G A M E 5 A Doom of One's Own Remake this violent game, and castyourself-or your enemies-in the role of the demon ou're stum- and author of the bling down official repository a futuristic of online Doom Y steel-walled frequently asked hallway toting a questions (FAQ). plasma rifle. Aside from the You're running aforementionedBar- low on ammo, neyDoom, thereare your health is slip- Star Wars Doom, ping, and around where the on-screen each corner is still images are replaced another mutant by characters and with a shotgun soundsfromthe Star ready to blow your Wars movies;Ener- head off. Suddenly gizer Bunny Doom, you hear a song with a familiarpink waft in from the rodent and accom- distance, a melody panying drumbeat; that is frightening- and even Clinton ly familiar. "I love Doom, in which you," the sing- the rosy-cheeked song, sappy voice face of a certain warbles. "You love commander in me." Where is he? chief comes out of You turn in every nowhere, perhaps direction looking Smash hit: The game's brains (clockwise from left), Adrian Carmack, Jay Wilbur, Kevin Cloud to harangue you for his wretched and John Romero, have inspired a flood of add-ens, discussion groups and, maybe, a movie. about health care. form. Suddenly he At some Inter- appears in front of you, smiling, cember, have shared their program- net File Transfer Protocol (FTP) singing through his teeth and tap- ming secrets publicly, allowing fans sites, such as one at the University of ping his big purple foot on the to tinker with the original game and Western Pennsylvania, there are di- ground. Barney the Purple Dinosaur create their own versions. These rectories stuffed with hundreds and from Hell! Doom add-ons, called "wads," are hundreds of these Doom add-on files. You annihilate him before he can stored in data files named with the One slightly masochistic Doom fan finish the rest of the song. .WAD suffix. Other players can has even created a wad that replaces "Jeez," you think to yourself. download wads and add them to the faces of all the mutants with his :;: "Thank God my 2-year-old wasn't their games. Some of these files rad- own picture. The wad also comes ~ awaketo see that." ically change the way Doom looks with instructions on how to replace ('"/) We've all got our own personal and sounds, allowing players to ex- his face with a picture of anyone a: 6 vision of purgatory. Maybe that's orcise a few demons of their own. you'd like to riddle with bullets-your ~ what makes the PC game Doom so "There are all kinds of wads, in- boss, your ex-girlfriend, your lunatic ~ immensely popular. The creators of cluding graphics, sounds, add-on landlord. ~ Doom, a DOS-based shareware levels and replays of games," says As if the original version of o o game available on the Internet and Hank Leukart, a student at Cleve- Doom weren't scary enough. As de- ~ many online services since last De- land's Western Reserve Academy signed, the game's plot revolves RO NETGUIDE 0 DECEMBER 1994 G A M E 5 around military contractor Union Cloud and Adrian Carmack. And ers rip out each other's spines in the Aerospace Corp.'s radioactive waste that proves to be the key to Doom's midst of battle. Pong, one of the processing plant at a U.S. military popularity. Few Doom players ex- very first video games, required base on a Martian moon where press ambivalence about the game. users to bounce a ball peacefully human workers exposed to radiation Mark Gundy, 42, a San Diego-based against a wall.) have mutated into monsters. Using a stockbroker for Prudential Securi- Gundy's favorite aspect of variety of weapons, ranging from ties, proudly relates that "my 2-year- Doom? It builds up a high level of simple shotguns to plasma rifles that old was going around saying 'Doom' anxiety. "Your pulse races. You're shoot rounds of plasma energy, play- before he ever said 'mama.' " Gundy always concerned that something's ers wander through nearly aban- doned buildings, eliminating the mutants, uncovering secrets and racking up points for speed and number of kills. While playing the game you see things through the eyes of a marine sent to the moon to guard the base. But something has gone wrong and your fellow marines have been killed. It's up to you to fight the mutants and try to get off the moon. In the sequel, Doom II, available only in stores, the action moves a lit- tle closer to home as the demons from the first game land on Earth, and players must keep them from destroying entire cities. Although actual numbers are im- >- possible to track, Doom's authors at u, -c id Software Inc. estimate there are 0:: " about 10 million copies of the game rtl 0:: I in play. Since its release, more than o 100,000 people have registered their Separated at birth? Doom II's strange assortment of deadly creatures and their dastardly creators. copies with the company. Doom's (From left) Cloud, designer Sandy Petersen, musician Bobby Prince and Carmack. first episode, "Knee Deep in the Dead," is available as shareware, sneaking up on you," he which means users can download a says. He credits not copy onto their computer from the only Doom's enveloping Internet or an online service and try 3-D graphics, but also it out. If they like the game, they are its "spectacular" sound. supposed to contact the Mesquite, "They sampled the Texas-based id Software, pay a $40 sounds of real weapons, fee and receive disks in the mail that so it seems like you're add more advanced features to the actually shooting." game, including two additional Doom fans who can't playing levels or episodes. The only get enough of the game way you can add wads or customize have created news- the game-and that's where all the "I love you. You love me ... " Hasta la vista, Barney! groups (alt.fan.doom), fun is-is if you have the registered mailing lists and exten- version. calls Doom "better than any game sive World-Wide Web home pages "We wrote a game we all wanted that's ever been out. Mortal Kombat packed with tips and tricks about to play," says John Romero, who is like Pong compared to this." Doom. created the game along with design- (Mortal Kombat, a popular video Even Doom's designers can't er Sandy Petersen and artists Kevin game, includes scenes in which play- shake the bug. Romero says he still 82 NETGUIDE 0 DECEMBER 1994 G A M E 5 plays Doom every day, "though I'm ter's degree in children's interactive aggressive violence against oppo- down to only one or two hours." media from Harvard University, nents rendered helpless." One of Gundy's favorite ways to loves the idea of wads and being able Jay Wilbur, id Software's business play the game is in "multiplayer to customize Doom and change its manager, has no problem with the mode" over a network or telephone demons. "It's better to have some- concept of game ratings. "I agree lines. Doom has been designed so one there that it is meaningful for that games should be rated for con- players whose PCs are connected you to kill, whether it's your boss or tent, both as a parent and [as some- over computer networks at compa- the president, than to fire at objects one who wants to] avoid the wimpy nies or universities can play the with no personal connection," she games and find the good stuff." game at the same time. There are says. "Instead of generalizing your Like it or not, Doom has set a two ways to do this: "cooperative hostility, you are confronting the new standard in computer games mode," in which all players band to- but where do its authors and their gether against the monsters, or competitors go from here? If pla- "deathmatch mode," where players Meeting Your Doom giarism is the sincerest form of flat- simply kill each other on sight. The Online Services: Go to games forums on tery, the wizards of id Software popularity of multiplayer mode has America Online, CompuServe, Delphi, must feel highly praised. Several made the game the bane of network GEnie and Prodigy. At 9600 bits per sec- Doom knockoffs are already on the administrators. Early buggy versions ond, Doom should take about 20 minutes market. As fans of LucasArts com- of Doom, since fixed, caused net- to download in zipped, or compressed, puter games, Romero and his co- works to overload and crash. Despite format. After you register your copy, horts welcomed that company's the fixes, companies such as Mi- Doom wads and graphic and sound add- Dark Forces, complete with Star ons also can be found in those forums. crosoft Corp. and Intel Corp. con- Wars' Storm Troopers as the ene- tinue to outlaw its use. mies in a 3-D environment. In fact, The Internet: FTP to ftp.uwp.edu If they're not connected directly (then change directory to the Star Wars game may be the ul- by a network, players can use their Ipublmsdoslgameslid) or FTP to timate Doom wad. "We heard that modems to call the computers of infant2.sphs.indiana.edu (change directo- they hired two programmers to re- other Doom players and play games ry to Ipubldoom).