The original Doom is identical to the nineties, and it’s hard to imagine an FPS game happening at any other time. A couple of developers have now created a version of the horror game that looks like it came from the previous decade.
POOM by the eighties was Doom. Developed by Paranoid Cactus and Frederick Sachs, it is a remake of the old game using the virtual console PICO-8, which followed hardware limitations in the late eighties. This means a 128 × 128 display, 32K “cartridges”, four channels and eight waveforms for sound, and two six-button controllers mapped to a PC keyboard.
The IT software firm doesn’t look or sound very different here, the low reliability makes everything a little blurry, but at the synth-y ripping point. You will notice that this is not one of the limited buttons. If the four-way T-pad turns left and right, there is no strapping and no choice to run or walk. The other two buttons are separated between firing your weapon and pressing a button. Combined with the generous use of corridors, it is a touch claustrophobic compared to doom hand adventures of 1993 and above as open spaces are difficult to deliver at this level quickly.
You can enable POOM’s browser in itch.ov with the link above. If the keyboard is too sharp, it supports both the keyboard and the mouse. If you are looking for some weird, interesting little projects, it is very useful to look for the PICO-8 tag on the itch. You can find more information about trying PICO-8 yourself here.
Doom was finally sent to the Sega Mega Drive last week, where it narrowed to grayscale. The Nintendo game and watch, the sheep on the Minkraft, the custom PC on the Minkraft, and McDonald’s cash register are just a few other ways to get involved in some tears. Doom Eternal, a beef 2020 remake, came out on Game Boss this month.