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DF Retro: The Making of Doom on Super NES - The Original 'Impossible Port'...?
- Thread starter Bullet Club
- Start date
nkarafo
Member
I remember this being the only way for me to Play DOOM for some time. I even got used to it after a while.
The craziest thing about it is that it was the only port that wasn't based on the downgraded maps of the Atari Jaguar version (which was the first port). Even the PS1 version uses these maps. The SNES version uses the original, more complex PC architecture and textures. God knows why though. If it used the Jaguar maps it would surely run a bit faster.
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Badlucktroll
Member
i owned this. Red cartridge!
Dirk Benedict
Member
Oh, yeah! The music has more kick to it on the SNES version, too. Some good times with that game.
I was lucky enough to have a friend with the 32X and bought it as they were selling them to go. After being discontinued. So we got to experiment with stuff, but, as you already know, the 32x was a disappointment.
jufonuk
not tag worthy
yeah I was confused with the 32X, in hindsight that the saturn coming out so soon was a dumb Idea. but we can't change the past. SEGA of old will always have a place in my heart.
thinks back to the old console wars
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Tarin02543
Member
Love this game, the music was very very good. Somehow the "bad" graphics made the game seem more evil and mysterious.
Knightime_X
Member
This was my survival horror back in the day.
Limited ammo, uncertainty, possible terror around every corner.
I remember vividly being jump scared by pinkies and cacodemons.
Limited ammo, uncertainty, possible terror around every corner.
I remember vividly being jump scared by pinkies and cacodemons.
StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
Never played it, or even saw it in action with my own eyes back then. Only saw videos of it during the internet age.
Like many people, I played Doom on a 386 (chuggy), then much smoother on a 486.
Didn't really care much for the sound as it was meh, but didnt realize the SNES version sounded awesome. Way better than the PC version sounded.
Like many people, I played Doom on a 386 (chuggy), then much smoother on a 486.
Didn't really care much for the sound as it was meh, but didnt realize the SNES version sounded awesome. Way better than the PC version sounded.
RAIDEN1
Member
Imagine a different sort of ad that was rolling at the time of this release: "You don't need to buy an add-on to experience the power of Doom, on the Super NES you've got 32x on a chip in the form of the Super FX chip No add on needed!" On a seperate note, was the Amiga so underpowered compared to the Super Nintendo? Was there no way in hell that the CD32 or A1200 could handle Doom? Seems like everyone else got a port apart from Commodore's machine...but I suppose by 1993 the writing was on the wall that unless Commodore came back BIG then their days were numbered..
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Havoc2049
Member
Ya, all your ideas sound great at face value, but if you look at a time line, you'll see why the Amiga 1200/4000/CD32 never saw Doom and why Doom on the SNES wasn't heavily advertised.
The time from when Doom was released on PC in late 1993 to the time when Commodore went out of business in the summer of 1994 was only around seven months. The first wave of Doom ports for the Mac, Jag and 32X didn't show up till late 1994.
Doom on the SNES wasn't released until September 1995 and by that time Doom II had been out for almost a year on PC, the 32X was already considered a flop and the next console gen was already under way.
Spukc
always chasing the next thrill
nah carmack is next fucking level
BusierDonkey
Member
The GBA version was also surprisingly decent. Even considering the resolution making distant enemies disappear I didn't have much trouble playing through it this year.
Thaedolus
Member
He surely is but look up the rest of the career of this guy as well. Dude had Metal Gear Solid PSX emulated on a Dreamcast
Spukc
always chasing the next thrill
Redrawing grandmaster paintings is still ok
Thaedolus
Member
This guy redrew grandmaster paintings, convincingly, but with crayons. I think he deserves immense credit for thatRedrawing grandmaster paintings is still ok
Spukc
always chasing the next thrill
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Thaedolus
Member
Much analogous
SportsFan581
Member
Interesting video. Always fun to see how these old games pushed the limits.
adamsapple
Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
That was cool as fuck, they literally hacked a Starfox ROM lol.
nkarafo
Member
Carmack made the Jaguar and 32X version.
But have you seen Doom 32X Resurrection?
This mod works on the real 32X and makes the 32X DOOM run at an even faster frame rate while also being full screen, with the extra level of distant fog/darkness that was missing from the 32X port.
I'm not saying the guy who made the mod is better than Carmack though. Besides, Carmack probably had a tight schedule and was using much older tools. But there was plenty of room for improvement. I'm curious if someone can improve the SNES DOOM as well.
Romulus
Member
Randy said he could probably get the SNES version to 25fps
xpresstuning
Member
Isn't the use of Super FX chip kind of cheating? Anyhow Randy is legendary from his time at Ready soft, Dragon's Lair and to Bleem!. Amiga and emulation legend.
Whilst it's impressive the game runs on SNES at all, it's one of those 'just because you could, should you type ports. Canadian hero.
Whilst it's impressive the game runs on SNES at all, it's one of those 'just because you could, should you type ports. Canadian hero.
Chiggs
Gold Member
Yes, which can be said for most of the SNES's "looker" titles. So many of them use helper chips to compensate for the absolutely shit-tastic Ricoh CPU.
Romulus
Member
I feel like the most impressive games didn't have a cart chip. Regardless, Doom would have never ran on those 16 bit machines without help. So even if the cpu was a bit better, it wouldn't have been enough.
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Batteries do die on carts making killing saves and making future saves impossible without fucking around with the cart and comprising it’s value.
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Team Andromeda
Member
Doom was and still is so overrated for me. Also, I'm getting quite sick of DF using 'impossible port' all the time, more so when I saw more feats of coding on the Zx spectrum, like trying to crame in the lastest state of the art coin up in the 48k of mememory like with Chase HQ on the ZX
jufonuk
not tag worthy
Doom is never overrated. It’s sublime. Well that’s what I think anyway. What would you put in dooms place ?
Elite must be up there maybe ?
Thaedolus
Member
I think to fully appreciate Doom, you needed to be around long enough to remember before Doom and after. It did nothing less than change gaming forever, and it did so because it was so good.
xpresstuning
Member
Nah, you just need a brain capable of self awareness. You can, and always should appreciate video games based on the time and system they were made for.
I don't agree with the person you quoted because, well, i am a first person shooter fan and Doom 1, 2 and 2016 are amongst my favorite games ever, but what he may be thinking of are games like System Shock and Ultima Underworld, which were first person 3D games occupying the same sort of new, revolutionary at-the-time method of visual feedback (navigating through a 3D environment through a first person perspective), which were released around that same time and were.. basically infinitely more ahead of their time and ambitious than Doom could ever hope to be. They don't get the recognition they deserve while Doom is basically one of the most popular IPs in existence.
Thaedolus
Member
On the contrary, ambition isn’t really a measure of success. System Shock shouldn’t be overlooked because it’s awesome, but Doom was hugely successful likely in part because it wasn’t overly ambitious. It was easy enough for everyone and their dog to understand. Level 1: kill demons. Level 2: kill demons and find keys to progress.
That’s…about it, and there’s a value in keeping things simple. There’s a reason something like Mario got so popular, when you pretty much just run and jump. It’s also the reason most people seem to prefer 2016 to Eternal
Panajev2001a
GAF's Pleasant Genius
Incredible how close we were to almost doubling the performance of the port (SNES display hardware doing the pixel doubling, think pixel manipulation like what mode7 is famous for, instead of the FX2 chip)… so so close…
jufonuk
not tag worthy
never a truer word spoken, it's why with certain older games I can really be amazed by them. tempest for example and some of the older arcade games were simply amazing for them time, but as usual gameplay should always be the most important.
Team Andromeda
Member
I started gaming in 1984. Doom did nothing for me as a game. The tech was great but the game I found boring to play with levels that looked pretty much the same.
NeoIkaruGAF
Gold Member
The guy is crazy knowledgeable. I understand very little of this stuff, but it’s very clear he knows the insides and outs of this and he’s very passionate about it. Something in his speech is strange though, he talks quite slowly and seems to pause to find words often. I wonder why that is?
SNES Doom was my first experience with Doom. If you didn’t have a PC you really didn’t mind the low res and the framerate. I was obsessed about the game. Unfortunately, the lack of savestates made it tremendously hard because you had no safety net to experiment with stuff. I never finished episode 3 on the SNES.
Nonetheless, Doom was the biggest deal back then. Having Doom running on inexpensive, end-of-lifecycle hardware was very important for Nintendo. The game probably cost half of the console’s street price at that point, lol.
And Doom is still sublime to play today. It was never overrated, period. It’s a masterpiece of gameplay and level design.
SNES Doom was my first experience with Doom. If you didn’t have a PC you really didn’t mind the low res and the framerate. I was obsessed about the game. Unfortunately, the lack of savestates made it tremendously hard because you had no safety net to experiment with stuff. I never finished episode 3 on the SNES.
Nonetheless, Doom was the biggest deal back then. Having Doom running on inexpensive, end-of-lifecycle hardware was very important for Nintendo. The game probably cost half of the console’s street price at that point, lol.
And Doom is still sublime to play today. It was never overrated, period. It’s a masterpiece of gameplay and level design.
Team Andromeda
Member
I agree with Elite. I just never found Doom fun to play at all. The tech was amazing but never liked the game. I found Dark Forces to be a much better game with better level design and a decent story
jufonuk
not tag worthy
I still rate pac man, space invadersm the First Super mario bros game and some other games from that time as classics and amazing even still today, I tried elite but I never got into it but man was that game deep and had a lot of stuff and planets , no mans sky before no mans sky,
Thaedolus
Member
Well, yes, a game that comes along years later iterating off the earlier tech and a globally popular IP is probably going to do more…
