How to download and run Doom

The central experience of the Doom community, of course, is playing the game. If you have never played before, this article should help you get started.

You will need a computer or game console capable of running Doom (a fairly complete list can be found here), as well as two pieces of software: Console versions of Doom always include both of these. If you have a Windows or Macintosh computer, and you buy a prepackaged game from id Software or your favorite retailer or online auction site, both pieces are also included. If you have a different operating system, or you just want a less buggy Windows program than Doom95, you may need a source port; these are generally free of charge, but include only the executable, and you must obtain the IWAD separately. (The Freedoom project intends to create a non-commercial IWAD, but it is far from complete.)
 * The program, or executable, which tells the computer how the players and monsters move around and what the weapons and other objects do. Different operating systems usually require different executables.
 * The data file, or IWAD, which contains all the actual maps and the graphics used to draw them. This is the same for every system.

For more detailed instructions, click on the kind of machine you are using.

Consoles
If you have a Game Boy Advance, GamePark 2X, or Tapwave Zodiac, you should be able to buy games (or at least get up-to-date advice about buying them) wherever you bought the console. The next paragraph, about secondhand software, applies as well.

Doom titles have also been released for the 3DO, Atari Jaguar, GamePark 32, Nintendo 64, Sega 32X, Sega Saturn, Sony PlayStation, and Super Nintendo. (The Sega Dreamcast port is not an officially licensed product; see nxDoom for details.) These consoles are all discontinued, but secondhand games can be obtained in various ways, including:
 * online auction sites, such as eBay;
 * online gaming shops which sell used titles, such as Gamestop;
 * brick-and-mortar gaming shops which sell used titles (if your console is really old, your best bet is a local store, not a national chain like EBX);
 * garage sales or yard sales.

The current availability of the WebTV Plus version is questionable, given its age and its thin client characteristics. ItPlaysDoom.com provides some instructions for downloading this version.

You can read our articles about console ports if you have more than one of these machines and want to know how their Doom versions differ.

Mac OS 8.6 - 9.x
Although the Doom series was actively marketed to Macintosh users in the mid-1990s, finding a copy in 2024 is quite difficult. Therefore, the following procedure is recommended:


 * 1) Download the Macintosh executable and shareware IWAD.  This can be done, for instance, at Doomworld.com; the file is called MacDoomDemo.hqx.
 * 2) Decompress the archive.  You should get a folder called Doom I Demo &#x0192;.
 * 3) (Optional)  In your Monitors control panel, change the screen depth to 256 colors.  (If you also change the resolution to 640x480, the game will run faster and fill the screen.)
 * 4) Double-click the executable, DOOM.
 * 5) Choose New Game from the File menu to begin playing.  (You may first want to choose Movement... from the Control menu to see which keys do what.)

If you want more than the nine shareware levels, just remove doom1.wad from the folder Doom I Demo </tt>&#x0192; and replace it with one of the full IWADs (see the Windows XP section for advice on obtaining those). Because this executable predates Ultimate Doom and Final Doom, however, it has two important limitations:


 * Episode IV of Ultimate Doom is inaccessible.
 * To play Final Doom, you must also have the IWAD for Doom II. Start the program as though you were going to play Doom II, then press S</tt> to access the single-player setup screen.  Click Load WAD File...</tt>, locate the Final Doom maps (TNT.WAD</tt> or PLUTONIA.WAD</tt>), then click Start Game</tt>.

In addition, no music will be played unless it is present in Episode I of Doom. For instance, all of the intermission screens have music, but level 29 of Doom II does not.

To avoid these problems, you can try a source port. Doom Legacy, for example, has been compiled for this operating system.

Shareware version (free, but only has nine levels)
Due to the immense popularity of Windows XP, there are many different ways to run Doom on your computer. Here is one method.


 * 1) Download the Doom95 executable and shareware IWAD.  This can be done, for instance, at Doomworld.com; the file is called doom95.zip</tt>.
 * 2) Decompress the archive.  You should get a folder called doom95</tt>.
 * 3) Within that folder, double-click SETUP.EXE</tt>, and follow the on-screen instructions as you would when installing any other program.
 * 4) Find the Doom shortcut you just created on your desktop or in your Start menu.  (If you used the default folder names in the setup wizard, there should be a Doom folder inside the Programs folder of the Start menu.)  When you open the shortcut, the Doom95 launcher window will appear.
 * 5) Choose a map and a difficulty level, then click the New Game</tt> button to begin.  (You may want to click the Configuration...</tt> button first to see which keys do what.  To reconfigure the keys, you must first create a custom set.)

Full version
The Doom95 executable in the shareware version is the same as the one in the full version, so you only need to find a copy of the IWAD you want. Your options include:


 * Pay to download Ultimate Doom, Doom II, or Final Doom from id Software's web site. This is by far the fastest method, and avoids the issue of disks being damaged in the mail, but it is also extremely expensive (US$25 per title), and requires a credit card and a very reliable internet connection.
 * Search for "Doom" on an online auction site such as eBay. For instance, on eBay, there are usually at least a dozen copies of Doom and Doom II for sale at any given time, and because the game is so old, you might be the only bidder for a particular item.
 * Visit your favorite brick-and-mortar gaming shop and look through the discount/clearance shelf, particularly for a compilation like The Depths of Doom Trilogy (1997) or Doom Collector's Edition (2003). (Note that collections of user-created levels, such as D!Zone, generally do not include the executable or IWAD.)

Alternatives to Doom95
Doom95 contains a number of bugs, and, like many Windows 95 applications, is sometimes incompatible with Windows XP. In addition, Doom95 cannot play user-created levels requiring newer engine features such as scripting or custom multiplayer rules. If either of these limitations bothers you, you may prefer a source port.

Be aware that source ports are written by people interested in programming, not in marketing or software publishing. Most include few instructions, require you to use a command line interface, and/or have all their gameplay and display options set to whatever values the author likes best this week. If you download a source port and the instructions seem incomplete or confusing, check the program's official web site (if any) for help, or try this:


 * 1) Install whatever program came with the IWAD you want to use.
 * 2) Decompress the source port's archive, and put all the files/folders into the same folder as the IWAD.
 * 3) Double-click the source port's main executable (for example, zdoom.exe</tt> or prboom.exe</tt>).

Relatively stable and feature-rich programs include ZDoom, PrBoom, Doom Legacy, the Eternity Engine, GZDoom, Doomsday, Skulltag, and ZDaemon. The last two are designed specifically for multiplayer games.

Playing vanilla Doom
If for some reason you must play the original MS-DOS version of Doom, Doom II, or Final Doom, the following additional steps are recommended:


 * 1) Know how to use the DOS command line, or be willing to learn.
 * 2) Before you buy an IWAD, make sure it comes with the DOS version of the executable.  For instance, version 1.666 does, but the Collector's Edition does not.
 * 3) Depending on your system configuration, the game may run, but without sound.  If this is the case, either turn off the sound effects and music with the -nosound</tt> command line argument, or install a third-party utility program such as SoundFX 2000 or VDMSound.
 * 4) If the game does not run, try using DOSBox, an MS-DOS emulator for Windows.

Windows NT 3.5x
Note: These instructions may apply to Windows NT 3.1 as well.

You will run into several problems when trying to install and run Doom on Windows NT 3.5 or 3.51. The first caveat is that Windows NT 3.5 will not work on Pentium Pro processors or newer (e.g. Pentium II, III, AMD K6, Athlon, etc). Instead, use Windows NT 3.51.

The installation of NT 3.5x can be rather tricky, and unless you are prepared with the proper network card drivers (or have one of the few cards NT can detect natively), you may not be successful in connecting to a LAN or the Internet. In this case, these instructions can be carried out by transferring the files via floppy disks or CD-R discs, though you obviously will not need a web browser.

No web browser, by default, is installed in this early version of Windows NT. A web browser will be necessary to download the source port to run Doom on this operating system, and will also come in handy for other uses. It is recommended that you use the built-in FTP client (ftp.exe) to download an evaluation version of Opera 3.60, or another similar old version. If you have a way to transfer the setup executable to the computer running Windows NT 3.5x (over a LAN, for instance), the evaluation version of Opera 3.60 available from Oldversion.com works well. If not, use NT's built-in FTP client to connect anonymously to ftp.cdrom.com</tt>, navigate to the /pub/simtelnet/win3/inet/</tt> directory, download <tt>ow362e16.exe</tt>, and install it.

Next, you will need to download the shareware version of the PKUNZIP utility from this page. This is necessary if you wish to unzip compressed ZIP files (for instance, the shareware version of Doom). Place it in a temporary directory.

You will now want to either transfer your Doom IWADs to the NT 3.5x machine, or download the shareware version of Doom. If transferring your IWADs manually, take note that the vanilla Doom executables will run on NT 3.5x, although sluggishly and without music or digitized sound effects.

If you decide to download the shareware version, unzip it using PKUNZIP, run the installer program, and install shareware Doom to your hard drive. Remember that doom.exe will work, but without sound.

Windows NT 3.5x does not support DirectX. Thus, most popular Windows source ports will not function. This is why you will need to download NTDOOM, as it does not require DirectX. However, being only a simple port of Doom, NTDOOM does not offer all the advanced features you might be used to. At any rate, download the latest binaries from its home page and extract the ZIP file (using PKUNZIP) to your Doom directory.

If you manage to get the proper sound and video drivers installed in NT 3.5x, you will be able to play Doom normally with <tt>ntdoom.exe</tt>. Otherwise, you will be stuck in VGA mode (16 colors) and have no sound. Using the DOS executables may be a better choice if that is the case.

The file <tt>.doomrc</tt> that NTDOOM generates acts much like the configuration file produced by SETUP.EXE. You can either edit this file manually to modify how NTDOOM works, or use the contents of DEFAULT.CFG after making changes with SETUP.EXE.

GNU/Linux
In 1994, id Software released Linux versions of Doom. Although these versions can still be obtained (see the Doomworld.com shareware page, for example), Linux has changed a lot since 1994, and they probably will not work on your computer. Therefore, you will need to use a source port.

Here is one way:


 * 1) Download the latest version of the Doom Legacy executable.  This can be done at the Doom Legacy home page.  Look for versions marked "stable (non-beta)".
 * 2) Decompress the archive.  You should get a folder called <tt>legacy_N_linux</tt>, where <tt>N</tt> is the version number.
 * 3) (Optional)  Open the file <tt>config.cfg</tt> in a text editor.  Change "320" to "640" and "200" to "400".  Change "No" to "Yes" in the <tt>fullscreen</tt> line.  Save the file.  (This should prevent the display from being squashed into one corner of the screen.)  If you skip this step, skip the next step also.
 * 4) (Optional)  Create a folder in your home directory called <tt>.legacy</tt>, and copy the modified <tt>config.cfg</tt> into it.
 * 5) Download the shareware IWAD.  This can be done, for instance, at ibiblio.org; the file is called <tt>doom1v18.wad.gz</tt>.
 * 6) Decompress the archive.  You should get a file called <tt>doom1v18.wad</tt>.
 * 7) Rename the IWAD <tt>doom1.wad</tt>.
 * 8) Put the IWAD into the folder <tt>legacy_N_linux</tt>.
 * 9) Run the executable, <tt>llxdoom</tt>.
 * 10) Press <tt>Enter</tt> or <tt>Esc</tt> to bring up the main menu.  (Before starting a new game, you may want to look at the <tt>SETUP</tt> menu to see which keys do what.)

This method assumes that your machine has X. If you are running Linux without X, however, you are probably accustomed to this sort of problem; see our list of Unix source ports for other programs to try. (Note that some source ports can be installed only by the root user.)

Legacy occasionally crashes on startup due to demo incompatibility. You can avoid this by starting a new game quickly, before the first demo begins.

If you want more than the nine shareware levels, just replace <tt>doom1.wad</tt> with one of the full IWADs (see the Windows XP section for advice on obtaining those). Change the IWAD name to lowercase letters (e.g. <tt>doom2.wad</tt>, not <tt>doom2.WAD</tt> or <tt>DOOM2.WAD</tt>) before starting Legacy.

More advanced topics
If the game is running, but you are having a lot of trouble finding your way through the levels, you can read our walkthroughs.

If you want to do more than just play the standard levels in single-player mode, your options are varied. You can try:
 * Playing multiplayer games.
 * Playing add-on levels (known as PWADs).
 * Recording and watching demos.
 * Speedrunning (competing against other players for the fastest demo on a given map).
 * Creating your own levels.
 * Helping to program, debug, or test a source port.
 * Otherwise interacting with the (still quite active) community of Doom fans; for instance, there are Doom web sites, IRC channels, and Usenet groups.