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Undoubtedly one of the most important and influential games of all time, 1993’s Doom helped kick off the first-person shooter craze that’s still going strong thirty years later. Assuming the role of a space marine stationed on Mars during a demonic invasion, players must blast through enemy hordes of the newly possessed and full-on hellish creatures.
The story behind its development is higly documented – a tale that involves a young group of passionate underdogs who manage to push the limits of technology to create a game like no one had seen before. But while many the details have been repeated time and time again, there are still a few details that may surprise you.
It could have been a tie-in game with the film Aliens.
id Software was offered the chance to make an licensed game based on the 1986 movie Aliens, but they made Doom instead. The James Cameron directed sequel Aliens was a follow-up to the Ridley Scott directed film Alien, one that took the series from a chilling tale to an adrenaline-fueled rampage. It’s honestly the perfect source material for a video game, but id declined due to the creative freedom they would be forced to surrender, opting to create their own franchise instead. And while it could have made a damn impressive movie tie-in, I think we’re all thankful that we received Doom.
It’s not a true 3D game.
Doom was one of the first games that allowed players to move quickly and freely through 3D environments – or so it seemed. Levels in Doom are not actually 3D generated environments, in fact nothing in the game is 3D. This can be clearly seen with enemy sprites, which look a bit like cardboard cutouts always facing the player. But even the maps are simply top-down two-dimensional renderings, but the player is placed down on top of them in a way that changes the perspective. Clever programming (more specifically: linear interpolation) allows certain parts of the map to be “pulled up”, giving the illusion of walls, doors, or even stairs. However, due to this limitation, you may notice that there are no multi-story areas in Doom (1993) or Doom II, only inclines and recessed areas.
The guns are from Toys”R”Us.
Most of the assets found in Doom were created by scanning and digitizing actual photographs. So when it came to create the game’s weapons, the staff made a trip around the corner to a local Toys”R”Us store. Using cheap plastic toy guns with some minor alterations and clever digital manipulation, the team was able to concoct some of the most iconic weapons in video game history including the famous shotgun and the legendary BFG.
Some of the music was copyrighted and not meant to be in the game.
If you’ve paid close attention to the music in Doom, you might have heard some familiar licks. That’s because a large chunk of the heavy metal tracks from the game’s soundtrack aren’t exactly original…within lawsuit territory even. As the tale goes, composer Bobby Prince was working on songs to be used in the game and sent them to id Software for them for review. Included in these were some soundalike songs of popular hits by Black Sabbath, Pantera, etc. that were only there as placeholder tracks, possibly inspiration for additional songs. Without realizing the songs were ripped from other artists, developers included them in the final game. Surprisingly, no lawsuits were ever filed as a result.
The model that posed for the cover art is game designer John Romero.
Doom’s iconic cover art is the work of artist Don Punchatz, known for his detailed work that encompasses fantasy and science fiction elements. The late illustrator was tasked with bringing to life id Software’s vision for the now iconic image. No stranger to the process, Punchatz arrived with a male model that would serve as the illustration’s subject. But when it became clear that the model wasn’t quite getting the vibe right, Romero decided to step in and strike the pose himself. The hired model then assumed the role of a demon pulling at him from below.
