Prerelease:Doom (PC, 1993)

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This page details prerelease information and/or media for Doom (PC, 1993).

Oh dear, I do believe I have the vapors.
This page contains content that is not safe for work or other locations with the potential for personal embarrassment.
Such as: Mentions of gore and some rather hurtful language, along with a depiction of a dismembered rabbit head.

To do:
A few todos...

This page might be in need of a slight clean-up.
More info about the game's development (in both the timeline and the page proper).
- Document when id Software was negotiating with the creators of the Alien franchise.
- Point when Tom Hall was fired/left id Software and the team decided to go with their own approach afterwards.
- Apogee Software (later known as 3D Realms) were apparently going to publish the game, before id decided to self-publish, find a bit more info of this.
This page could possibly be split into a few subpages.
More sources and verification for everything mentioned.

"DOOM-where the sanest place is behind a trigger."

Development Timeline

1992

May-September - Between the release of Wolfenstein 3D and Spear of Destiny, John Carmack begins working on experimental game engines.
Late 1992 - The concept of Doom is pitched.
November - The game starts development.
November 28 - Tom Hall finishes work on the Doom Bible.
December - Tom Hall is forced to rework the Doom Bible.

1993

January 1st - id issues a press release announcing Doom.
February 4th - The Doom 0.2 prototype is complied
Early 1993 - A demo is shown to Computer Gaming World by id.
February 28 - The Doom 0.3 prototype is complied.
April 2 - The Doom 0.4 prototype is compiled.
May 22nd - The Doom 0.5 prototype is complied. It is notable for being the last prototype compiled while Tom Hall was still working for id.
July - Tom Hall is fired by id Software due to creative differences.
September - Tom Hall is replaced with Sandy Peterson.
October 4th - The Press Release Pre-Beta is complied and sent to the press.
Circa. November - John Carmack begans to add multiplayer to the game.
December 10th - At midnight, the shareware version of Doom is released.

Early Development

Engine Development

After the release of Wolfenstein 3D the game's team goes to work on its expansion/sequel Spear of Destiny, except John Carmack. Carmack instead began researching and developing experimental game engines, he would develop an engine that included texture mapping, slopping and other enhancements compared to Wolfenstein 3D, which later become the Doom Engine (retroactively called id Tech 1).

Notably one of these engines he developed, a modified variant of the Wolfenstein 3D engine (later known as the Raven Engine) was later used for Raven Software's 1993 game ShadowCaster.

The "Aliens" Connection

Originally, id Software wanted to develop a game based on the Alien franchise and were in negotiations with rights holder 20th Century Fox to acquire the licence, however at the last-minute id had decided bail out due to a desire for total creative control, something that a licensed game would not have allowed. John Carmack would then suggest that the team pursue a concept similar to Alien except with hellspawn and demons instead, this would set up the game as we know it today.

Some elements of Alien would go on to influence Doom, with a bit of the Evil Dead series thrown in for good measure.

The Hellspawn Cometh

Another possible inspiration for the idea to use demons might have come from a campaign of Dungeons & Dragons that the id team had played around the same time they bailed from the deal with Fox, where the game had ended with demons being unleashed into the world and overrunning it.

Origin of the name

The game went under the working title of Green and Pissed (not to be confused with Wolfenstein 3D's working title) but John Carmack would conceive the game's final title based on a line from the movie The Color of Money

Press Release

The press release announcing the game and the capabilities of its engine:

Id Software
1515 N. Town East Blvd. #138-297, Mesquite, TX  75150

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:        Jay Wilbur
FAX:            1-214-686-9288
Email:          jay@idsoftware.com (NeXTMail O.K.)
Anonymous FTP:  ftp.uwp.edu (/pub/msdos/games/id)
CIS:            72600,1333

Id Software to Unleash DOOM on the PC

Revolutionary Programming and Advanced Design Make For Great
Gameplay

DALLAS, Texas, January 1, 1993-Heralding another technical
revolution in PC programming, Id Software's DOOM promises to
push back the boundaries of what was thought possible on a 386sx
or better computer.  The company plans to release DOOM for the
PC in the third quarter of 1993, with versions planned for 
Windows, Windows NT, and a version for the NeXTall to be
released later.

In DOOM, you play one of four off-duty soldiers suddenly thrown
into the middle of an interdimensional war!  Stationed at a
scientific research facility, your days are filled with tedium
and paperwork.  Today is a bit different.  Wave after wave of
demonic creatures are spreading through the base, killing or
possessing everyone in sight.  As you stand knee-deep in the
dead, your duty seems clear-you must eradicate the enemy and
find out where they're coming from.  When you find out the
truth, your sense of reality may be shattered!

The first episode of DOOM will be shareware.  When you register,
you'll receive the next two episodes, which feature a journey
into another dimension, filled to its hellish horizon with fire
and flesh.  Wage war against the infernal onslaught with machine
guns, missile launchers, and mysterious supernatural weapons. 
Decide the fate of two universes as you battle to survive! 
Succeed and you will be humanity's heroes; fail and you will
spell its doom.

The game takes up to four players through a futuristic world,
where they may cooperate or compete to beat the invading
creatures.  It boasts a much more active environment than Id's
previous effort, Wolfenstein 3-D, while retaining the
pulse-pounding action and excitement.  DOOM features a fantastic
fully texture-mapped environment, a host of technical tour de
forces to surprise the eyes, multiple player option, and smooth
gameplay on any 386 or better.

John Carmack, Id's Technical Director, is very excited about
DOOM: Wolfenstein is primitive compared to DOOM.  We're doing
DOOM the right way this time.   I've had some very good insights
and optimizations that will make the DOOM engine perform at a
great frame rate.  The game runs fine on a 386sx, and on a
486/33, we're talking 35 frames per second, fully texture-mapped
at normal detail, for a large area of the screen.  That's the
fastest texture-mapping around-period.

Texture mapping, for those not following the game magazines, is
a technique that allows the program to place fully-drawn art on
the walls of a 3-D maze.  Combined with other techniques,
texture mapping looked realistic enough in Wolfenstein 3-D that
people wrote Id complaining of motion sickness.  In DOOM, the
environment is going to look even more realistic.  Please make
the necessary preparations.

A Convenient DOOM Blurb

DOOM (Requires 386sx, VGA, 2 Meg) Id Software's DOOM is
real-time, three-dimensional, 256-color, fully texture-mapped,
multi-player battle from the safe shores of our universe into
the horrifying depths of the netherworld!    Choose one of four
characters and you're off to war with hideous hellish hulks bent
on chaos and death!  See your friends bite it!  Cause your
friends to bite it!  Bite it yourself!  And if you won't bite
it, there are plenty of demonic denizens to bite it for you!

DOOM-where the sanest place is behind a trigger.


An Overview of DOOM Features:

        Texture-Mapped Environment

DOOM offers the most realistic environment to date on the PC. 
Texture-mapping, the process of rendering fully-drawn art and
scanned textures on the walls, floors, and ceilings of an
environment, makes the world much more real, thus bringing the
player more into the game experience.  Others have attempted
this, but DOOM's texture mapping is fast, accurate, and
seamless.  Texture-mapping the floors and ceilings is a big
improvement over Wolfenstein.  With their new advanced graphic
development techniques, allowing game art to be generated five
times faster, Id brings new meaning to "state-of-the-art".

        Non-Orthogonal Walls

Wolfenstein's walls were always at ninety degrees to each other,
and were always eight feet thick.  DOOM's walls can be at any
angle, and be of any thickness.  Walls can have see-through
areas, change shape, and animate.  This allows more natural
construction of levels.  If you can draw it on paper, you can
see it in the game.

        Light Diminishing/Light Sourcing

Another touch adding realism is light diminishing.  With
distance, your surroundings become enshrouded in darkness.  This
makes areas seem huge and intensifies the experience.  Light
sourcing allows lamps and lights to illuminate hallways,
explosions to light up areas, and strobe lights to briefly
reveal things near them.  These two features will make the game
frighteningly real.

        Variable Height Floors and Ceilings

Floors and ceilings can be of any height, allowing for  stairs,
poles, altars, plus low hallways and high caves-allowing a great
variety for rooms and halls.

        Environment Animation and Morphing

Walls can move and transform in DOOM, which provides an
active-and sometimes actively hostile-environment.  Rooms can
close in on you, ceilings can plunge down to crush you, and so
on.  Nothing is for certain in DOOM.

To this Id has added the ability to have animated messages on
the walls, information terminals, access stations, and more. 
The environment can act on you, and you can act on the
environment.  If you shoot the walls, they get damaged, and stay
damaged.  Not only does this add realism, but provides a crude
method for marking your path, like violent bread crumbs.

        Palette Translation

Each creature and wall has its own palette which is translated
to the game's palette.  By changing palette colors, one can have
monsters of many colors, players with different weapons,
animating lights, infrared sensors that show monsters or hidden
exits, and many other effects, like indicating monster damage.

        Multiple Players

Up to four players can play over a local network, or two players
can play by modem or serial link.  You can see the other player
in the environment, and in certain situations you can switch to
their view.  This feature, added to the 3-D realism, makes DOOM
a very powerful cooperative game and its release a landmark
event in the software industry.

This is the first game to really exploit the power of LANs and
modems to their full potential.  In 1993, we fully expect to be
the number one cause of decreased productivity in businesses
around the world.

        Smooth, Seamless Gameplay

The environment in DOOM is frightening, but the player can be at
ease when playing.  Much effort has been spent on the
development end to provide the smoothest control on the user
end.  And the frame rate (the rate at which the screen is
updated) is high, so you move smoothly from room to room,
turning and acting as you wish, unhampered by the slow jerky
motion of most 3-D games.  On a 386sx, the game runs well, and
on a 486/33, the normal mode frame rate is faster than movies or
television.  This allows for the most important and enjoyable
aspect of gameplay-immersion.

        An Open Game

When our last hit, WOLFENSTEIN 3D was released the public
responded with an almost immediate  deluge of home-brewed
utilities; map editors, sound editors,  trainers, etc.  All
without any help on file formats or game layout from Id
Software.  DOOM will be release as an OPEN GAME.   We will
provide file formats and technical notes for anyone who wants
them.   People will be able to easily write and share anything
from their own map editors to  communications and network
drivers.

DOOM will be available in the third quarter of 1993.

(Source: Lee Killough's Doom Archive)

A few things that didn't make the cut or were changed:

The four defined characters were dropped in favor of each player being a nameless Marine.
The RAM requirement by the time of release was doubled from 2MB to 4MB.
Walls cannot change shape or move in the final engine. In the engine used for Hexen, however, walls have the ability to rotate and move in a straight line, though not at the same time
Messages are never displayed on walls, there are no access terminals or anything of the sort, and walls can't be visibly damaged outside of patches left by weapons and projectiles. Some of these have reappeared in fan-made WADs (Message Walls appear in Wraith Corporation's Hell To Pay, and Eternal Doom is notorious for its use of breakable walls hiding secrets and necessary level progression).
Palette translation is never used to indicate different player weapons, hidden areas, or monster damage.

The Doom Bible

The Doom Bible was written by Tom Hall for the development of Doom, but it would soon be decided by the rest of id Software that The Doom Bible was to be mostly ignored. The only thing from The Doom Bible that survived was the name "Knee-Deep in the Dead", which would be used as the name of Episode 1.

A Visit to ID Software

A 32-minute video recorded in November 1993 by Dan Linton, operator of the Software Creations BBS. The first third is a tour of the id Software office (showing id employees and associates Adrian Carmack, Shawn Green, Sandy Petersen, John Romero, Dave Taylor, Jay Wilbur, and Bobby Prince), with the rest being gameplay footage. Joe Siegler from Apogee Software/3D Realms discovered a VHS tape with this footage in 2009 and sent it to Romero, who digitized it and uploaded it on Vimeo.

The video quality is poor for the gameplay portions since the game footage was obtained by filming the monitor, but it reveals a few things about the development of the game, as it was recorded a bit less than a month after the release of the press release beta and about two months before the first public release. The id crew makes many comments about the game and levels during the demonstration, drawing attention to various map details and engine features, as well as bugs not yet fixed.

The game still has a number of major bugs such as, when finishing a level, often crashing with a Z_Malloc error message and a helpful notice telling the player not to worry about the "file not found" error.

Interface

HUD messages (such as item pickups) are displayed right above the status bar instead of at the top of the screen. The game displays the last three messages.
The ouch face is displayed while walking on damaging floors. The face is also shown when taking heavy damage, as seen at the end of E1M3 and E1M4's crushing ceiling.
On the intermission screen, the statistics are aligned horizontally as KILL, ITEM, and SCRT, rather than vertically.
The level music continues on the intermission screen, instead of it having its own theme ("Intermission from DOOM", also used for E2M3).

Sound Effects

As a placeholder, the SNES Wolfenstein 3D sound effects are used. All the monsters have the same death scream, and all the weapons have the same firing noise (a rather weak one, at that) - even the chainsaw, which as a result sounds like a chaingun.
As in the press release version when sound is enabled, there is no volume attenuation with distance.
Unmodified GENMIDI lump from DMX SDK is used, resulting in different OPL music sound.
Imps' firing noise is different.
One of the devs comments that they intend to make the Shotgun Guy's death sound deeper than the Zombieman's in order to make them seem stronger.

Misc.

Bonus items are still treasures instead of health and armor bonuses. However, the demonic dagger already functions as a health bonus, and the skull chest as armor bonus. The unholy bible and evil sceptres, present in the beta, were already removed from the game.
Imp fireballs are still using the beta graphics (smaller and with four points, somewhat like a red plasma ball).
Health and armor seem uncapped. Picking up skull chests after a blue armor increases the armor rating past 200%. The supercharge gives 100 points of both health and armor, so picking up one with 147% health and 203% armor adds 100 points to each instead of capping at 200. A similar powerup would appear in the sequel, in the form of the Megasphere,
Keys still appear in deathmatch. They remain behind when picked up so that another player can also pick them up.
Deathmatch uses regular player starts due to not being a distinct game mode yet - it is simply co-op with belligerent players.
Sprites can be seen through doors as they open, indicating there were still glitches in the drawsegs sorting algorithm.
Sprites for gibbed enemies and door-crushed corpses differ significantly.
The rendering engine still runs in VGA Mode 13h, as evident from lack of shimmering in the hall of mirrors effect.
One of the devs comments that, upon trying to exit the game, that the game should say things like "Die, faggot!". It's probably for the best this wan't kept in.

Levels

The exit rooms feature a nonfunctional door, making it seem like a switch-activated airlock.

E1M1

No bonus items are present.
The green armor tower is behind a secret door, and contains a shotgun instead. The green armor and its pedestal are instead right in front of the secret door.
The computer room is not present. Instead, there is a length of detailed corridor with a large bay window to the right and an elevated area to the left.
The nukage pool in the secret courtyard has a supercharge instead of a blue armor.
The room before the exit does not have any barrels.

E1M2

The red key aisle is still accessed by lifts rather than by stairways.
The music track is "Dark Halls" (E1M3) instead of "The Imp's Song".
The backpack secret in the computer maze area contains a rocket launcher instead of a backpack.
The game crashes after picking up the above rocket launcher, so the rest of the level is not seen.

E1M3

The music track is "Waiting For Romero To Play" (Doom II MAP18) instead of "Dark Halls".
The hidden window opening from the left part of the map to the center room before the secret exit is behind a computer screen showing the "PLANET1" texture. Once opened, visibility is reduced by BRNBIGR+BRNBIGL midtexture combination.

E1M4

The start room has a UAC logo (SHAWN1) in it.
The courtyard is not yet open to the sky. The skylight instead is textured with FLAT9.
The northeastern room is still textured with GRAY7 instead of the final STARTAN3.
The northeastern room's "one-time-only" lift raises into the ceiling, triggering a massive HOM from which Romero escapes by no-clipping back into a playable part of the level. Interestingly, the HOM does not show the classic flashing effect that gives HOM its name, suggesting that at this point Doom was not yet using a triple-buffered "Mode Y" graphical mode, but was possibly still running in Mode 13h.

E1M5

The stairways/corridors circling around the western nukage pit do not have their monster closet traps yet.

(Source: Doom Wiki)

Concept Art

Adrian Carmack along with Kevin Cloud drew some monster and demon designs to be used within the game. Some scans were used for the game and put into clay models, and some were redrawn.

Doom Bible

Episode 2

Along with the Doom Bible, maps were drawn to set the story of the game on where the Marine would head. This is constructed as Episode 2's map, but all of the locations would put the basis for Episode 3. Episode 2 in the final game is located on Deimos, and resorts above Hell. Episode 2 is the bridge to Hell, and has a half sci-fi and half demon theme. Some of these locations would cease to exist, and some of these locations became levels in the final game.

"Temple of the Summoner" possibly became Hell Keep, as both buildings look similar in design.
"Fleshhils" (Fleshkills?) or "Belly of the Beast" possibly became Slough of Despair, as both areas along with the in-game level look as if they are supposed to be within a lower elevated area
"Castle of the Dukes(?)" likely became Pandemonium, both are similar in design.
No related location for House of Pain seems to exist.
"The Unholy Shrine" became the Unholy Cathedral, also had their location switched in the final game after House of Pain, which is one level prior instead of being directly after Pandemonium. Unholy Cathedral was also downgraded to just a spot on the map where the mouth of a bloody waterfall/lava waterfall exists and not a physical building, but yet in the game IT IS some sort of cathedral.
No related location for Mt. Erebus seems to exist.
No related location for Gate to Limbo seems to exist.
"Gates of Dis" likely was just shortened to Dis in the final game. ~~Dis is such a downgrade.~~

Unnamed Marine, "Doomguy"

Armor for the head and torso, along with a view of what the Marine would see when wearing the helmet. This visor view would actually be used for the first few prototypes, until it was later removed. Second sketch shows a more finalized design.

A drawing of what the Marine would look like. The helmet and the torso are somewhat different.

Monsters

Baron of Hell

The Baron appears to be more beefier than what it looks like in the game. This specific pose was used for the last frame of the Baron's fireball/melee attack, and the head of this sketch was later used for a marble wall texture, seen in the development page. The basis of the Baron would be reused for the Hell Knight in Doom 2 later on.

Cyberdemon

The Cyberdemon's rocket launcher has some minor changes, and looks closer to the one's from the cover of the game rather than the in-game design. This specific pose was also used for the forward facing frame when the Cyberdemon shot a rocket.

Arch-Vile

This specific piece of art of the Arch-Vile was used for the marble wall texture, similarly to the Baron. Later on, this head would eventually become the enemy that is the Arch-Vile. Noticeably, there are tubes that attach from the jaw and to the head, similarly to the wires of the Spider Mastermind, which the model used for Doom 2 doesn't have them.

Icon of Sin

The Icon of Sin isn't actually different by any means, but this scan was used for the marble texture (albeit with a pentagram added in the background) and with the teleporter texture (albeit traced over) used in E1M8 after you fight the "Bruiser Brothers" (the two Barons) that leads you to your "death," which is debated if the Marine dies or not in that room. And of course, later the whole scan was reused for the wall texture for the Icon of Sin and the end screen in Doom 2.

Spiderdemon/Spider Mastermind

Spiderdemon has the most changes compared to the other demons. Spiderdemon in this case looks like Krang from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles mixed with the Leader-Brain from Invaders from Mars with not one, but two chain guns. The drawing seems to be unfinished.

Ending Screens

Episode 3

The first sketch has very little detail and more or less a rough draft of how the scene would be set. It appears the viewer would not only see her decapitated head, but the rest of her body too; even more gruesome. The second sketch is a little more detailed, but still a bit sloppy. It looks as if this is to give an idea of how the cutscene would be displayed in the game. It is worth noting that there is circles within the building in the middle, which would probably be windows, and no windows can be seen in the completed sketch and within the game. The final image shows the final sketch, and not too much is different, besides the shading of the buildings, fire, and smoke compared to how they look in terms of shading within the game. Poor Daisy.

Textures

Generic Walls

The raw detailed drawings of SW11_, WALL02, and TP2_1 textures and their variations before digitizing.

Snake and Spine Walls

The source drawing of the spine and snake skin wall textures.

Pre-Production Clay Models

After Adrian and Kevin made the sketches of the characters, Gregor Punchatz (the son of Don Ivan Punchatz, the artist who made the game's cover surprisingly) made models of the characters.