How did your first time feel?

[JennaTullwerhtz]

Did Doom treat you right? Did Doom buy you breakfast the next morning? Did it call you back? Was Doom introduced to you by a friend, or did you guys/gals meet organically somehow? Was it love at first sight?

 

I'm really curious about everyone's first experience with Doom!

 

What's your first memory of Doom? What platform did you first play or see it on? Do you like to make levels yourself and, if so, when did you first start? Gimme the deets! Be verbose or be brief. Reply with an essay sharing your story or just reply with glyphs and gifs! Or don't reply at all and keep it to yourself! Don't just start writing cause some dweeb like me asked you to!

 

I'll kick it off: I first saw/played Doom on the SNES (I know, I know) at a homeless shelter with my mom and brothers when I was about 7 years old. There were some dudes in the common room playing it and I remember being blown the hell away. I'd never seen a first-person shooter before so I was geeking out, of course.

 

Later on, my mom got a boyfriend who had a Playstation. We still only had a SNES while the PS1 gen was already a couple years in. The boyfriend had Resident Evil and Doom, so of course I'd ask all the time if I could play Doom on his Playstation while him and my mom would practice their wrestling moves upstairs. My mom's boyfriend's favorite move was the pile-driver, because he would always shout really loud that he was going to pile-driver her. I mean, what kinds of actual nerds cared about wrestling when you had DOOM? I was too grown up for childish things like Wrestlemania or the WWF. DOOM was way cooler, and still is!

 

Anyways, I would crank the TV and just soak in the ambience of PS1 Doom. It defined my childhood! I drew pictures of Doom at school, got sent to special classes because my teachers said they liked my pictures so much, I got to talk to a bunch of doctors who also liked my Doom drawings, talked about DOOM with friends, played pretend-DOOM on recess, etc. You get the picture!

 

Now YOU guys tell me YOUR stories!

 

 

[TheSlipgateStudios]

I was like 7 years old when introduced to PC gaming. First one being Quake which is my favorite game of all time, and then Heretic which is my 2nd favorite and then Doom Shareware, which ties with Heretic. My brother brought home CD's with these games which made me an FPS fanatic till this very day. Doom was actually nice to me, played it on the first difficulty setting and actually finished the first episode in a few days of play. It had no sound or music, but the graphics, monsters, weapons had me hooked without having a bad time with it!

[Geqoph]

While I don't exactly remember my first time seeing Doom, I know that it definitely was when I was still a little kid (perhaps even 5 years old). I remember watching both of my brothers play it and asking how the different demons are called. I would always refer to the Arch-vile as a skeleton (along with the Revenant) and I would mix up Imps and Cacodemons. I think the first time I really played a Doom engine game was when my brother started up Chex Quest for me. He was playing on ZDoom so naturally I also played it in this source port. He always gave me Godmode, all weapons infinite ammo and all keys (I was 6 or 7 at the time). The first time I really played Doom from the beginning to the end was when I was somewhere around 12 and I played it on Hurt Me Plenty. I had a *hell* of a good time. (hehe get it, hell, like in doom hehe). So while I was kinda late to the party, I still love this franchise and still play it often with my brother.

[ZeroTheEro]

It was 1995, and Doom shareware was among the bundled CDs that we got with our first PC back in the day.

No music, just PC Speaker noises (even though ROTT actually has working voices for some reason) and the game scared the shit out of me, the pinky and the E1M2 maze especially. Game however dug in deep. I can still remember the PC Speaker noises when letting the demo run. Brings me back.

[JennaTullwerhtz]

9 hours ago, Geqoph said:

While I don't exactly remember my first time seeing Doom, I know that it definitely was when I was still a little kid (perhaps even 5 years old). I remember watching both of my brothers play it and asking how the different demons are called. I would always refer to the Arch-vile as a skeleton (along with the Revenant) and I would mix up Imps and Cacodemons. I think the first time I really played a Doom engine game was when my brother started up Chex Quest for me. He was playing on ZDoom so naturally I also played it in this source port. He always gave me Godmode, all weapons infinite ammo and all keys (I was 6 or 7 at the time). The first time I really played Doom from the beginning to the end was when I was somewhere around 12 and I played it on Hurt Me Plenty. I had a *hell* of a good time. (hehe get it, hell, like in doom hehe). So while I was kinda late to the party, I still love this franchise and still play it often with my brother.

Dude, the Revenant on PS1 Doom always scared the hell out of me. The ambient sounds it'd make whenever they were hunting for you. Also, my first experience with the arch-vile was on my grandparent's PC which had Doom 2. Going from consoles to PC, I had NO idea about the Arch-Vile. The fire attack that launches you up in the air also used to scare me lol also, puns and dark humor are a big plus for me so it's good to hear you had a *hell* of a good time hahaha also, kudos for being a Chex Quest kid! I never knew about the love everyone had for that little game until I was in my mid-twenties.

Slipgate - I feel you, for sure. On SNES and PSX, I'd always play on I'm too Young to Die/easy. Even with cheats! haha Suburbs on PSX Doom was always my favorite level to run around in with cheats.

 

ZeroTheEro - I've never played Doom with PC speaker sounds, but the fact that it still scared you is a testament to Doom's perfect design choices.

[facespkz]

Much like a lot of others, my first experience was with the shareware. I'm not sure where or when I played it so I'll just pretend it was through dosbox on a school chromebook. I remember the ending of episode 1 and how much it startled me, getting torn to shreds by monsters I could barely see. I played through the first couple of levels occasionally and eventually I decided to sit down and actually play through the full version in Crispy Doom. Playing through both games in this way felt like appreciating history, especially with the pixelated software rendering and limited color palette.

[Individualised]

22 hours ago, AbstractDread said:

I drew pictures of Doom at school, got sent to special classes because my teachers said they liked my pictures so much, I got to talk to a bunch of doctors who also liked my Doom drawings

Lol at this

[JennaTullwerhtz]

3 hours ago, facespkz said:

Much like a lot of others, my first experience was with the shareware. I'm not sure where or when I played it so I'll just pretend it was through dosbox on a school chromebook. I remember the ending of episode 1 and how much it startled me, getting torn to shreds by monsters I could barely see. I played through the first couple of levels occasionally and eventually I decided to sit down and actually play through the full version in Crispy Doom. Playing through both games in this way felt like appreciating history, especially with the pixelated software rendering and limited color palette.

You know, I think it was estimated that Doom shareware was installed on over ten million computers back in the day. This was even long before games became super mainstream like they are now. I'm not commenting on anything specifically by saying that, I just still get blown away by that.

 

Also, big yes to episode 1's ending. Getting to that bit on SNES Doom (my first Doom experience) also freaked me out when I was a kid, although I didn't understand thematically what was happening until way later when I was a teen. Like, dying and then going to the "Shores of Hell" didn't register with me at that time.

 

Also, good on you for immersing yourself into the experience! Most people I know who have heard of (or played) classic Doom always talk about Brutal Doom when talking about their first experience. I mean, people not on Doomworld, anyways.

 

Not to shit on Brutal Doom but I just think there are better ways (like yours) to experience Doom for the first time.

 

Spoiler

Hint: going on Reddit's Doom Board will net you conversations with a bunch of know-it-all 'Redditors' who claim BRUTAL DOOM is the one and only mod, and that you're lame for suggesting otherwise. Stay away from Reddit unless you want to heighten your risk of full-body cancer.

 

Edited May 7, 2023 by AbstractDread
clarifying a run-on sentence

[Darkcrafter07]

It was a Win 98 SE machine with AMD K5 at 133mhz, 16 megs ram, 800mb hdd and a nice 17 inch CRT, ESS FM OPL3 card, iddqd, idkfa and Doom 2 in 2002. I was one of those lucky ppl who started playing it the right way without lags.

I got the only photo of my old computer in action left

[Borax Man]

April 1994, just turned 16.  I had heard of the game from friends in school at the start of the school year (start of February), and they described as "Wolfenstein in space".  I had a 386DX 20 for 4M RAM with an Adlib card but no Sound Blaster and wasn't really that interested in the game, as I thought Wolf 3D was the bees knees.

 

A friend brought a shareware copy on floppy disk sometime in April and loaded it on.  The game looked incredible.  Dark, realistic, lush soft graphics.  I was impressed by how firing a rocket directly into a wall in front of you would hurt you and push you back and the fact that walls were at any angle.  But it ran slow, quite slow even in 'low detail' mode.  I played it, but kind of though that the enemies were just zombie versions of the brown guards and SS guards in Wolfenstien, and I preferred the submachine gun over a shotgun.  While the technology was impressive, the 'horror' aesthetic didn't appeal to me instantly and my computer was a bit underpowered.  Played a few levels over a week or so then deleted it due to shortage of disk space.

 

 

About two weeks later I was at some dinner-dance thing my parents made me go to and was sitting at the table bored.  Doom popped into my head and I just thought that perhaps that game was actually pretty good.  The grey miltary base, the grey clouds, blasting creatures with a shotgun.  I asked my friend to come around with the shareware copy again, I loaded it on and played through, enjoying it.  It was the dark, moody atmosphere I liked.  The feeling of being all alone surrounded by monsters and evil.  It was immersive, atmospheric.  From that moment I was hooked.  Got the registered version the next month and found a new obsession.

 

I particularly remember the secrets, the river of ooze in E1M4, the darkness of E1M7. That outdoor donut walkway in E1M3 and the victory music when you finished the episode.  I remember vivid blues, the blown up zombies after being hit with a rocket and the PC speaker sound effects.

 

Edited May 7, 2023 by Borax Man

[Wo0p]

Doom used to come around to my house along with its brother Wolfenstein when I was about 7 or 8. They were a few years older than me and were sort of rough and tuff and as a young lad you're easily impressed by that sort of stuff. Only trouble is I didn't realise how rough they were and they'd keep me up all night unsupervised and would have their way with me until I was sore and exhausted. 

For weeks afterwards I had nightmares about the horrible grunts and snarls that would come out of their mouths and assault my ears for hours on end. And whenever I would start to pass out from exhaustion I'd hear a loud "ACHTUNG!" and was snapped back to that violent reality for another hour or two.

Eventually however the nightmares would fade and I learned to forget about it by distracting myself with other games. I didn't see Doom or Wolfenstein for somewhere around 20 years... then suddenly one day I got a notice on my youtube page about Brutal Doom. I thought my instinctual reaction would be to relive the fear I experienced that night so long ago. But instead... I felt joy.

Because what I had told nobody for two decades is... I secretly loved that night.

[ZeroTheEro]

10 hours ago, AbstractDread said:

ZeroTheEro - I've never played Doom with PC speaker sounds, but the fact that it still scared you is a testament to Doom's perfect design choices.

Game didn't scare me anymore these days, that was just the younger me trying to make it through the game.

[Fluuschoen]

First memory regarding Doom? In person, with the actual game and not just from a magazine? Hmmm...

I think it's playing the Doom shareware on LAN in the computer lab of my primary school, after classes, back in '96. Keyboard only and E1M1 DM ofc. It was a regular thing for us until the Quake shareware arrived. Golden days... ;____;

 

Then played it a bit at home until ~20 years of Quakeing came, in the last few years even competitively, but Doom was in the back of my mind, played it a little from time to time (like once in every few years), along with some Build engine games, which are also my lieblings. I started to make a DM map in the summer of 2016, which we playtested in a 3 player LAN, and since 2019, I almost exclusively play classic Doom only, had about half a dozen (or maybe a little more) LANs with Odamex, and it seems competitive Quake Live gave the baton to Doom speedrunning; one cannot be all casual and wishy-washy if id Tech's making the show. : D                      

Edited May 7, 2023 by Fluuschoen

[D0M0]

I don't know why but the title of this thread almost seemed like an innuendo to me.

 

Jokes aside, the first time I heard of doom was through the media back in like 2018. I had heard of it from other youtubers and so I gave it a try (on a school computer). I played the first doom, keyboard only on HMP since I found UV too hard at the time. I didn't even realise how there was a big community still circling the game from that point.

It felt rather weird playing a game from the 90s since as a 00s kid I was used to playing the old lego games in my younger ages. I wasn't used to pixellated graphics, but there was just something simple about Doom that hooked me. 

[AbeAwesome]

10 hours ago, AbstractDread said:

You know, I think it was estimated that Doom shareware was installed on over ten million computers back in the day. This was even long before games became super mainstream like they are now. I'm not commenting on anything specifically by saying that, I just still get blown away by that.

Oh, I think you are... you're saying shareware DOOM has loose morals, and shaming it for its life choices... it's not the 1950s anymore, grandpa.

 

Anyway, my first experience with DOOM was playing it off a Shareware CD while skipping school at my friend's house in 1996. If you think about it, playing DOOM and Commander Keen and stuff is far more important than attending child-prison.

[Andrew T.]

I had a protracted introduction to Doom.

In the 1990s I discovered a number of shareware games, including Wolfenstein 3D and the Apogee library.  I was 11 or 12 at the time...and on my first play-through, Wolfenstein frightened me to the core!  Yet, the one game I *didn't* have was Doom.  I was aware it existed...it was such a cultural juggernaut that it was hard not to...but at the time, I was satisfied with platform scrollers and orthogonal walls.

 

Around 2000 I discovered the Toastytech Doom website , which had a detailed write-up about the game's development and pre-release versions.  I was so captivated that I immediately downloaded the 0.5 alpha, put it on a floppy disk, and loaded it on the 486 machine I had recently inherited as a hand-me-down...and discovered it wasn't quite playable all the way through, LOL.  I repeated the experience with the "actual" released shareware a few days later.

 

The feeling I had from my first play-through of Doom was one of all-around satisfaction.  It was an immersive game.  Each level felt carefully crafted, with just the right balance of threats, puzzles, and length to keep me engaged and encouraged to drive on.  The game was filled with elements that stimulated curiosity, and encouraged exploring:  "What does that blue sphere in E1M3 do, and how do I get to it?"  Episode 1 was less frightening than Wolfenstein (being older helped), but it still inspired psychological horror:  There were dark corridors, flickering lights, and a prevailing sense that you NEVER knew what enemy was going to suddenly lurch out around the bend.  And the ending was one of the most unexpected moments I had experienced in any game.

[JennaTullwerhtz]

21 hours ago, Wo0p said:

Doom used to come around to my house along with its brother Wolfenstein when I was about 7 or 8. They were a few years older than me and were sort of rough and tuff and as a young lad you're easily impressed by that sort of stuff. Only trouble is I didn't realise how rough they were and they'd keep me up all night unsupervised and would have their way with me until I was sore and exhausted. 

For weeks afterwards I had nightmares about the horrible grunts and snarls that would come out of their mouths and assault my ears for hours on end. And whenever I would start to pass out from exhaustion I'd hear a loud "ACHTUNG!" and was snapped back to that violent reality for another hour or two.

Eventually however the nightmares would fade and I learned to forget about it by distracting myself with other games. I didn't see Doom or Wolfenstein for somewhere around 20 years... then suddenly one day I got a notice on my youtube page about Brutal Doom. I thought my instinctual reaction would be to relive the fear I experienced that night so long ago. But instead... I felt joy.

Because what I had told nobody for two decades is... I secretly loved that night.

You know, normally I'd recommend a support group for people like you and I but who doesn't love a good tussle with stronger, older games? I sure do.

 

17 hours ago, Fluuschoen said:

First memory regarding Doom? In person, with the actual game and not just from a magazine? Hmmm...

I think it's playing the Doom shareware on LAN in the computer lab of my primary school, after classes, back in '96. Keyboard only and E1M1 DM ofc. It was a regular thing for us until the Quake shareware arrived. Golden days... ;____;

 

Then played it a bit at home until ~20 years of Quakeing came, in the last few years even competitively, but Doom was in the back of my mind, played it a little from time to time (like once in every few years), along with some Build engine games, which are also my lieblings. I started to make a DM map in the summer of 2016, which we playtested in a 3 player LAN, and since 2019, I almost exclusively play classic Doom only, had about half a dozen (or maybe a little more) LANs with Odamex, and it seems competitive Quake Live gave the baton to Doom speedrunning; one cannot be all casual and wishy-washy if id Tech's making the show. : D                      

I wish my school could have afforded computers like yours. I went to some inner-city thing, and I think the only computer they had could only play Oregon Trail. I'm vicariously living through your memories of your childhood right now.

 

Do you still make maps at all? Did you ever get into mapping for Quake?

 

17 hours ago, D0M0 said:

I don't know why but the title of this thread almost seemed like an innuendo to me.

 

Jokes aside, the first time I heard of doom was through the media back in like 2018. I had heard of it from other youtubers and so I gave it a try (on a school computer). I played the first doom, keyboard only on HMP since I found UV too hard at the time. I didn't even realise how there was a big community still circling the game from that point.

It felt rather weird playing a game from the 90s since as a 00s kid I was used to playing the old lego games in my younger ages. I wasn't used to pixellated graphics, but there was just something simple about Doom that hooked me. 

Haha it was absolutely innuendo. Some of the bits from my "childhood" had some spice added, but the story I told of my first time (with Doom, of course) is largely factual. Scout's honor.

 

14 hours ago, AbeAwesome said:

Oh, I think you are... you're saying shareware DOOM has loose morals, and shaming it for its life choices... it's not the 1950s anymore, grandpa.

 

Anyway, my first experience with DOOM was playing it off a Shareware CD while skipping school at my friend's house in 1996. If you think about it, playing DOOM and Commander Keen and stuff is far more important than attending child-prison.

My god, am I showing my age already? I always promised myself to be one of the cool kids and never judge anything for its lifestyle choices when I got older. I just slut-shamed shareware Doom, what has happened to me?

 

Also, I've learned way more about geometry, math and murder from Doom mapping than I ever would have at my local child-prison, so I'm gonna have to agree with you on that one.

[FourLoko Salad]

I originally played Doom on the internet, through someone's flash port. 

 

I didn't have any family or friends who played Doom, but I had unsupervised access to the Windows XP as a kid. I mostly spent my time on YouTube and Newgrounds, and found a flash port of the shareware version of Doom. I thought it was fun, but didn't know how to strafe, and thought that it was really scary because it didn't have any music, and, well, because I was young. I don't remember beating the flash version, because I couldn't save on web browser, and always closed out the tab when I was done because I was scared that my parents would catch me playing a violent game. I do remember having a bunch of fun playing the game though.

[Chookum]

I was 4 or 5 when Doom 2 was introduced to me by my brother's friends on their computer, playing MAP03 with all of the cheats turned on and the hall of mirrors everywhere. It was quite surreal and unlike anything I'd ever seen. I think they also knew the switch levels cheat too so it was a safari of exploring the game after my brother's friends had presumably played it back to back.

 

And that's when the trouble started. I'm also fairly sure I was shown and played Doom 1 and I remember playing Wolfenstein once or twice around that time period too.

[Wo0p]

2 hours ago, AbstractDread said:

You know, normally I'd recommend a support group for people like you and I but who doesn't love a good tussle with stronger, older games? I sure do.

 

100% agree with you.

[BGreener]

First time with Doom was starting up Plutonia through Final Doom. I was 7 or 8 at this time, I had already played things like Hexen and had already heard about Doom, at this point I knew it was kind of notorious.

 

The spooky title music for Plutonia played, I booted up Congo while listening to the spooky start of the song…then the rest of Imp’s Song played where it got funky, and that was basically the tone given to me with Doom: Gory sprites and gameplay with some head boppin’ jams.

 

After that initial intro, it was me who was maybe 8 messing with Final Doom through Doom95 and all of its options, including things like level select and playing all these levels out of order. It wasn’t until awhile after that when I settled on playing the games through the regular exes and as well as playing their intended level order, I think I had also gotten Doom 2 by that point and then eventually Doom 1 or Ultimate Doom.

 

I like to wonder how my initial impression of it would have been had I played it extensively through the PSX first: That port had a much moodier tone and soundtrack, and things like Resident Evil spooked me when I was that age.

 

Also: If anyone happens to still have the discs for Final Doom, I’d love to recall what midi played while Doom95 installed. I have a very clear memory of “The Demon’s Dead” playing while there’s a gif of the spider mastermind walking, but this could be a Mandela effect: Someone told me the music was different when they installed Doom 2.

[Fluuschoen]

10 hours ago, AbstractDread said:

I wish my school could have afforded computers like yours. I went to some inner-city thing, and I think the only computer they had could only play Oregon Trail. I'm vicariously living through your memories of your childhood right now.

Oh, those machines were mostly various 386 rigs, only one 486 was up for the students (besides the teacher's machine), so you would be soft-pressed to arrive early. : D This was well into the Pentium era.
 

10 hours ago, AbstractDread said:

Do you still make maps at all? Did you ever get into mapping for Quake?

Not really, but learning Doom Builder properly is always in the back of my mind. Have a few ideas that would be nice to see in action.

I had a very brief intermezzo with GtkRadiant back in the 3DS MAX/Softimage XSI days, but nothing really worth mentioning. But I could make complete, pure Quake Live/Quake III Arena (those are/were my main Quakes, but played every iteration) config files without any redundant or unnecessary cvars from a blank TXT document, by heart. They are really a work of art, both in content and presentation. : D

 

 

 

 

28 minutes ago, BGreener said:

First time...

Is that Bitterman on your profile pic?

Edited May 8, 2023 by Fluuschoen

[BGreener]

1 hour ago, Fluuschoen said:

Is that Bitterman on your profile pic?

Indeed! He’s all-smiles after getting his brain picked apart before getting hooked into the arena.

[Al-Faris M]

I was 13 years old, me and my two brothers were excited to get our own computer. I downloaded the Doom shareware because I liked watching gameplay footage of Doom on Youtube. E1M1 was a blast, I really enjoyed playing it, but then came E1M2, I was scared of the dark maze area but the chainsaw secret was worth it!

[Fluuschoen]

16 hours ago, BGreener said:

Indeed! He’s all-smiles after getting his brain picked apart before getting hooked into the arena.

He's one of the guys with a more chilled, subtle 'umph'. : >

[Devalaous]

I was nervous, and the imp was a little too rough, despite my insistence on 'Hey, Not Too Rough!' It was over far too quickly, and I felt bad, only to learn most people apparently finished in 30 seconds.

[Biz!]

It was terrifying, they got what they were intending for.