Resurrected Entertainment

DOOM’s 21st Birthday

December 11, 2014

It’s hard to believe, but DOOM (or Smashing Pumpkins Into Small Pieces of Putrid Debris as it was known in some circles) was unleashed upon the world as Shareware on this date in 1993. The game was so popular that Microsoft had contemplated purchasing id Software in an effort to promote Windows 95 as a top-notch gaming platform; Bill Gates even featured himself in a video fighting the creatures of DOOM head on. DOOM fever had reached high enough levels inside Microsoft that a special Easter Egg was placed inside of Microsoft Excel 95 with a DOOM-like level called The Hall of Tortured Souls. Over the years, much has been said about this game and the team that created it, so I will not echo that history here, but here are some of the things the DOOM franchise has birthed into this world since its release:

  • It has sold over one million copies, but it has been pirated and downloaded many more times than that
  • DOOM – The movie starring Dwayne John (The Rock)
  • Masters of DOOM Book
  • The source code for the game was released in 1997 spawning numerous source ports to other platforms and revamped engines
  • The game engine has been licensed numerous times, even for such projects as promoting breakfast cereals like Chex
  • For four years after its release, people continued to refer to other 3D games as “DOOM clones”
  • DOOM board games and expansions
  • DOOM comic books and fantasy novels

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