Doom training centre

Hey guys,
               Haven't played DOOM before? Don't know where to start? Played, but would like to know a bit more? Well then.....pull up a chair......


Thad

DOOM is a 3d first person shooter that was originally released back in 1993. It totally revolutionised the gaming industry with regards to what was possible. The Singleplayer version of the game, its add on ULTIMATE DOOM and its sequels DOOM2 and FINAL DOOM, all combine the same gaming elements. You are a marine, to cut a long story short, you are the only survivor of a hideous experiment which has reanimated the dead bodies of your fallen comrades and allowed all kinds of demons from hell to come into your reality. The game contains a variety of weapons, power ups, and keys to unlock doors. Your aim is to get out of this situation alive by fighting through hordes of hells minions. The multiplayer aspect of DOOM involves five types of game, deathmatch, team deathmatch, CTF, Coop, and FFA.The multiplayer community is going strong thanks to a program called Zdaemon which allows players to play with or against each other.

Before DOOM, games didn't exist....only joking. DOOM did however have a huge impact. This was down to the content of the game. Graphically (see the screenshots section) DOOM was way ahead of anything seen before. WOLFENSTEIN had produced excellent graphics, and a pseudo-3d games engine, but DOOM really cranked it up. With Wolfenstein textures were confined to walls and sprites, with the ceiling and floors being constructed out of a consistant grey colour. In DOOM there were textures on anything, not to mention the update of many more sprites in both colour and number. The sound was also a large part of  the games presentation. The realistic sounds and in a stereo format allowed the player to become completely engrossed in the experience adding to the fear factor of the game as the player would hear monsters before seeing them. The level design was a huge aspect of its impact with multiple layering, elevators, and all kinds of obstacles not seen before in 3d gaming.


Well, the graphics were revolutionary, however, if this was all that the game had it would not have endured as it has. In my opinion, the game still contains some the most adrenalin pumped gaming experiences on offer, and easily competes with many modern titles. The singleplayer game is extremely addicitive and the game physics just feel perfect (fragging a seargant with a shotgun anyone?) The game really stands up as, in my humble opinion, the purest form of online gaming and takes ALOT of skill to compete with the best. It may lack many features that are seen in recent online first person shooters, however in a bizarre way this is what completes the online gaming experience creating this purity where you can just jump in and get straight into the action.


In conclusion, why is it so good? Because it rocks, end of.

DOOM was originally released as a shareware title, therefore you can still get the first "episode" of DOOM free of charge. You can download it here, ftp://ftp.idsoftware.com/idstuff/doom/doom19s.zip This will give you an idea of the game, although there is alot more available in the full version and DOOM2.

In the late 90's idsoftware released the source code for the DOOM engine (very kind of them hehe) This allowed fans to create their own levels, ports, add-ons and conversions for the game.  FREEDOOM is a version of DOOM compiled form this source code. It does NOT contain the original game, however it has new single player levels and allows users to play the fan made levels and other ports. Get it here http://freedom.sourceforge.net I can't stress this enough though, great job from the developers of FREEDOOM, but if you like it, the original full game is a MUST!

DOOM can still be bought in a collectors edition format from many gaming outlets. It can also be ordered at the id homepage, www.idsoftware.com/games/doom/doom-collectors/ . This collectors edition contains DOOM, DOOM2, Ultimate DOOM and FINAL DOOM. You can also purchase them individually. Alternatively you may want to search on ebay to try and get a pre-owned version of the game www.ebay.com  or  www.ebay.co.uk .



Check the Ports and conversions section for other versions of the game.


Having bother finding it, email me and i'll put up links to other online stores (Don't email me asking for pirated copies, i won't respond!)



Check the troubleshooting section if you're having problems with any version of DOOM, or email me!

To be updated

Zdaemon is THE premiere version of DOOM on the net based upon the excellent Zdoom. It was created by Nightfang and is regularly updated by Raider and the Zdaemon development team(too many to mention, you know who you are!), so check it out on the NAVBAR and get playing. All you need is the DOOM2 wad (a file found in your DOOM2 directory), copy this to the "wads" directory in Zdaemon once you have installed it and you're ready to go. It supports DOOM, DOOM2,ULTIMATE DOOM, FINAL DOOM, HERETIC and, HEXEN.




Playing Single player on Zdaemon



Click "Local" on the task bar. Click "single player", there are a variety of options here to get you going. Alternatively when first loading Zdaemon, press "Play locally" and take it from there.





Make a server on Zdaemon.



Thats right you can host your own server on ZDAEMON and put it on the master list so anyone can play on  it.  Click "server" on the task bar, then click start server. There are a variety of options here to mess around with, i will update this section shortly with a full description of these options.



Thad

There is a raging debate that goes on, and on, and on in the DOOM community. Which is better, the original versions of the game (Old school), or ports that add new elements (New school). As far as i'm concerned they both have their place. It is important that YOU know the difference so as to avoid being put off by a new school conversion or port that may not accurately reflect the original. Zdaemon is a great place to start as you can experience a pretty accurate version of the original games AND get some really cool new school wads. I play both, but i think it is important to know the difference as some new school DOOM ports are SO different that if you play them you might not like it, abandon playing DOOM, even though you actually HAVE NOT played it, something to think about anyways i think, as in the online community there are players who consider themselves either OS (Old school) or NS(New school) exclusively, check them both out and make up your own mind!


To be updated with list of NEW School wads, each with a review.