Flaws in official DOOM ports.

[Cacodemon345]

PSX Doom is overally a good port of DOOM to the PSX.

I don't know any flaws so far, but I think that it also has it's own flaws.

The only flaw that I know so far is its controls. It's probably me, as I'm not that accustomised to its controls.

What are the other flaws in all official DOOM console ports?

(I'm not insulting anything.)

[VGamingJunkie]

The Ps1 and Saturn versions arguably suffered from Carmack insisting on no Hardware Support due to affine rendering. Obviously, this hurt the Saturn version far more than the Ps1 version.

[Labryx]

In PSX Doom on level 20: Unholy Cathedral there is an inaccessible secret which makes 100% secrets impossible. This is the secret in question in the PC version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyuNiN1IK9M. For some reason in the PSX version, its impossible to open this door even if you have the yellow key.

 

[riderr3]

^^^
I'm also remember PSX Final Doom's Ballistyx when imps not teleporting to their destination near start of map.
Also in this map have second normal exit, and I always thinking there are secret exit and how to get to that (on PSX where is actually no secret maps). But then I checked on net this exit is made just for deathmatch purposes.

In console versions some things are broken, some others are fixed.
 

Edited January 2, 2018 by riderr3

[doomslayer11122]

In Doom classic complete for the PS3, you cant play online unless you invite people to your game. No match making.

[Labryx]

2 minutes ago, doomslayer11122 said:

In Doom classic complete for the PS3, you cant play online unless you invite people to your game. No match making.

Wow, that explains a lot. I bought this pack a few months ago to play with my brother in split screen and tried the matchmaking out of curiosity. Probably sat there for a good 5 minutes before giving up. Is this due to the matchmaking being shut down or was it always like this when it was released? 

[doomslayer11122]

Just now, Labryx said:

Wow, that explains a lot. I bought this pack a few months ago to play with my brother in split screen and tried the matchmaking out of curiosity. Probably sat there for a good 5 minutes before giving up. Is this due to the matchmaking being shut down or was it always like this when it was released? 

It was always like this. Its super annoying, I had to go dig up my 360 and play Doom on there for online. And no one even plays it. If the 360 version is dead id assume the PS3 would be dead as well if it ever had match making.

[IncognitoMode]

the whole gba port was a flaw

[PizzaGuy]

6 hours ago, Cacodemon345 said:

The only flaw that I know so far is its controls. It's probably me, as I'm not that accustomised to its controls.

 

Were the controls customisable in PSX Doom? You can Re-map them in PSX Final Doom.

[Moustachio]

None of the modern console ports have animated intermission screens for Doom 1.

[scalliano]

As much as I love PSX Doom, goodness knows how many times I died from getting stuck on level geometry ...

[VGamingJunkie]

2 hours ago, IncognitoMode said:

the whole gba port was a flaw

The second one was pretty impressive, though, in my opinion. Other than things being made overly bright, most likely to compensate for the GBA lacking a back light, it plays more or less on level with the Original Doom II. Very few detail is actually missing from the levels and it even retains the Archvile, despite disappearing corpses. Also helps that, unlike Doom I for the GBA, this isn't just a hashed port of the Jaguar version but it uses the Southpaw Engine which was made with the GBA in mind.

[Cacodemon345]

For me, GBA Doom 2 looks like a flawed port of Doom 2 to GBA.

GBA Doom 1 seems like a better port of Doom 1.

The reason is that GBA Doom 2's mancubi acts like a dick. The monsters will sometimes "sleep".

The fight with lost souls is unfair. Armor won't protect you from one level to another.

A monster killing another also doesn't help, as it will not count toward the kills.

You can miss shots. You can easily get hit by a fireball or a rocket due to slow strafing.

Edited January 3, 2018 by Cacodemon345

[VGamingJunkie]

The Armor bug was apparently acknowledged by Activision, which they never bothered to fix. Monsters going to sleep is their AI turning off based on distance to preserve CPU power. If you notice, Doom 1 for the GBA suffered from slowdown a lot, they were probably trying to curb this. It certainly has its problems but I'm still impressed they managed to get more or less intact Doom 2 levels on the device.

[imradlol]

3do doom. small screen, poorly optimized, it was a mess. The redeeming part of it is the music though, i still listen to it on occasions.

 

Another flawed doom port is the 32x version, the music is pretty bad(though personally i love it, i'm a sucker for that genesis style of music), only front facing sprites, lots of cut levels(however given the storage capacity of a genesis cart that can be forgiven), not full screen, and does suffer from slowdowns fairly often. On a separate note, i really do enjoy this version though. 

 

Those are the two i can think of off the top of my head.

[Cacodemon345]

PSX Doom has the same item pickup problem as GBA Doom 2.

[mjf6866]

32x doom never had the BFG accessible to find in game unless you used cheat codes

Edited January 3, 2018 by mjf6866

[imradlol]

35 minutes ago, mjf6866 said:

32x doom never had the BFG accessible to find in game unless you used cheat codes

Oh man you're right! totally forgot about that one!is that just the 32x doom or are other ports like that as well?

Edited January 3, 2018 by imradlol

[VGamingJunkie]

The 32X port of Doom had the potential to be great but it was rushed out, the Prototype had PC levels (With only the 6th one crashing the system) and someone actually proved that you can produce substantially better music if you utilize its audio chip to its full potential:

 

Spoiler

 

 

Edited January 3, 2018 by MetroidJunkie

[Reisal]

SNES Doom's "rifle" shotgun and lack of effective infighting.

[Optimus]

The PS1 also has another change in the maps, especially Doom 2 or Final Doom/Master Level maps. Rooms with very tall walls will be all shorten, I don't know what the limitation is but I'd love to know. As an example of how this looks, the pit, 

 

I also remembered by watching this video, the doors/elevator/etc seem to move crudely by 8(not sure) units I think? Certainly not 1. I don't know much about the PS1 hardware to be able to speculate on the reasons for these points atm.

Edited January 4, 2018 by Optimus

[VGamingJunkie]

My best guess is that the modified engine they used for Playstation couldn't handle height as well as the PC version, even the GBA version of Doom II retains heights.

 

 

Edited January 4, 2018 by MetroidJunkie

[imradlol]

17 hours ago, MetroidJunkie said:

The 32X port of Doom had the potential to be great but it was rushed out, the Prototype had PC levels (With only the 6th one crashing the system) and someone actually proved that you can produce substantially better music if you utilize its audio chip to its full potential:

 

  Hide contents

 

 

hell, i've played a few betas of doom on 32x and the music sounded way better than the version that was released. Also some of the betas ran in full screen and had the pillars on the first level where you flip the switch to get out of the building. 

Edited January 4, 2018 by imradlol

[Tristan]

If I remember correctly, wall textures on PSX (maybe other console ports too) could vertically repeat only once, so if they were used in a sector more than 256 units tall they'd stretch to fill the extra height. I think you can even see this in MAP24 of Final Doom on a rock texture in one of the caves or something, where they forgot to shorten the sector.

Edited January 4, 2018 by Eris Falling

[VGamingJunkie]

The beginning of the level seems to have no trouble vertically repeating its rock texture, though, so that's weird.

 

 

[mjf6866]

18 hours ago, imradlol said:

Oh man you're right! totally forgot about that one!is that just the 32x doom or are other ports like that as well?

as far as i know its the only one like that, but someone please correct me if i'm wrong!  I'm pretty sure the BFG was even shown in the game manual for 32x.

 

i love sharing the story on how i accidentally found the cheat code...this is early 1995, long before my family got internet access to look up online.  my brother and i were obsessed with Doom as it was brand new to us.  (we didnt have a family computer yet)...but anyways.  it was taco night so we wolfed them down and rushed to the 32x to play...my brother beating me to it, never bothered to wipe his hands so the controller was all greasy when it was my turn.  I took it, put it in my t-shirt to wipe it and when i looked up at the screen i saw Doom guys eyes were white!  then i scrolled through the weapons and saw that i had everything...even the BFG!  my 14year old self and 10 year old brother were astounded!  I had by sheer luck, mashed the buttons just right to enter the god mode/all weapons code in to the 6-button controller.  so from then on, i would mash the buttons with my t-shirt until i got the code entered correctly, never knowing exactly what button combination actually did it. lol  the good old days.

[Tristan]

@MetroidJunkie: There was a workaround of utilising zero-height sectors to allow up to 512 units - of course this wouldn't be possible in every situation but it appears it's been done in the start area.

[Cacodemon345]

56 minutes ago, mjf6866 said:

as far as i know its the only one like that, but someone please correct me if i'm wrong!  I'm pretty sure the BFG was even shown in the game manual for 32x.

 

i love sharing the story on how i accidentally found the cheat code...this is early 1995, long before my family got internet access to look up online.  my brother and i were obsessed with Doom as it was brand new to us.  (we didnt have a family computer yet)...but anyways.  it was taco night so we wolfed them down and rushed to the 32x to play...my brother beating me to it, never bothered to wipe his hands so the controller was all greasy when it was my turn.  I took it, put it in my t-shirt to wipe it and when i looked up at the screen i saw Doom guys eyes were white!  then i scrolled through the weapons and saw that i had everything...even the BFG!  my 14year old self and 10 year old brother were astounded!  I had by sheer luck, mashed the buttons just right to enter the god mode/all weapons code in to the 6-button controller.  so from then on, i would mash the buttons with my t-shirt until i got the code entered correctly, never knowing exactly what button combination actually did it. lol  the good old days.

How the BFG looked and functioned like?

[mjf6866]

3 minutes ago, Cacodemon345 said:

How the BFG looked and functioned like?

it actually looked pretty close to the PC version from what I remembered.  I cant remember too clearly how the shot sounded or how it behaved when multiple enemies were on screen, but I do remember it gibbing soldiers and imps

[VGamingJunkie]

In their attempt to rush it out, they failed to realize that they didn't have any levels in the 32x version that gave you the BFG, which is what segregated it into being a cheat-only weapon. It still uses the Doom engine so it still functions as normal, you just can't get it normally due to this oversight.