Doom 64

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Revision as of 09:22, 18 January 2005 by Illdo (talk | contribs) (Unmaker link)


Doom 64, released March 31, 1997 for the Nintendo 64 is a sequel to Doom II, though it is not universally accepted as part of the official Doom canon. Doom was released by Midway, in cooperation with id.

Start Point of MAP01: STAGING AREA

Story

The story takes place after that of Doom II. It was believed that with the destruction of the Icon of Sin at the end of Doom II the threat posed by hell was ended. However, a single powerful demon, called a Mother Demon apparently survived the Doomguy's counterassault on the Phobos and Deimos outposts in the original Doom. She had managed to escape detection, hidden by massive radiation levels. She reanimated the demon that the player had previously killed in Doom and mutated them into apparently more dangerous forms. The Doomguy, now retired is recomissioned and ordered to kill the Mother Demon and her unholy horde, ending the threat from hell forever.

Gameplay Developments

Doom 64 was released 3 years after Doom II and the id software game quake had already been released. Significant enhancements to the doom engine used in Doom 64, and gameplay elememnts were altered to increase the sense of fear evoked in the player. However, Doom's core gameplay remained intact; exploration through demon-infested corridors looking for keycards and switches while surviving deadly traps and ambushes.

Significant changes implemented in Doom 64 included

  • 32 new levels
  • New, larger sprites for all enemies, which were anti-aliased when close to the player to prevent pixelation
  • The Commando, Arch-Vile, and Revenant were left out, likely as a result of the limited storage capacity of N64 cartrides.
  • New textures, scrolling skies, room-over-room architecture, custom scripting
  • The midi rock music that characterised the original Doom games was replaced with spooky ambient tracks.
  • Colored lighting and low light levels were used abundantly to create a more frightening atmosphere
  • New sprites were created for all pre-existing weapons, and a new weapon, the unmaker (originally concieved of in the Doom Bible), was added.

Although Doom 64 was the most technically advanced of the Doom console ports and contained completely new levels and content, it was not well recieved. For the average FPS gamer, the Doom 64 engine seemed too dated compared to the then available Quake. Many hardcore Doom fans were put off by the games radical stylistic changes and the limited control scheme s of an N64 controller. Basically, Doom 64 came out too late to be relevant and became a minor footnote in the history of Doom.

Although Doom 64 was never released for the pc, and is no longer comercially available for the N64, a Total Conversion of Doom II was released that converted the game to Doom 64. The total conversion includes the music, texture, sprites, scripting and level designs of doom 64, along with a few new levels. The total conversion is available for download from The Doom Depot Website

Levels

External Links