What is a "port", how is it used/installed?

[thatdrnstump]

The more I read info on doom, the more I come across source ports. What are they? How are they utilized? I am good on a PC, but that subject seems very advanced. I have Doom 1, and 2 on my 233 mmx, 64 Mb ram machine, and they run well in DOS while windows is running, except for issues with sound FX. Though my card is blaster compatible, no FX. Would a new source port fix this? Thanks in advance

[Bashe]

A source port is basically a version of the game with most limits removed and some added features like looking and jumping and such.

zdoom.org]Zdoom is a very popular port, since you can have a lot of special effects with scripting and such.

doomsdayhq.com]Jdoom is a port if you like pretty graphics in Doom.

Legacy is a pretty good one. Good for watching demos.

There are tons of others. Check them out in this thread.

[Grazza]

Bashe said:

Legacy is a pretty good one. Good for watching demos.

You seem to be a bit confused here. Prboom and Eternity are the good ones for watching demos. And Prboom for recording them too (thanks to its complevels). In general, demos only play back with the same program they were recorded with, but Eternity and Prboom have been designed to play back demos from several of the older engines too, including the original games.

Coming back to the question...

Generally, whichever source port(s) you decide to try, the way to use them is much the same. You need an iwad from the original game(s). These are the big files that contain all the game data. They are called doom.wad, doom2.wad, tnt.wad and plutonia.wad. doom2.wad is the one for which most add-on content is made; there is also quite a lot that works with doom.wad.

There is no "install" procedure as such. You just unzip the files into your Doom folder (or into a separate folder just for that port, and copy your iwads into it).

In the command line you use to start the game, you need to replace doom2 with the name of the port (and maybe add "-iwad" followed by the name of the iwad you want to use). Thus:

eternity -iwad plutonia.wad
starts Plutonia using the Eternity engine.

prboom -iwad doom2.wad -file hr.wad hrmus.wad -skill 5 -warp 24
starts Hell Revealed using prboom, with the player warped to map24 on Nightmare skill (not recommended!)

...and so on. Note that if you leave out the "-iwad" part, then the program will either make a guess, or offer you a choice of the iwads it finds. You may also be able to omit the file extensions and even the "-file" (e.g. zdoom hr), but this depends on the port.

[Ultraviolet]

Note also that for the most part command-line parameters between the source ports and the original Doom.exe are a lot alike, and in some cases used identically. If you can't find out how to do a certain thing in one of the source ports that you could in the original by entering some additional stuff on the command-line, try it just like you did back in the old executable.

Also, ZDoom isn't just popular and doesn't just provide special effects for level makers. There is a wide range of stuff you can do with the user interface, including quake-like binding and aliasses. High-resolution video modes are also supported.

From your system specs, I can guess that JDoom won't run very well on your computer, or at least not well enough to justify trying to use all that eye-candy. ZDoom, Legacy, and Eternity should work fine using their software renderers, but beware: New wads exploiting the special effects these ports offer will load a system such as yours down. I would know, mine is only marginally faster than yours.

[thatdrnstump]

I installed Legacy, and it is good play AND the sound works! . Although I cannot load any wad except main wads, none of the single maps I have, is there a way to combine wads?

[deathbringer]

Use the Launcher and select "single map" (actually, it works with any wad, multi-map wads, or even graphics wads with no maps) and choose the wad you want, then click 'ok' and it runs

with other ports (such as zdoom, edge, prboom ect), open notepad and type

port.exe -file wad.wad -deh deh.deh (if applicable)

Then save it in your doom folder (and make sure the wad and deh are in there too!) but change the extension from .txt to .bat, then double click it to run

[thatdrnstump]

Thanks people, much appreciated!