This week, I have to begin with "Whew!" You see, I spent the last week getting ready to promote some books at Awesome Con in DC, and the weekend was all about being the consummate salesman for my work, so I'm afraid my Dooming has suffered. That said, I've played a bit more of JagDoom and gotten my ass handed to me. I don't know when I'll beat it, because the cartidge and the system are both extremely old, thus the game is prone to freezing. I've restarted a few times and also just plain died a few times, which means I have to go from a pistol start.
I suck at pistol starts.
I decided I'd only go back as far as what, on the PC, would have been the first level of "The Shores of Hell", but even that is a Nightmare in Ultra Violence, no pun intended. Well, for me. I think it's been established that I actually kind of suck at Doom, but if not, let me establish it now. This does nothing to take away from the joy of playing it when it's relatively easy; when it's hard, it's HARD.
The Jaguar has surprised me in a few places where it actually seems to speed up and become remarkably smooth. I commented that the 32X seems to have it beat in the speed department, but it does experience moments of acceleration like none I remembered. Cacodemons can be particularly quick, possibly because they use less frames when they move.
I have some observations to add to what I talked about last week. I lauded the Jaguar for its graphics, both what was ported well and what was done uniquely. I disparaged the controls. Now it's time to talk sound.
The Jaguar's sound, as you may have seen in other reviews of the game, is a bit flat. It falls short even when compared to the 32X version. Likewise, the Jag has no music in the levels, but it does play a variety of Doom tunes on the intermission screen, and these are marginally better than the 32X's horrible, terrible offerings. The game doesn't need music to be intense, but the lack of music can be interpreted differently depending on your taste. I would personally love to play JagDoom with the 3DO's Doom music. As a final note regarding sound, the Jag's chaingun sound is a step up--sounds like it's pounding instead of popping, but the 32X's chainsaw might just be the lowest and growliest of all.
I talked last time about the release of Heretic just one month after JagDoom, and how it expanded the Doom engine to include a whole range of features. This week, we're going to talk about something else.
Official developers were not the only people who took advantage of Doom's easy-to-modify engine for their own creative pursuits. There were also people at home who accessed the data and made their own mods for the game. As the data is contained in what is known as "WAD" files (WAD stands for "Where's All the Data), most of these modifications are also referred to as WADs.
On January 26th, 1994, Brendon Wyber released the first public version of the Doom Editing Utility, or DEU. This allowed people to create their own levels for the first time, and what resulted was a torrent of releases that brought fresh innovation to Doom even while it was still new. Unfortunately, it was not possible to expand the color depth just yet, so the Jag still held the gold medal for something, even eleven months later.
We've now learned about the beginning of three separate trees of Doom evolution. Hold on to your hats for where they all go! I must apologize again for my lack of progress within the past week. With the Jag's constant freezing and my convention prep, there wasn't time to do very much. My SNES Doom cartridge is also missing at the moment, so I hope I'll be able to fire it up soon after JagDoom is finished!
Let's close with a new version of the timeline:
Doom v1.0: December 10, 1993
Doom v1.1: December 16, 1993
DEU: January 26, 1994
Doom v1.2: February 17, 1994
Doom v1.4: June 28, 1994
Doom v1.5: July 8, 1994
Doom v1.6: August 3, 1994
Doom v.1.666: September 1, 1994
Doom II: September 30, 1994
Doom v1.7: October 11, 1994
Doom v1.7a: November 8, 1994
32X Doom: November 14, 1994
Jaguar Doom: November 28, 1994
Heretic: December 23, 1994
Doom v1.8: January 23, 1995
Doom v1.9: February 1, 1995
The Ultimate Doom: April 30, 1995
SNES Doom: September 1, 1995
Doom 95: August 20, 1996
I suck at pistol starts.
I decided I'd only go back as far as what, on the PC, would have been the first level of "The Shores of Hell", but even that is a Nightmare in Ultra Violence, no pun intended. Well, for me. I think it's been established that I actually kind of suck at Doom, but if not, let me establish it now. This does nothing to take away from the joy of playing it when it's relatively easy; when it's hard, it's HARD.
The Jaguar has surprised me in a few places where it actually seems to speed up and become remarkably smooth. I commented that the 32X seems to have it beat in the speed department, but it does experience moments of acceleration like none I remembered. Cacodemons can be particularly quick, possibly because they use less frames when they move.
I have some observations to add to what I talked about last week. I lauded the Jaguar for its graphics, both what was ported well and what was done uniquely. I disparaged the controls. Now it's time to talk sound.
The Jaguar's sound, as you may have seen in other reviews of the game, is a bit flat. It falls short even when compared to the 32X version. Likewise, the Jag has no music in the levels, but it does play a variety of Doom tunes on the intermission screen, and these are marginally better than the 32X's horrible, terrible offerings. The game doesn't need music to be intense, but the lack of music can be interpreted differently depending on your taste. I would personally love to play JagDoom with the 3DO's Doom music. As a final note regarding sound, the Jag's chaingun sound is a step up--sounds like it's pounding instead of popping, but the 32X's chainsaw might just be the lowest and growliest of all.
I talked last time about the release of Heretic just one month after JagDoom, and how it expanded the Doom engine to include a whole range of features. This week, we're going to talk about something else.
Official developers were not the only people who took advantage of Doom's easy-to-modify engine for their own creative pursuits. There were also people at home who accessed the data and made their own mods for the game. As the data is contained in what is known as "WAD" files (WAD stands for "Where's All the Data), most of these modifications are also referred to as WADs.
On January 26th, 1994, Brendon Wyber released the first public version of the Doom Editing Utility, or DEU. This allowed people to create their own levels for the first time, and what resulted was a torrent of releases that brought fresh innovation to Doom even while it was still new. Unfortunately, it was not possible to expand the color depth just yet, so the Jag still held the gold medal for something, even eleven months later.
We've now learned about the beginning of three separate trees of Doom evolution. Hold on to your hats for where they all go! I must apologize again for my lack of progress within the past week. With the Jag's constant freezing and my convention prep, there wasn't time to do very much. My SNES Doom cartridge is also missing at the moment, so I hope I'll be able to fire it up soon after JagDoom is finished!
Let's close with a new version of the timeline:
Doom v1.0: December 10, 1993
Doom v1.1: December 16, 1993
DEU: January 26, 1994
Doom v1.2: February 17, 1994
Doom v1.4: June 28, 1994
Doom v1.5: July 8, 1994
Doom v1.6: August 3, 1994
Doom v.1.666: September 1, 1994
Doom II: September 30, 1994
Doom v1.7: October 11, 1994
Doom v1.7a: November 8, 1994
32X Doom: November 14, 1994
Jaguar Doom: November 28, 1994
Heretic: December 23, 1994
Doom v1.8: January 23, 1995
Doom v1.9: February 1, 1995
The Ultimate Doom: April 30, 1995
SNES Doom: September 1, 1995
Doom 95: August 20, 1996
