Doom also played a crucial role in popularizing the idea of the speedrun, as each end level score card not only keeps track of how long the player took to complete the game (alongside various completion percentages), but also included a Par time set by the games' creators, encouraging players to beat it, and keep finishing each level faster and faster. Even the game's basic premise would become a trope.ĭoom was also incredibly moddable, giving birth to one of the first big video game modding communities (which first operated on BBS before migrating to the internet), which still thrives and exists to this day. The deathmatch would become a staple of multiplayer FPS to this day. Doom's weapon selection would form the template from which many other games would base their own weapons on. It became such a smash hit that it is often credited with boosting the sales of Microsoft Windows 95, with even Bill Gates crediting it for popularizing the OS, thanks in part to his efforts to make sure there was a Win95-compatible version of the game after realizing that Doom was installed on more computers than Windows 95.ĭoom built upon the formula established by Wolfenstein 3D and expanded upon it, becoming a Trope Codifier to the entire first-person shooter genre - to the point where through most of the 90s, until true 3D games really took off and started emerging from Doom's shadow, such games were often referred to as ' Doom clones' as opposed to 'first-person shooters'. The game also introduced the idea of multiplayer death matches and co-op missions in a modern FPS, with its developers fully expecting Doom to be the biggest cause of decreased productivity in IT companies the world over in 1993. Enemy attacks were similarly diversified, making combat far more dynamic than it had been in Wolfenstein. This made the arsenal more flexible, with weapons more suited to certain situations. Doom's weapons would include both hitscan, and projectile weapons which enemies could dodge, as well as splash damage weapons and the legendary BFG. Wolfenstein's weapons all behaved identically as hitscan weapons, with only the rate of fire changing. Also, whereas Wolfenstein's fortresses all had identical lighting and walls that were always the same height, always aligned in perfect 90º angles, and always with a minimum distance between corners or another wall, Doom featured variable lighting (including flickering and glowing lights, adding to the game's atmosphere), differing vertical heights, and walls that could be angled at any orientation and have any amount of distance to a corner or between walls (including distances too small for you or an enemy to walk through).Īnother feature was expansion of the weapons.

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