Gloom

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"This game IS DOOM. But yet its not. It manages to be what DOOM is, with less resources, less memory and less potential profit, but yet somehow manages to be its own game."
― Nostalgia Nerd [source]

Gloom is a first-person shooter released for the Amiga in 1995 by Black Magic Software.[1] The game starts out with the player fighting space marines in science fiction environments, giving way to gothic castles and monsters, and culminates in levels set in Hell. It also sampled many of its sounds directly from the movie Aliens.[2] The engine features sector based maps similar to the Doom engine, although these can move like those in the Build engine used in Duke Nukem 3D. It is however limited to a single elevation level, making it more like Wolfenstein 3D in some respects,[notes 1] also sharing a lives system. Gloom is also deliberately fast paced and arcade-like,[3][notes 2] with the player gunning down hordes of visually vibrant opponents in typically short levels filled with powerups.[4] Nonetheless, these still contain some key hunting, switch interaction, and teleporter sequences to complete. Gloom was later re-released as Gloom Deluxe, which added new graphics modes and enhancements such as on-screen weapon sprites.

The title "Gloom" had initially been picked as a humorous codename, with other suggestions such as "Bloodbath" and "Gorefest '95" proposed, but the moniker ultimately stuck.[4] Amitopia would later lament this as sealing the title's fate as being dismissed as a mere "Doom clone", despite its distinct variations in gameplay, noting that ultimately other shooters on the system, such as Alien Breed 3D,[notes 3] more closely followed the conventional Doom formula.[5] Where Gloom did most mirror Doom was in its modding community, with a number of mods and total conversions produced,[6][7] including the commercially released Ultimate Gloom and Zombie Massacare by Alpha Software in 1997 and 1998. These were released as freeware in 2013.[8]

The game can be run on PCs with emulators like UAE. A reverse engineered engine replacement, XGloom, was worked on in 2011 to bring it natively to modern systems, but was never released.[9] Programmer Mark Sibly released the original source code under the unlicense in 2017, with the game data itself released as freeware for historical archival purposes.[10] This eventually lead to the ZGloom source port being released in 2020 for Windows and Linux,[11][notes 4] and later AmigaOS 4 and the PlayStation Vita.[12][13] A large number of total conversions, including those by Alpha, have been converted over to this engine.[14] A total conversion of the first few levels to the GZDoom engine was produced by Cherno in 2017,[15] as well as a HUD mod by Rayman the Hedgehog in 2018.[16]

External links[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ↑ The contemporary Amiga releases Fears and Breathless featured multiple elevations, but had block based maps similar to Rise of the Triad.
  2. ↑ The game even includes playable in-game arcade machines hidden in the levels that supply extra lives.
  3. ↑ Recreated by the GZDoom conversion Project Osiris; the game was also sector based, but featured room-over-room.
  4. ↑ Currently does not support the arcade machines, with the player having unlimited lives.

References[edit]

  1. ↑ "Gloom." Hall of Light. Retrieved 1 July 2024.
  2. ↑ Geek Battle Gaming (12 February 2024). "Amiga Gloom Stole Sound Effects From the Aliens Movie." YouTube. Retrieved 1 August 2024.
  3. ↑ lifeschool (27 February 2016). "Short Interview: Mark Sibly - on Gloom." Lemon Amiga. Retrieved 1 July 2024.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1  (5 January 1995). "Doom and Gloom: Gloom Preview." The One. Retrieved 1 July 2024.
  5. ↑ Bergseth, Michal (21 June 2017). "Gloom Deluxe 3D Review Revealing Unlimited Fire 3D FPS game for Amiga." Amitopia. Retrieved 1 July 2024.
  6. ↑ Puni (17 November 2014). "Gloom on the Amiga: Modding." Old School Game Blog. Retrieved 1 July 2024.
  7. ↑ Mnich, Czesław (15 November 2014). "Gloom - tworzenie postaci i nie tylko." Exec.pl. Retrieved 5 July 2024.
  8. ↑ Murfin, Gareth (6 April 2013). "Amiga Zombie Game Amnesty - Zombie Massacre and Ultimate Gloom (aka Gloom3) go public domain, grab em here!" Radiant Silver Labs (archived 🏛). Retrieved 1 July 2024.
  9. ↑ Puni (31 July 2011). "XGloom – Gloom Deluxe Remake." Old School Game Blog. Retrieved 1 July 2024.
  10. ↑  (6 May 2017). "Source code released of FPS classic Gloom." Generation Amiga. Retrieved 1 July 2024.
  11. ↑  (6 February 2020). "ZGloom, reimplementation of great Amiga FPS classic." Generation Amiga. Retrieved 1 July 2024.
  12. ↑ Puni (8 November 2023). "ZGLoom – It's Gloom on AmigaOS 4!" Old School Game Blog. Retrieved 1 July 2024.
  13. ↑ "ZGloom-Vita." Gamebrew. Retrieved 1 July 2024.
  14. ↑ Lanzillotta, Francesco (20 September 2021). "ZGloom-Vita v2.1.1." Bite Your Console. Retrieved 1 July 2024.
  15. ↑ Cherno (24 September 2017). (WIP) GloomDoom TC (Gloom Deluxe, Amiga 1995). ZDoom forums. Retrieved 1 July 2024.
  16. ↑ Rayman the Hedgehog (27 August 2018). Gloom Classic & Deluxe HUD in Doom. ZDoom forums. Retrieved 1 July 2024.
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