Doom (SNES)

Doom
Developer: Sculptured Software Publishers: Williams (US), Ocean (EU), Imagineer (JP) Platform: SNES Released in JP: March 1, 1996 Released in US: September 1995 Released in EU: October 26, 1995 This game has uncompiled source code. This game has a hidden developer message. This game has hidden developer credits. This game has unused graphics. This game has regional differences.

The SNES version of Doom is interesting for a number of reasons - it had a spiffy red cartridge, for one thing, and came with XBAND support for online multiplayer - but most notable is that it doesn’t run under the actual Doom engine, but instead a custom “Reality engine” built for the port.

As such, it fares quite a bit better than what one might expect, managing to bring over most of the game with more accurate level geometry than most of the 90’s console ports and only cutting a few levels along the way. It’s also fully uncensored and has a pretty rockin’ version of the soundtrack.

That said, the ugly graphics, lousy draw distance, poor framerate and removal of several important features (including circle-strafing and monster infighting) render it a pretty miserable experience when playing it today, but it’s still an impressive technical achievement that pushes the SNES (and the SuperFX chip) to its absolute limits.

And hey, it’s still better than the 3DO version...

In 2020, the programmer released the source code to the public.

Programmer Messages

Present at ROM address 0x80810E:

Rage/Reality Engine written by Randy Linden.
Special thanks to my loving wife, Jodi Harvey.

Also, the Episode 1 sky texture (stored as an uncompressed 8bpp graphic at 0x8000) contains an additional message that is not actually visible in-game without somehow clipping outside of the boundaries of the map:

(Source: TheRetroMike)

Unused Mugshots

A set of unused mugshots for Doomguy is present in the ROM. According to the developer they were used in the XBAND multiplayer mode.

(Source: source needed)

Uncompiled Code

A small amount of uncompiled source code can be found in the data for several music tracks. This is only visible in SPC RAM after the data has been decompressed from ROM.

mov tempword,A            ; save ID code
mov PlayChan+X,A
mov PlayCurVelocity+

Hidden Credits

After booting the game and letting the game reach the title screen (so that resetting skips the copyright spiel and publisher splash screen), reset the game three times to bring up a hidden credits screen overlaid on the title screen. Another four resets will bring up a second page.

These credits only list the Sculptured Software team (i.e. no Id or publisher staff) and, curiously, use construction metaphors instead of normal job titles.

John Coffey made a series of edits to the game's levels with the idea of offering a unique experience for the Super Nintendo port. These modifications were rejected by id Software, who wanted to keep the game as faithful as possible to the PC original.

Page 1	Page 2

Regional Differences

To do: Add text sequences from US release.

• The hidden credits sequence mentioned above has been disabled in the European release. The Japanese version goes a little further and removes the unique soft-reset handling.
• Japanese version shows the credits when you beat the game.
• In the US and European releases, difficulty settings restrict what episodes you can play, with the full game only playable on Hurt me Plenty, Ultra-Violence and Nightmare settings. In the Japanese version, all episodes are available on all difficulties.
• Enemies appear on the automap to an extent, sort of like the IDDT cheat in the PC version but more intelligent (i.e. only showing living monsters, not any actor).
• Different regions have a different publisher logo splash screen before the title screen.

US	Europe	Japan

• The end screen text in the Japanese version has been completely rewritten, in favour of some much simpler English.

Knee-Deep in the Dead	The Shores of Hell	Inferno