Difference between revisions of "Doom II release party"

Revision as of 02:45, 1 October 2022

John Romero inside The Limelight before the party.

The Doom II release party, also called the Doomsday party,^[1] was an event held at The Limelight night club in New York City on October 10, 1994, the official release date of Doom II (though the game had become generally available as of September 30). Invitations were open to a limited number of adult members of the public from September 23 until September 28 at midnight.^[2] The event was id Software's first official release party.^[3]

According to David Kushner in Masters of Doom, the party was setup by TSI Communications, a contractor hired by GT Interactive. Using a sizeable portion of the game's $2 million marketing budget, they transformed the night club into a gothic, Hellish house of horrors.^[1]:146 A holographic projector was setup near the entrance to project pictures of Doom II's monsters into the fog, and the game's soundtrack was kept blaring through the club's sound system.^[1]:146-147

The event included a Doom II deathmatch tournament, with four-player matches in the Deathmatch 2.0 game mode.^[2] Awards were given, including at least one golden medal which is in the possession of journalist Jeff Kitts.^[4]

Known attendees

• Dan Amrich, journalist for Flux magazine
• Shawn Green
• "DWANGO Bob" Huntley^[1]
• Kee Kimbrell^[1]
• Jeff Kitts, journalist for Flux magazine
• Audrey Mann, TSI Communications publicist^[1]
• John Romero
• Jay Wilbur

Anecdotes

• Dan Amrich was defeated by Jeff Kitts in the deathmatch tournament, a fact of which Kitts reminds Amrich on an annual basis.^[4]
• Bob Huntley and Kee Kimbrell were able to successfully track down John Romero at the event and pitch to him their idea for direct cooperation between id Software and DWANGO, the burgeoning new multiplayer dial-up network.^[1]:148-149
• A number of protesters were also attracted to the event, coming there to confront id Software over the controversial and unscientific idea that violence in video games could potentially lead to real-life violence or corrupt the minds of children. One such protester interrupted Jay Wilbur's opening remarks but was silenced by a response from Shawn Green and others.^[1]:147

Gallery

• 

  Romero outside the venue.

• 

  Name tag given to Dan Amrich for the event.

• 

  The Doomsday Champion medal won by Jeff Kitts.

References

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7} Kushner, David. Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture. Random House, 2003. pp. 146-149.
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1} Taylor, Dave (23 September 1994). "idNews: DOOM II release party invitations." comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action. Retrieved 7 December 2021.
3. ↑ Romero, John (9 October 2020). "...It was the first time we had a release party for one of our games..." Twitter. Retrieved 7 December 2021.
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1} Amrich, Dan (10 October 2018). "I used to destroy Jeff Kitts at #Doom over modem... He won our first 4-player Deathmatch -- and got a medal for it. Every year he sends an anniversary photo to commemorate the event..." Twitter. Retrieved 7 December 2021.