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Newell's history of porting Doom to Windows to show it can be a gaming platform

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Re: Newell's history of porting Doom to Windows to show it can be a gaming platform

#11

Post by nailer »

WAIT. Newell's Windows port (commonly referred to as DOOM95 http://doom.wikia.com/wiki/Doom95) was never popular and very few DOOM players knew it even existed. It certainly didn't prove to the masses that Windows was a viable gaming platform.

Those that do recall the Windows port do so in the the context of Microsoft telling people that '32 bit Doom will be twice as fast' before finding out that wasn't true.

The most popular - read 'only' - PC version of Doom was the DOS 4GW version. Ditto Doom 2, Hexen, etc. Quake also assumed DOS. No Windows port of those games was mainstream. Go read the DOOM FAQ - everything assumes DOS, DOOM95/WinDOOM is only mentioned as one of many ports of 'regular' (DOS) DOOM http://www.gamers.org/docs/FAQ/doomfaq/sect1.html#5-6).

DOOM was released in the era of 386s (when 486s were new). 32 bit Windows required at practically at least 16MB of memory and a 486. For the people that had those specs, if the Windows DOOM port was faster, people would have used it - but they didn't, because DOOM95 wasn't faster.

DOOM95 may have been used to inspire developers however - the regular PC version of Quake 2 came with a Windows installer / launcher and was frequently launched on Windows.

Source: spent my teenage years building stuff like http://mikemaccana.com/#/doom-the-path/ in DEU, the first algorithm I ever heard of was BSP, and I know what IDSPISPOPD stands for.

PS. Go play my and John's WAD linked above. It has working toilets. In DOOM!

Re: Newell's history of porting Doom to Windows to show it can be a gaming platform

#12

Post by evadne »

sbarre wrote: post #9

I would think that times were a bit different back then, and it's not really a fair comparison to make. Companies today that are the size of id software back then, and that are making games of relatively equal complexity, are already publishing to Linux. There were no 200-person studios cranking out $10 million dollar (or more) game projects when Doom came out, and that's a much more complex issue to address.. We're…

A bunch of titles are available for OS X thru Aspyr [1] with porting latency measured in months.

[1] http://www.aspyr.com/

Re: Newell's history of porting Doom to Windows to show it can be a gaming platform

#13

Post by ekianjo »

sbarre wrote: post #8
ekianjo wrote: post #3

OMG, the comments below that first post are full of ignorance. It's just so painful to see what people think and say of Linux (even the ones who defend it).

Was this your first introduction to NeoGAF or other gaming boards? It's pretty depressing isn't it? It's the primary reason I stopped frequenting video game communities.. Which is a shame because I've been a gamer all my life, and I wish there was a vibrant (and large) community for intelligent discussion like Hacker News but that was game focused.. I'm sure there is somewhere, but I haven't found it..

I knew Neogaf but did not really check it very often.

> and I wish there was a vibrant (and large) community for intelligent discussion like Hacker News

I was thinking the exact same thing ! We really should try to do something about that. Interested?

Re: Newell's history of porting Doom to Windows to show it can be a gaming platform

#14

Post by blahbl4hblah »

nailer wrote: post #11

WAIT. Newell's Windows port (commonly referred to as DOOM95 http://doom.wikia.com/wiki/Doom95 ) was never popular and very few DOOM players knew it even existed. It certainly didn't prove to the masses that Windows was a viable gaming platform. Those that do recall the Windows port do so in the the context of Microsoft telling people that '32 bit Doom will be twice as fast' before finding out that wasn't true. The mo…

True dat.

Re: Newell's history of porting Doom to Windows to show it can be a gaming platform

#15

Post by ChrisClark »

sbarre wrote: post #8
ekianjo wrote: post #3

OMG, the comments below that first post are full of ignorance. It's just so painful to see what people think and say of Linux (even the ones who defend it).

Was this your first introduction to NeoGAF or other gaming boards? It's pretty depressing isn't it? It's the primary reason I stopped frequenting video game communities.. Which is a shame because I've been a gamer all my life, and I wish there was a vibrant (and large) community for intelligent discussion like Hacker News but that was game focused.. I'm sure there is somewhere, but I haven't found it..

You could try the highly moderated http://reddit.com/r/Games community. It was started in reaction to the horrible posts on /r/gaming.

They even post warnings on threads that real /r/all where people not subscribed to /r/Gaming will see it and come in to comment.

There is also /r/linux_gaming which will have better discussions on the Linux aspect of Valve's new developments.

But it's not perfect. Just one of the better options.

Re: Newell's history of porting Doom to Windows to show it can be a gaming platform

#16

Post by sbarre »

ChrisClark wrote: post #15
sbarre wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Was this your first introduction to NeoGAF or other gaming boards? It's pretty depressing isn't it? It's the primary reason I stopped frequenting video game communities.. Which is a shame because I've been a gamer all my life, and I wish there was a vibrant (and large) community for intelligent discussion like Hacker News but that was game focused.. I'm sure there is somewhere, but I haven't found it..

You could try the highly moderated http://reddit.com/r/Games community. It was started in reaction to the horrible posts on /r/gaming. They even post warnings on threads that real /r/all where people not subscribed to /r/Gaming will see it and come in to comment. There is also /r/linux_gaming which will have better discussions on the Linux aspect of Valve's new developments. But it's not perfect. Just one of the bett…

I found /r/Games last year sometime, and you're right it's actually quite good so far...

Re: Newell's history of porting Doom to Windows to show it can be a gaming platform

#17

Post by sbarre »

nekopa wrote: post #10
sbarre wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Was this your first introduction to NeoGAF or other gaming boards? It's pretty depressing isn't it? It's the primary reason I stopped frequenting video game communities.. Which is a shame because I've been a gamer all my life, and I wish there was a vibrant (and large) community for intelligent discussion like Hacker News but that was game focused.. I'm sure there is somewhere, but I haven't found it..

It may take a while, but have you thought about starting one yourself like lobste.rs did? I think the code for HN is available somewhere(an older version at least) then just troll the gamer sites and give invites to those who contribute well to discussions.

Honestly: I would love to do something like that, I just don't have the time and energy to tackle that kind of thing.

Re: Newell's history of porting Doom to Windows to show it can be a gaming platform

#18

Post by agumonkey »

pjmlp wrote: post #2

Well, those of us that were already coding for Windows back then, remember that what brought game studios to Windows was WinG, the percursor of DirectX. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WinG Gabe Newell had nothing to do with it.

reading this took me down memory lane, I ended rediscovering windows midi songs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtoHxMWw354

Re: Newell's history of porting Doom to Windows to show it can be a gaming platform

#19

Post by lectrick »

ChrisClark wrote: post #15
sbarre wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Was this your first introduction to NeoGAF or other gaming boards? It's pretty depressing isn't it? It's the primary reason I stopped frequenting video game communities.. Which is a shame because I've been a gamer all my life, and I wish there was a vibrant (and large) community for intelligent discussion like Hacker News but that was game focused.. I'm sure there is somewhere, but I haven't found it..

You could try the highly moderated http://reddit.com/r/Games community. It was started in reaction to the horrible posts on /r/gaming. They even post warnings on threads that real /r/all where people not subscribed to /r/Gaming will see it and come in to comment. There is also /r/linux_gaming which will have better discussions on the Linux aspect of Valve's new developments. But it's not perfect. Just one of the bett…

There is also http://www.reddit.com/r/truegaming/

Re: Newell's history of porting Doom to Windows to show it can be a gaming platform

#20

Post by lectrick »

sbarre wrote: post #8
ekianjo wrote: post #3

OMG, the comments below that first post are full of ignorance. It's just so painful to see what people think and say of Linux (even the ones who defend it).

Was this your first introduction to NeoGAF or other gaming boards? It's pretty depressing isn't it? It's the primary reason I stopped frequenting video game communities.. Which is a shame because I've been a gamer all my life, and I wish there was a vibrant (and large) community for intelligent discussion like Hacker News but that was game focused.. I'm sure there is somewhere, but I haven't found it..

Check out http://www.reddit.com/r/truegaming/
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