Best way to experience Doom 64 today?

Out of all the modern ports and recreations of Doom 64 (Ex, Absolution, Retribution etc.), which is the best way to experience it?

Ex is the best way to play in my experience. Pretty faithful.

That said, there just might be an official release coming soon to PC and consoles by Nightdive...

Ex currently is the best way.

Retribution is the best way IMHO. It is mostly authentic to the original but adds some minor enhancements to improve experience.

EX is a port of the actual game, the various TCs are recreations in other engines. I'd suggest to try EX first.

I'll try EX first. Any other good TCs?

EX, absolutely. There's no worthy competition in my opinion.

I'd say Retribution is the best way. Ex is great and all, but you still need a ROM. Retribution makes it feel fresh, and has a slew of other levels included.

Something about Doom 64 just feels off to me. It's not even Audrey Hodge's score. I wanna say it's something about the Weapon's, their sfx and feedback. I'll stick with it. 

If It doesn't click I'll try Retribution. 

27 minutes ago, Cerazor said:

Something about Doom 64 just feels off to me. It's not even Audrey Hodge's score. I wanna say it's something about the Weapon's, their sfx and feedback. I'll stick with it. 

If It doesn't click I'll try Retribution. 

I know that the plasma rifle projectiles are a bit slower and the super shotgun doesn't really have a reload animation. Also going back to any of the original Dooms can feel a bit less responsive if you play with any of the modern mods. Doom 64: Retribution does a lot to rectify those issues though!

The use of Coloured Lighting is pretty goddamn sick. I'm also getting a bit of Quake vibes from the weapon's and map design. 

https://imgur.com/a/TaWhi1r

Being a fan of the OG Doom 64, Doom 64: Retribution is the best version, feels like D64, but with better feel, and you don't need to use the N64 controller that gimped the controls of many games.

You don't need to use that controller on EX either. ;)

1 hour ago, Immorpher said:

I know that the plasma rifle projectiles are a bit slower and the super shotgun doesn't really have a reload animation. Also going back to any of the original Dooms can feel a bit less responsive if you play with any of the modern mods. Doom 64: Retribution does a lot to rectify those issues though!

How exactly does it "fix" them if they were intended in the first place? Doom 64 balanced everything differently on purpose. If you want to use a mod which changes the original way the game worked then it's fine but that doesn't mean the original balance choices were not intentional.

15 minutes ago, Avoozl said:

How exactly does it "fix" them if they were intended in the first place? Doom 64 balanced everything differently on purpose. If you want to use a mod which changes the original way the game worked then it's fine but that doesn't mean the original balance choices were not intentional.

As far as i am personally aware, Retribution doesn't really have any balance changes. It only has some animation, visual and sfx improvements along with bug fixes. For example it has optional smooth animations + reload animations for both shotguns, brightmaps + dynamic lights, fixed texture misalignments etc.

Doom 64 Retribution is my go-to version of the game.

It restores a few missing animations for the weapons.

It includes the custom levels from other fan made Doom 64 ports.

Has a ton of features to customize with.

It will also soon have an episode made to fill in the time gap between Doom 64 and Doom 2016.

1 hour ago, aSeriesOfNumbers said:

It restores a few missing animations for the weapons.



ooo

1 hour ago, aSeriesOfNumbers said:

It includes the custom levels from other fan made Doom 64 ports.

 Has a ton of features to customize with.

 

OOOOOO

1 hour ago, aSeriesOfNumbers said:

It will also soon have an episode made to fill in the time gap between Doom 64 and Doom 2016.

  

Eeeeeeeh. Neat. I guess?

Here are all your options, in chronological release order. Please correct me if there are mistakes.

Doom 64 Absolution TC

The original and first total conversion of Doom 64 for PC. Runs on a modified Doomsday engine. It was a good first attempt, but not completely faithful and is hard to get set up properly. Includes some new maps and has new custom episodes that were made for it.

https://www.moddb.com/games/doom-ii/addons/doom64-absolution-tc

Doom 64 EX

The real deal. This is a reverse engineered port by Kaiser. Uses the actual ROM to create a Doom 64 IWAD so you're looking at 99.9% faithfulness. Unfortunately it is not 100% stable and has mouse issues in Win10 out-of-the-box.

https://doom64ex.wordpress.com

GZDoom64

This was the second attempt at bringing Doom 64 to the G/ZDoom engine. Created by Nightside. Based on another ancient mod called ZDooM 64 by Roack16 which was in turn based on the Absolution TC (the first attempt at a ZDoom version). Not much else to say really.

https://www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/84766-gzdoom-64-20/

Brutal Doom 64

Self-explanatory, your Brutal version of Doom 64. Based on GZDoom64. Features enhanced lighting effects and adds back cut monsters with sprites from other games.

https://www.moddb.com/mods/brutal-doom-64

Doom 64 Retribution

My pride and joy. Intended to be a proper and "mostly faithful" version of Doom 64 for GZDoom. Clean, polished, and easier to mod and customize. It was not based on any existing TC but instead only uses a weapons and monsters mod as the base. All maps were converted and recreated manually from Doom Builder 64 to GZDoom Builder using UDMF. It has extra features that can be toggled at will such as new animations, ejected casings, and other visual options. As of 1.5, it includes 3 additional episodes from the Absolution TC (which were updated and polished as well all by hand). I am shooting for an end product that contains "everything Doom 64" and will hopefully continue to add more content and features. I still have lots of plans.

https://www.moddb.com/mods/doom-64-retribution

GEC Master Edition

I don't know much about this one. I believe it is meant to be Doom 64 EX... but in GZDoom. A much older version of GZDoom. But it is faithful. It's on par with EX.

https://www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/94139-update-v2-psxdoom-psxfinaldoom-doom64-on-gzdoom-gec-master-edition-dec-17-2018/

Also there's Doom 64 for Doom II, which is a radically different take as it eschews Doom 64's aesthetics and special features to instead fit it in the vanilla Doom mold, but still worth a try.

Doom 64 EX is the most accurate and is the only version that allows for nodding based on the original engine.

https://imgur.com/Wp6BfJ7

This games use of Coloured Lighting adds allot of charm to some of these maps. 

18 hours ago, GoatLord said:

Doom 64 EX is the most accurate and is the only version that allows for nodding based on the original engine.

*nods*

@Cerazor I'd suggest you not to use GEC Master Edition.

I sorta like and dislike how DOOM64 uses less of the weaker staple DOOM enemies like the Shotgunner, Chaingunner etc. But uses allot more stuff like Mancubi, Hell Barons and Hell Knights. 

Also I swear the map designers have a secret crush on the Pain Elemental. 

But sergeants are in it they just look the same as former humans.

1 hour ago, Avoozl said:

But sergeants are in it they just look the same as former humans.

I believe he meant that there are less number of sergeants and other former humans than there are in doom/doom2.

It is true the combat in Doom 64 does get a bit stale at times since there are no high level enemies (like revenants, arch viles) other than Pain Elementals and less cannon fodder enemies (former humans). Most of the time, u are fighting against mid tier foes like HKs, Barons, Cacos, Mancubuses and Arachnotrons.

2 hours ago, ReaperAA said:

Mancubuses

Mancubi*, same principle as succubus or incubus :p .

On 8/20/2019 at 1:56 PM, Nevander said:

I don't know much about this one. I believe it is meant to be Doom 64 EX... but in GZDoom. A much older version of GZDoom. But it is faithful. It's on par with EX.

https://www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/94139-update-v2-psxdoom-psxfinaldoom-doom64-on-gzdoom-gec-master-edition-dec-17-2018/

Yep. GEC PSX Doom/Doom 64 is meant to be a reverse-engineered source port of the games but running on an ancient version of GZDoom, unlike EX which is running on KEX. For a first try I'd recommend using one of them, then something else.

On 8/22/2019 at 12:31 AM, Gerardo194 said:

@Cerazor I'd suggest you not to use GEC Master Edition.

Why tho?

I find the level design to be fairly good in 64, at-least it throws in a nice mixture unlike say - DOOM. They're fairly colourful, atmospheric and not too Maze like. But the enemy variety gets fairely samey after Dead Simpler. Lot's and lots of Baron's, Knights and Caco's. 

In Alter of Pain. I really like the use of Mancubi and Hell Knight's scattered on high area's around the level to keep you on your toes, but they like to add waves of two Knights and later Baron's into the mixture constantly, sometimes by themselves. It gets really spongey really quick. 

I think this Secret level I found has been one of the most enjoyable one's so far. 

1 hour ago, seed said:

Mancubi*, same principle as succubus or incubus :p .

Well then, succubuses and incubuses are valid, legal plurals.

Dark Entries has a GODDAMN Cup Game puzzle, where you have to pay attention to where the Mega is moved to, and then flip a switch in front of it. Which lowers a key.

AAAAAh, this is sick.