Monster Lore ( Classic DOOM )

[Lost_Soul]

About a month ago, I stumbled across a video going over the roster of monsters in DOOM and DOOM II, of which there are several. In one of them, somebody claims that the Revenant was actually rejected from the first installment allegedly because "they were deemed too creepy/scary". I'm having trouble finding the video but it seems to be the only source on this. I have also noticed that stone murals depicting the face of the Arch-Vile can be seen in episodes 2 and 3 of the original DOOM despite not being in the game.

 

Are there any good interviews with Adrian Carmack regarding his work on the development of the monster types and the ideas/inspirations behind them? Were any monsters from DOOM II actually cut from the first three episodes of the first game?

[Shepardus]

2 hours ago, Lost_Soul said:

Were any monsters from DOOM II actually cut from the first three episodes of the first game?

According to Sandy Petersen, the revenant, arch-vile, and mancubus were originally intended for the first game but were cut: https://doomwiki.org/wiki/Artwork_of_Doom#TXFX_models

 

I don't buy that the revenant was "too scary," far more likely that they just didn't have time to implement it.

[DNSKILL5]

There’s evidence the archvile may have been at least worked on sprite wise during Doom’s development. After all, there is a wall tile that seems to have the face of the archvile on it. Could it just be coincidence they look alike? Maybe, but the stuff John Romero shared a while back seemed to have art that was made for both games that was cut, with little information on which cut art was for Doom or Doom II. 

Edited April 18, 2023 by CAM-7EA

[Faceman2000]

We also know which monsters WEREN’T being worked on during Doom’s development from Sandy. The Chaingunner, Hell Knight, Arachnotron, and Pain Elemental were all spurred by Sandy’s desire for greater enemy variety and the art teams’ lack of desire to make entirely new enemy sprites.

 

They also experimented with a rocket zombie during Doom 2’s development but cut him because he kept blowing himself up.

Edited April 19, 2023 by Faceman2000

[Lost_Soul]

On 4/19/2023 at 7:50 AM, Faceman2000 said:

We also know which monsters WEREN’T being worked on during Doom’s development from Sandy. The Chaingunner, Hell Knight, Arachnotron, and Pain Elemental were all spurred by Sandy’s desire for greater enemy variety and the art teams’ lack of desire to make entirely new enemy sprites.

 

They also experimented with a rocket zombie during Doom 2’s development but cut him because he kept blowing himself up.

 

Are there any links that confirm this? That would be very helpful and appreciated.

 

On 4/17/2023 at 11:49 PM, Shepardus said:

According to Sandy Petersen, the revenant, arch-vile, and mancubus were originally intended for the first game but were cut: https://doomwiki.org/wiki/Artwork_of_Doom#TXFX_models

 

I don't buy that the revenant was "too scary," far more likely that they just didn't have time to implement it.

 

This was very enlightening. I think that's probably true, the absence of the aforementioned monsters was likely due to time constraints. If I can be honest, the Spider Mastermind was cool but I always did think it looked a bit out of place compared to the Cyberdemon, like it was in the wrong game. Spiderdemon looks like the kind of enemy you would expect to see in Contra ( another favorite game of mine ).

 

One of the most interesting things in that article is that Id actually commissioned Julie Bell for the cover art of "DOOM II" but rejected hers in favor of Brom's. Julie Bell was a legend and one of the best in the business. I would be curious to see what Julie's cover art looked like.

[Gez]

1 hour ago, Lost_Soul said:

I would be curious to see what Julie's cover art looked like. 

https://retrogamingaddict.wordpress.com/2014/10/27/retrocovers-boris-vallejo-julie-bell/

Scroll way down to the "Unreleased" section.

[DNSKILL5]

47 minutes ago, Gez said:

https://retrogamingaddict.wordpress.com/2014/10/27/retrocovers-boris-vallejo-julie-bell/

Scroll way down to the "Unreleased" section.

interestingly, it seems this was initially going to be used or at least was used for some promotion of the game prior to release:

Also gotta love the 90s soap opera music when Romero talks lol

Edited April 27, 2023 by CAM-7EA

[Gez]

Jay Wilbur saying "new weapons", plural. False advertising, I want a refund!

[Klear]

There are two new shotguns and they are taped together into one superweapon.

[Lost_Soul]

@CAM-7EA 80s/90s smooth jazz fusion for the win!