Chip plays PS1 DOOM!

[Chip]

 

Hello fellow Doomers! Chip here!

 

Recently, I found an old copy of DOOM for the PS1 selling for a low price. I bought it in the hopes of finally playing the great port. After waiting for weeks for it to send, it finally arrived, and I have had a blast so far playing it. The Controls are a bit weird, so instead of playing it on UV as I hoped, I am playing it on Hey, Not Too Rough.

 

If you’ve been looking to play this great port but aren’t too sure if you want to get it, then maybe my review might help! Every day I will play a couple of levels and write a short review about how I felt about them. I will write about the lighting, the enemy placement, a bit of the music, and gameplay. If I do post screenshots, they will most likely not be mine, and I will credit the person I borrowed them from. 

 

 

Playstation DOOM is a bit different from PC DOOM. the port was released on November 16, 1995. The first half of the game consists of selected levels from The Ultimate DOOM, while the second half consists of some levels of DOOM 2. If you are a masochist enough to play PS DOOM on UV, you will find DOOM 2 monsters in DOOM levels, first spotting the Chaingunner on map 1. There are many texture changes and some sky textures are animated. The game is focused on a horror element rather than an action element. 

 

So, now that you have learned a bit, here are some of my reviews for the levels of PS DOOM!

[Chip]

Maps 1, 2, and 3. Hangar, Plant, Toxin Refinery. 

 

Most if not all of you remember these levels from the shareware episode of DOOM, and their ports to the console are incredible! 

 

Hangar starts off in one of the most memorable rooms in all of videogame history. The light is dimmed, and there is the barrel. When you go to your right into the armor room, you see that the room is a deep red. Eerie indeed. As you progress further, you make your way into the room with the box and several zombie man inside. After killing them, I looked around a bit. It is difficult to see most things since the lighting is so low. The box itself is illuminated, but the rest of the room is dark, freakishly dark. Next, There was the criss-cross room, with the Imps on the ledge and you the player traversing across the green liquid. I don’t know why, but the part almost made me queasy, as if I was actually in the game itself. Seeing those imps and the green goop made my stomach churn, so I ran across as fast as I could. Finally, in the last room, it was the most thrilling. It was near impossible to see anything, and I was being attacked by Imp fireballs. I shot at everything, realizing that there were barrels, I had to be careful, but I couldn’t be careful. When I approached the exit, I felt weird, there was the bright red light again. Blinking in and out. It felt more realistic, as if I really was a marine being attacked, being the only survivor. 

 

^{The eerie green lighting of the crisscross nukage room in map 1 Hangar.}

Plant (called Nuclear Plant on PC)  was pretty amazing, and I had a hell of a time replaying it. First, I went to the right to flick the switch then went up the spiral stairs to that side. I was always fascinated with this part, and playing it with the dimmed light added this sense of “I’m really this marine, and I’ve not been here before” after taking out the zombiemen, I saw the beauty that was the walls. It felt like the walls were infected with their dark red lighting. I made my way back to the center to activate the red door, which not only was bordered red but was also highlighted in that red color, which I found pretty amusing. Before I went forward, I took that left to the falling platform where I could pick up ammo, and it felt like the game was true 3D at that point, like the pixels had just gone away and I was now in a modern shooter. The lighting plus the speed of the elevator created this effect, and it made me smile. Getting into the red door I fell down, and using my chaingun I realized I was really powerful. The lighting, the pacing, everything just made me feel like I was the hero in an action movie, and so I went ahead and went into the exit room, still with this blinking red light like the last level. This one really freaked me out, so I quickly took out the zombiemen and left as soon as I could to get out of that hell-infested area. 

 

^{Doomguy blindly shooting at unseen demons in the dark reminds me of the lighting in PS1 DOOM. From the Doom Comic from 1996}

Toxin Refinery was perhaps my favorite of the three levels that I played. When playing the regular version of this, I always thought, oh that looks cool, I guess. But now with that Dim Lighting, the creatures lurking, I felt like I had fallen into a trap made by the demons. Going to the left, where you open the first door, I was really horrified. When opening the door, you can barely see anything except a barrel, and then you hear a few gunshots. Shooting the barrel and going up, you realize you just killed a demon of hell. This felt like that moment in the Doom Comic when Doomguy starts shooting in the air in the dark then turns on the lights to find a horde of demons dead. Next, I went into the imp room to the left, and I seriously jumped at this point. It’s difficult to turn, and when I finally did, I saw an imp standing right next to me, and he was right next to a barrel. I freaked out that he was going to shoot it, so I shot at him as fast as I could. I don’t know why, but he felt like the leader almost of that entire group at the refinery. Like he was the one who created all the devilish traps you endure. I soon went out into the hallway with the strip of light in the middle. Usually, in the real game, you can see the enemies, but here, your only way of seeing things was through that strip of light, which I thought looked incredible! As I traversed to the outside, I felt like I was breathing fresh air. Inside was nothing, just death, outside felt like I was home, or closer to it. I soon went forward to where the level introduces you to the shotgunner, which scared me. The high damage it dealt made me jolt, and I quickly turned around to shoot, without being able to see. Again, I would compare this to that sequence I mentioned earlier from the Doom Comic. I grabbed the Blue key, shot some hard-to-see Demons, and made my way to the blue door. From here, I just started to speedrun. I made my way past creepy-crawly alien demons to the room with the stairs. As they grew higher and higher, I lost more and more health. My health depleting, I decided to turn to my trusty chaingun, blasting away at the torturous souls from hell. This was the best part of the level in my opinion. Just me destroying a horde of demons in the dark, not seeing from which direction they were attacking, but from hearing it and just unloading bullets upon them. Finally, I could go into the blinking red room, where I hit the switch and ended my magnificent day of PS1 DOOM. 

 

^{A dark room only lit by chaingun fire. The player appears to be playing on some sort of source port. screenshot credits for picture #1 and #3 go to YouTuber AltimaMantoid}

DOOM does not have a save system, further adding to the reason I played on a low difficulty. It rather works on a password system similar to DOOM 64, where the game provides you with a password that starts you at a certain level instead of having to work back up to it. Still, you lost any weapons you had, armor, and most of your ammo. The controls are a bit clunky, and analog doesn’t work, so you have to use the directional pad. It takes some getting used to, for sure, but it’s well worth it in the end in my opinion. 

 

That was my first review of the PS1 game. Stick around tomorrow or later this week to read more about this great port of the already superb DOOM. 

[Dark Pulse]

I actually would recommend you play on UV for one very significant reason: As you pointed out, on Ultra-Violence, Doom II monsters are added into the original Doom maps. It makes a somewhat familiar, somewhat alien experience become even more alien when suddenly there's a baddie that was NOT there before.

 

You get surprised on more than a few occasions by a baddie you're not expecting to fight. :)

 

Otherwise, will definitely be following this thread! Hopefully you're aware of the GEC Master Edition project too, where a group of community mappers port all the maps that didn't make it into PSX Doom (and PSX Final Doom) back into the games.

 

(Full disclosure: I've done several conversions for that project, but I would absolutely love to read feedback! So die lots if you play it, please.)

Edited May 17, 2021 by Dark Pulse

[Chip]

Hello again! Here is a continuation of my review of PS1 DOOM! I take an in-depth look into each of the levels and explain what makes them great and what makes this port worth playing!

 

When finished with my main playthrough of PS DOOM, I will go back and play the secret levels. 

 

Maps 4, 5, and 6. Command Control, Phobos Lab, Central processing

 

Command Control felt adventurous, especially compared to my other playthroughs of DOOM. The level was dark, and I felt this story-like progression throughout the whole level. Even in the first 30 seconds, when you walk out seeing those zombiemen on the ledge, shooting down at you, and you have to shoot them or their barrels to get past them. It felt like something you would see today in a AAA game. Of course, this was in the original DOOM game, but I don’t remember feeling this way. The ambient music playing so softly helped make this experience better. Almost as if I was Doomguy just shooting away at bad guys while I hummed this tune trying to figure out what song it was from. It was incredible. First, I went to the left to start out the map. Big mistake. Strafing is a bit difficult to use in this port, So usually if I wanted to survive an onslaught of imps, I would need to hide or have a shotgun on me. I didn’t have either, so I got attacked by some wimpy imps, and when I made my way up to the room with the blue key, it was too dark for me to see, so I got killed by enemy fire. Okay. Let’s redo that. Now, I go to the right. Pretty quickly I pick up a shotgun and start kicking ass. I grab the blue key and start making haste. The room where the walls lower was always pretty cool to me, but now I relied on those walls as a source of light for this section. I especially love this part because of how different it is from the rest of the level. It acts as this sort of interlude from the start of the map to the end of the map, further helping my statement that the level is story-like. I soon made my way to the maze, and I got some Wolfenstein flashbacks. They provide very little light in this section, so it’s up to you to just shoot when you hear things. It felt really action-movie-esque. Finally, I got the yellow key and was approaching the switch that creates the bridge to the exit. I don’t know why, but I felt kinda sad doing that. Almost as if I was finishing a show I’ve been watching for months, as if I was like “So, this is it. This is the end.” and so, my journey through command control ended. 

 

^{Got this one from Altima again. This is the “Command Control” in Command Control. As you can see, it’s very difficult to tell where the floors end and where Imps start.}

But my happiness did not subside. It only grew! Phobos Lab felt like a new experience, a new game altogether. Something more than DOOM, something scarier than DOOM. It became its own thing. From the second you start, you realize this level isn’t going to be the fun short little action-packed level that it was in DOOM, not at all.  You start In the regular nukage pit room you start in on PC. The light is dimmed, very different from the PC version. Then, the music starts to roll. The creepy sounds that come out of your screen will frighten you. The sound is piercing, then immediately fades away, and all you hear are the sounds of your heavy breathing. When you go all the way to the right to open up the bridge, you feel like a god. Like the game intended. You lifted this bridge on your own. The next part where you grab the key has always been like an arcade game to me, and the dimmed lighting helped me feel that way. I always tried to see how many times the Demon had to come in and out of the room before I knocked him down, and the whole ambiance of the scene makes the little minigame all the more exciting. I soon made my way outside, which as I said in my first post, feels like a breath of fresh air. The skies are blue and you are just kinda hopping around the scene. Entering the “Dome” as I call it was pretty exciting as well. I was never really good at this part, no matter what port I played. I always felt outnumbered by the demons, even though I’ve seen worse in other maps I’ve played. But, after putting my strafing skills to the test, I was able to complete this. This section sort of reminded me of something from a Duke Nukem game. I don’t know why this specific version of the level did, but it made me feel as if when I hit that switch, it was the self-destruct button, and the guy that sent me here was just releasing his last horde of demons as a final fight for me to endure. But sadly for me, that wasn’t my last fight. After escaping the evil clutches of this incredible room, I made my way to the blue key and went through the blue door. This was the craziest part of the game so far. I entered the room, entering a maze of Demons, spectres, zombiemen, just anything that wanted to feast on my blood. One problem, I couldn’t see anything! I hear death, I see my health bar depleting, I shoot, I shoot, I die. Now dead, I make my way back to the end of the level, with my TV lighting set to the absolute max. Still, I enter this section, and can barely see! There is a blinking light, and I see Demons inch closer. Lights off. Lights on, more demons are at my toes. I unload all that I have on them. Shotgun shells, pistol bullets, everything I’ve got! Using barrels to my advantage, I do it. I finish the job. I’m done. I approach the end door, and a demon pops out. It felt like the boss to an arena battle game. As if I was like “I’m done with this shit” and suddenly out of nowhere a 40-foot monstrosity comes falling out of the sky, and I have to ready my sword once more before I leave this crooked dungeon. I was out of shells, and out of barrels, so I had to take the demon out with pistol shots all while in the dark. Killing the beast, I felt like I conquered the world! I finished the game! Well, not by a longshot. There was still much to complete, but I finished a checkpoint, and now I could go ahead and fight the true beast. 

 

Central Processing wasn’t the beast I was looking for. A few parts of this map were seriously altered in this version. Most notably the nukage maze at the end to grab the yellow key. I don’t know what made me dislike this level so much. I think it might have been because of how amazing the previous map was, that this one just couldn’t possibly live up to it. It was still a good map, filled with great tricks and fun puzzles. First thing first, the Nightmare Spectre. These guys look like Black Demons, and they are trouble. When grabbing the red key, you will encounter them. They are scary creatures with twice the health of a normal demon. If you played DOOM on a higher difficulty than I did, you would have encountered them earlier than I did, but that is only if you really want to die. Most of the map feels similar to the original, so I’ll skip forward to my favorite part, the maze. In the maze to the yellow key, you only need to travel to 3 different areas, the entrance, the exit to the key, and the switch room. I looked everywhere in the switch room, and finding that switch was like finding a needle in a haystack. I felt like the designer wanted you to feel like you had to have been there before to know where to find a switch to open the door. It felt incredible to find it. Like I was actually being rewarded in real life for my deeds in the game. I made my way to the exit after killing a few more demons and ended my playthrough of PS DOOM. 

 

^{Right after collecting the yellow key, you can jump down from the ledge. In Playstation DOOM, I always fear that there is fall damage, so you can only imagine how fearful I was to jump into nukage.} 

Edited May 18, 2021 by Chip

[Chip]

Hello again! Time for another one of my in-depth looks into PS1 DOOM! Today will be a bit different than usual since today I only played 2 levels, but let me tell you, these levels were incredible! So, let’s jump in!

 

Maps 7 and 8. Computer Station and Phobos Anomaly

 

Today I ended my playthrough on the Mars moon of Phobos, now making my way to Deimos. The second to last map and last usual map of this episode was filled with excitement and horror, a true tragicomedy, of course, I’m referring to Map 7, Computer Station. This level packs all the punches you could ask for in a beginner's map. It starts off with a hell horde and ends with an even bigger hell horde. You’re first greeted by a big nightmare demon. These guys are not the nicest looking. As I turned right and go up to the yellow key, I stopped to admire the architecture of the place. Before my playthrough of the regular DOOM, I never took the time to look at the beautiful structures that John Romero carefully created. The contrast of colors only in the PS1 Version makes you admire such creativity. I made my way to the yellow key-locked room and was bombarded by enemy fire. I freaked and started blasting. Down in health, low in armor, all I could do now was scavenge. Grabbing the Rocket launcher truly made me feel like a god. Nothing was in my way now! I jumped down and kicked some imp ass! I soon came to the "elevator room", the one connecting the red key area to the rest of the map, filled with nukage and zombies. Grabbing the red key, I felt like I was in a horror movie maze. Going deeper and deeper, dazed out of my mind, not knowing what was real and what wasn’t. Finally, I grab the red key, and the world around me stops, I realize now that this is real, and I’m gonna have to play smart if I want out. I made my way to the red door, and quickly grab the blue key, and I hear a door slide open. there were demons afoot, I could smell it. I creeped out. The game is excellent at building up suspense. If Doomguy had footsteps, they would have been all I heard. It was quiet, too quiet. And then BLAM! Gunners! I took them out then ran away. Even more horror-movie-like. As if I had too much, I was outnumbered, I was dying. I could barely push forward. But I had to. I made my way to the blue door.  I just now needed to flip the switch and get the hell out of there. But the lighting, the sounds of flying bullets, the claustrophobic rooms. I was in an evil clown's dungeon, I am being tormented and taunted by his evil laughter. I feel like there are crying babies, with their whines getting louder and louder, pounding in my head! Thankfully, as if I was never there in the first place, I escape and mark one of the best levels so far from my PS1 DOOM experience. 

 

^{A nightmare Demon! Thanks again to Altima. In the future, I will always use his videos unless I note otherwise.} 

Phobos Anomaly felt strange, almost as if I was playing a level I never played before. I was semi-correct about this statement since there are many clear differences between this level and the normal version. First, no bull demons. Just a bunch of zombiemen surrounded by barrels. MMMH! Did it feel good to shoot those barrels! All I heard over the music was the sound of demon gibs! I loved taking out those bull demons in the regular release, but there is something about gibbing a bunch of zombiemen that puts me at pure bliss. I find some secrets, then take out some barons. I took them out quickly with a rocket launcher and chaingun, and the wall behind me fell. I looked around at the incredible structure. Their tombs were now 2 rooms with a delicious soul sphere in between them, and the room itself was not so well lit by just blood-red light. I fell off the platform and went to the demon pit where I would sacrifice my soul. Sadly, that feature was not implemented into this release of Doom, instead, I was greeted by some zombiemen and tortured human corpses on the walls. I thought the corpses were cute features that sort of made this an even more horror-like experience. As if before I arrived these demons had been treating themselves to some delicious human flesh. I jumped onto a portal that ended the level and ended my day of PS1 DOOM fun. 

 

^{Stupid baron! Feast on this!}

[OldDoomer]

It's always interesting to see people play the ports for the first time. I bought the PS1 port not long after it released in 1995.

 

I have to personally echo what Dark Pulse mentioned. The PS1 port of Doom is an enjoyable romp when played on Ultra-Violence as a lot of Doom II monsters appear very early on and their placement can play with your strategy some on how you would normally approach levels you would be familiar with from playing PC Doom. For example, playing PS1's Hangar on Ultra-Violence adds a Chain Gunner in the area behind the alcove of the computer room prior to the zig-zag and a Pain Elemental to the elevator secret. While the Pain Elemental is likely easily dispatched, encountering a Chain Gunner this early in the game gives you the chaingun in the Hangar as opposed to acquiring it through the outdoor secret in the next level. Coupling this with the abundance of former humans present mean you're likely to use the chaingun more early on, rather than if you were playing PC Doom where you would probably be using the shotgun acquired through the green armor alcove as it tends to be a fairly versatile weapon with enough ammunition replenished from Shotgunners.

 

I'd even go as far as to say that once you have the control scheme down - the PS1's controls with a non-analog PS1 controller are a real pain - you may wish to reconsidering going back through the game on Ultra-Violence, where you will undoubtedly enjoy the port tens of times over.

 

Something to immediately keep in mind as you play is that the port bases itself on the Atari Jaguar port, which itself is an interesting anecdote that you'll experience later on. Members like Dark Pulse can explain it in more detail that I won't give justice in trying, but there was a lot of reduction in what the PS1 port uses such as lacking many of the various textures and flats utilized. You've likely noticed that many of the early tech areas look, well... rather bare, compared to say if you were playing them on PC where they often carried more texture detail. This is going to continue through most of the entire game, and into the onslaught of hell and hell levels. The Jaguar port also only featured the first three episodes of Doom. Levels that would have been in Thy Flesh Consumed and Doom II did not have a Jaguar -equivalence. This means that while early levels will have very obvious changes from their PC counterparts the later levels were near taken from their PC counterparts (extremely large levels were simply omitted). On Ultra-Violence this can cause all sorts of issues with the game in the large levels, with everything from slowdown to soft locking and/or crashing the game.

 

The password feature can be looked at in two ways. On one hand it can give you an unfair advantage as it rounds values up. An example is if you play on Ultra-Violence up to the first secret level the Military Base. Obtaining the rocket launcher, backpacks and single rockets does not give the player a number that results in an increment of five. If you then quit the game and enter the password the player is given a rocket ammo value that equals an increment of five (it's been a while, but I think it goes from 12 to 15 if you don't fire a single rocket prior to level 4). On the other hand it's values that you can easily change and you can have fun playing around with values to see what results. You can even go beyond the 200 health and armor limits of the game by entering in particular strings (it negates health and/or armor pick ups until they return to below 200, but still a weird anomaly).

 

There are of course other little surprises you're going to come across, but it's best not spoil them. I felt the port really started to pick up after leaving what would have been PC Doom's first "episode", and has the relative advantage in that after you finish Phobos Anomaly you continue with your current weapons and pick-ups which further changes how to approach what would be the second "episode".