How you discovered the Doom series? / Your first time playing Doom?

[Devalaous]

Hahaha, yeah, I forgot that PSX Doom and PC Doom werent the same. I always thought PSX Doom was the actual Doom just stuck on playstation, up until the Doom 2 levels, then I noticed that things were different.

Always thought the sounds were the same across all versions though.

[Tristan]

My granddad had the PSX version, and used to let me have a go on it a lot of the time. Probably around 2000/2001. Didn't know about the PC version until about 8 years later.

Springy said:

Back during the war (1997)

DON'T. MENTION. ZE. VAR!!!

[ASD]

Somewhere in the late 90s (98?) while playing Bubsy on our Mega Drive, I heard my older brother playing Doom95 shareware at full volume in the other room and thought the sounds and music sounded ridiculous, particularly the zombie deaths. I didn't look what he played until he reached E1M3 where he fell into the toxic pit in the donut-room with godmode on and got stuck, disabled iddqd, died and quitted the game. The other day he was playing E1M5 and E1M7 where he made monsters infight and it looked really funny. After quitting, I asked the name of the game and he said ''Doom''. The end. I saw Dark Forces, ROTT and Heretic before Doom in the mid 90s.

[EvilNed]

I once followed my dad to work. He had to work but he put me and my brother infront of a computer and loaded up the Doom shareware. He did the steering and I did the shooting. I was probably 7 years old and he 9. I still remember the first time we ran into a pinky, and the panic that ensued.

Later we got a computer and the Doom shareware was very popular. It was on those demo CDs that would accompany magazines and everybody was playing it. I did most of my initial dooming on the Shareware version, as I imagine most people here did.

A friend of mine had Doom 2 for whatever reason, so I played that there. I thought Doom 2 was much more dark, cryptic and hellish (remember, I'd only played Knee Deep at this point). I went out and got it for myself. In fact, now that I think about it, Doom 2 was probably the very first game that I bought for myself, and not something my brother bought or parents bought. We're probably in 1995 or 1996 now. Doom 2 was already in bargain bins. For whatever reason, I couldn't find Doom 1 however.

Then when I was visiting my relatives in the states I bought the Ultimate Doom and played that a lot with my cousins. I loved Thy Flesh Consumed, it's still my favorite 9 level mapset (No Rest for the Living might take that spot soon, tho, playing through that right now).

I then bought both Heretic and Final Doom at bargain bins, for like 10 bucks each. This was somewhat later, but I loved the new levels. TNT is still my favorite of the two, however...

[129thVisplane]

I probably started playing Doom at the age of 3, in late 1999 or early 2000. Can't remember my very first Dooming experience; earliest thing I remember is drawing a picture of a Spider Mastermind and explaining Doom to kids in kindergarten when I was 4.

[clamgor]

I've only actually started to play it recently, when I heard of CutmanMike and his game based on Doom, which in turn got me Zandronum. Then I noticed all the Doom references. I wondered.

I got the game, played it. Got Doombuilder started to make a few maps.

[schwerpunk]

I heard schoolmates talking about it back in gradeschool before my family even got its first PC. They mentioned 'ripping out a guy's ribcage out.' It sounded amazing.

Of course, I now know that the ribcage bit was hyperbole. But given some of the death animations, and the warped perceptions of teen-agers, I can see how they'd come to that conclusion.

It wasn't until I finally convinced me to rent the SNES version some time later that I actually got to try it out for myself. Was not disappoint.

[purist]

Probably saw screenshots first in a gaming mag but back then I would have dismissed it as a rail shooter since I'd never seen a FPS before.

I think the first time I saw it proper was in a demo in department store. It was on the Jaguar and I played a bit of E1M4 (that maze). It went on my Xmas list.

[Waffenak]

I remember when I was at my friends house when he was installing some version of doom 1. The install featured animated spidermastermind and my friends mother was terrified and said he can't install it if it features creatures similar to that. He had to install it in secrecy when his mother wasn't at home. I'm so glad my parents weren't overprotective, I could play any game and watch any movie without nagging and limitations.

[Avoozl]

Waffenak said:

I remember when I was at my friends house when he was installing some version of doom 1. The install featured animated spidermastermind

That was probably the Doom95 port, I remember it displaying the same exact thing.

[MFG38]

Back in 2007 (yes, I was a little late), I was at my friend's and he had a 5-level demo of Doom 2. A year later, I saw the game in its original big box at a flea market and purchased it for €2.00.

[Doominator2]

Back in 2000 my friend got final doom & doom 64 and gave me his old copy of Ultimate doom and doom 2, That night I was up till 3 in the morning fully exploring the first episode.

[Deleted_Account]

My first memory of Doom was find Knee-Deep in the Dead on multiple floppy discs back in the day. I was hooked on Doom ever since!

[peach freak]

MFG38 said:

Back in 2007 (yes, I was a little late), I was at my friend's and he had a 5-level demo of Doom 2. A year later, I saw the game in its original big box at a flea market and purchased it for €2.00.

Where did he get this 5-map Doom II demo? AFAIK a shareware product of Doom II was never released, unless it was something for like the Xbox 360...

[Stupid Bunny]

My first experience with Doom was at the tender age of five, when my dad let me play Doom I with all the monsters turned off. As pointless as that seemed, I still had a great time exploring all the environments, especially all the tech ones in E1. However, the atmosphere got the better of me, especially in E3 with all the hanging corpses and blood and flesh walls, and even without the monsters the game gave me nightmares that basically made me afraid to even see the name of the game on my computer. (I was a very sensitive child, you see.)

Close to a decade later, I happened across an old CD with the shareware Doom on it. Intrigued by the possibility of distant memories resurrected, I started playing it, and was instantly hooked. By then our copies of full Doom and Doom II were long gone, so we had to get the commercial release with Doom 95. The rest is history.

tl;dr: Doom made me cry when I was in kindergarten but then I rediscovered it later and it was awesome

[Netherstorm]

Around 2007-ish I found out about Doom. It wasn't until mid-2009 when I got my hands on the xbl version and finally got to play Doom. From then on in mid-2010, I moved to the PC and started playing and making WADs for Doom II.

I'm a late Doomer yes, but i'm glad I found out about it since it's now my favorite first-person shooter of all time.

[Mr. T]

in 94-ish someone was playing it, and I was like "sweet, it has water" after seeing the blue carpet in E1M1. Cool story bro

[Xaser]

I do remember thinking it was water for the longest time. When I replayed it later and realized that it is, in fact, just carpet, I was sorely disappointed. D:

[Devalaous]

Does UD even have water? By memory I cant recall any, just nukage, blood and lava. I know Doom 2 has plenty.

[Stupid Bunny]

I think most of the water, oddly enough, is in E3 where it seems like it shouldn't belong. E2 and E3 both have some I think. Cacodemon blood maybe? Also, I swear I remember as a wee kid watching one of the in-game demos with water in an E1-looking map, though that indeed could've been carpet. Who knows, that was 17 years ago and it's more an impression than a memory.

[Professor Sir]

I was surfing the web back in '04, when I came across a web site that was offering the shareware version of Doom for online play. At the age of 7, I had no idea that I was even supposed to kill things (Nor did I realize that's what I was doing when I figured out how to shoot). I was scared by a Demon, and died. Then I didn't touch the game for years until someone gave me the collectors edition that had all 3 classic doom games last year. I went straight to a source port, and even at the age of 16, got scared of a Demon and died. And I still get scared of Demons even though I've played through the game several times and know their exact positions.

[scifista42]

Professor Sir said:

And I still get scared of Demons even though I've played through the game several times and know their exact positions.

Pinkyphobia?

I used to have it too. Whenever I crossed a corner and there was suddenly a demon or a spectre, I jumped. The shock from them was bigger than from any other monster. At least as far as I remember.

[Tristan]

scifista42 said:

The shock from them was bigger than from any other monster.

I agree. They still make me jump from time to time.
That said, I've never jumped more because Doom than the time I was playing the PSX version of E1M1 in a speedrun style. While not necessary on a UV max run, I went up the lift, and ran into the hallway up above full belt, completely forgetting there's a Pain Elemental there. It scared the shit out of me.

[Stupid Bunny]

Same for me. I remember when I was still new to Doom, I always dreaded that maze in E1M4. I'm pretty sure I once blew up a rocket in my own face out of panic when I ran into one around a corner.

The first time I saw the Barons of Hell was pretty scary, too. I think I ran all the way back to that room at the beginning of the level to collect myself, before going to find out how badass they actually were. It's an exciting feeling, seeing the monsters for the first time, one which I unfortunately was able to spoil with the other bosses by having looked them up online before reaching their levels.

[MFG38]

peach freak said:

Where did he get this 5-map Doom II demo? AFAIK a shareware product of Doom II was never released, unless it was something for like the Xbox 360...

My memory might serve me wrong, though. But I'm pretty sure it was at least some sort of demo.

[Dragonsbrethren]

You're not the first one to remember a shareware/demo version of Doom 2, but no one's actually ever turned one up. (And speaking of XBLA, shows how times change, you only get E1M1 as a demo for Ultimate Doom. At least you get both MAP01's in Doom 2.)

I know I downloaded a "shareware" version around 2000 that was actually the full game. Some random abandonware site, they offered the real Doom95 shareware, Doom 2 DOS "shareware", and DoomEd for an editor.

[Seeker_of_Truth]

I knew of Doom for quite a while. My dad had Wolf3d and at some point picked up Doom as well, early 1995 most likely. I remember watching him play through it (and Wolf3d too) and was scared stiff all the time.

The earliest memory (I think) I have of playing the game myself is fighting the two Baron of Hell's in e1m8. Took me a while to gather up the courage to play through that level. One of my most common early memories, though, is trying to figure out how to beat map30. I would keep killing wave after wave of demons, but it wasn't until quite some time later that I managed to figure it out. This was all circa late 1995-1997.

[Guest Unregistered account]

I first came across Doom when I was like, four years old. My Dad came in holding the case (Doom Collector's Edition) and asked me what it spelt. I said "Ooom".

I have to many mixed-up memories of me and my sisters watching my Dad play that it's impossible to list them all... but I can say that I thought the cross at the start of map09 was a slope that was really slippery, because I couldn't stay on it (it was probably down to my bad five year-old playing}.

[Luke Dacote]

It was my first GBA game along with Mario Kart.

[Doominator2]

peach freak said:

Where did he get this 5-map Doom II demo? AFAIK a shareware product of Doom II was never released, unless it was something for like the Xbox 360...

It cant be the doom 2 demo for xbox 360 is only one level