Newell's history of porting Doom to Windows to show it can be a gaming platform

Newell's history of porting Doom to Windows to show it can be a gaming platform(neogaf.com)

72 points by kiisupai 12 years ago | 51 comments

nailer 12 years ago |

WAIT. Newell's Windows port (commonly referred to as DOOM95 http://doom.wikia.com/wiki/Doom95) was never popular and very few DOOM players knew it even existed. It certainly didn't prove to the masses that Windows was a viable gaming platform.

Those that do recall the Windows port do so in the the context of Microsoft telling people that '32 bit Doom will be twice as fast' before finding out that wasn't true.

The most popular - read 'only' - PC version of Doom was the DOS 4GW version. Ditto Doom 2, Hexen, etc. Quake also assumed DOS. No Windows port of those games was mainstream. Go read the DOOM FAQ - everything assumes DOS, DOOM95/WinDOOM is only mentioned as one of many ports of 'regular' (DOS) DOOM http://www.gamers.org/docs/FAQ/doomfaq/sect1.html#5-6).

DOOM was released in the era of 386s (when 486s were new). 32 bit Windows required at practically at least 16MB of memory and a 486. For the people that had those specs, if the Windows DOOM port was faster, people would have used it - but they didn't, because DOOM95 wasn't faster.

DOOM95 may have been used to inspire developers however - the regular PC version of Quake 2 came with a Windows installer / launcher and was frequently launched on Windows.

Source: spent my teenage years building stuff like http://mikemaccana.com/#/doom-the-path/ in DEU, the first algorithm I ever heard of was BSP, and I know what IDSPISPOPD stands for.

PS. Go play my and John's WAD linked above. It has working toilets. In DOOM!

jseliger 12 years ago | |

The other interesting thing is that, as far as I know, until the late 90s the entire installed base of computers was bought practically every year. There'd be 10M computers one year and 10M bought the next. In that kind of fluid market a company can take over without winning converts (Joel Spolsky wrote about it here: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/APIWar.html).

Today, PC sales are steady or falling because everyone in the developed world has one already. Someone buying a second or third computer is getting a tablet.

jasonlotito 12 years ago | |

> WAIT. Newell's Windows port (commonly referred to as DOOM95 http://doom.wikia.com/wiki/Doom95) was never popular and very few DOOM players knew it even existed. It certainly didn't prove to the masses that Windows was a viable gaming platform.

Not sure where the original article ever makes those claims.

nailer 12 years ago | | |

In the post's title: "Newell's history porting Doom to Win to show it can be a gaming platf." The general context of the post seems to be about proving Linux to consumers, rather than developers (which is more accurate).

ambiate 12 years ago | |

Quakeworld was my entry point into wanting to program. BSP, VIS, DISP, oh yeah. I remember trying to figure out the math for projectiles and the various splash damage routines.

I remember bunnyhopping and attempting to figure out the glitch to alter the effect even more on sharper turns.

So many 'wasted years' that resulted in a wonderful career and field of study. I emailed John a few times throughout the years. He was the most courteous and honest person I have ever met. One of the replies from Carmack went along the lines of, 'Yeah, those models are our IP. If your community is small and the growth is not going to explode, feel free to use them. Just do not brag about it on your website. Our lawyers are not hunting for people, unless they wish to be seen.'

nailer 12 years ago | | |

Carmack's a legend - he's done good things (which I can't talk about) for the WebGL community too, ask Tojiro next time you visit a conference.

Weird Quake/Doom crossover: Doom had 'rocket jumps' (pushing yourself further off a cliff via smashing a rocket into the wall) - one was required for the E3 secret level.

Doom also had accidental wall riding but only when you were headed north. :^)

bluedino 12 years ago | |

Part of the reason Doom95 wasn't very popular was that came along so late. It didn't come out until 1996, which was 3 years after Doom originally came out for DOS and the same time Quake arrived.

I didn't have a Doom-capable computer until 1995, and it was hard to find people to play Doom/Heretic/Descent since everyone had moved on to Duke 3D and some game called Warcraft...

It was nice to not have to play Doom in DOS anymore, though.

nailer 12 years ago | | |

Yeah, it's even got Thy Flesh Consumed which was from Ultimate DOOM (the last official id DOOM 1 release, which came out years after DOOM was first released).

I think Newell's comments are about showing developers that Windows games could have good frame rates. Which is reasonable.

The Neogaf poster is confusing that with Newell showing the DOS version to people to prove that the PC could have awesome games.

jccalhoun 12 years ago | |

very few Doom players knew it even existed? really? It was the version I had when I bought it back in the day. I assumed a lot of people bought it.

Argorak 12 years ago | | |

Final Doom included Doom95 and used it by default on Windows, so I would expect that many players were aware.

gadders 12 years ago | |

That wad looks familiar. I wonder if I ever played it.

When I used to work for Lotus we used to use their Unix box in the US to FTP onto one of the big CDROM sites that had loads of wads on and play different ones every week. Happy days.

gadders 12 years ago | | |

And one other thing - what's the best Doom port for Android? Any recommendations, anyone?

ebbv 12 years ago | |

But did you ever play SPISPOPD? :)

pjmlp 12 years ago |

Well, those of us that were already coding for Windows back then, remember that what brought game studios to Windows was WinG, the percursor of DirectX.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WinG

Gabe Newell had nothing to do with it.

cincinnatus 12 years ago | |

Came here to say this. Gabe is welcome to his version of events but like all humans is suffering from selective memory syndrome. Alex St. John is the one who "made it happen" in my recollection, and I was pretty close to the action.

astrodust 12 years ago | |

Yeah, Gabe's role is massively overstated here, but it's important to remember how awful a development platform Windows was for games, that compared to DOS it was far, far worse than Linux is today.

In DOS mode you could easily get full-screen, high-frame rate game graphics. In Windows you'd be lucky if you could push more than one frame per second, the Windows GDI was absolutely brutal.

Linux is a lot further ahead, so SteamOS has a relative head start. If Windows can be made into a first-class gaming platform, so can Linux.

agumonkey 12 years ago | |

<digression> reading this took me down memory lane, I ended rediscovering windows midi songs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtoHxMWw354

pjmlp 12 years ago | | |

Thanks for sharing the link.

ChrisClark 12 years ago | |

I completely forgot about WinG. I think I remember a test it ran when installing to find the fastest way to blit bitmaps. A tiled curvy red line that would flip tile directions back and forth.

corresation 12 years ago | |

Gabe Newell worked for Microsoft at the time in question. He is saying that as a principal Microsoft employee he initiated the port of Doom because Microsoft saw the problem getting game authors to target Windows. Notable that Alex St. John then led the development team, for those who note his obvious importance in gaming on Windows.

ekianjo 12 years ago |

OMG, the comments below that first post are full of ignorance. It's just so painful to see what people think and say of Linux (even the ones who defend it).

lazyjones 12 years ago |

That's a bit simplified. More details about this story can be found in the very entertaining book "Masters of Doom" (about John Carmack and John Romero).

Auguste 12 years ago | |

This is an excellent book. It's not just about Carmack and Romero (although it focuses on them) but also about id Software as a company, from its inception through to a few months before Quake III came out, if I remember correctly. A very insightful read.

mrschwabe 12 years ago | |

Loved this book. Bought a few copies for friends to hopefully inspire them about what a small, scrappy team of talented individuals can achieve (and the fun... and pitfalls along the way).

sbarre 12 years ago |

I would think that times were a bit different back then, and it's not really a fair comparison to make.

Companies today that are the size of id software back then, and that are making games of relatively equal complexity, are already publishing to Linux.

There were no 200-person studios cranking out $10 million dollar (or more) game projects when Doom came out, and that's a much more complex issue to address..

We're barely seeing OS X ports of major titles now, so while I think SteamOS is great, I don't think it's going to suddenly mean an influx of AAA Windows titles appearing on Linux.

evadne 12 years ago | |

A bunch of titles are available for OS X thru Aspyr [1] with porting latency measured in months.

[1] http://www.aspyr.com/

mekpro 12 years ago |

Although DOOM95 was not a success, it doesn't mean that what Newell believe was wrong. Also it's pretty clear that many people buy/use computer for solely entertainment purpose and that's why consoles sold.