Yes, I am a big doom fan since 1992 and I still enjoy playing this game (and others from ID) still. There is also still a huge community around Doom not only let run Doom on any possible and impossible devices (like the Sandisk players via Rockbox), but also there are many open source game engines developed – and still further enhanced – to enjoy Doom in higher resolutions and enhanced gameplay. Mods like Brutal Doom are bringing Doom to a complete new Level.
Let me introduce in a first article a few engines worth looking at; the list is far from complete, these are the ones I stumpled up on. At a later stage we can then look into tutorials how to install them, and also some interesting mods and more.
Why is it worth looking at these engines? A picture says more then 1’000 words. Here is a screenshot from original Doom from DOS and from the Doomsday Engine for comparison; click for details.
Doomsday Engine
(dengine.net)
Doomsday Engine is a Doom/Heretic/Hexen port with enhanced graphics and a very nice start-up GUI. Also supports other ports like Doom64. I finished (finally) Heretic using Doomsday and it was really great fun. As this is my current favorite, it will be the focus of the next tutorials.
ZDoom
(zdoom.org)
ZDoom is a family of enhanced port of the Doom engine to modern operating systems. It runs on Windows, Linux, and OS X, and adds new features not found in the games as originally published by id Software.
Older ZDoom ports may be used and distributed free of charge. No profit may be made from the sale of it. GZDoom and its descendants from version 3.0.0 on are licensed GPL and are subject to the terms and restrictions of the new license.
ZDoom was originally created by Randi Heit using id Software’s and various others’ sources. Its successor ports GZDoom and QZDoom are now maintained by Christoph Oelckers, Braden Obrzut, Rachael Alexanderson, and Magnus Norddahl.
Zandronum
(zandronum.com)
Zandronum is a multiplayer oriented port, based off Skulltag, for Doom and Doom II by id Software.
Zandronum brings classic Doom into the 21st century, maintaining the essence of what has made Doom great for so many years and, at the same time, adding new features to modernize it, creating a fresh, fun new experience.
RetroArch PrBoom
(retroarch.com, prboom.sourceforge.net)
PrBoom, the purest Doom-Port? Aims to be the most stable Doom port with the highest compatibility to the major Doom versions and highres software rendering. Full Boom and most if not all MBF features.
That’s it for the moment. There are many more engines, ports and mods. As said the community around Doom and the like is huge. More to come regarding installation, setup and required files (like doom.wad and all the other interesting topics to be covered.