On December the 10th 1993 3D-Action games started a new era in the form of DOOM v0.99. On that day known as "Doomsday" the world-wide connection of Internet almost crashed. Thousands of people who had previously heard about the release of Doom logged onto sites where it would be released and this meant other people could not log onto these sites. Through the day the bottle-neck eased as more people got the ultimate game "Doom".
Now schools, businesses, universities and all types of network users all around the world have got copies of Doom being used everyday. Forcing merciless destruction on aliens isn't enough, people want to take on their friends in a game of Deathmatch; where there's no aliens to hinder you in your `hide and seek' game of death!
The obsession with Doom doesn't just end with Deathmatch, everyone wants to make their own levels, with 30 spider demons or 1,000 Imps.
Making your own levels is quite easy with the aid of editors such as DEU which can make levels that the original Doom producers were too afraid to make. Some my favourite are Wadpack7 (all episodes), Castle (invade a castle), Bones, Abyss, Legend and Ambush. You load these with -file XXXXXXXX.WAD
E.g. Doom -file Bones11.wad
With a sound card the sound fx and music are brilliant but why not change them! To crazy Monty Python sounds such as a chainsaw that is fueled with baked beans, or a chain gun which goes “bang..bang..bang”. Possabilities are unlimited for sounds, you can insert your own pre-recorded wave files using Dmaud.
There's another thing that can be changed in Doom...the graphics. From the author of Dmaud comes Dmgraph, which lets you insert small gif pictures into the Wad file changing the wall panels and background.
There is also Alien.wad floating around, this changes Imps to the small creatures from the movie Alien, the Demons to Queen Aliens and the Barons of Hell to a robot. Also the guns are changed to the weapons used in Aliens.
If you like the way Doom is but you want a few changes try Jumble. It's a doom item randomiser randomly placing objects, enemies, and powerups to new locations.
Watch out for Doom 2...plus add ons.
Note: You must have the registered version of Doom to use the add ons.
This article is Copyright (C) 1994 by Davis Lemke for GameBytes Magazine. All rights reserved.