The location of Doom 64's story finally revealed!

[Revenant100]

For decades, the location of Doom 64's plot line has been hotly debated. The manual's story blurb is supposedly "vague" about its place of action. Check the Mars wiki page and you'll see suggestions that the game may take place directly on the planet's surface. But Doom 64 ain't on Mars, baby!

 

Of course, to provide a definitive answer, we need an official source. And what source is more official than Doom 64's own official Nintento 64 website? Check it: https://web.archive.org/web/19971011204447/nintendo.com/product/n64/doom/index.html

 

Check through a few pages, and what do we find?

Quote

An unseen entity from beyond, cloaked by radiation, has rejuvenated the rotting carnage of Phobos.

 

Looks like got ourselves a canonical answer to our long standing mystery!

 

But perhaps a one-off mention isn't convincing enough for some. Maybe we need more confirmation. That's why we have a double confirmation, baby!

Quote

The Lost Souls of Phobos search eternally for fresh victims. Namely, you.

 

Looks like we got ourselves some history books to rewrite. Doom 64 canonically brought us back to where it all started on Phobos!

 

And because there's not much else interesting to this thread, here's some original concept art for the Doom 64 Pain Elemental which has seemingly been lost for the past 22 years:

Edited November 14, 2019 by Revenant100

[Quasar]

There were some other hints to this but not as definitive. We should probably call it "almost certainly Phobos" at this point, given this info. The only doubt comes in because this info is from Nintendo and not visibly directly from id or Midway, though they surely would have gotten it from them originally and not invented it on their own whole cloth.

[Gerardo194]

Yeah, I wasn't wrong after all... Also, I saw some magazines saying that it took place on Phobos...

But much before I knew about this... i used to think it took place on Io, again...

Edited November 14, 2019 by Gerardo194

[Quasar]

How's this? https://doomwiki.org/w/index.php?title=Mars&type=revision&diff=207360&oldid=161131

[SiFi270]

There's also this magazine article, but again, it's Nintendo rather than id or Midway.

[Nevander]

I always just assumed it was Phobos or Deimos, since that's where we are in Ultimate Doom Episode 1-2. It's where it began so it makes sense.

[Quasar]

There were a couple details that made Mars' surface a nice possibility:

• The "planetary" quarantine mentioned in the manual (granted even if the game is on Phobos, the whole system may be a wreck anyways)
• The reason for it - apocalyptic levels of radiation - could have been because the UAC's nuclear waste dumps (explained in the original game's backstory) on the surface went out of control and contaminated the environment (could also have been caused by deliberate nuclear bombardments to kill the remaining demons, though)
• None of the facilities match even slightly in terms of layout or style, so it brings up the question of just how much stuff must be built on Phobos, a very small captured asteroid - this also doesn't satisfy any objections about the demons being necessarily any of the exact same ones you encountered and killed before, despite what the manual says, since we didn't go down any of these hallways before.

[Devalaous]

Ive always called the first 'episode' of Doom 64 the moonbase episode. Looks like its true.

Now to port KDITD to Doom 64 :p

[Gerardo194]

The manual itself imply you are going back to a base you saved before...

[4everDoomed]

I still have a couple of old gaming magazines and I found this big DOOM 64 article (N64 , JUNE 1997) I don't know if it's already available in our Forum. Nevertheless, I scanned it to share with those of you who love to read nostalgic stuff like that. 

[Immorpher]

Nice amount of effort and honesty went into that review! It is as I remembered it at the time, although it isn't as harsh as some of the others. I remember how exciting 3D was for console gamers and how they wanted to look up, down, and jump. And Turok did that for them. I know these days both games would be reviewed slightly differently, but this really takes me back!

[Nevander]

I'm super confused by the Funboy Three section of that article. It makes it sound like the Demon keys were unlockers of the "fun" maps, each key taking you to one of the three, then upon completion of all three *and* completing MAP28, you go to yet another secret map?

 

Either the article is plain wrong or something because that's not how it works at all.

[Gez]

I suppose they got confused when Midway told them about the secret levels (for the keys) and the "fun" levels.

[some guy who made a wad]

On 11/13/2019 at 11:57 PM, Gerardo194 said:

Yeah, I wasn't wrong after all... Also, I saw some magazines saying that it took place on Phobos...

But much before I knew about this... i used to think it took place on Io, again...

all most every doom game takes place on Phobos.

[Quasar]

On 12/27/2019 at 12:27 AM, some guy who made a wad said:

all most every doom game takes place on Phobos.

Really?

 

Doom (by Episode)

* Ep1: Phobos

* Ep2: Deimos

* Ep3: Hell

* Ep4: Earth

 

Doom II: Earth, Hell

Final Doom - TNT: Evilution: Io, Hell

Final Doom - The Plutonia Experiment: Earth, Hell

No Rest for the Living: Earth, Hell

Doom RPG: Mars, Hell

Doom II RPG: Luna (the moon), Hell

Doom 3 and expansions: Mars, Hell

Doom Resurrection: Mars, Hell

Doom (2016): Mars, Hell

 

So by adding Doom 64 that's exactly 2 released titles so far that use Phobos as an actual setting in-game (mentions by name count for naught here). Doom Eternal will literally be the third now.

[Gerardo194]

Quasar, you forgot Earth in Doom 2 RPG, my friend! 

[Quasar]

1 hour ago, Gerardo194 said:

Quasar, you forgot Earth in Doom 2 RPG, my friend! 

More like wasn't aware of - it's painfully difficult to find good info about that game :(

[Gerardo194]

It's okay, but what we could say is that every Doom game takes place in Hell. 

[doomsucksass]

Curious, where did you find that PE art?

[Revenant100]

The Pain Elemental concept art is on Nintendo's official Doom 64 page, as linked above: https://web.archive.org/web/19971012030122fw_/http://www.nintendo.com/product/n64/doom/enemies2.html

[VGA]

@4everDoomed

 

Thanks for scanning and posting that article but what the hell is going on in the head of whoever wrote it? :D