So, I was first exposed to Doom when I was 5 years old in kindergarten. I think I turned out pretty okay! What's fascinating is how that should be somewhere in 1994, so I too have been a huge Doom fan since the very beginning.
We were living on a military base back when my dad was doing the Navy and I had an older kid neighbor friend, who was in 4th grade I think. He let me over once to see Doom and never, ever let me play it. But I watched in awe and absolutely loved everything I saw. Other than thinking the Imp's were peeing with their dead bloody sprites, haha. I remember the Spectre's freaking me out! (the invisible Pinkies). Also my neighbor played with one of these bad boys back then...
You better believe it... funny to think about nowadays.
After that initial exposure, Doom had this mysterious allure to it. My dad was such a hardass about rules and censorship growing up but I remember my parents having some friends that were maybe playing it once or twice. The graphic box art and screenshots in magazines always left an impression on me as well, as did the awesome music. I could never touch Doom for years but it was always there beckoning my call...
It probably wasn't until middle school when I had a crappy hand me down computer and was able to put the shareware versions of Doom and Duke Nukem 3D on it. Finally! I got to play Doom. Maybe I did actually get to play it in between that huge gap but yeah, this is one of the earlier memories I have of actually being able to finally bask in Doom in all its glory. To this day, Episode 1 (Shareware was this) is still one of my favorite portions of Doom, so much charm and nostalgia.
After that I'd say the rest is history. I've been "Knee Deep..." in the Doom fandom for decades by this point, from zdoom, to Doomsday, to GZDoom, etc I've jumped along as some of the source ports have evolved over the years. I revisit it all the time when new collections and compilations drop. To this day I think Doom is one of the most visually appealing games of all time, when I play with source ports I use NO mods whatsoever. All I care about with the source ports are being able to customize the controls and mouse a bit more than you normally could (sensitivity), and being able to bump up the resolution to whatever your modern monitors max out at. Buttery smooth pixel perfect Doom. What was the first game I played earlier this year when I got a new 1080p monitor? DOOM.
Just this year, I finally sunk into the PSX version of Doom and man, it was a weird nostalgia portal. Despite not growing up with this version at all, its gritty pixelated look and more limited gamepad controls seriously felt like I was teleported back into the 90's in a really fun way. Even the aspect ratio seemed charmingly a bit off in ways, the game seemed stretched a bit horizontally. It almost made the classic maps feel even bigger once I quickly adapted to it! I absolutely loved going through this version and can see myself revisiting it for sure. It has colored dynamic lighting not in the original, but it does have some fallbacks like less enemies, some even completely absent (Arch-Vile) or with messed up AI (Revenant), etc but the cool unique charm this version had made up for its faults. It also uses the same atmospheric music as Doom 64, so that also gives it a very different energy.
Speaking of, Doom 64 is an overlooked masterpiece in the series, since it was locked down (forever?) on the N64. Why this game doesn't get ported around like the classics do is beyond me. In all ways possible, Doom 64 feels like the true Doom 3. Its gameplay is exactly like the classics, but the engine and graphics have been completely redone, so it's a totally new coat of paint. A new fresh style and take on the series. A shame it didn't get an expansion or anything at least. Thankfully there are now source ports of it on PC, like Absolution, or more recently the superior
EX. It's humorous to say that because Doom 64 still used the faux 3D/2D technique of the originals with sprites in a 3D space, the game actually holds up way better than Turok, Goldeneye, etc, to my eyes.
I'm even a Doom 3 defender. It's more of a System Shock 2/Bioshock kind of journey, stop-and-go pacing that some fans might dislike, hilariously lazy monster closets once they drop the horror spooks midway in. But wow, the tech is still really impressive visually and the sound design is absolutely insane. The BFG version holds up really well to me. The only major fault is that combat feels a bit weird, enemies a little spongey... it's not as visceral as FEAR or Half-Life 2 which came out around the same time. But I still love Doom 3 and don't think it deserves all the hate it gets, still a great game.
In 2016, the monstrous reboot / Doom 4 dropped. So I played through all of Quake 1 and 2-(again) this year as well and it blew my mind how Doom 4 felt like a successor to those. And that's not to rag on it for losing any Doom-isms to it, as these two series' are two sides to the same coin really. Doom 4 did literally everything perfectly. There's barely any story but the lore they go into with the Doomguy was top notch and meta enough to be funny but without trying too hard (Duke Nukem Forever). But the key ingredient to me, is that Doom 4 nailed the PACING like the classics. Doom is not all about nonstop action, it's also about awesome maps and exploration. Doom 4 knocked that out of the damn park and dozens of moments through it made me feel like I was playing Metroid Prime. Too bad the new Wolfenstein's, while okay, are a joke compared to Doom 4. Replaying Doom 4 after Wolfenstein II The New Colossus made that game look like a serious joke... Doom is on a completely different dimension.
Sure we've had some spinoffs or unnumbered installments along the way and Doom Eternal coming next year, but I can't praise the timing of the releases and size of this series enough. 23 years into Doom and we were just getting around to "4". Every installment makes a huge mark and stands the test of time. You can't say that for many franchises that have been around for 25 years.
DOOM!!!!!!!!!!
Here's what I beat this year in 2018:
59. Heretic: Shadow of the Serpent Riders (PC)
60. Doom 2: Hellbound (PC) [12hr][Complex|HMP]
61. Doom 2: Sawdust (PC) [50m][UV]
65. Doom 2: Back to Saturn X EP1 (PC) [7hr][Complex|UV]
68. Doom 2: Back to Saturn X EP2 (PC) [7h30m][Complex|HMP]
69. Doom 2: Plutonia 2 (PC) [8h23m][UV]
70. Doom 2: Lunatic (PC) [45m][UV]
71. Doom 2: Japanese Community Project (PC) [5h57m][Complex|HMP]
75. Doom (PSX)
76. Final Doom (PSX)
To taste the brilliance that is the fan modding community, here's the first level from the Back to Saturn X EP1 megawad that came out in 2017.
Doom is invincible.