Possibly the most influential game of the 90's has been ported so many times, it's hard to keep up - but which is the ultimate version? No pun intended.
Doom - arguably one of the most important games in the industry, definitely the most substantial within the first person shooter genre.
In 1995, it was reported the game was installed on more computers than the latest operating system at the time; Windows 95. It caused networks to crash due to the sheer amounts of multiplayer deathmatches being played.
To this day the extremely dedicated fanbase still produce new content - from simple mods to completely new level packs, which are known as WADs. Some of this custom content was recognised by id Software and was actually made into the compilation most of us know as Final Doom.
But let's go back to basics, the original 1993 Doom on MS-DOS/MAC, eventually making its way to The Ultimate Doom in 1995 - the game has been ported over and over throughout the years to all sorts of systems, including Atari Jaguar, Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Sega Saturn, PlayStation, Gameboy Advance, and that's just to name a few.
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| The box art for the 1993 MS-DOS release, the game that started a gaming revolution. |
Some of those ports are well known as being incredibly bad to play, the Super Nintendo version strikes out the most - it's completely understandable that for the time a game that puts players in a total first person view would have been incredible and exciting, but there's just something about it that makes it very awkward to play and actually enjoy.
The graphics are really mushy (yeah, I'll use that word...) proving for difficult gameplay, and most of the time it's hard to tell if there's actually an enemy there or not.
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| At the time, this would have been incredible - something the SNES never had before, but is still pretty horrible to play. Definitely not the best port. |
It is argued that the PlayStation port is the best, with its graphical enhancements and overall general improvements compared to the other ports, it's definitely a favourite of many gamers, including myself. The PS version also included Doom II: Hell on Earth, and some exclusive levels created for this specific port, including Twilight Descends, The Marshes, Club Doom, just to name a few.
If you happened to have two PlayStation consoles and two copies of the game, you could partake in the multiplayer features, which is both a bonus, but quite difficult to actually do. A big highlight is the music and audio, it's incredible and extremely atmospheric, that combined with the smooth gameplay and improved visuals made for possibly the best port of Doom.
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| Definitely one of the more popular ports, PlayStation Doom was brilliant, and is still fun to play today. |
The Atari Jaguar version has incredible music, especially for that particular system, and the gameplay is generally good, but a huge downfall is the lack of levels, I believe their are only 24 or so.
Much of the "Doom experience" is taken away, what with no Cyberdemons or Spiderdemons to be seen - two of the most iconic and memorable enemies in the game. Other than that, it's a solid port with access to multiplayer via the infamous JagLink.
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| One of the better ports, but lacked a lot of unique Doom features. |
Both Ultimate Doom and Doom II: Hell on Earth have made their way to the Xbox LIVE Arcade, PlayStation Network, and can be played as bonus content within certain versions of Doom 3, these ports are definitely the most identical to the original releases, so in that respect these could be considered the best versions.
With that in mind, I'd like you to explore the ports mentioned above, or even go further with the iPhone version. That's probably not worth doing really, maybe if you're just curious.
Comment below and share which version you think is the best and why. Feature1
