Sony PlayStation

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The PlayStation port used different box cover art to other versions.
File:Doompsx.jpg
A screenshot from the PlayStation version of Doom
Box cover for the PlayStation version of Final Doom.

The Sony PlayStation version of Doom was a conversion of Doom and Doom II by Williams Entertainment. It was released on November 16, 1995 and ran with a modified version of the Doom engine used in the Atari Jaguar port. Final Doom's PlayStation version was also released by the same team in late 1996.

Multiplayer was unusual for a console game in that split screen was unavailable; two consoles had to be linked together instead. This made the multiplayer truer to the original, but it was done at the sacrifice of accessibility. Presumably two players (or more) running on one console would reduce the speed of the game dramatically.

The Final Doom conversion onto PlayStation used the same engine and team who brought Doom and Doom II onto PlayStation. It was released in October of 1996. It included a mixture of 30 levels from Master Levels for Doom II, TNT: Evilution, and The Plutonia Experiment. The instruction booklet, however, erroneously states within that the game contains 30+ levels. Although the box does not mention the Master Levels, the back cover of the instructions indeed acknowledges their inclusion. It also has support for the PlayStation Mouse which the former did not.

John Romero is quoted on the back cover, calling this the "best DOOM yet" and is credited as "Creator of DOOM".

Gameplay

The rendering engine has been rewritten to utilize the PlayStation's 3D hardware. This renderer allows enhancements such as higher color depth, alpha blending and colorized sectors.

It contains extensive changes to the map geometry and textures, mainly for performance reasons. Most notable is that the number of unique textures used in a map is lower than in the PC version. Maps with large vertical distances also suffer modification. There is a noticeable slowdown in some Final Doom levels, particularly when using the highest difficulty settings.

The game uses fewer enemies, especially the Cyberdemon and the Spiderdemon, which appear less frequently. There is no Arch-vile because "[it] had twice as many frames of animation as any other monster, and [the developers] just couldn't do him justice on the PSX"[1]. The final boss from Doom II is not in the game and the final level "Redemption Denied" instead contains one or two Spiderdemons depending on the skill level.

However, the game includes all enemies, weapons and items of Doom II in early Ultimate Doom levels, including the first episode. A tougher type of Spectre, the Nightmare Spectre, has been added. The regular Spectre looks like a partially invisible Demon, whereas the Nightmare Spectre has its colors inverted to a dark cyan.

Exclusive levels

Removed Doom levels include Hell Keep, Slough of Despair, Dis, Warrens, They Will Repent, Against Thee Wickedly, And Hell Followed, and Fear. Removed Doom II levels include Downtown, Industrial Zone, Gotcha!, The Chasm, The Spirit World, The Living End, Icon of Sin, Wolfenstein, and Grosse.

Differences between PlayStation and PC version

  • All of the gameplay, texture, and map changes from the Atari Jaguar version have been retained in this version. Similar changes were made to the Thy Flesh Consumed and Doom II maps, while some larger maps were cut entirely.
  • The screen resolution is changed from 320x200 to 256x240. New graphics were made for the menu and intermission backgrounds, fonts, and status bar to fit this resolution.
  • Largely pre-recorded ambient background music for all levels using a simplistic form of wave sequencing, rather than wavetable/MIDI generated audio. Aubrey Hodges created the music and reused certain songs (the symphonic rock/metal theme, most noticeably) in Doom 64.
  • The sound effects are different to the PC version, and were later reused in Doom 64. Said sound effects also have echoed effects in closed-off parts of the levels (any area with a ceiling).
  • All weapon sprites have been reduced in size. The Super Shotgun was redrawn for Final Doom, giving it a "sleeker" appearance.
  • There is no Nightmare! skill level.
  • Different cheat codes.
  • Passwords are used for loading; while they store numbers as map level, skill level, health, armor and ammo, the numbers for the latter three tend to be rounded. There is no Memory Card usage.

Bugs

  • A rocket launcher blast originating from a player's rocket launcher shot does not do any damage to him/herself whenever he/she is facing a corner where the walls are aligned in an angle of 90 degrees. The player must also be facing slightly off the corner's edge and be as close to it as possible. A series of images demonstrating the phenomenon in the Final Doom level Crater can be viewed here: [1] [2] [3] [4]

Inaccessible secrets in Final Doom for PlayStation

  • In Level 9, Nessus, there is a walkthroughable (transparent thickness) wall, with a Revenant behind it (on the harder difficult levels: may be a different enemy on lower levels). On this ledge -- which is above the corridor containing the four teleport pads -- there is a megasphere and, around the corner, the BFG9000. Many cannot get onto this ledge, but, for those that do, the BFG9000 in the top right-hand corner can (with difficulty) be taken, but because you cannot physically enter the area it resides in, the game never reports you as having found that secret.
  • In Level 29, The Death Domain, there is a switch missing which prevents the player from being able to access an area on the west side of the map.

All other secrets are fully accessible.

References

  1. ↑ Harry Teasley interview at Doomworld

External links

Source code genealogy
Based on
Jaguar Doom 		Doom for Sony PlayStation Base for
Doom 64
Base for
Doom for Sega Saturn
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