Doom is one of the most iconic games ever made, the forerunner of all FPS. Equally iconic, is its soundtrack. A mix of thrash metal and suspenseful tones, the soundtrack really set the mood for the game. Probably the most iconic of those songs (we're all three levels of iconic now), the song to the very first level: E1M1. Standing for Episode 1 Map 1, this was every Doom player's first taste of the action. The track itself is actually called "At Doom's Gate", which is a fitting name since the first level is really the entryway into the game. (The first level of Doom 2 is called Entryway, as it turns out). The song itself is very evocative of the map it represents; it's a very quick and action packed song. Keys and environmental tricks like lifts (barring secrets) aren't introduced until the second level. For E1M1 it's just run 'n' shoot. To celebrate this track, we've compiled a list of covers of this song, everything from comedy, to intriguing, to full on headbanging enjoyment. Catch 'em after the break.
Posted on 21 September, 2016 at 08:18AM
Posted on 16 April, 2016 at 4:10PM
So if you don't know, id Software is running an open beta for the new Doom (confusing, yes it's just called "Doom"). Doom is going to come out on May 13th, so it’s about a month away. I spent some time with the open beta, and I have to say it’s looking promising. Just like Wolfenstein: The New Order, Doom is looking to be a good mix of old and new styles of shooters. However, the open beta is multiplayer only, and is pretty light on content so it’s too early to say for sure. While there are certainly things I love about this open beta, there are also things I don’t quite like about it.
Posted on 10 April, 2016 at 09:30AM
I remember when I first heard about Sega leaving the console hardware business. I was so confused! Sega had always been the counter to Nintendo. Nintendo made consoles, Sega made consoles, but now there were going to be Sega games on Nintendo consoles! For anyone who grew up in the 90’s, this was crazy news. We learned in hindsight, that Sega of Japan was ran by a group of rabid monkeys or something. Purposefully sabotaging their company due to their jealousy over the success of Sega of America. I can’t think of any other reason for the disastrous handling of the Sega Saturn here in the states. Anyway, for whatever reason, Sega continued to make high quality games (let’s ignore most of the Sonic series here), and these are my favorites:
Posted on 28 February, 2016 at 3:43PM
There isn't exactly a clear line of separation between "classic" and "modern" shooters, but if I had to choose one, it would be 2001's Halo: Combat Evolved. (Other people would probably choose Half Life). In any case, Halo clearly marks the beginning of the popularity of the so-callled "military shooter." Before this point, it was mostly about being a lone fighter, fending off countless enemies. But now suddenly, you're a part of a larger fighting force, a military. Again as I said, there is no clear line of separation, so this game definitely still holds onto some shooter staples of the past. However, the things it brought to the table have stayed with the genre (especially on consoles) into today. If you are into console FPS, this game should mean a lot to you. Basically, Halo picked up the torch where Perfect Dark, another influential console shooter, left off.
Posted on 3 August, 2015 at 4:56PM
Everyone who knows me knows I like my first person shooters old-school. Newer shooters are fine and dandy, but they lack flair. Old-school shooters have interesting weapons that can shoot everything from bullets to lightning. There's interesting weapons to use, and usually interesting enemies to use those weapons on. Newer shooters have... assault rifles that you use to shoot brown people. Okay okay, that's a generalization. But that's certainly what it feels like, especially when you're used to a game like Quake, which features the aforementioned lightning gun, and has an enemy that shoots grenades and has a chainsaw. I must not be the only one who thinks so, since classic FPS style games have seen a resurgence lately, what with the reboots of Rise of the Triad and Shadow Warrior. However, classic FPS' didn't do everything right, certainly not, so perhaps a combination of new and old shooters would be a good idea. To that end, we have Wolfenstein: The New Order.
Posted on 2 October, 2014 at 5:51PM
Posted on 28 May, 2014 at 4:56PM
The following C++ function does line-of-sight testing for a 2D game that uses tiles. The level map is a multidimensional array of integers (levelmap[LEVEL_HEIGHT][LEVEL_WIDTH]) that represent each tile; 0 signifies and empty tile, any number higher than that is solid. A vector2 is just a datatype that contains an object's x and y position.
// Check line of sight between two points (usually the camera/player)
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Posted on 7 May, 2014 at 7:01PM
This is very old news by this point, but I'd like to remind everyone that Nintendo is currently providing a special offer that allows you to get an additional game for free if you purchase Mario Kart 8. The offer in question only lasts between May 30, 2014 and July 31, 2014, so you must buy the game within that time frame to benefit. It should also be noted that a Club Nintendo account is required to take advantage of this offer, as you will need to register your copy of Mario Kart 8 on Ninte
Posted on 3 May, 2014 at 3:30PM
I absolutely love the Doom games, it's a close contender for my favorite game series. I love to get more Doom whenever I can, and thanks to all the mods and addons constantly being created that's never a problem. The guys at id Software felt the same way, they wanted more Doom even as they were making it. This is why they were very open to the modding community, and very open to licensing their engine to other companies. Midway handled the console ports of Doom to the Sony PlayStation and the Sega Saturn. However, when it came to the Nintendo 64 they decided to not just port the game and go with something more original. Originally titled Absolution, they went with the much less cool name of Doom 64.
Posted on 11 April, 2014 at 5:18PM
Update August 2016: The download link was broken, so that's been fixed. I have also added instructions down below.
One of the things that always irked me about Wolfenstein 3D is that its control scheme is a little too oldschool. The game features what I'd call 'strafe mode', instead of dedicated strafe keys, so you can't really play it like you would any other FPS. So online I found there's a top-notch port of Wolfenstein 3D to windows called Wolf4SDL. I grabbed the source code, made it so your left/right keys always make you strafe, and made it so the mouse doesn't move you forward/black, and boom, now I can actually play Wolf3D!
Download it here. Extract this zip into your Wolf3D folder. If you don't have Wolf3D, just go get the shareware version. Source code can be found here. This will not work with Spear of Destiny.