This is how DOOM was made, Romero and Carmack's shooter for PC
We review the origin of Doom, the first title of one of the most influential FPS sagas. This is how the ID Software game was built, a title that had fun at its bases, through first-person shots and an army of infernal enemies.
Doom is one of the most influential video games in history; one of the main culprits that the first person shooter (the FPS) is one of the most popular genres nowadays. The great sagas such as Call of Duty, Battlefield or Star Wars Battlefront are indebted to this wild first person action game.
After three numerical deliveries, and the cancellation of Doom 4, the saga has returned with force. First, with the new release published in May 2016: DOOM for PS4, Xbox One and PC. In addition, Doom has just been published on Nintendo Switch and will soon show all its viscerality with the VR adaptation entitled Doom VFR.
But how did Doom emerge? Let's review the origins of the saga, which stands out for offering a devilish rhythm -never better said- and a great dose of violence while crushing all kinds of rotten creatures. Thanks to the original title, we will not look at a saw again in the same way.
Since childhood, as told in the book 'Masters of Doom' John Romero was always interested in the world of technology and programming. So much so that, at fifteen, he asked for Santa Claus the books Apple Graphics Arcade Tutorial and Assembly Lines to learn how to program with the Apple II that his stepfather had given him. Shortly after, in 1987, he managed to "strain" one of the diskettes with his creations in one of the exhibition machines at the AppleFest trade show, with which he drew the attention of the company Origin Systems. Your first step in the video game industry.
doom_ii_xbox_live_arcade.jpg
That was the beginning of the path of John Romero, but neither must we defenestrate that of another John, Carmack. Both talents joined forces with designer Tom Hall and graphic artist Adrian Carmack to found id Software, the incubator for the industry's first-person shooters, as was proven especially with Wolfenstein, Doom and later with Quake.
The development of Doom was a turning point in id Software, since it was the title with which they intended to give the definitive impulse, and made changes in the equipment and in the modus operandi, replacing, for example, the manual drawings by modeling in clay photographed to work better with his bellowed Shadowcaster graphic engine.
At the beginning of the development of Doom the idea was raised that it was a product with aliens as protagonists. The film saga of Ridley Scott was in full swing, and they thought about the possibility of acquiring intellectual property, but eventually they ended up discarding it, since sticking to a product of others would bring limitations, and they wanted to unleash their creativity. Therefore, they opted to keep the futuristic aesthetic in a certain tone, but this time adding to it with variable enemies between monstrous abominations and beings with technological touches. They also considered resuming a saga of the company of the early nineties called Commander Keen, but the idea evaporated soon.
As in all projects, there were many divisions of opinions when it came to expressing ideas. That, ended with the departure of Tom Hall from the studio, who wanted to deepen a little more in the narrative face-Hall came to study and represent real military bases, trying to provide a package different from that offered by Wolfenstein. The game was to take place on an alien planet called Tei Tenga, in which the UAAF (United Aerospace Armed Forces) had two military research bases. There would be four player characters with different personalities and abilities: Lorelei Chen, John "Petro" Pietrovich, Dimitri Paramo and Thi Barrett.
The game would begin with the five characters playing cards, with creatures from hell suddenly bursting. The Doom that passed through Hall's mind was going to have six episodes, with stories that would involve traveling to Hell and returning through the gates that the monster used, and the destruction of Tei Tenga, by which players would be sent to the jail.
But John Carmack, he thought, verbatim that "the script in a game is like in a porn movie, which is expected to be but is not important". John Romero thought similarly, as he said it was important that the player felt "capable and powerful." A creative conflict that led to Hall's departure from the studio in 1993.
The "Doom Bible" created by Hall was discarded, but in the final version of the game several remnants were kept - and even some of these ideas were taken advantage of in later games, such as the use of monorails or hubs thatWe saw in Quake II and Hexen: Beyond Heretic-, as the beginning in a military research base or the trip to hell. The protagonism fell on this occasion in a single marine of the anonymous space that we led with a view from inside his helmet, a substantial and iconic element of the saga. The graphics also played a vital role in the adventure. The intention was that they were realistic and obscure instead of rendered, so a mixed approach was taken to work on it.
Practically all the sprites were designed by hand, although some of the characters, such as the protagonist, the Cyberdemon and Baron of Hell were made in clay by Adrian Carmack and the Arch-Vile, Mancubus, Spider Mastermind and the Revenant in latex and metal by Gregor Punchatz. These sculptures were photographed in several angles so that their rotation in the game was the most realistic, in the end, putting the brush coloring and animating them digitally through a program created by John Carmack called "Fuzzy Pumper Palette Shop".
The icing on the technical side was signed by Bobby Prince, who already worked with id Software in Wolfenstein. The music that fit the most was clear, and John Romero gave Prince a pair of heavy metal records to create something similar for Doom. Although Prince himself realized that maybe that style would not be appropriate for the whole game, so he composed some more environmental clues and, as the design progressed, they realized that was the case, and Romero assigned These tracks to levels individually. Doom was a game almost as irreverent as addictive, with mechanics that were perfectly suited to all types of players, making the most of the 'mods' that we now see so common but in their day were a real revolution. It was a hilarious salad of shots and enemies to crush in a design sublime scenarios that marked the superb work done by John Romero in this regard.
Maps that at first, were thought to be played in a row, without cuts, as if it were an open world and, instead of reaching the end and see the scores obtained, we would go to the next phase ipsofacto and the result was much more hectic. But the technical capabilities of the time prevented it. Of course, we must remember that Doom radically changed the game, including other tasks so present today, such as the "deatmatch" or LAN multiplayer, Romero's work. Doom was a boom worldwide, being installed on about 10 million computers in the spring of 1995.
One of the biggest reasons for Doom's success came through the personalized content it could offer. And that was, interestingly, a contribution from Hall. Through a file called WAD (Where's all the data) all the data used in the game were included: graphics, sound, levels and everything else. It was an open and unencrypted file, opening wide the doors of amateur game designers to create their own files to run on Doom.
Opening their doors to personalized content, completely transformed the relationship between a company and its audience, and many famous amateur designers and programmers used this opportunity to move from a hobby from home to work in a video game development office. Romero, Carmack and company made a bet that today may seem simple, but in its day was the most risky. And to achieve success, you have to gamble. That happened with Doom, a timeless title because it was the first modern shooter, a fact that will remain forever in the history of video games because of everything that has influenced both its genre and when it comes to establishing some of the most important foundations. important currently in the sector.
We review the origin of Doom, the first title of one of the most influential FPS sagas. This is how the ID Software game was built, a title that had fun at its bases, through first-person shots and an army of infernal enemies.
Doom is one of the most influential video games in history; one of the main culprits that the first person shooter (the FPS) is one of the most popular genres nowadays. The great sagas such as Call of Duty, Battlefield or Star Wars Battlefront are indebted to this wild first person action game.
After three numerical deliveries, and the cancellation of Doom 4, the saga has returned with force. First, with the new release published in May 2016: DOOM for PS4, Xbox One and PC. In addition, Doom has just been published on Nintendo Switch and will soon show all its viscerality with the VR adaptation entitled Doom VFR.
But how did Doom emerge? Let's review the origins of the saga, which stands out for offering a devilish rhythm -never better said- and a great dose of violence while crushing all kinds of rotten creatures. Thanks to the original title, we will not look at a saw again in the same way.
Since childhood, as told in the book 'Masters of Doom' John Romero was always interested in the world of technology and programming. So much so that, at fifteen, he asked for Santa Claus the books Apple Graphics Arcade Tutorial and Assembly Lines to learn how to program with the Apple II that his stepfather had given him. Shortly after, in 1987, he managed to "strain" one of the diskettes with his creations in one of the exhibition machines at the AppleFest trade show, with which he drew the attention of the company Origin Systems. Your first step in the video game industry.
doom_ii_xbox_live_arcade.jpg
That was the beginning of the path of John Romero, but neither must we defenestrate that of another John, Carmack. Both talents joined forces with designer Tom Hall and graphic artist Adrian Carmack to found id Software, the incubator for the industry's first-person shooters, as was proven especially with Wolfenstein, Doom and later with Quake.
The development of Doom was a turning point in id Software, since it was the title with which they intended to give the definitive impulse, and made changes in the equipment and in the modus operandi, replacing, for example, the manual drawings by modeling in clay photographed to work better with his bellowed Shadowcaster graphic engine.
At the beginning of the development of Doom the idea was raised that it was a product with aliens as protagonists. The film saga of Ridley Scott was in full swing, and they thought about the possibility of acquiring intellectual property, but eventually they ended up discarding it, since sticking to a product of others would bring limitations, and they wanted to unleash their creativity. Therefore, they opted to keep the futuristic aesthetic in a certain tone, but this time adding to it with variable enemies between monstrous abominations and beings with technological touches. They also considered resuming a saga of the company of the early nineties called Commander Keen, but the idea evaporated soon.
As in all projects, there were many divisions of opinions when it came to expressing ideas. That, ended with the departure of Tom Hall from the studio, who wanted to deepen a little more in the narrative face-Hall came to study and represent real military bases, trying to provide a package different from that offered by Wolfenstein. The game was to take place on an alien planet called Tei Tenga, in which the UAAF (United Aerospace Armed Forces) had two military research bases. There would be four player characters with different personalities and abilities: Lorelei Chen, John "Petro" Pietrovich, Dimitri Paramo and Thi Barrett.
The game would begin with the five characters playing cards, with creatures from hell suddenly bursting. The Doom that passed through Hall's mind was going to have six episodes, with stories that would involve traveling to Hell and returning through the gates that the monster used, and the destruction of Tei Tenga, by which players would be sent to the jail.
But John Carmack, he thought, verbatim that "the script in a game is like in a porn movie, which is expected to be but is not important". John Romero thought similarly, as he said it was important that the player felt "capable and powerful." A creative conflict that led to Hall's departure from the studio in 1993.
The "Doom Bible" created by Hall was discarded, but in the final version of the game several remnants were kept - and even some of these ideas were taken advantage of in later games, such as the use of monorails or hubs thatWe saw in Quake II and Hexen: Beyond Heretic-, as the beginning in a military research base or the trip to hell. The protagonism fell on this occasion in a single marine of the anonymous space that we led with a view from inside his helmet, a substantial and iconic element of the saga. The graphics also played a vital role in the adventure. The intention was that they were realistic and obscure instead of rendered, so a mixed approach was taken to work on it.
Practically all the sprites were designed by hand, although some of the characters, such as the protagonist, the Cyberdemon and Baron of Hell were made in clay by Adrian Carmack and the Arch-Vile, Mancubus, Spider Mastermind and the Revenant in latex and metal by Gregor Punchatz. These sculptures were photographed in several angles so that their rotation in the game was the most realistic, in the end, putting the brush coloring and animating them digitally through a program created by John Carmack called "Fuzzy Pumper Palette Shop".
The icing on the technical side was signed by Bobby Prince, who already worked with id Software in Wolfenstein. The music that fit the most was clear, and John Romero gave Prince a pair of heavy metal records to create something similar for Doom. Although Prince himself realized that maybe that style would not be appropriate for the whole game, so he composed some more environmental clues and, as the design progressed, they realized that was the case, and Romero assigned These tracks to levels individually. Doom was a game almost as irreverent as addictive, with mechanics that were perfectly suited to all types of players, making the most of the 'mods' that we now see so common but in their day were a real revolution. It was a hilarious salad of shots and enemies to crush in a design sublime scenarios that marked the superb work done by John Romero in this regard.
Maps that at first, were thought to be played in a row, without cuts, as if it were an open world and, instead of reaching the end and see the scores obtained, we would go to the next phase ipsofacto and the result was much more hectic. But the technical capabilities of the time prevented it. Of course, we must remember that Doom radically changed the game, including other tasks so present today, such as the "deatmatch" or LAN multiplayer, Romero's work. Doom was a boom worldwide, being installed on about 10 million computers in the spring of 1995.
One of the biggest reasons for Doom's success came through the personalized content it could offer. And that was, interestingly, a contribution from Hall. Through a file called WAD (Where's all the data) all the data used in the game were included: graphics, sound, levels and everything else. It was an open and unencrypted file, opening wide the doors of amateur game designers to create their own files to run on Doom.
Opening their doors to personalized content, completely transformed the relationship between a company and its audience, and many famous amateur designers and programmers used this opportunity to move from a hobby from home to work in a video game development office. Romero, Carmack and company made a bet that today may seem simple, but in its day was the most risky. And to achieve success, you have to gamble. That happened with Doom, a timeless title because it was the first modern shooter, a fact that will remain forever in the history of video games because of everything that has influenced both its genre and when it comes to establishing some of the most important foundations. important currently in the sector.
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