WTF is up with DOOM?

All general 3DO chat here please.

Moderators: 3DO Experience, Devin, Bas, 3DOKid

Post Reply
User avatar
T2KFreeker
3DO ZERO USER
Posts: 1241
Joined: Wed Feb 07, 2007 6:41 am
Location: Parts Unknown

WTF is up with DOOM?

Post by T2KFreeker » Mon Jul 23, 2007 5:02 am

I have to ask, finally some 3DO fans that might know why. What in the Hell were Art Data smoking when they converted DOOM to the 3DO. Not like the system can't handle a deacent port of the game, but the 3DO version of DOOM suck ass. The music is awesome, don't get me wrong, but what in the Hell was wrong with the game itself? Seems to be a waste of programming time to me. It's shrunk way down and way ugly. Hell, the choppy framerate and loss of control makes me want to cry. Anyone who tries to say that the 32-X version was worse and I'll shoot you as at least it was playable and the screen was bigger!
This is a stick up! Put all of your 3DO games in the bag and nobody gets hurt!

Blades
3DO ZERO USER
Posts: 29
Joined: Sat Jul 14, 2007 11:59 pm
Location: Earth

Post by Blades » Mon Jul 23, 2007 11:45 pm

My First experience with doom was at a friend's house. He had the 3do version and used the full-screen cheat code, so off the bat, I thought it was a good game but waay to choppy.

In all honesty, it isn't that bad! It's playable with the full-screen code (I myself finished the game in that mode). But the developers prolly cared more about money than the actual game as that is what happened with the 32x and the US version of Doom for Saturn.

Money, that's all.

It was also trying to be the best out of the gate. Doom came out first on 32x, 3do and Dos. The 3DO developers retained all of the levels and made better music, but they knew the 3do could not complete with the PS and Saturn, so they skimped on programming time and finished it way early.
What Has EA turned into...tsk tsk

User avatar
bonefish
3DO ZERO USER
Posts: 351
Joined: Thu Mar 22, 2007 9:22 pm

Post by bonefish » Tue Jul 24, 2007 12:42 am

I'm no programmer (outside of vb/access/other stuff) but it seems like it was a port to the 3do using unoptimized code. Doom required a intel 386-33 mhz and 4 mb of ram. The 3do has neither the ram or the speed to run Doom straight. I ran Doom way back on my 386sx-33 with 16 mb of ram and it wasn't pretty. Actually choppy like the 3do doom, maybe even worse because it never resembled smooth. Blades has it right. Money, they didn't want to try and take the time to work with/massage the game to the 3do, like the 32x had some trade-offs and the snes is amazing considering what they had to work with.

User avatar
UnholyTancred
3DO ZERO USER
Posts: 437
Joined: Tue Feb 13, 2007 2:49 am
Location: Brooklyn, New York, USA
Contact:

Post by UnholyTancred » Tue Jul 24, 2007 1:45 am

Blades wrote:My First experience with doom was at a friend's house. He had the 3do version and used the full-screen cheat code, so off the bat, I thought it was a good game but waay to choppy.

In all honesty, it isn't that bad! It's playable with the full-screen code (I myself finished the game in that mode). But the developers prolly cared more about money than the actual game as that is what happened with the 32x and the US version of Doom for Saturn.

Money, that's all.

It was also trying to be the best out of the gate. Doom came out first on 32x, 3do and Dos. The 3DO developers retained all of the levels and made better music, but they knew the 3do could not complete with the PS and Saturn, so they skimped on programming time and finished it way early.
Full screen? Geez, you must be a masochist! :P

I couldn't even get past the 5th or 6th level with the default screen size. I can't even imagine how much worse it runs and looks when it's full screen.
"Democracy for an insignificant minority, democracy for the rich — that is the democracy of capitalist society."
-Vladimir Lenin

User avatar
Gir Draxa
3DO ZERO USER
Posts: 243
Joined: Sat Feb 10, 2007 8:34 pm
Location: USA (occasionally Thailand)
Contact:

Post by Gir Draxa » Tue Jul 24, 2007 5:06 am

Doom was one of those "gotta have it" things for most gamers, and I believe it ended up like SHADOW, a final pressing made from a mid-level (at best) beta. Now don't get me wrong, I like betas... A LOT. But if you have deved it and you know it isn't done and you still release it, to me it's just not right.

Simply put, Doom was pushed out to reap whatever cash could be got from a system being virtually abandonded. I'm sure that (unlike Shadow) were Doom given more refinement, it would have been a much better title. Time simply was not on 3DOs side. They pumped out Doom as fast as they could before EB, Babbages and the like knocked all 3DO titles to cheap for clearance for Saturn and Playstation. My copy of Doom was $1.99 at EB, a bargain considering it's 4 month prior launch price. Plus they threw in a controller for free. heh.

Sadly this "oh come on, they'll still buy it before word gets around" mentality has been around since console gaming was in it's infancy. Nobody learned from Atari's E.T. fiasco, and it seems many games are still going that way today.

In the battle of quality verus the buck, the buck usually wins. Short term dev of a flashy game with no substance will garner quick sales, then the game is headed for the discount bin within a few months, and this situation is getting worse. It's small wonder why the retro gaming market is so big, the games are of quality, not just flashy graphics.

Want games of quality and long term playability? Head for the 3DO, Sega CD (especially imports), Genesis, SNES, TG-16/Duo, among others. Want flashy graphics that show off the GPU so you can count the number of hairs on the hero's head? Me neither. heh.

But, thats my rant.

Drax
CEO of The (in search of a home) CD-i & 3DO Collectives

Just slightly behind at being ahead of our time!

fish
3DO ZERO USER
Posts: 36
Joined: Thu Jan 18, 2007 2:55 pm
Location: Lancs Uk

Post by fish » Tue Jul 24, 2007 11:53 am

If only Studio 3DO got hold of the Doom license; as I'm pretty sure they would have made it into a damn fine game, also as pointed out earlier, the game was rushed and I think Studio 3DO would have taken alot more time on it. They could have made a lot more money out of Blade Force in the UK had they rushed it for release before Christmas 95 for example.

I remember being really excited about Doom, but after reading some shocking reviews I was pretty pissed off, so I never bought it. I have it now, and the reviews were justified!!!

acem77
3DO ZERO USER
Posts: 107
Joined: Fri Aug 03, 2007 1:39 am
Location: Ohio

Post by acem77 » Fri Aug 03, 2007 1:54 am

bought doom for 3do for the music great remix.
i mainly played the jaguar ver. the best ver back in the day(jaguar,32x,3do)
hell the nuon ver of doom runs better. that was just a sloppy fast proof of concept port.

User avatar
T2KFreeker
3DO ZERO USER
Posts: 1241
Joined: Wed Feb 07, 2007 6:41 am
Location: Parts Unknown

Post by T2KFreeker » Fri Aug 03, 2007 2:17 am

Man, with all the ports that DOOM has gotten over the years, I think that I can say that for the console, the 3DO had the utmost worst version. It hurts to say it, but it's damn true. I remember at the time I had the 32-X version, which is not too bad but not too great either. I wanted something better so Software Etc. had the 3DO version for like $10.00 or something like that. I bought it and promptly took it back. I was horrified by it. I ended up getting the Jaguar version and being very happy!
This is a stick up! Put all of your 3DO games in the bag and nobody gets hurt!

Post Reply