DEICE

DEICE installer for the first Doom shareware release

DEICE is Doom's install program. Besides Doom, it was used for a number of other id Software games including the Commander Keen games and Wolfenstein 3D. It continued to be used for Quake following Doom.

DEICE was also used for other games, including the Doom engine games Heretic, Hexen and the shareware version of Strife. Apogee Software also used it for many of their games, including Bio Menace, Duke Nukem and Duke Nukem II, Secret Agent and Crystal Caves.

Functionality[edit]

Despite the name being reminiscent of decompression tools (such as pkunzip), DEICE does not include any such decompression functionality. Instead, this was delegated to other tools which were used to create self-extracting archive files - in this case of Doom, LHa was used, while PKSFX was used for earlier games.

DEICE's functionality is limited the following:

Prompting the user for the install drive and directory, and creating the directory
Reassembling the complete install file, always a self-extracting archive file. Since floppy disks were the primary form of distribution at the time, larger games would inevitably have to be split across multiple floppy disks. DEICE prompts the user to change floppy disks and shows two progress bars showing progress copying the current floppy disk and the complete game.
Once the complete .exe has been copied to hard disk, it is then run to extract the game. This is not done directly by DEICE itself, but usually by a batch file.

Configuration file[edit]

DEICE is configured using a configuration file with the extension `.dat`. This has content similar to the following:

PATH=\DOOM
SIZE=2147894
EXPSIZE=6000000
SPACE=0
LINE0=DOOM
LINE1=by id Software, inc.
LINE2=Copyright (C) 1993
LINE4=Shareware version.
LINE5=Please distribute like crazy.

The following keys are understood:

PATH: Default path on the hard disk to install the game.
SIZE: Expected size of the fully reassembled install file. DEICE considers it an error if it does not get this result.
EXPSIZE: Expected size of the decompressed game files.
LINE0 - LINE5: Shown in the background of the installer to give the name of the game being installed along with copyright information.

In popular culture[edit]

DEICE being used to install the fictional game "Thronglets" in an episode of Black Mirror

The Black Mirror episode Plaything, set in the 90s, depicts the protagonist installing a game named Thronglets using what appears to be DEICE. The same episode also briefly featured characters playing deathmatch Doom.

Revision history[edit]

DEICE v1.2 - used for Doom shareware and registered, Doom II and Ultimate Doom
DEICE v1.4 - used in Final Doom and Quake

Screenshots[edit]

DEICE showing progress copying during install of Ultimate Doom
DEICE prompting for the next floppy disk. Installer for Raptor: Call of the Shadows.
DEICE v1.4, installer for TNT: Evilution