Difference between revisions of "Super NES"

Revision as of 04:26, 17 April 2014

Box art for the SNES version of Doom

A screenshot from the SNES version of Doom

The Super Nintendo version of Doom was developed by Sculptured Software, Inc. and was published by Williams Entertainment in North America and Europe, and published by Imagineer in Japan. It was released in September 1995, near the end of the system's life cycle. The cartridge features a Super FX 2 chip, and was one of few SNES games to feature a colored cartridge, with the NTSC version being available in a red casing. The game does not use the Doom engine, but features a custom engine programmed by Randy Linden.

Details

SNES Doom features 22 levels from the PC version. The status bar is rearranged, though it keeps the concrete theme of the PC version, featuring an image of the weapon current held instead of the original numbers. Unique to this port, the floors and ceilings lack texture mapping. The game lacks any back-up or password system, meaning that each episode must be finished from the beginning. Multiplayer was available if the player bought an XBAND modem. Due to memory limitations, the enemies only display from the front, causing them to appear to always face the player. Because of this and perhaps to conserve processing power, Monster infighting was not implemented, although it was made possible for monsters of the same type to damage each other with projectiles in this version of the game. Also as a likely means to conserve processing power, sound propagation is unused, rendering all enemies deaf. For whatever reason, circle-strafing is not possible, though standard strafing is still functional. The game runs at the system's most commonly used resolution of 256 x 224, though it does not fill the entire screen; instead, it runs in a window, with a black frame.

Interestingly, the maps used in the Super Nintendo port are derived from the PC version as opposed to the Atari Jaguar version, as every other port until the Xbox version used. This means that they are actually more intricate and detailed than their counterparts on the more powerful consoles, though they are still somewhat heavily retextured as a result of simplifying the pool of availible textures. However, they are still faithful in spirit to the original texture themes, just with more repitition. The Cyberdemon and Spiderdemon monsters that the Atari Jaguar and Sega 32X versions lack are also present. The musical score plays new renditions of each track rather than the PC version's renditions. Liberties taken include changing distorted guitars to orchestral strings in select tracks, and rearranging which level some play on. The changes in the music are praised by many, though some disapprove of them.

It has a unique difficulty system where later episodes can only be accessed on harder difficulties. However, this is subverted in the later Japanese release of the port, which restores full access to any episode from any skill level. Blood on bullet impacts is removed, though given the lack of censorship in all other aspects of the content, as well as the lack of bullet puffs, this suggests that it was done for performance reasons rather than an attempt to tone down the game's violence. Also for performance reasons, this port lacks transparent midtextures like its Jaguar counterpart.

The automap display takes advantage of the rotating and scaling of the Super FX chip, with the entire map spinning around the player's position rather than the player being portrayed with an arrow. Due to system limitations, no particles such as blood impacts, smoke or bullet sparks are present in the game - indeed, the shotgun does not fire seven individual shots as normal, but rather functions something like a slug gun or hunting rifle. This allows a player to shoot (and be shot) from a distance using the shotgun with no decrease in power. Moreover, the player's chaingun is now capable of single fire (although emptying one's bullet stock still produces a doubled sound effect). Finally, Nightmare mode does not feature respawning monsters, but still contains very fast and tough monsters as normal.

Levels

Other differences to the original version

• Due to the absence of transparent midtextures, the level design does differ from the PC version in some areas, and compensation is handled inconsistently. In Hangar, the wall grates in the final room before the exit switch are simply absent, making this the only version of Doom allowing you and the monsters to move freely between those areas. In Toxin Refinery, the grates lining the parameter of the nukage pit in the beginning have been replaced with sector-based safety ramps, ala the Jaguar version. However, there is no replacement for the missing grates blocking the courtyard in the secret accessed via the yellow card, though it remains impassable.
• In the absence of Command Center, the secret exit for The Shores of Hell is now located in Refinery, behind the secret supercharge in the nukage near the exit, unlocked with an added switch. This new room contains three energy cell packs, two boxes of rockets, one Cacodemon on Ultra-Violence and higher, and two Imps on Hurt Me Plenty and lower.
• Rockets are much stronger, and are able to take out enemies such as the baron of hell with only three shots versus the five to six in the PC version.
• The plasma gun is significantly stronger and uses fewer sprites in its firing sequence.
• It is possible for the player to collide with his own fired projectiles (such as rockets and plasma) if the projectiles are fired while the player is running.
• The BFG does not display an explosion graphic as it does in other versions; it simply fires a round that looks like a baron fireball and causes a ripple effect without the animation.
• All three of the aforementioned weapons utilize the imp/cacodemon/baron fireball launching sound effect when fired.
• In a rather humorous fashion, the Cyberdemon's rockets fire out backwards. This is an unfortunate side effect of the developers using only one-angled sprites, seemingly forgetting to take the Cyberdemon's
• Many sound effects have been simplified. They are sampled at a lower rate, and there is far more reuse than there is in the PC version. Pinky demons share the Imp's pain and death sounds, as rocket and barrel explosions share the generic fireball explosion sounds.
• Interestingly, this is the only version of DOOM to use cylindrical collision on actors. All other versions use rectangular bounding boxes, with fixed alignment no matter which angle the actor is facing.

Easter eggs

At the bottom of the Knee-Deep in the Dead sky texture is a message reading, "Randy Linden ♥ Jodi Harvey." This Easter egg can only be seen if the player looks inside the ROM's graphical resources, or uses a Pro Action Replay code that allows walking through walls in areas where the sky is visible.

Within the ROM itself, a hidden message can be found which reads, "NRage / Reality Engine written by Randy Linden. Special thanks to my loving wife, Jodi Harvey." It can only be found if the ROM file is opened in a hex editor, and is found at position 10E (270 in decimal).

Trivia

According to John Romero ^[1], the Super Nintendo port of Doom was developed secretly by Sculptured Software and then brought to id fully complete in order to request permission for it to be published. Romero states that id's response was "Oh hell yeah!" The involvement of Midway in its publishing would later lead to that company also handling ports to the PlayStation and Nintendo 64.

References

1. ↑ http://planetromero.com/2009/01/doom-history-1994

External links

• Information about the port on ClassicDOOM.com