User talk:Chungy/How to download and run Doom

Draft
This is, of course, a draft that I intend will replace the How to download and run Doom article. The many issues of the current article are already outlined on its talk page. With that in mind, I have tried to keep a few rules to myself:


 * Technical terms like IWAD and source port are expressly forbidden. Even "shareware" is unusual these days and should be avoided.
 * The millions of possible ways to obtain Doom don't belong, especially not in an article with download in the title. On PC, Steam is presently the only legal download channel for Doom, which simplifies things a great deal here. Also, many ports automatically detect and load IWADs installed via the Steam releases. For Windows users, this is a great help.
 * The millions of operating systems and permutations thereof that Doom can run on is also right out of the question. There are only three big ones: Windows, Mac, and Linux. Focus on them.
 * Source ports are a very opinionated and difficult subject. Like the How to play Doom on modern Windows systems article, I have chosen Chocolate Doom as the simple solution for getting up and running. While (purposefully) lacking in features, it presents the game well in its original format. There are no overcomplicated menus or demo compatibility issues.
 * The Doom franchise encompasses both the classic games and Doom 3, treat them in equal measure.

Doom 3 is actually providing an interesting challenge at the moment. I would actually like to recommend Doom 3: BFG Edition to newcomers, as it's a rather complete release with all the expansion packs and even Ultimate Doom and Doom II included (compatibility issues of those IWADs is left out of this page again: most source ports, including Chocolate Doom, have workarounds for it). RBDOOM-3-BFG is pretty much the way to run it on Mac and Linux, although major distributions do not package it and the only official binary is for Windows (not even Mac!). We may need to just list the original Doom 3 release as well, and recommend it for Mac and Linux users; it has a binaries available on both the platforms that make running it rather easy.

Comments, questions, complaints are all welcome. --Chungy (talk) 06:34, 14 June 2015 (CDT)


 * Agreed, and I can tell you've put in a lot of time already. Hopefully we have editors with more spare cash than I, so the missing details can be tested and filled in (e.g. Android, Mavericks).


 * I saw the IRC discussion. I still think historical porting is in scope for us; perhaps the answer is more articles like this, and the giant list can go (or become a footnote in a portal).  No, the front page should not link to an article with a BeOS section.  :>     Ryan W (talk) 12:49, 14 June 2015 (CDT)


 * Android isn't really an omission, there haven't been any official releases on the platform, and getting Doom to run on it otherwise is a fairly involved procedure. Yeah, I'm fine with the dedicated platform articles, but they don't belong here :P --Chungy (talk) 14:27, 14 June 2015 (CDT)

Download table concept
I started making a table as an attempt to make the download list nicer than the big list of links. Gez improved by tweaking some of the wording and placement. It'd be nice to hear from anyone else how they feel about it.

As another note: the long sequence of paragraphs below the list should probably be revised too. Being that all the GOG and Steam releases are for Windows-only complicates matters for Mac and Linux users, but I think a lot simplification is still possible. --Chungy (talk) 07:44, 29 September 2015 (CDT)