Doom 1 specter attack sound

[E1M10]

I remember loading up a demo version of Doom in the 90s, only one level was available I think. And the specter attack / bite sound was different from the normal demon attack sound. It was really creepy sounding. Am I remembering wrong? Or was the specter changed to match the demon later on?

[Shepardus]

I doubt it was any official version of Doom, since even the shareware had more than one level.

[Sonikkumania]

3 minutes ago, Shepardus said:

I doubt it was any official version of Doom, since even the shareware had more than one level.

Yeah, as far as I know Demon and Spectre have always used the same sounds in PC.

[E1M10]

It might have been a disk bundled with some gaming magazine or something. It was on a single floppy. I’m fairly sure the level was e1m6? All the other sounds were normal but the specter’s attack was this weird creepy sound

[Sonikkumania]

1 minute ago, E1M10 said:

It might have been a disk bundled with some gaming magazine or something. It was on a single floppy. I’m fairly sure the level was e1m6? All the other sounds were normal but the specter’s attack was this weird creepy sound

Damn, you don't happen to have that floppy or .wad by any means? I got so damn curious :D

[E1M10]

No, it was in 1995. I distinctly remember getting the full shareware version later on, and noting the specter sound was now the same as the demon’s, and feeling relieved since I was a kid and that sound + the invis terrified me hahah.

 

Could it have been some early pre shareware version? Hopefully someone on this forum knows something

[Kinsie]

The Specter's literally always been identical to the Pinky in every way except the visual effect applied. Same code, sprites, attributes, sounds, the works.

[E1M10]

Ah I dunno then. Maybe it was a modified version by the magazine company or something? There’s a vid on Youtube of another third party shareware distrib with modified sounds so it’s certainly possible. I think it was a simplified version of E1M6, too, and when you pressed the level switch it went to some sort of “order full doom” screen.

[ZeroTheEro]

The sounds are the same throughout the shareware versions, unless by different you meant that you're playing the game with the PC speakers (but they still use the same effect for both) turned on.

 

And shareware versions run the whole episode until E1M8, and after the text screen it will show the ad screen.

[E1M10]

There is evidence on Youtube of packaged shareware Doom distributions with modified sounds, so what I’m reporting isn’t impossible. Was hoping there might be someone on here who knows of this (apparently obscure) version, but maybe not...

[Sonikkumania]

23 minutes ago, E1M10 said:

There is evidence on Youtube of packaged shareware Doom distributions with modified sounds, so what I’m reporting isn’t impossible. Was hoping there might be someone on here who knows of this (apparently obscure) version, but maybe not...

Can you link?

[E1M10]

 

This one was apparently included on a Packard Bell disk. Weird.

[Sonikkumania]

17 minutes ago, E1M10 said:

This one was apparently included on a Packard Bell disk. Weird.

Looks more like a jokewad to me. We had a Wolfenstein 3D hack called "WolfenPac" where regular guards where replaced with big Pacmen.

I have the old floppies home, I can try to see if I still have it.

[zokum]

Older versions of Doom utilized DMX's pitch bend feature for sample playback for some sounds in the game. Due to a bug it varied a lot more in version 1.3. This features was removed in version 1.4. Maybe you remember playing the 1.3 and that demon's wake up sound was played back really deep?

I think some library parameters got changed and now the stereo panning values were used to indicate pitch bends, which led to really awful sound.

Linguica posted a youtube video of a modified version that has large variations in pitch.
 

Personally I think some subtle pitch bends would enhance the game. Imagine the plasma sound slowly ramping up in pitch when you start firing and then just slightly varying when you keep on firing. Picking up a soul sphere and other similar bonuses could also sound cool with slight variations. Or different power ups could have different pitches. A spectre could have a slightly different wake up sound compared to the demon.

In today's game you can still judge the amount of damage based on the size of the blood splatter. It would be interesting if the pain sound would change slightly in pitch to indicate how much HP a monster has left. Barrel explosions that explode other barrels could lead to a rise in pitch of explosion #2.

The completely random approach id had is more like a test version, and it feels over used. Used wisely, it could probably have added to the game.

[Sonikkumania]

48 minutes ago, zokum said:

Personally I think some subtle pitch bends would enhance the game.

I agree, I alwayss thought it was a cool "feature".