what do you think of vanilla doom in 2025?

[OutSIdeOfTheBoX (chrisvig71)]

not giving you rules or anything, just say whatever you want about vanilla doom, now in 2025... like how is aged, how it is for a new player, how is nostalgic, what are worst and the best parts, whatever you feel you want to say... like do you think is aged well? (btw yeah i know EXACTLY what is vannilla doom, just saying that in case of any doubts)

[Ffabbia]

By 'vanilla' I'm assuming you mean the original three-episode release of Doom 1? Not Ultimate Doom, not the various Steam ports etc.

It's aged as well as you might expect an old school sprite-based action shooter to age. I adore it still, it still has legions of fans, and there's still entire communities working on mods and additional content. I doubt it will ever truly die.

For modern audiences though? Or young players in their teens? I dunno. I can imagine them wondering what the fuss was about, as Doom would seem very simplistic and pixelated to their eyes. Some would probably find it too hard too! - given it's complete lack of handholding and ease of getting lost in some of the maps. They're used to big, flashing arrows and hint popups telling them precisely what to do and where to go.

Best parts: Most of Episode 1, Spawning Vats in Episode 2, and Mount Erebus, Episode 3. Finding a way to beat E3M1 with 100% kills and items - most people work it out once familiar with the game, but complete newcomers may still struggle. Playing Warrens for the first time and getting the 'shock.'

Worst parts: Unholy *** Cathedral. Still hate that level after all these years, still bores the pants off of me! Final mission (Dis) discovering that Ole' Spidey is a pushover unless you do it from pistol start.

[OutSIdeOfTheBoX (chrisvig71)]

Originally posted by Ffabbia:

By 'vanilla' I'm assuming you mean the original three-episode release of Doom 1? Not Ultimate Doom, not the various Steam ports etc.

It's aged as well as you might expect an old school sprite-based action shooter to age. I adore it still, it still has legions of fans, and there's still entire communities working on mods and additional content. I doubt it will ever truly die.

Best parts: Most of Episode 1, Spawning Vats in Episode 2, and Mount Erebus, Episode 3. Finding a way to beat E3M1 with 100% kills and items - most people work it out once familiar with the game, but complete newcomers may still struggle. Playing Warrens for the first time and getting the 'shock.'

Worst parts: Unholy *** Cathedral. Still hate that level after all these years, still bores the pants off of me! Final mission (Dis) discovering that Ole' Spidey is a pushover unless you do it from pistol start.

yes with vanilla doom i mean the original 1993 doom, with original controls, engine, and 3 episodes instead of 4... but thanks for your opinion, i actually like unholy cathedral though, it's a bit frustrating before you know exactly what the level wants from you, then after you understand it's quite enjoyable for me...

[Captain n00by]

Aged better than a lot of games of that era, but it's not the optimal way to play the game today.

It is more so played to see "how the game was like, back then".

Naturally, there was evolution going on and it's pointless to compare a 1993 game to a 2025 game.

But in the same way as, for example, Mortal Kombat II (1993) remains my fave MK title till today, in the same way OG DooM (1993; 1995 for "Ultimate DooM" update and "DooM 95" official source port) remains my fave DooM title.

Or how I consider "Super Mario Bros. 3" (1990) to be the best 2D Mario title, despite other, newer titles in that franchise.

[Razör]

i love doom

[V I D A L]

Define vanilla? Do you mean the first 3 episodes as in level design, gameplay, enemy design etc?

Or vanilla Doom as in 320x200 at 35 fps? lol

Doom is still a fantastic and very enjoyable game... but not vanilla... modern ports at higher resolution and frame rate for sure.

[Jackass of Doom]

Play on any modern source port like DSDA Doom or GZDoom, and you have a really great experience. Don't use the kex port, it crashes so much that it's just not worth it.

[CyFiver]

Originally posted by V I D A L:

Or vanilla Doom as in 320x200 at 35 fps? lol

Where you getting 35 FPS from in 93? This is news to me.

The best point in time for the 90's was when Doom II got OpenGL Support and IF you had a VooDoo II card you'd get more then 1 Frame. The draw? Glowing lights, imp orbs and more. It was the RTX of today, in the 90's for groundbreaking visuals. No consoles at that point could ever keep up. Couple that with using DoomServ (28.8k baud time-frame) and you had Doom, Duke 3d and more in multiplayer. Such a good time to be alive.

[OutSIdeOfTheBoX (chrisvig71)]

Originally posted by V I D A L:

Define vanilla? Do you mean the first 3 episodes as in level design, gameplay, enemy design etc?

Or vanilla Doom as in 320x200 at 35 fps? lol

Doom is still a fantastic and very enjoyable game... but not vanilla... modern ports at higher resolution and frame rate for sure.

Vanilla is the original version of doom and doom 2, original engine, resolution, controls, graphics... But yeah you can also take it as just the first three episodes if you want, though technically it means the first version

[benakenobi]

P_Init: Checking cmd-line parameters...
V_Init: allocate screens.
M_LoadDefaults: Load system defaults.
Z_Init: Init zone memory allocation daemon. 
DPMI memory: 0x1b70000, 0x800000 allocated for zone
W_Init: Init WADfiles.
	adding doom.wad
	registered version.
===========================================================================
             This version is NOT SHAREWARE, do not distribute!
         Please report software piracy to the SPA: 1-800-388-PIR8
===========================================================================
M_Init: Init miscellaneous info.
R_Init: Init DOOM refresh daemon - [..........................]
P_Init: Init Playloop state.
I_Init: Setting up machine state.
I_StartupDPMI
I_StartupMouse
Mouse: detected
CyberMan: Wrong mouse driver - no SWIFT support (AX=53c1).
I_StartupJoystick
I_StartupKeyboard
I_StartupSound
I_StartupTimer()
  calling DMX_Init
D_CheckNetGame: Checking network game status.
startskill 2  deathmatch: 0  startmap: 1  startepisode: 1
player 1 of 1 (1 nodes)
S_Init: Setting up sound.
HU_Init: Setting up heads up display.
ST_Init: Init status bar.

[QuantuuM]

Just played through TNT Evilution again and I fricking love the Heck out of that map pack. So cinematic, so atmospheric, and the first time I played it was with the Aubrey Hodges dark ambient soundtrack, which made it a sinister, dark and memorable experience.

[hoaxey]

I'm going to be biased here, as I played this when released way back in 1993. I was Thirteen. I had already been blown away by Wolfenstein-3D, but damn, Doom was on another level. Now there were stairs, sloping floors, lifts, moving architecture such as crushing ceilings, lava, traps, lighting, platforming of a very basic kind and then there was the level design. The enemies. The weapons. It was the most amazing thing I had ever seen, let alone played.

I still it play nowadays but not the original dos version, I need mouse and keyboard nowadays. The game still holds up, but is that just my nostalgia? Maybe, maybe not. One thing I do know though is:

Doom is one of the greatest and most influential FPS games of all time, and I'll stick by that until I pass.

[V I D A L]

Originally posted by CyFiver:

Originally posted by V I D A L:

Or vanilla Doom as in 320x200 at 35 fps? lol

Where you getting 35 FPS from in 93? This is news to me.

The best point in time for the 90's was when Doom II got OpenGL Support and IF you had a VooDoo II card you'd get more then 1 Frame. The draw? Glowing lights, imp orbs and more. It was the RTX of today, in the 90's for groundbreaking visuals. No consoles at that point could ever keep up. Couple that with using DoomServ (28.8k baud time-frame) and you had Doom, Duke 3d and more in multiplayer. Such a good time to be alive.

Doom 1 and 2 on DOS in the 90s (the real vanilla) were locked at 35 fps. You don't remember because we were not so obsessed to high frame rate like we are today. Most CRT monitors of the 90s were 70hz, so Doom was designed to run at half refresh rate.

Make no mistake, it was a very heavy game. I had a DX4 100Mhz with 8MB of ram and the game still struggled a bit. I don't think I was even getting 35fps without reducing the screen size a bit.

[CyFiver]

As I stated, your average person was doing 30. And while we had 70-75hz around 89-90 that would have been incredibly rare! I also grew up during this entire time, I too had big lan parties and seen everyone's setups. Even still have my 1999 1600x1200 flat crt.

I'm just stating no, most where sitting at 30 IF that, then when OpenGL landed it was a new planet.

[Seamus]

Originally posted by CyFiver:

As I stated, your average person was doing 30. And while we had 70-75hz around 89-90 that would have been incredibly rare! I also grew up during this entire time, I too had big lan parties and seen everyone's setups. Even still have my 1999 1600x1200 flat crt.

I'm just stating no, most where sitting at 30 IF that, then when OpenGL landed it was a new planet.

Pretty sure you're thinking of Quake. No official port of Doom has opengl, and by the time opengl was actually common, the common cpus had no issue with getting the full 35fps out of Doom.

Hell the first port with opengl was 1998.

[CyFiver]

OpenGL was the game changer... It added glowing to Imp Orbs, Lighting to any type of fire and more. So even right there... I know you aren't quite on point.