Doom Out on Commodore VIC-20

[scorpion]

Kweepa has released a Doom port for the Commodore VIC-20. Beside the computer, you'll need a 35 KB RAM expansion (to add to the 5 KB of the VIC-20) and a floppy drive. Or just use an emulator.

The game has 8 levels, 4 enemies, 5 weapons, music (11), 20 sound effects, cheat codes, a map screen, bodies, pickups, exploding barrels, pauses, victory screens, and more.

Look here for a download link

Edit: I searched the forums about this before posting, and initially I found nothing, until I came across these posts. I guess the only news here is the fact that it's been released and you can download it.

[Memfis]

Most unplayable port ever? Not trying to insult anyone, I'm sure that a lot of effort went into making all this possible on such an old computer but... This is unbearably slow, I played the game faster the first time I saw it, when I didn't use mouse, running or strafing. I couldn't stand watching more than one minute of this, it's really just painful to look at because everything is so slow.

[BaronOfStuff]

Pretty much what Memfis said. Technically it's very impressive, incredible that it's possible to get that ancient Vic to do such things, yet ultimately pointless if you like any form of playability.

[40oz]

idididididididididididididididididididididididididid

[Koko Ricky]

Yuck. I'm with everyone else. Makes the SNES version shine in comparison.

[Technician]

And don't get me started on black and white movies.

[GreyGhost]

I like it! Getting Doom to run on a VIC-20 (with probably little more processing power than Grazza's new toaster) is quite an achievement, though from what I've seen so far it looks like the game engine doesn't support changes in elevation. VIC Doom appears to be totally keyboard-driven, which means disabling Joyport 1 emulation to use WASD for movement, being a mouse player it almost feels like I'm being unfairly penalised. :)

[Avoozl]

I wonder how a Gameboy Color version of Doom would fair.

[Hekksy]

Does this read information from WAD files?

[_bruce_]

Haha - awesome!
Big props to the author... maybe Jack Tramiel
Is the secret boss.
A conversion of Doom to the NeoGeo instead might
Be a wee bit more interesting/useful though.

[GreyGhost]

Vulture said:

Does this read information from WAD files?

Not so far as I know.

The author's created cut-down versions of almost all of the Episode 1 maps, which is unavoidable when you only have some 38.5k of RAM at your disposal. There's also a limit on the number of monsters and pickups in each map, the upside is that there's a level editor which should be available at some point for us to play with.

[Obsidian]

Looks like it'd be better suited as a Wolfenstein port, I'm pretty sure I didn't see any height variation.

[Average]

I think it's impressive and I enjoy playing it too. The frame rate is low and there's no elevation but, to me at least, once one gets used to the frame rate it feels like Doom. It's great to walk around a recognisable map and look for the differences.

Kweepa (the author) also did a simpler version which is basically a 3D maze switch hunt called The Keep. It's got a smoother frame rate and it's great fun too.

If I remember rightly there was some talk of a potential Wolf3D which would sit somewhere in between both of these games. VIC 20 FTW!

[Sokoro]

Vanilla engine is too high-tech for you! go back to playing hand-held tetris.. better safe than sorry, technology is an evil.

[Average]

Sokoro said:

...go back to playing hand-held tetris.. better safe than sorry, technology is an evil.

I don't need to. There's a really nice port of Tetris for the Vic too. :P

[Maes]

Vulture said:

Does this read information from WAD files?

It reads info out of very simplified "WAD"-like structures, but an effort was made to keep it as close as possible to the original structure, it even uses BSP nodes. However, at this level of downsizing, it's not comparable even to e.g. the 32X or Jaguar version, which at least used proper WAD data.

[GreyGhost]

Obsidian said:

Looks like it'd be better suited as a Wolfenstein port, I'm pretty sure I didn't see any height variation.

The author's planning to rectify that, though memory and/or performance constraints might force him to ditch non-orthogonal walls, which I suppose would make it Wolf3D with steps. ;)

[Dragonsbrethren]

Sokoro said:

Vanilla engine is too high-tech for you! go back to playing hand-held tetris.. better safe than sorry, technology is an evil.

Original Game Boy Tetris was the best Tetris anyway.

[Dexiaz]

scorpion said:
you'll need a 35 KB RAM expansion (to add to the 5 KB of the VIC-20) and a floppy drive.

Ow, thank you very much for this. I just don't get it why emulator give me an error after run. I just need to modify RAM settings in emulator.

Anyway, it's very funny and impressive.

UPD:

[GreyGhost]

Select "VIC20 settings..." in the Settings menu and click on the "Full (blocks 0/1/2/3/5)" button, that'll give you the required 35k. Another thing to check is that you're auto-starting the disk (from the File menu).

[Dexiaz]

GreyGhost said:

Select "VIC20 settings..." in the Settings menu and click on the "Full (blocks 0/1/2/3/5)" button, that'll give you the required 35k. Another thing to check is that you're auto-starting the disk (from the File menu).

Thx, but I get it in post above. Also you can see this because I've posted the vid.

[William Blazkowicz]

My gosh, that looks horrid. But it is on a vic-20 after all. Also, since when could the vic-20 support both music AND sound effects?

[Quasar]

Impressive technologically speaking, for sure. I wish the sound was a bit clearer though; there's a lot of low-pitched "mud" together with high-pitched "scraping" that makes it unpleasant to listen to.

[Dexiaz]

*E1M1: Param, taram, param* TRR TRR. *Para* TRR TRR. *Ta* TRR TRR...


Anyway, I like this game, lol. But play again - IDK... For eyes and ears it's "heavy attack", TRR TRR.

[Bucket]

Quasar said:

Impressive technologically speaking, for sure. I wish the sound was a bit clearer though; there's a lot of low-pitched "mud" together with high-pitched "scraping" that makes it unpleasant to listen to.

That was my impression. I'm not sure why the programmer insisted on having SQUERPLAKLE SMEERCH PTANG for every sound effect when a few beeps and boops would suffice.

[Doominator2]

Where is his gun?

[Dexiaz]

Doominator2 said:

Where is his gun?

Out of our view. It's better, because with weapon "sprite" you can't see anything right in front of you.

[Dexiaz]

I've recorded music from this game:

[Gez]

Chiptunes have their charm, but those renditions were mostly cacophonous.

[Dexiaz]

Yeah. E1M3 music is awful...But I like E1M6 track and Intermission theme.