Doom 64 - how to play it?

[Sergeek]

As a person who enjoyed both PSX Doom and Doom 3, I was eager to try Doom 64 at some point because of its darker tone.

So here I am, thinking about how to properly play this beast, but there are multiple options: Absolution, Retribution, the 2020 re-release.

What should I choose? I never played it back in the day, so I don't really care for an authentic feeling and I do enjoy modern touches of GZDoom here and there.

[Skootroot]

If you want a kind of OG experience id try emulating it:

 

https://www.pj64-emu.com/public-releases

 

https://vimm.net/vault/2578

 

But if you want a modern control scheme and screen settings the new ports are pretty good and it's just like $10

[TenenteZashu]

You could try Doom 64 ex or Brutal Doom 64 (which despite the name it's pretty much the same as normal GZDoom) or if you want something quicker to set up the new port.

-tip in case you decide to buy the new port, go into the game folder and delete the ''movies'' folder so you get to skip 4 unskippable splash screens

[P41R47]

Go with the new port or Doom 64 Ex. Both are developed by Kaiser, who make an excellent job making top notch faithful ports.

[Serum]

Not sure if this is an unpopular opinion but the most fun I had with D64 was by far Brutal Doom 64

Edited February 6, 2021 by Serum

[ZeroTheEro]

I recommend you buy the game's new release if you don't want to go through the hassle of setting up the emulator and control settings. It's a very faithful port.

[1Destro3456]

Doom 64 Retribution also works

[Azuris]

I recommend you the official new Port.

Those 5 Bucks do not hurt and it runs better than prerior Iterations.

For Example: You need a Mouse Patch for EX, worked more or less for me, for others not at all.

Got the new Port on PC and Switch and i've spend 15 Hours each on my first Playthrough.

So the $/€ - Time Ratio is more than given.

[Cursed Lemon]

Now that I can finally log on to Doomworld again

 

Doom 64 EX still works fine for me, I know some other people have had problems with Windows 10, and technically it's the premier way to play Doom 64 on the PC since it actually utilizes the N64 ROM (for example, Hell Knights and Barons of Hell will actually fight each other).

 

Retribution seems to have pretty much nailed it as well (don't know if it uses Doom2.wad or the N64 ROM as a base) as I can't really find any appreciable difference between the two. GZDoom as a base has some nice interpolation options that make the older textures look much better, plus the usual flash and flair, and Vulkan support.

 

Doom 64: Absolution contains extra assets that Nevander hasn't yet ported over to Retribution, but unfortunately it's not very playable as it uses an ancient version of the Doomsday engine. For example, if you try to set your resolution as 1920x1080, you are forced into a garbage FOV that you can't change. The aspect ratio is also kind of borked for some reason, and there are also some problems with hit detection. Not recommended.

 

Brutal Doom 64 looks/sounds amazing (the ghosting sprites for the Nightmare Imp and Spectre in particular), but obviously is a refreshed experience rather than the original. You can choose between "classic" and "tactical" mode, which basically means normal Doom gameplay vs. the Brutal Doom changes like reloading, melees, and an assault rifle instead of a pistol, that sort of thing. If you want something fancy, this is it.

 

Honestly though, I would go buy the official port as a token of respect to Kaiser who is responsible for both Absolution and Doom 64 EX. I haven't bought it myself yet so I don't know how it plays or what its feature set is, but if Kaiser worked on it, by default it's going to be good.

 

EDIT: So I looked up some things about the official port. Having direct support for framerates higher than 60 is nice as is having a dedicated in-game FOV option. But I question some odd design choices like changing the sprite for medipacks, and also...no mouselook. lol That's kind of silly. There's also next to zero customization of the game experience, such as alternate difficulty options (like fast monsters), adding a crosshair or upscaling the sprites (including weapon sprites); anti-aliasing the environment is nice but I'm not really concerned with the smoothness of the lines on the floor. Also, no "always run" option, which is excruciating. This is a short step up from just playing the damn game on the N64.

Edited February 10, 2021 by Cursed Lemon

[ZeroTheEro]

15 hours ago, Cursed Lemon said:

EDIT: So I looked up some things about the official port. Having direct support for framerates higher than 60 is nice as is having a dedicated in-game FOV option. But I question some odd design choices like changing the sprite for medipacks, and also...no mouselook. lol That's kind of silly. There's also next to zero customization of the game experience, such as alternate difficulty options (like fast monsters), adding a crosshair or upscaling the sprites (including weapon sprites); anti-aliasing the environment is nice but I'm not really concerned with the smoothness of the lines on the floor.

Thing is, that's the idea of the official port, to make it as close to vanilla as possible while adding some improvements.

 

15 hours ago, Cursed Lemon said:

Also, no "always run" option, which is excruciating. This is a short step up from just playing the damn game on the N64.

About that...

have you tried pressing Caps Lock?

Edited February 10, 2021 by ZeroTheEro

[Cursed Lemon]

6 hours ago, ZeroTheEro said:

Thing is, that's the idea of the official port, to make it as close to vanilla as possible while adding some improvements.

 

Then why did Nightdive add free mouselook to both Turok ports (to quite fine effect, I might add) instead of giving us a clunky look-up/look-down button scheme?

 

Because that would be dumb. It would've been dumb in 1998. Mouselook is as integral a quality-of-life improvement as increased resolution/framerate, unless we should be playing this at 320x240 and 30FPS.

 

And yes, I missed autorun in the bindings somehow.

[ZeroTheEro]

1 hour ago, Cursed Lemon said:

 

Then why did Nightdive add free mouselook to both Turok ports (to quite fine effect, I might add) instead of giving us a clunky look-up/look-down button scheme?

Because that would be dumb. It would've been dumb in 1998. Mouselook is as integral a quality-of-life improvement as increased resolution/framerate, unless we should be playing this at 320x240 and 30FPS.

Because, in Turok's case it was there in the first place, and not so much in Doom. 

[Eurisko]

If you wanna spend a bit of money then the original on a Nintendo 64 is about as old school as you're gonna get with this game. Though I've just checked and the prices of 64's have shot up quite a bit. What's going on there?

Anyway, I liked the original version but the control scheme is pure evil.

[chungy]

On 2/10/2021 at 2:19 PM, Cursed Lemon said:

Then why did Nightdive add free mouselook to both Turok ports (to quite fine effect, I might add) instead of giving us a clunky look-up/look-down button scheme?

Turok uses a fairly normal 3D engine and had looking up and down already. Mouselook is both trivial and obvious to include.

 

The Doom engine wasn't really designed for it, and honestly just look at how Heretic, Hexen, and Strife handle it. It causes a disorienting effect as the camera is pedestalled rather than tilted as a normal 3D game is. Doom 64 never had freelook and plays fine without it. Just as Doom 1 and 2 lack it.

 

15 hours ago, Eurisko said:

Anyway, I liked the original version but the control scheme is pure evil.

I find the Doom 64 cart to be pretty handy in that it maps every button and the stick of the controller. Makes a convenient controller test :)

[Azuris]

17 minutes ago, chungy said:

Turok uses a fairly normal 3D engine and had looking up and down already. Mouselook is both trivial and obvious to include.

 

I find the Doom 64 cart to be pretty handy in that it maps every button and the stick of the controller. Makes a convenient controller test :)

 

Yeah, thats why i don't like Freelook with those older Games.

 

The Controls in Doom 64 are pretty good and as i think in many Shooters on the 64, C-Buttons act like WSAD (strife), Z-Trigger to Shoot, Stick to look, A and B to change the Weapon and the rest for Different Stuff (Map, Jump, Use)

[Edward850]

On 2/11/2021 at 11:19 AM, Cursed Lemon said:

Then why did Nightdive add free mouselook to both Turok ports (to quite fine effect, I might add) instead of giving us a clunky look-up/look-down button scheme?

Come again? We didn't add it, it was always there since Turok1 on the N64. Turok was explicitly made with camera pitching in mind, and is a very necessary component to its gameplay for level completion, platforming (to some respects) and enemy encounters. 

 

Doom64 however is the exact opposite it litteraly every way. The engine never originally handled it so pitching projectiles and hit scans can be rather screwy when working from scratch. The levels have completion elements that explicitly are designed around you not having it, and none of the enemy encounter design needs it.

There's even level visuals that outright break if you could pitch the camera because while the level geometry looks more vertical, it has the limitations Doom's level format has always had. Doom64 is a direct evolution of the Doom engine, but it doesn't depart from its core fundamentals. 

[MFG38]

If you ask me, the best way to play Doom 64 in the modern day is the 2020 re-release. Retribution is fine but takes some liberties with regards to its presentation that make it not so vanilla-faithful. EX has a couple annoying bugs and mouse issues with Win10 out of the box.

 

On 2/5/2021 at 10:15 PM, Skootroot said:

the new ports are pretty good and it's just like $10

 

Half that. At least on Steam.

Edited February 12, 2021 by MFG38

[Kyle07]

On the Nintendo Switch the 2020 port/remaster the price tag was also at 5 € at release.

 

It's worth the money and a really good port. Enjoyed it a lot and will buy it eventually on steam again to play wads from the community.

[Cosmos Of Kings]

Hi, I'm currently playing the Steam version of it and it's nice.

There's a lot of individual adjustment settings available like environment and level brightness, mouse sensitivity and x-axis acceleration, etc. There's 10 save slots and a quicksave slot. It plays well with v-sync on at 60fps, although I haven't tried any higher frame-rates. You can also play it with a controller but the key bindings settings menu is odd: it jumps between keyboard and controller settings rapidly, even if you don't have one plugged in. There's no crosshair available and the game starts up on long, unskippable videos (use -skipmovies launch command for that). Lastly, you will need a 64-bit OS, around 250MB of RAM, and 95MB of storage space to play it.

[Chow Yun Thin]

On 2/11/2021 at 9:35 AM, Eurisko said:

Though I've just checked and the prices of 64's have shot up quite a bit. What's going on there?

One possible reason is that the ongoing pandemic, stay-at-home orders and the need to find entertainment has given retro gaming a shot in the arm. Demand has increased and sellers raise their prices for their dwindling supply.

[Eurisko]

5 hours ago, Chow Yun Thin said:

One possible reason is that the ongoing pandemic, stay-at-home orders and the need to find entertainment has given retro gaming a shot in the arm. Demand has increased and sellers raise their prices for their dwindling supply.

 

Yeah Makes sense. Since posting that I checked the prices of other retro consoles and it's the same across the board.

 

[Blackpuppy]

On 2/10/2021 at 11:19 PM, Cursed Lemon said:

 

Then why did Nightdive add free mouselook to both Turok ports (to quite fine effect, I might add) instead of giving us a clunky look-up/look-down button scheme?

 

Because that would be dumb. It would've been dumb in 1998. Mouselook is as integral a quality-of-life improvement as increased resolution/framerate, unless we should be playing this at 320x240 and 30FPS.

 

And yes, I missed autorun in the bindings somehow.

Turok on the n64 used the analogue stick for looking/aiming and the yellow C buttons for moving. It’s pretty much the modern dual analogue set up, not a clunky “move camera up down button”. 

[Shanes]

Turok style controls for every first person game on the N64!

 I will never beable to get used to how more modern games have swapped the sticks because of this. Original is your best way to play. I set my Quake, Hexen, and Goldeneye 64 to this scheme..

[MajorRawne]

How to play Doom 64, taken literally. 

 

1. Use a guide so you don't constantly get screwed by missing secrets.

 

2. Make monsters appear by pressing the switches you come across.

 

3. Kick back and relax during the various scripted sequences.

 

4. I sincerely apologise to all for this post, I couldn't stop myself.

[out_of_service]

32 minutes ago, MajorRawne said:

How to play Doom 64, taken literally. 

 

1. Use a guide so you don't constantly get screwed by missing secrets.

 

2. Make monsters appear by pressing the switches you come across.

 

3. Kick back and relax during the various scripted sequences.

 

4. I sincerely apologise to all for this post, I couldn't stop myself.

Did you hit the power button first?

[MajorRawne]

14 hours ago, PSXDoomer said:

Did you hit the power button first?

Hmm... that probably explains why I had such a bad experience of the game!

[Muusi]

Avoid anything with "Brutal" in It's name atleast. I'd go for the rerelease as It's far more accurate to the original game than everything else out there.

[Astronomical]

On 2/9/2021 at 7:12 PM, Cursed Lemon said:

Also, no "always run" option, which is excruciating. This is a short step up from just playing the damn game on the N64. 

It had a toggle run button. its set to caps lock but other than that its fine.

[TasAcri]

On 6/8/2021 at 5:45 AM, Shanes said:

Turok style controls for every first person game on the N64!

 I will never beable to get used to how more modern games have swapped the sticks because of this. Original is your best way to play. I set my Quake, Hexen, and Goldeneye 64 to this scheme..

 

This scheme allows you to hold the controller from it's left side and use the d-pad for movement instead of the c-buttons. This way you have movement on the left side and aiming on the right side, instead of the "inverted" one. I used it that way because i was also used to the WASD+mouse. And because the gamepad was shaped that way it was the only single analog pad in history where you could do that. So anyone who says it's the worst gamepad ever because of it's awkward trident design, haven't discovered this yet.

 

The only problem with holding the controller this way is the somewhat awkward placement of A + B buttons, personally i never had an issue with this but some people reportedly had.

 

I used this scheme for every single FPS game i played on N64. Thankfully, it was possible with all. So when modern dual analog came along, it was already a second nature to me.

Edited July 13, 2021 by TasAcri

[Azuris]

5 hours ago, TasAcri said:

 

This scheme allows you to hold the controller from it's left side and use the d-pad for movement instead of the c-buttons. This way you have movement on the left side and aiming on the right side, instead of the "inverted" one. I used it that way because i was also used to the WASD+mouse. And because the gamepad was shaped that way it was the only single analog pad in history where you could do that. So anyone who says it's the worst gamepad ever because of it's awkward trident design, haven't discovered this yet.

 

The only problem with holding the controller this way is the somewhat awkward placement of A + B buttons, personally i never had an issue with this but some people reportedly had.

 

I used this scheme for every single FPS game i played on N64. Thankfully, it was possible with all. So when modern dual analog came along, it was already a second nature to me.

 

I personally am getting used very quickly to aim with the Stick on the left.

 

As Controls weren't uniformed as nowadays, my brain learned to switch rapidly between the different Styles.

 

The Control Scheme of Doom for Example is focused on moving with the Arrow Keys, also very different from what People are used nowadays :)