up all night playing in the dark. The later levels of 3 got repetitive and predictable but the first half of the game was well scripted and brought back many flashbacks from the original. Rule #1 – If you enter a room with dead bodies laying around, always, ALWAYS shoot the bodies first.