Doomquake, An ID Tech Thread Options

[SubRosa]

Since Doom Eternal was released just a few days ago, I decided to make a topic to talk Doom and Quake games (and any other ID games). Doom Eternal got me in a Doom mood. So naturally I did not buy it! Instead I went back to the original games.

Gog.com has Doom 1 (Ultimate Doom), Doom2 + Final Doom, and Doom 3 BFG edition. Which are all on sale at the moment. I own them all. So I am giving them a try again.

You can play Doom 1 and 2 in high resolution if you use ZDoom or GZDoom. ZDoom is older, and is no longer being updated. GZDoom is newer, and has a few more extras. Use one. You can put the files directly into your Doom folders, or create a separate folder for it. Besides being able to run in 1920 x 1080, they add some options like being able to jump or crouch, or have a visible crosshair, and other stuff. GZDoom has more of this. You can find everything you don't want to know about installing ZDoom or GZDoom here.

To play either, don't use the games' regular shortcuts. Instead start it with the Zdoom.exe or GZdoom.exe. When you do it will give you a list of the Doom games you have installed. Pick one and it will start that game. Sadly, this means you have to install with a regular windows installer. Just copying the Doom folder over means GZDoom won't know its there.

In ZDoom you cannot select your resolution in the game options (it is there but doesn't work). You have to do it via the command line. Create a shortcut for ZDoom.exe and in the Properties -> Target field add in this at the end: -width1920 -height 1080 I am not sure if you need the width and height in GZDoom. I just copied it over from my ZDoom shortcut, and it works.

If you want to use a modded Wad file, this is also where you add that in with: -file [wad name] Put them in the same folder as the executable you are using to start the game. So if you have ZDoom or GZDoom in a their own folder, put it them there, not your regular Doom folder.

I found a female protagonist mod here. Then add it to your command line: -file Doomgirl_01.wad

So my entire Target box for my shortcut looks like this:
E:\GZDoom\gzdoom.exe -file Doomgirl_01.wad -width 1920 -height 1080

I started with Zdoom, and tried GZdoom just a little while ago. That is when I figured out that if you put either in a separate folder, you need to put your modded .wad files in that folder, not the Doom folder. GZDoom does look better, so that is what I am using going forward. I tested both on the Ultimate Doom from Gog, and Doom II with Master levels from there. One nice thing about GZDoom is that it makes the map a lot more useful. You can set it to show the secrets, and you can even make it show the textures of the areas, so you can see poison floors and so on.

This stuff does not work with Doom 3, as it is already a 3d game.

[RaderOfTheLostArk]

DOOM (2016) is something I am planning on going back to once I get bored with ESO. I started playing it and I did like what I played, but frustratingly my computer isn't running it all that well. Perhaps I've just been spoiled by other games playing very well on my laptop, but even though it is not the absolute top of the line for gaming I think it should be able to run DOOM with little trouble. (Also, I remember hearing how it was "so easy" or something along those lines to run DOOM right around when it came out. Probably those PC snobs that upgrade their computer every damn year).

OG Quake is one of my favorite games ever. Only first played it in 2016 or 2017 and was absolutely hooked. It was such a unique setting and combat was so fluid. Didn't like Quake 2 initially when I played but I eventually came to enjoy it, although not nearly as much as Quake 1. A recent game that is heavily inspired by it, DUSK, is a fantastic game that anyone who loved Quake 1 should play.

I tried modding the OG Doom and Doom 2 with that GZDoom but couldn't get it to cooperate, so I had to play them unmodded. Which sucks because they have aged very poorly and I didn't enjoy them all that much. Doom I got through and had an alright time with, Doom 2 was less so, and Doom 3 became too frustrating that I never finished it. I don't care about the graphics. I just want good controls.

But I had some other issues besides the unmodded controls. Sometimes the game turned into a keycard hunt after you had mowed down all the demons that were then available to kill, or hunting for the necessary secret became a chore. Also, the fact that you could get damaged by demons who were directly in front of you but were not even close to the same horizontal plane as you was BS. It would become too hard to see those enemies but yet they had no trouble hitting you. Those are some of the reasons that I didn't enjoy the old Doom games. I don't want to rag on them too much, though. They are extremely important games in gaming history (or at least Doom 1 was) and I can totally understand why people love them so dearly. But it does get annoying because there are a bunch of people that seem to dismiss their flaws or get crazy upset if you say anything about Doom that is less than "This game is amazing and one of the absolute [x number] best games ever made."