One talented player has taken other retro titles like Quake. As one of the first major PC titles of the early 90s, both Doom and its 1994 sequel were instrumental in creating the PC modding community that continues to find new and imaginative ways to play popular video games to this day. Even now, Doom modders continue to reskin the groundbreaking title as a Legend of Zelda crossover or a tongue-in-cheek parody in which players “steal” NFTs with a camera.
Before all that, one popular challenge among Doom modders has been getting the game to run on all manner of devices - even those that aren’t known for playing video games at all. These unlikely Doom platforms have included potato-powered graphing calculators, over-the-counter pregnancy tests, an old-fashioned rotary phone, and even a single LEGO brick rigged to a tiny OLED video screen. Some modders have even managed to run Doom inside other video games like Minecraft and the retro-style 2017 platformer Sonic Mania - but few would think to try and play Doom within another copy of itself.
At least, not until the two running copies of Doom. Curious modders looking to try this out for themselves should take note that the code exploit that makes it possible was removed from later versions of Doom due to it potentially being used to spread malicious code, but they can run kgsws’s modded Doom-within-Doom on the DOS version of Doom available on Steam through DosBox.
Even as modders continue to find new and creative outlets to play the original Doom on, the series is enjoying a renaissance of sorts thanks to the successful release of 2020’s Doom Eternal. Meanwhile, Doom co-creator John Romero recently shared a rare CD copy of the original game’s final physical run, not too long after he helped release a brand-new Doom 2 level to raise relief funds for Ukraine. More recently, early gameplay footage of the unreleased Doom 4 was uncovered as part of a gaming YouTube documentary, showing a look into what eventually became 2016’s Doom reboot.
Doom and its sequels continue to have a presence among old-school gaming fans, especially in how modders are constantly figuring out new ways to play the FPS that started it all. This ever-growing list of things that will run Doom now includes Doom itself, allowing would-be Doomslayers to gun down hordes of cyber-demons on Mars in between rounds of gunning down cyber-demons on Mars. Only time will tell what device or game will be the next makeshift Doom platform, but for now it looks like kgsws could take the prize for the most unlikely and imaginative way to play the iconic FPS classic.
Source: kgsws/YouTube (via PC Gamer)