By Jim Rossignol on April 7th, 2009 at 12:54 pm.
John Romero has posted some long-lost video of Id Software in the days just before the release of Doom. It’s a good half hour long, and you can hear various people from Id, as well as the film-maker, commenting in awe at deathmatch in the early FPS. It’s embedded beyond the click. (Thanks to Tim for the tip.)
Romero explains:
In 1993, Dan Linton, owner of a hugely successful BBS called Software Creations, visited Texas and made his way to id Software. This is the footage he recorded one night in November 1993. Shown are several of id’s employees at the time: Jay Wilbur, Shawn Green, John Romero, Dave Taylor, Sandy Petersen and Adrian Carmack, Bobby Prince was visiting to finish the music and create the sound effects.
This video has 21 minutes of me playing DOOM before the sound effects were put in as well as some early deathmatching with Shawn Green.
that is an intersting bit of nostalgia. reminded me of the walkthrough of ultima lore the mythic guys dug up.
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thats awesome! doom still looks kick ass, and brings back good memories. the times when exploiting those barrels and making monsters fight eachother was so much fun
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Quite a fascinating insight.
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That’s pretty cool.
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It’s been 15 years, but doom still makes me ill
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I liked the bit with Bobby Prince best. I never though he’d have that accent or speak like that, etc.
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I found the redneck hairdos most amusing but then it was Texas early 90s, letting the curls down your neck was the way to go.
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OH GOD THE MULLETS
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It would appear John Romero is related to Steve Jobs. “Boom! Boom! BOOM!”
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I think theres a opera to be made about Wolfestein. Maybe by a german or austrian composer.
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i love how exploding barrels were the cool new thing back then.
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DOOM! I’ll treat this as a late present to DOOM fans for 15th anniversary. Thanks Romero and Id :)
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Very very interesting video. Thanks for the find. Gosh I wonder how different the end game would be if someone had remarked “uh guys, isn’t the doom marine running a bit too fast?”. He’s doing like what, 200kph? Nobody really notices in single-player, but if you try multiplayer and everybody’s zooming around the map like they’re Flash…
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that was cool, seeing a legendary time in video game making :)
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I thought it said George Romero then and I wondered what zombies had to do with Doom.
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Man i really like seeing this kind of stuff. Game dev seemed way more fun back then. I wish there was material like this from 3d Realms available as well, back in the Terminal Velocity or Duke 3d days
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It’s like a Waynes World fan reunion.
Amazing.
They were playing Doom? Must have missed that. ;)
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@Meeper
I got motion sickness as well (if that’s what you were referring to). I don’t get it when I’m actually playing the game, but watching someone else play does it to me (esp. with those flashing monitor refreshing from the video).
I liked how teh Romero was showing off the features, pointing out bugs as he played through.
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COOL !!!
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@wien: Do you have any idea how few people will get that reference?
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I am so sad the industry I got into no-longer resembles that. No more are there talks of “isn’t this function we have cool?” it’s “Is this realistic enough? What buzzwords can we attach? What do the (sigh) fans want?”
I want to live these golden days of yore. Minus the mullets, of course.
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@Erlam
Also: “How much money will this make us?” “How much can we milk this later?” “How much content can we cut out to sell as DLC or expansion packs later on?” “How intrusive can we make our DRM to protect our investment?”
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Didn’t know Bobby Prince was that old at the time. Was expecting a Romero-like rocker dude.
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@Helm:
I believe someone actually did the math and it turned out to be about 59 MPH. This is approximately equivalent to the maximum velocity of a cheetah. However, a cheetah takes a while to build up to this speed, and can only keep it up for a short while. The doom guy goes from 0 to 60 in about 0.8 seconds and maintains his speed indefinitely.
And when he moves diagonally he runs 28% faster.
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That was totally fascinating to see their reactions and how joyful they found the game. and yes, it’s a shame it isn’t like that anymore. Ah well.
I’m off to play Doom *sniff*
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“Billy, you’ve got to eat your veg-ta-bles.”
More than DOOM, this video made me nostalgic for Commander Keen, Pickle Wars, and the sound of those old keyboard keys.
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tear
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ZOMBIES! No, not Doom Zombies, but The Zombies, at 1:20. The Time Of The Season is a truly staggering song… Excellent taste, good sirs! Sounds like someone at iD was listening to Odessey & Oracle…
Nothing to do with games, but it was a high point in the vid for me. :P
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Man why did someone have to bring their girlfriend >:(
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This was the first game I played, and I think it’s a shame that there are basically 0 people making games like it anymore (not talking about the graphics)
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And people say video games are violent now? The bodies turn to piles of meat when you shoot them! Now it’s all about ragdolls… it’s a shame that more games nowdays aren’t as ultra-violent as Doom and other games like it (Duke3D and Wolfenstien if I’m not mistaken were like this as well) once were imo. More bits, I say. Always more bits. Corpses just don’t pop open like they used to…
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Dear god the hair.
Also. When it’s cutting in, it’ll be like VREERMRMEMRMOOMOM
And otherwise it’ll be like VRoRORORORORORRO
And when its just idling it’ll be like vrrrrrrrrrrr
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“it’s a shame that more games nowdays aren’t as ultra-violent as Doom and other games like it ”
Nexuiz (2009) still use gibs. Download it, and join any server with “railgun only weapons” and you will see it. Its somewhat chessy, IMHO.
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ludicrous gibs ftw. Many a time I eagerly awaited the berserker health pack to then run around at full speed to punch the baddies :D
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a nice surprise to see the guys playing Aladdin at around the same time I was. It had great audio for a Mega Drive game too :)
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I had no idea what a cool guy Bobby Prince is. In retrospect I’m so glad that I ordered the Doom original sound track. That was a real ordeal back then.. ten years ago? Don’t know exactly.
I remember my university days before I had a PC proper and another student showed me Commander Keen and Wolfenstein 3D. Wolf3D was subsequently banned here (and still is) in germany. But I was more interested in Commander Keen anyway. :)
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Holy shit I remember Pickle Wars. This is the second time I’ve seen that vid of Bobby Prince… the veggies song went into Keen 4… played on several of the levels but most memorable with those involving the Dopefish (Well of Wishes I think).
Booby Prince is the shit. Shame he did not do the music for Quake et al.
Wow, nostalgia overload!!!
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