Sony PlayStation



The Sony PlayStation version of Doom was a conversion of The Ultimate Doom and Doom II by Williams Entertainment. It was released on November 16, 1995 and ran with a modified version of the Doom engine used in the Atari Jaguar port. The PlayStation version of Final Doom was also released by the same team on October 1, 1996.

Multiplayer was unusual in that splitscreen was unavailable; two consoles had to be linked together instead. This made the multiplayer truer to the original, but it was done at the sacrifice of accessibility. Presumably two players (or more) running on one console would reduce the speed of the game dramatically.

Final Doom on the PlayStation used the same engine and team who brought Doom onto the PlayStation. It included a mixture of 30 levels from Master Levels for Doom II (13 of 21 levels available), TNT: Evilution (11 of 32 levels available), and The Plutonia Experiment (6 of 32 levels available). The instruction booklet, however, erroneously states within that the game contains 30+ levels. Although the box does not mention the Master Levels, the back cover of the instructions indeed acknowledges their inclusion. Final Doom also has support for the PlayStation Mouse which the original Doom did not.

John Romero is quoted on the back cover of the PlayStation version of Doom, calling this the "best DOOM yet" and is credited as "Creator of DOOM".

Gameplay
The game has enhancements, updates to the graphics engine, including higher color depth, alpha blending, and colorized sectors.

Like the Jaguar version from which it was based, it contains extensive changes to the map geometry for many levels, mainly for performance reasons. Most notable is that a room is kept with a small usage of textures. Maps with large vertical distances also include modifications. However, most of the geometry changes are only present in maps from the three episodes of the original Doom, since these were taken directly from the already-simplified maps used in the Jaguar port; maps taken directly from "Thy Flesh Consumed" of The Ultimate Doom and Doom II tend to feature very few geometry changes compared to the original versions. There is noticeable slowdown in some of The Ultimate Doom and Final Doom levels, particularly when using the highest difficulty setting.

The game uses a significantly less amount of enemies, especially the Cyberdemon and the Spiderdemon bosses, which appear less frequently in order to achieve a much more imposing presence (a counter-part to the PC versions where they are used in map tricks). There is no Arch-vile (because he had twice as many animation frames as the other monsters, and the developers "just couldn't do him justice" on the PSX) and the Icon of Sin is not in the game (instead, the final level "Redemption Denied" contains multiple Barons of Hell and one or two Spider Masterminds depending on the skill level).

The game includes all of the enemies, weapons, and items of Doom II in early Ultimate Doom levels, including the first episode. A new type of Spectre, the Nightmare Spectre, was added. The regular Spectre looks like a partially invisible Demon, whereas the Nightmare Spectre is dark cyan and tougher.

Exclusive levels

 * MAP16: Hell Gate (from Jaguar Doom)
 * MAP17: Hell Keep (from Jaguar Doom, entirely different map from the PC version)
 * MAP29: Twilight Descends
 * MAP30: Threshold of Pain (final level of Ultimate Doom)
 * MAP54: Redemption Denied (final level of Doom II)
 * MAP57: The Marshes (secret level, entrance from Twilight Descends)
 * MAP58: The Mansion (secret level, entrance from Suburbs)
 * MAP59: Club Doom (super secret level, entrance from The Mansion)

Removed Doom levels include Hell Keep, Slough of Despair, Dis, and Warrens. Removed The Ultimate Doom levels include They Will Repent, Against Thee Wickedly, And Hell Followed, and Fear. Removed Doom II levels include Downtown, Industrial Zone, Gotcha!, The Chasm, The Spirit World, The Living End, Icon of Sin, Wolfenstein, and Grosse.

The Sony PlayStation was the only console to receive a port of Final Doom. Again, many levels were missing, and many of the Master Levels were included in PlayStation Final Doom, despite the Master Levels not being part of either TNT: Evilution or The Plutonia Experiment on the PC.

Differences between the PlayStation and PC versions
Generally speaking, The Ultimate Doom and Doom II are different halves of the same game on the Sony PlayStation. They are included on the same disc, playing through as a two-episode game (titled "Ultimate Doom" and "Doom II" on the main menu), beginning in Ultimate Doom's "The Hangar". Monsters and weapons from Doom II appear throughout Ultimate Doom and Ultimate Doom's secret maps are ordered after the final map of Doom II.

Ultimate Doom itself is not split into further episodes, playing instead as 30 continuous maps. Intermission text only appears once the player completes Ultimate Doom and, later, Doom II segments of the game. The intermission text is read out in a distorted and somewhat sarcastic voice.

The Super Shotgun in The Ultimate Doom

The Super Shotgun can be obtained in The Ultimate Doom by cheating to receive all the weapons, or legitimately through the PlayStation-exclusive secret map "The Marshes". Since The Marshes is accessible from the penultimate map of Ultimate Doom, and the super shotgun can therefore only be used in Ultimate Doom maps which are exclusive to the PlayStation port (The Marshes and Threshold of Pain), the impact of this weapon in Ultimate Doom is negligible.

The PlayStation port is the only version of Doom in which the player can obtain the super shotgun in a map in The Ultimate Doom.

Music and Sound Effects

Visual Features and Limitations
 * Largely pre-recorded ambient background music for all levels using a simplistic form of wave sequencing, rather than wavetable/MIDI generated audio. Aubrey Hodges created the music and reused a slightly modified rendition of the symphonic rock/metal theme in Doom 64. In interviews, Hodges explains that he made "weird noises" into a soft drink carton to create some of the sound effects and he obtained samples for his instruments from a variety of bizarre sources, including a bee trapped in a coke can.
 * Hodges' music creates a darker, more threatening atmosphere than Bobby Prince's tracks for the PC. PlayStation Doom's themes include melancholy music, howling wind, the cries of babies, distorted voices, and hoarse breathing. Comparison between the soundtracks of Hodges and Prince are difficult due to their widely different natures.
 * PlayStation Doom is the only port with a music track featuring "lyrics" - or at least spoken, distorted words. A somewhat similar idea was later used in the game Duke Nukem 64.
 * Nearly all of the sound effects are different to the PC version and were reused in Doom 64. These sound effects do not appear in any other version of Doom.
 * Sound effects will echo in closed-off parts of the levels (any area with a ceiling).
 * "Club Doom", the port's exclusive super-secret level, is the only map in any version of Doom in which the music changes as you progress through the map. This effect can now be achieved on the PC using modern source ports.

Monster Use
 * Maps generally appear darker in the PlayStation port than the PC version and other ports. The PlayStation actually rendered the maps brighter than the PC equivalents, so maps were generally darkened between 33-50%, making them appear generally more shadowy than the PC originals.
 * To optimize the game for the PlayStation, some map areas were simplified; most noticeably, staircases with large numbers of 8-high steps were modified to have fewer steps of height 16. Sectors with large numbers of vertices were either omitted or had the number of vertices reduced.
 * Tall sectors generally have their heights reduced to prevent texture tiling issues, due to a technical limitation of the PlayStation's hardware. Zero-height sectors are sometimes used to prevent "glitches" in the display of taller sectors.
 * Maps are limited to no more than sixteen separate types of flat texture due to available memory.
 * Maps feature colorized sectors.
 * There are animated wall textures (malfunctioning computer screen) in the PlayStation version of Doom. However, there is a smaller variety of computer screen textures.
 * The sky texture used on many maps is an animated fire texture.
 * Crushing ceilings are not as commonly used in the PlayStation port as they are in the PC version.
 * Windows affording views of complicated or wide-open areas of the map are removed or shortened, for example in The Ultimate Doom's "Sever the Wicked". However, some maps do feature large, open areas, such as Sever the Wicked, Suburbs, Subterra, and the courtyard area of Vesperas.
 * Some textures were reduced in size.
 * Some animations, such as firing the rocket launcher, had frames cut.
 * There are different decorative items, such as a bloody hook (mentioned below).
 * There are no Nazi-themed textures or music since the secret levels "Wolfenstein" and "Grosse" are not present in the PlayStation port. Every map is Doom-related with no crossovers into other id Software games.

Technical Features and Limitations
 * The use of different monster types was limited by available RAM. This primarily affects the larger, more complicated monsters like the Mancubus and Spider Mastermind. These monsters were replaced on certain maps or removed altogether in order to avoid a game crash upon the level being loaded. For example, Mancubi are replaced by Hell Knights in Doom II's "The Abandoned Mines", and there is no Spider Mastermind in the Doom II level "The Factory" (one would appear in the PC version when played co-operatively on Ultra-Violence).
 * PlayStation Final Doom has some very noticeable changes regarding the deployment of monsters in maps. For example, the Mancubus, Baron of Hell, and Cyberdemon only appear in one map each. The Spider Mastermind does not appear at all, due to levels selected for the PlayStation port and the above-mentioned RAM limits.
 * The Arch-Vile enemy has a memory-intensive nature (due to a very large number of frames) and therefore does not appear at all in PlayStation Doom or Final Doom, being replaced by the decorative item of a hanging, bloody hook. This hook does not appear in the PC version.
 * There is also no Icon of Sin boss, nor are there Nazi soldier enemies.
 * A new monster, the "Nightmare Spectre", was created for this port. It is similar to the original Spectre but dark cyan in color with twice as much health. This monster uses the same sprite set as the Demon and Spectre and therefore does not impose any extra load on the PlayStation's RAM. The Nightmare Spectre may be used as a Hell Knight and Arch-Vile replacement on some maps - for example, Doom II's "The Inmost Dens", in which there are no Arch-Viles. The Nightmare Spectre is essentially a Pink Demon with specific flags to alter its color, transparency, and health.
 * A transparent Cacodemon appears in the PlayStation version of "The Tenements", due to this monster having the same flag as a Spectre demon. The Caco-spectre appears in a cage above a pit of brown nukage, but since it is very likely the player will kill the creature without approaching it, players are unlikely to notice its transparency. This single Cacodemon is the only creature in the entire PlayStation port - apart from Spectres and Nightmare Spectres - to have the Spectre flag set.
 * As the player is unable to save their game within a map, the difficulty and tension of each map are significantly increased, since the player must complete the map in one sitting.
 * There are significantly fewer maps from The Plutonia Experiment included in PlayStation Final Doom than there are Master Levels and TNT: Evilution maps. The Plutonia Experiment was described by its creators as much more difficult than TNT: Evilution or Doom II as it features a significant number of resource-intensive monsters. However, there is no official reason why The Plutonia Experiment was all but excluded from the PlayStation port.

Secret Levels
 * Occasionally, issues in Doom and Final Doom are corrected in the PlayStation ports.
 * The frame rate tends to lag somewhat compared to the PC version on larger or more populated levels, leading to slightly slower paced gameplay.
 * Theoretically, any monster in the game could have flags set to turn it into a "Spectre" (transparent) or "Nightmare Spectre" (transparent, negative colors, increased health) without additional load on the available RAM. However, apart from the single Cacodemon mentioned previously, only some Pink Demons have these flags set. This may mean Nightmare Cyberdemons were possible, for example.
 * The appearance of the status bar is different. The one used in this game has a darker tone (more black rather than gray in the original) and only lists remaining ammunition for the weapon the player is currently using. It also indicates which weapon is being used.
 * Weapons must be cycled through since there is no way to directly select a specific weapon. Weapons can be cycled forwards or backwards. The player can cycle through weapons while the game is paused but the weapon will not be drawn until the game is unpaused.
 * There is an added status bar face gib animation.
 * Corpses crushed by a door, lift, or crushing ceiling make a "gibbing" sound effect.
 * The Super Shotgun has a different appearance in the North American and European versions of Final Doom.
 * The Super Shotgun occupies weapon slot 4 on this port, unlike the original in which it shares slot 3. This means that the chaingun, rocket launcher, plasma rifle and BFG occupy slots 5, 6, 7 and 8 respectively.
 * The I'm too young to die skill level is renamed I am a wimp.
 * There is no Nightmare! skill level.
 * There are no -fast or -respawn parameters for the monsters, nor is there any other way to modify gameplay except for choosing the difficulty level.
 * From the main menu, players can start at the beginning of Ultimate Doom in the map "Hangar" or the beginning of Doom II in "Entryway".
 * There is only one type of Deathmatch; all weapons and most items respawn a short time after collection.
 * There are different cheat codes, including an x-ray vision cheat.
 * Passwords are used for keeping track of game progress; while they store numbers as map level, skill level, health, armor and ammo, the numbers for the latter three tend to be rounded. This game does not support the PlayStation Memory Card.
 * Health and armor bonuses are worth 2% instead of 1%.


 * PlayStation Doom has a number of secret levels, some exclusive to the console.
 * PlayStation Final Doom has no secret levels.
 * "The Marshes", a secret level accessible through PlayStation exclusive map "Twilight Descends", is very difficult to reach without two players working in conjunction. There is a significant distance between a switch and the platform it lowers; a single player has only seconds to cross this distance, requiring them to navigate a curved corridor to do so. It is still possible for a skilled player to access the secret exit alone. "The Marshes" is the only level in The Ultimate Doom (in any version of the game) where the player can legitimately acquire the Super Shotgun.

Bugs

 * A rocket launcher blast originating from a player's rocket launcher shot does not do any damage to him/herself whenever he/she is facing a corner where the walls are aligned in an angle of 90 degrees. The player must also be facing slightly off the corner's edge and be as close to it as possible. A series of images demonstrating the phenomenon in the Final Doom level Crater can be viewed here: [1] [2] [3] [4]
 * A glitch where the screen turns black and the text "TEXTURE CACHE OVERFLOW" is displayed may occur. This bug most commonly occurs on the Doom II map "The Suburbs".
 * Occasionally, monsters may enter into a wall, at which point they can still be heard, and may be seen firing their weapons, but otherwise they cannot interact with player nor be killed. If viewed for a while, the trapped monsters may start retreating into the distance. Most commonly experienced with Lost Souls and zombie soldiers. The glitch can occasionally be triggered by shooting directly at a monster with a weapon that doesn't kill them instantly but knocks them back (i.e. a shotgun fired at a Lost Soul, but from far enough away that it doesn't kill it instantly).
 * If a huge number of monsters are on screen at the same time (which is possible on numerous levels), the game has been known to crash. This is particularly a danger when playing the level Suburbs on a high difficulty due to the fact it's possible for dozens of monsters to not only be on screen at the same time, but also infighting with each other, causing the first-generation PS console's memory to overload.

Inaccessible secrets in Final Doom for the PlayStation
All other secrets are fully accessible.
 * In Level 9, Nessus, there is a walkthroughable (transparent thickness) wall with a Revenant behind it (on the harder difficult levels; may be a different enemy on lower levels). On this ledge, which is above the corridor containing the four teleport pads, there is a megasphere and, around the corner, the BFG9000. Many players cannot get onto this ledge, but, for those that do, the BFG9000 in the top right-hand corner can (with difficulty) be taken, but because the player cannot physically enter the area it resides in, the game never reports the player as having found that secret.
 * In Level 29, The Death Domain, there is a switch missing which prevents the player from being able to access an area on the west side of the map.

PlayStation Doom TC
A total conversion was released by fenderc01. This recreates, as faithfully as possible, the map layout, monster/item/decoration placement, darker lighting, grittier textures, colored sectors, and animated sky of the PlayStation versions of Doom, Doom II, and Final Doom. It also uses the music, sound effects, Williams logo animation, and animated title screen from the PlayStation version.

The Lost Levels add-on for the TC converts all of the PC-exclusive maps from The Ultimate Doom, Doom II, Master Levels, TNT: Evilution, and The Plutonia Experiment into the PlayStation style, using PlayStation music, sound effects, colored sectors, lowered lighting levels, animated skies, and decorations, within the known (or extrapolated) PlayStation limits.