Red skull key

The red skull key is used to open designated locked doors. If the player encounters a locked door and attempts to open it without the correct key, the door will not open and the player will get a message saying so. Once he obtains the key, he can then open any locked red door on the map. Once you exit a map you lose all of your keys.

Doom also does not differentiate between the red skull key and the red keycard, though this was later changed first in the Boom source ports and is now the norm for most major ports.