In the winter of 1993, Dallas, Texas-based developer id Software released a game about a space marine killing demons, and a legend was born. Doom set the standard for the first-person shooter on PC and beyond, and was one of the first videogames to bleed into mainstream pop culture. It was critically acclaimed, technically groundbreaking, a sales success, and is still considered by a huge number of people to be one of the best games of all time.
Today, co-creator John Romero runs his own studio in Galway, Ireland. He’s currently working on Empire of Sin, a turn-based strategy game set in Prohibition-era America. This is a far cry from Doom, but the landmark shooter is never far from his mind. In 2018, Romero released SIGIL, a brand new Doom episode. And his Twitter feed is a goldmine of anecdotes, rare photos, and other Doom ephemera. But why, when so many other games from the ’90s have been forgotten, does Doom endure?
“It’s programmed really well,” says Romero, speaking from his studio in Galway. “And releasing the source code has allowed ports to keep it at a highly playable level. If you play it in DOSBox, it still feels pretty good. But it’s not as smooth as it is on today’s machines. I actually think it feels better playing it with a source port nowadays. There was a tipping point a while ago where people would swear you had to play the original DOS version, but now these source ports make it feel really good.”
SPECIAL EDITION
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Denne historien er fra May 2020-utgaven av PC Gamer.
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BITING BACK
The tooth is out there in adventure TEETH OF GLASS
SMOKE ALARM
THE INVISIBLE SMOKE FACTORY is back in a Flash
MECH ME OVER
Move over Mario, here's mech-based platforming in ARMORED SHELL NIGHTJAR
"I like Pillars of Eternity better than Baldur's Gate III"
PILLARS OF ETERNITY deserves a bigger space in the CRPG pantheon
"A harrowing dark fantasy about hapless, bright-eyed children"
Spelunking into hell with MADE IN ABYSS: BINARY STAR FALLING INTO DARKNESS
THE IMMORTAL LOCK
A massive, meaty game in a single horrific Quake map.
NEW MANOEUVRES
Building a dedicated sim racing space in an average family house
OVERWATCH 2
Save me space girl.
REET GOOD TIME
THANK GOODNESS YOU'RE HERE is a riotous recreation of Yorkshire
THE PLUCKY SQUIRE
How many games let you make friends with a MtG card?