Doom 64 is NOT Doom (DEBUNKED)

[Deleted_Account]

Doom 64 is not Doom without the tangy salsa of The Healer Stalks.

[Wild Dog]

Foebane72 said:

I did. I got as far as the second level then died, then thought "I'll have to use the level codes to proceed" and then just left it there. I also don't like the idea of having to take a few minutes to scroll through letters and numbers on the screen to enter said codes, when on the PC I just could literally type in "IDCLEV31" or something.

So first you said, that you didn't play it, because you don't have a N64.... Now you say that you played it on a N64, but you didn´t like the password system????


Like it or not, Doom 64 is a DOOM game. It is a hard game?? You can say it is more friendly than other N64 games when it comes to difficulty....
You don't like it? That's fine, but don't say it is trash or is not a Doom game, when is not true.

[Edward850]

[Blastfrog]

That image is inaccurate; of those three monsters, only cacodemons were in E3M8, and pain elementals aren't even in Doom 1.

In other news, Doom 64 kicks ass.

[Deleted_Account]

For some reason this thread reminds me of this:

[Spectre01]

Doom 64 is alright but the weapons, enemies and overall feel of the game is simply not as tight as PC Doom. And I'm judging this by the EX version. The maps are also pretty damn small with tiny outdoor areas and none of the scale that Doom 2 had. Also, for those posting "lulzy" reaction images, 4chan is that way --->.

[Wild Dog]

rileymartin said:

Doom 64 is alright but the weapons, enemies and overall feel of the game is simply not as tight as PC Doom. And I'm judging this by the EX version. The maps are also pretty damn small with tiny outdoor areas and none of the scale that Doom 2 had. Also, for those posting "lulzy" reaction images, 4chan is that way --->.

The last part of the game the levels can be quite big. If i had to complaing about something is that some levels look like they were made for a plataformer instead of a FPS. But i guess since they were making it for N64 they didn't want to alienate Nintendo Gamers for what they were used to.
But yes Doom 2 is the best of the classic games, has the best balance.

[MinerOfWorlds]

Wild Dog said:

Doom 2 is the best of the classic games.

Gameplay yes maps no they suck.

[Man of Doom]

The thing about Doom 64 is that it could have easily been another port, but it isn't, which is all the more reason Doom 64 deserves more praise than it gets.

Not only that, D64 has aged extremely well in terms of graphics. When you think of the Nintendo 64, you'd usually think of the blocky polygons of Super Mario 64 or Ocarina of Time, but not here with D64, as the 2D sprites combined with the moody visual effects make the whole experience all the more striking and imposing.

And a little side note as to how Doom 64 got its name: it was originally supposed to be called "The Absolution," but people would think that was a new IP as opposed to a new Doom game (or at least from what I've heard), plus it was chic to put 64 at the end of your Nintendo 64 title.

[Combinebobnt]

Nice clickbait title

I didn't read most of the replies so I'll try and just stick with the main post. I started with PSX doom first so I have a much different bias than you and the 'we' in your post. I think the more atmospheric music by Hodges easily beats out Bobby's 12 bar Slayer ripoff things any day (don't worry Bobby, ur still good), the sounds sound less like they come from a generic pack of 500 shitty sound effects and are more beefier/scarier, and the maps actually looked scary with the brightness and colored lighting (PSX doom did come after, have to admit that). So in MY opinion, PSX Doom > PC doom. PC doom of course is the most popular because it's for the PC, and I think it was best that PC doom became dominate.

There is one problem here, and it is that Doom 64 literally shares all these things with PSX doom. However, I think PC Doom easily beats Doom 64. I probably share your opinion on the design of those boring gray corridors with a few good maps in between (the ones I can actually remember!), and the look of the stupid clay monsters too. The demon looks retarded, there is literally nothing scary about it. The hell knights look stretched out and really everything just looks goofy and tries to be scarier but tries too hard. At least the final boss was good.

Every doom64 to PC attempt so far has been dwarfed by normal PC stuff, having only small audiences. This can be said for most things that aren't PC Doom though. Even brutal doom 64 pales in comparison to the main wad. It isn't even that brutal, which is probably why a lot of more people like it than normal brutal doom. Doom64 is a mixed bag of good and bad, an attempt to redesign what had already been designed. It manages to be cool and dumb at the same time. So you are probably right, Doom 64 is not the way Doom was meant to be (the way id did it?). Just be careful with slandering the whole thing; it shares characteristics with PSX Doom and the other console ports that are not bad at all.

[JohnnyTheWolf]

Although I really like Doom 64, I do agree Midway did not necessarily have to come with a completely different art direction. They could have simply done something similar to Quake II 64, which used very similar graphics yet featured an original adventure.

I would be curious to know what drove the development team to go for such a distinctive visual style. I know Doom Depot has an interview of two level designers, but unfortunately, it is not very in-depth and they do not really talk about the artistic decisions that went into making the game we now know.

[Csonicgo]

So many of us started with console Doom, and Doom64 got a lot of new blood into the community.I can't count how many started with Doom64 and Playstation Doom, it's a very large chunk of us who couldn't afford a PC to play Doom. PCs that could play Doom back then were almost 2,000 damn dollars. I was lucky to own a PC then, my dad only had one for his job, else I would have been hammering away on a Tandy or something.

[VGamingJunkie]

Just to put this rumor to bed, a guy managed to get Vanilla Doom running smoothly on the N64 in his free time with homebrew. You really think id couldn't make it happen themselves? They chose to give it unique graphics and levels for the same reason they gave Quake 2 for the N64 unique levels, they simply felt like doing so.

[Jon]

MetroidJunkie said:

Just to put this rumor to bed, a guy managed to get Vanilla Doom running smoothly on the N64 in his free time with homebrew. You really think id couldn't make it happen themselves? They chose to give it unique graphics and levels for the same reason they gave Quake 2 for the N64 unique levels, they simply felt like doing so.

Or... they outsourced both Quake 2 and Doom 64 development to other companies, like most of their ports.

[geo]

Csonicgo said:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cynu-5rWIAAiKCW.jpg

So many of us started with console Doom, and Doom64 got a lot of new blood into the community.I can't count how many started with Doom64 and Playstation Doom, it's a very large chunk of us who couldn't afford a PC to play Doom. PCs that could play Doom back then were almost 2,000 damn dollars. I was lucky to own a PC then, my dad only had one for his job, else I would have been hammering away on a Tandy or something.

Just when I thought I was over the first picture you had to post the new one. I'm back in hysterics.

[Avoozl]

Well I'd argue that Doom 64 was more Doom than Doom 3 and 4 were.

[MFG38]

Oh, please. We all know that the "this is not Doom" title belongs to the Doom movie.

[Memfis]

I could only play like 15 seconds of Doom 64. It just seemed so unpleasant and drab, with ugly monsters, lifeless colors and disgusting sounds (everything moans like it's being tortured). It was probably my shortest experience with any game ever. And yeah, I don't really see any Doom in it. Not Doom that I like anyway.

[Maes]

Doom64 was the last official new Doom game made with the original engine (even if heavily modified) and the only one that could be called somewhat of an "official advanced source port" and had its own exclusive, original content.

Pity that id didn't consider a PC backport at the time, as it showed very well what Doom could have been, had the engine not been stuck at 1994's Doom II feature set.

The version of Doom that came much later embedded in Doom 3: BFG edition doesn't count for a variety of reasons.

[VGamingJunkie]

Jon said:

Or... they outsourced both Quake 2 and Doom 64 development to other companies, like most of their ports.

Making the assumption that it wasn't id's decision to have the other companies make new levels rather than just use PC levels like every other Doom port.

[jazzmaster9]

Memfis said:

I could only play like 15 seconds of Doom 64. It just seemed so unpleasant and drab, with ugly monsters, lifeless colors and disgusting sounds (everything moans like it's being tortured). It was probably my shortest experience with any game ever. And yeah, I don't really see any Doom in it. Not Doom that I like anyway.

The gameplay is completely the same though :/ the only difference was it used a controller.

[VGamingJunkie]

Sounds like Memfis was displeased with the atmospheric shift, not the gameplay which is more or less the same with some minor changes.

[Mattfrie1]

I personally think Doom 64 came about from the simple fact that the Midway team wanted to create a game that was an extension of what they started with PSX Doom. A game that was more of an atmospheric experience than a run-and-gun adventure. Also, cartridge limitations would have severely prevented them from just simply porting over PSX Doom as well. The Doom 64 cartridge is only 8MB overall, whereas the 59 maps alone on the PSX Doom CD take up almost 50MB. Perhaps Midway could have assembled a PSX Doom "best of" for the N64, but decided to take the original route instead.

For the record, the same team that made Doom 64 ported a very PC-faithful version of Quake to the N64 the following year. Yet almost 20 years later, which one of those ports still manages to create discussion and new gameplay mods?

[Avoozl]

The atmosphere is pretty much what made me love D64.

Speaking of the Quake 64 port someone did made a mod of it for the PC Quake, but now the link is pretty much dead and the files lost. :/

There's also a mod of Duke Nukem 64 for eDuke32 which I really like.

[Quasar]

MetroidJunkie said:

Making the assumption that it wasn't id's decision to have the other companies make new levels rather than just use PC levels like every other Doom port.

I'll put this to bed right now in fact. The Williams/Midway team worked very closely with id Software on the PSX and N64 projects and had their blessing and review on every last bit of it.

[VGamingJunkie]

Quasar said:

I'll put this to bed right now in fact. The Williams/Midway team worked very closely with id Software on the PSX and N64 projects and had their blessing and review on every last bit of it.

That's what I thought, id isn't going to just give their license name to Williams or Midway and say to them "Go nuts, do whatever the Hell you want".

[MinerOfWorlds]

Avoozl said:

Well I'd argue that Doom 64 was more Doom than Doom 3 and 4 were.

How is doom 4 not doom?

[Wild Dog]

MinerOfWorlds said:

How is doom 4 not doom?

Some people still thinking that a Doom game must be a carbon copy of Doom 2 with just better graphics.

[Shadow Hog]

I mean, I suppose you could make Doom 64 look more like Doom 2 if you had to.

And this one time I made Doom 64 sound like Doom 2 on a lark (soundfont editors are fun), so there's that, too.

[Lila Feuer]

Doom 64 isn't id's Doom but it's an iteration of Doom, and one I find to be quite great actually. Both as its own thing and/or a what-if sequel to Doom II or even Doom 1. It's certainly miles ahead of Doom 3 IMHO and is the true Doom 3 if there ever was one.