Found this in a free bin... Need help identifying it!

[Nilbog]

I found this outside in a free bin. Ive asked some other Doom lovers to tell me what version it was and I have had some mixed answers. Someone said it was ver 1.1 or a mail order edition. 

Can anyone help me? Thanks.

[4everDoomed]

I never owned the original floppy disks. :-/

I'm glad you picked them up. Quite a treasure these days. Are you able to boot them ? 

[SaladBadger]

It looks like one of the mail order registered release, but I'm not quite sure. The credits on the first disk are a little odd. I remember you could tell versions by the color of the label, but I'm having trouble finding the information on that. If it is a real registered copy, it would probably be an earlier one due to the lack of a patch disk.

 

Edit: Some information on the subject from Fraggle: https://www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/92804-hello-and-please-help-with-an-original-doom-on-pc/?tab=comments#comment-1714406

 

It has blue labels, which would indicate version 1.1, but the labels aren't fully consistent with what I'm seeing. The label mentions Edmonton, so it's possible it's a commercial release for the Canada market (id's own mail order service was only available in the United States) ed: misremembered, the order.frm file mentioned in that thread suggests Canada shipping. It's still potentially done by a vendor though. Are there any markings on the back of the box?

 

EDIT: Agh, I'm doing that thing again where I edit a post four billion times because I learn more and more after the initial posting. That order.frm file is from a later version of the Doom shareware (given that it mentions Doom 2 and Heretic), I grabbed the original and saw this in the file:

Box 1149, 194-3803 Calgary Trail South
Edmonton, Alberta  T6J  5M8
Canada
Orders: 800-661-7383 or 403-436-3009
Fax: 800-661-9756 or 403-435-0928

So my hunch is that this is going to be a registered version from this distributor. If the disks work, it would be worth checking their files to verify if they're 1.1 or 1.2, or even something later.

 

Here are the full contents of the original ORDER.FRM included with Doom v0.99 shareware.

Edited April 3, 2019 by SaladBadger

[Dark Pulse]

If you can get it to install, you can tell which version it is by checking the WAD and EXE hashes using a program like HashCalc. (Or you could just compare file sizes or open up the WADs in some tool like SLADE, but hashing is the easiest way to ensure they're not corrupted.)

 

That said, my bet would be on 1.1 or 1.2. I don't think any other versions were preinstalled for a registered copy.

 

(If you don't have a floppy disk reader, you can order a USB one for pretty dirt cheap.)

Edited April 3, 2019 by Dark Pulse

[MFG38]

...You found THAT in a free bin?!

 

Holy shit.

[Empyre]

One man's priceless treasure is another man's "just some old game."