Hilarious discovery in an IWAD demo

[iddq_tea]

The first version of Doom I played was 1.2, and 1.666 for Doom 2, which has not changed its demos throughout the following releases, unlike the original Doom, which changed them every update. But I want to focus on this one particular demo...

 

It's the first demo that plays when you launch Doom 1.2 and it features E2M4. I was very young when I started playing Doom, a literal toddler, and it was very easy to keep me busy - just put on the Pipes/Maze screensaver, or give me Doom, and I would watch those demos on repeat so much that I would be able to replicate Romero's exact movement from memory, with the exception that I used keyboard-only controls.

 

 

One thing about this demo has always felt strange to me: when Doomguy approaches this door halfway, he decides to leave it for later and explore elsewhere, but the moment he turns around, the baron opens the door and lets out a mighty roar (which back then I heard through the PC speakers). It was only fairly recently that I got the idea to extract the demo using SLADE and play it back in DSDA Doom to spectate the area and find out what caused the baron to open the door as soon as Doomguy stepped into that room. By all logic, it should not be possible.

 

Image spam ahead!

 

Spoiler

Let's rewind a bit and see what goes on in this room when the map starts.

 

Right away, we see that there are three imps right outside the door, and one baron inside. They are all inactive.

 

 

As soon as Doomguy takes the teleport and fires his first shot, the imps wake up. Looks like someone forgot to set their flags to ambush! The baron, however, is still asleep, as he should be. While the others go off on an adventure, one imp decides to pay the big guy a visit.

 

 

...and proceeds to get stuck on the doorway on his way out.

 

 

And remain stuck... Just look at the demo progression bar!

 

 

Finally, the imp decides that he's had enough fun, and goes back inside the baron's room.

 

 

Doomguy has cleared out a good chunk of the map, and the imp was just stuck on the door the entire time! Speaking of, where is Doomguy right now?

 

 

He is well on his way to the imp, having just cleared out every other room in his way. He kills the last of the adventurers, and takes the left turn.

 

 

And this is the part you have all been waiting for: he approaches the door halfway, then changes his mind and turns around, when suddenly...

 

 

RAAWWRRRR!!!

 

 

It was the imp the whole time!!

 

...

 

While watching this demo from a third person perspective for the first time, I was laughing my ass off. The timing of the imp getting stuck on the door for one third of the demo, getting unstuck, then opening the Baron's door the second Doomguy walks in was just something incredible. The baron killed the imp, RIP.

 

 

I sincerely hope you guys find this just as amusing as I did, and maybe you know some funny off-camera shenanigans in the official IWAD demos that have gone unnoticed for years, too :)

[esselfortium]

Okay, that actually is hilarious. Great find!

[OniriA]

That's just awesome haha!

 

I almost feel sad for the imp, it was so dedicated only to be...

 

In the end...it didn't eeeven maaatteeerrr...

~ Linkin Park

 

PS: Gotta love being on a curiosity trip and getting surprised in unexpected ways as a result .

Edited August 20, 2023 by OniriA

[ShallowB]

Stuck doing nothing for most of the map, only to spring a baron on Doomguy at precisely the right moment.

 

That is some serious imp patience. 

[ASD]

This part always confused me. At first I thought there was an obscure line action which triggered the door to open but later on realized it had something to do with sound travel. Just never bothered to find out. Another demo with dumb luck was shareware v1.8 demo1. Never gets old.