Tag: doomsday

Doom – How to play it nowadays

Alright, here comes one of the all-time classic 3d-Shooters probably everyone knows. Definitely one of my favorites too.

Introduction

Just in case you don’t know Doom:

Doom is a first-person shooter developed by id Software. It was first released in 1993 and is considered a pioneering game in the first-person shooter genre.

In Doom, players assume the role of a space marine who must fight his way through a series of levels infested with demons and other monsters. The game features fast-paced, violent gameplay and an intense atmosphere.

One of the key features of Doom is its use of 3D graphics, which were groundbreaking at the time of its release. Doom also introduced many gameplay mechanics that have become staples of the first-person shooter genre, such as the ability to switch between different weapons and the use of power-ups to enhance the player’s abilities.

Overall, Doom is remembered as a classic game that helped define the first-person shooter genre and is still played by many people today. It has spawned numerous sequels and spin-offs, as well as a number of imitators.

Doomsday Engine

So given it is 2023 and Doom is 30 years old, how can we bring the Doom game into the modern era? Yes, there are several ways. Lets start with one of my favorites, including a nice front end for all the various versions and mods. Can I introduce you to Doomsday Engine?

Doomsday Engine is a source port of the original Doom game. A source port is a modified version of a game that has been developed to work on modern platforms and devices.

Doomsday Engine was developed by Jaakko Keränen and is designed to be compatible with all of the games in the Doom series, including Doom, Doom II, Heretic, and Hexen. It features improved graphics, support for high resolutions, and many other enhancements.

One of the key features of Doomsday Engine is its support for 3D graphics, which allows the games to be played in true 3D with features such as dynamic lighting and shadows. It also includes many other features, such as the ability to create custom mods and play online multiplayer games.

Overall, Doomsday Engine is a popular choice for fans of the Doom series who want to play the games on modern devices. It is available for Windows, macOS, and Linux.

The projects website can be found at https://dengine.nethttps://dengine.net/

How to install Doomsday Engine?

Prerequisites

  • Some Doom WAD files. You can grab the shareware version of Doom from anywhere on the internet or just from archive.org
  • For the full episodes you can buy Doom from Amazon, CDKeys or other any other place

Linux

If you are using Linux, the chances are very high that your package manager got a version for you ready. Head over to your Software Center, Apt repository or whatever your distribution calls it, search for Doomsday Engine and install it. Done. Find your menu entry to start the engine.

Windows

If you are using Windows, as most users probably do, do the following:

  1. Head over to the Windows downloads and install the latest stable release of DE. At the time of writing this was 2.3.1 and download “Doomsday 2.3.1 — 64-bit msi”. If you are using a 32-bit version, go and download that MSI.
  2. Once downloaded, double click the MSI file and install it to your desired location. Like c:\Games\Doomsday\ as example
  3. There should now be a Doomsday Engine entry in your start menu. Click it.

Where are the games?

  • Doomsday Engine should start. If you have Steam or GOG installations, these games should show up automatically on Windows.
  • If you got several WAD files stored in single folder, or you are using Linux (or Mac) click on “Select WAD Folder….” and navigate to that location. Now your games should show up.
  • From here you can simply click on a game you like to play and hit the “Play” button (triangle) to start it.

Enjoy Doom on modern hardware.

Settings

Of course Doomsday Engine gives you various options to amend your gaming pleasure. From changing the resolution, selecting audio plugins, network settings and more.

You should see a wheel in the bottom right corner that looks like in the picture below. If you, hit the “Esc” button, then it should appear.

There you can explore all the options the new engine offers. Play around with it and see what works best for you. High resolution, or high framerate, more or less effects, and more. We are not covering all the details here, so enjoy playing around with it.

Enjoy doom in the modern era.

Feedback and comments are very welcome. Something didn’t work for you? Let me know too.

Doom – Overview and Introduction

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.