Talk:How to download and run Doom

Whew. :>  The start of a long article, I hope &mdash; newbies are a somewhat underserved population around here. I was inspired by this conversation (and considering the sheer number of gaming sites in existence, I think we're damn lucky that that person stayed long enough to shout at us).

I'm hoping that, eventually, this can absorb How to play Doom on Windows XP. The information in that article about Doom95 bugs can be moved to Doom95 (and maybe cross-referenced also, as with Intermission screen).

I can only test a few of these myself; the graphics card on my Performa just broke. :D   But I can do Windows XP, Mac OS 9, and Linux (RHEL 4.0), and maybe Windows 2000 and Mac OS X.

Most of the links at the end are to pages which already exist. But I agree with Jdowland that the editing tutorials are still very incomplete, and I think that if we keep this article, we also need one on configuring network games (which is a far more forbidding topic than just buying the Collector's Edition for US$15 on ebay). Conceivably, in the far future, we could also write tutorial articles about general solo strategy and particular speedrunning styles.

Opinions? Ideas? Flames?    Ryan W 05:26, 31 January 2006 (UTC)


 * Some of the stuff I just added to the Windows XP section would definitely fit better into the hypothetical tutorial articles mentioned above.  :>    Ryan W 23:25, 31 May 2006 (UTC)



 Update: If I am making any errors important enough to be worth mentioning, please do so. :>    Ryan W 09:40, 6 February 2006 (UTC)
 * I tried to run the Solaris versions of shareware Doom on the SPARC machines at my workplace, but they wouldn't go. I suspect that said machines (a) are six or seven years younger than that program and (b) contain the kind of horribly misconfigured kernels that only an overworked committee of individually intelligent people can supply.
 * I tried to install the shareware version of Doom95 on the Windows 2000 machines at my workplace, but couldn't do so because I do not have root access (or whatever that's called in Windows 2000).
 * I tried to get Doom running on the Mac OS X machines with which I am acquainted (again with no special privileges), but didn't see anything I felt like writing about. The Classic version ran at about 3 fps, Legacy developed paralyzing keybinding issues after a few seconds, and Doomsday was so non-vanilla that I personally could not recommend it to a first-time player with a straight face.


 * For Windows 2000, the superuser is "Administrator". Also, like XP, Windows 2000 does not support VXDs, so mouse support in Doom 95 will be broken. The original DOS executable works with -devparm and sound disabled.
 * On a related note, wouldn't the full IWADs from a PC version of Doom need to be converted to Mac (big endian) before being usable in Mac OS? Your instructions on the page don't mention this. Bloodshedder 21:59, 6 February 2006 (UTC)


 * That's because it turned out not to be necessary. I put the Collector's Edition maps in, and they worked.


 * This is more impressive as of today &mdash; it happens the same way in System 7.5, before all those kernel updates!   Ryan W 23:03, 15 June 2006 (UTC)


 * (Except for Thy Flesh Consumed, which I couldn't find even when I used idclev. I suppose you could extract the maps with an editor and save them as levels 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, and 31 in Doom II.  The exit at the end would still work correctly, I think &mdash; I've seen it done in some PWAD from 1994.)    Ryan W 02:11, 7 February 2006 (UTC)

Early versions of Windows NT
I've set up another computer to test with, and as soon as I find a suitably working hard drive, I will install and attempt to run Doom on Windows NT 3.1, 3.5, 3.51, and perhaps 4.0. Bloodshedder 22:12, 10 February 2006 (UTC)

Win9x
This section may not be optimal as currently written. It is rumored that Doom95's installer overwrites your existing version of DirectX with version 4, without asking first. As this was not obvious on the dumpster-machine I tested with, I left it out. If the rumors are true, however, we are probably better off just recommending PrBoom, despite the supposed "native" status of Doom95 to this line. Ryan W 00:55, 6 April 2007 (UTC)

Linux
If Legacy will terminate due to demo version incompatibility it's not a good suggestion. Could a Linux savvy editor change the steps to use another more solid source port? Chocolate Doom and PrBoom are often used by Linux users and have been heavily tested on Unix-likes. Who is like God? 21:00, 1 April 2008 (UTC)


 * Could it be fixed by specifying a sample command line to start a new game immediately? We really, really don't want to chase away 95+ percent of the users by recommending programs that are only available in source form.    Ryan W 21:52, 1 April 2008 (UTC)


 * I wouldn't worry about that because people who can't compile programs are generally chased away from Linux itself in the first place. Who is like God? 22:02, 1 April 2008 (UTC)


 * That's always been the myth, but I'm not so sure now, given the increasing availability of preloaded GUI distributions (by Dell and other people). I live in a college town where every engineering major uses Linux regularly, and if they know a programming language at all when they graduate, it's an interpreted one.  Further, the reader may be installing it on a machine where they don't have enough privileges to do everything we ask.  Finally, compiling a graphics-intensive program like PrBoom isn't as simple as downloading the last stable sourceforge archive, because you have to know certain very specific things about your hardware.  PrBoom ran quite smoothly on this Linux machine, but I had to use an old version that was available as an rpm, because even our IT guy couldn't figure out what makefile to use (shhh, don't tell anyone).    Ryan W 23:09, 1 April 2008 (UTC)


 * Compiling isn't programming (my cousin is no programmer, only an astronomer, and he compiles Linux to use during research). You're addressing circumstantial Linux users who will likely not use Doom on Linux at all, and giving regular ones tips they would find unsatisfying. Competent Linux users may know a lot of things, but if they're not really familiar with Doom you still need to point to engines they might find stable and portable, as well as any auxiliary files they might need for them. Legacy could be mentioned for the less knowledgeable (or system limited) users, perhaps. Who is like God? 00:23, 2 April 2008 (UTC)


 * Two thoughts, one general and one specific:
 * IMHO this page is for getting the new player up and running as straightforwardly as possible, without even attempting to address which port is the best for their system &mdash; that would bloat the article ridiculously and confuse a lot of people. Doom95 has a lot of issues and limitations and no one would ever suggest using it as their primary program, but if the reader has an XP machine and follows the instructions under "Shareware", he can be playing E1M1 in ten minutes.  Later, when he investigates DMing or scripted PWADs, he will need two or three newer ports... but he isn't there yet.
 * "Competent Linux users", as you put it, will probably treat Doom like any other application they plan to use a lot: go to google.com, find Doomworld, read the forums for opinions on which distribution (port) is the best. So yes, I do want to address circumstantial users, because they will be the ones reading this page.  (General disclaimer: there is no hard data to support either of our positions, and there never will be.  That is one reason I advocate erring on the side of caution, and not assuming a lot of training on the user's part.  Teenagers in developing countries find secondhand computers every day.) When I added the Linux section originally, I chose Legacy because everything went into one folder, so there weren't many steps (and because if it could handle my flaky X installation, a "vanilla" mail-order machine should be no problem).  Replacing it with PrBoom/ZDoom/whatever isn't necessarily a problem if the instructions specify exactly which files belong in which directories, which permissions are needed, which docs to consult in case of trouble, and maybe a couple of sample command lines.  Compiling one's own executable is two orders of magnitude more difficult, however, and if no major port can be used otherwise, that's... unbelievably lame.  It's been 30 years since the average gamer was expected to create his own binaries.
 * Ryan W 02:55, 2 April 2008 (UTC)
 * As I see it, you added the Linux tips you were able to verify, which is generous and cool, but my initial point was to invite any editors even more familiar with Doom on Linux to provide tips that would help any Linux user wanting to play Doom... even us. Who is like God? 09:17, 2 April 2008 (UTC)

New article: "How to play Doom in multiplayer mode"
IMHO this page is already getting unwieldy and is already difficult to maintain without trying to mix in multiplayer instructions, which are a whole new kettle of fish. The new article should ideally be written by persons with expertise in setting up multiplayer games (i.e. not me), but means for instance that multiplayer-related bugs in Doom95 belong in that article and in Doom95, not here.

Opinions? Ideas? Flames?    Ryan W 22:24, 21 April 2008 (UTC)