The Ultimate Doom

aka: Doom, Doom (1993), Doom Classic, Doom: Special Edition, The Ultimate Doom: Thy Flesh Consumed
Moby ID: 707
DOS Specs
Buy on Windows
$9.99 new on Steam

Description official descriptions

The Ultimate Doom is a full copy of Doom with an additional fourth episode, titled Thy Flesh Consumed, which offers nine levels of more demon-slaying and bigger challenges.

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Credits (DOS version)

19 People (16 developers, 3 thanks) · View all

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 83% (based on 37 ratings)

Players

Average score: 4.2 out of 5 (based on 180 ratings with 4 reviews)

A pointless extension to the original masterpiece.

The Good
Doom ruled. Doom 2 was better. But this? How long can you possibly capitalize on a long-gone game? This is just a pointless extension to the original Doom.

It has great level design, the most groundbreaking 3D engine ever, wonderful music and graphics. But still.

The Bad
The engine is old, the levels are too similar to the previous Doom games, and goddamnit man - how long can a company keep publishing games based on the same old engine?

The Bottom Line
A good game in its own right, but it annoys me that they've actually decided to sell it.

DOS · by Tomer Gabel (4535) · 2000

What more could possibly be said?

The Good
Some people had negative things to say about this release, but I say, "So what?" Doom is the grandfather of modern PC games, everyone knows it, and there are reasons why: lots of action, shooting, running around, guns, guts and glory! I like Doom, I like this release.....the music is great, the levels are inspired and it's got a really cool Windows front-end that makes it super easy to load WADS. If you find it, get it.

The Bad
Not much, I mean, Doom has sold, like, skillions and gazillions of copies, right? It's been ported to everything but wireless phones, so what on earth could be wrong with it? For some people, it might be a bit gory, and remember, there's some pretty dark imagery here, and I don't mean the poor-lighting type, but I just keep telling myself, "It's just make believe (isn't it?)".

The Bottom Line
For an opportunity to play the game that basically catapulted 3-D computer gaming to the forefront, play this one.

DOS · by Paul Budd (425) · 2000

Prepare to meet thy doom!

The Good
So it was id Software who was responsible for creating a new genre called the first-person shooter. Their first game, Wolfenstein 3D, was a massive hit. Their next game, DOOM, was an even bigger hit. At the time where there were Wolf3D clones such as Blake Stone and Corridor 7, people chose DOOM over these clones. Why? Because it revolutionized PC gaming – offering immersive 3D graphics, multiplayer gaming, and support for custom expansions.

Although I find the story a bit difficult to grasp, I had a great time blasting hell spawn and making my way to the exit. The “hell spawn” include imps, possessed humans, Cacodemons, Hell Barons, and many more. You can use up to seven weapons to kill them, each with their own individual ammunition. I found out that the best thing to deal with enemies is quite amusing. Say an imp is trying to flame you but a Baron gets in the way. The imp accidentally hits the Baron, who turns on the imp and the both of them engage in battle. Once the imp has been killed, the Baron turns its attention to you and fires away. Using this strategy is a great way to save your ammo. My favorite enemy at the moment is the Cacodemon. It makes a good hissing sound when it encounters you, its eyes light up when it fires, and it spills out its intestines when it dies.

As I just mentioned, there are seven weapons to choose from. You have a pistol, which is well suited to dealing with the earlier enemies such as the imps and humans, but as you proceed through the game, you are able to obtain better weapons that do a lot more damage. Each individual weapon can do massive amounts of damage to certain enemies. The shotgun, for example, is useful against the imps and humans, and the rockets are more powerful against the Cacodemons. You also have a fist, which is more powerful if you manage to get the Berserk power-up. Use this against the imps and humans and they turn into blood and bone. The BFG-9000 is a very rare weapon that does maximum damage to the game's bosses. Years ago, a friend told me that BFG stands for Big Fucking Gun. Turns out he was right.

Graphics-wise, I believe that they are much better than Wolf3D's because DOOM's graphics appear less blocky. Some of the sections of certain levels are much darker, heightening the atmosphere of the game. The backgrounds are excellent, especially the one used in episode three, “Inferno”. The background used for the first episode, “Knee Deep in the Dead”, made me feel that I was looking at the Sierra mountains (which are used in Sierra's logo). The fourth episode, “Thy Flesh Consumed”, has a yellow-orange background, which is excellent because it made me feel as if I was walking toward something in a sunset. At the end of each level, the player is presented with a location map showing what location they have just completed and which one they are going next while they view their statistics. Each of the maps look really nice. Such maps are not present in the fourth episode, but at least you have the background of skulls similar to that of DOOM II.

What I really much enjoyed while I was playing the game is the soundtrack, which is much, much better than Wolf3D. It is great that you can enter the setup program and change to a different sound card. The sound effects are awesome. I like listening to the human's grunts when they die and the moan that the Barons make. A thing about the enemies, and this feature isn't found in other first-person shooters, is that you can always tell when they are in your vicinity. You can zero-in on their location and kill them with whatever weapons you have.

The controls are easy to get used to. All you need to know is to how to shoot at enemies and operate doors, similar to id's last game. There is no complex controls seen in the latest first-person shooters. The only new thing is the map, which you can activate by pressing the [Tab] key. It's very useful if you happen to find the computer area map somewhere in the level, because you can discover unexplored areas (which are the gray areas). Then you can make sure that all your statistics reach 100%.

The Bad
I haven't noticed this in the first three episodes, but in the fourth one, there is a bug preventing enemies from coming out and fighting you, even when they see you and make a warning sound. They tend to stay put, meaning that it would not take long for the player to destroy them in about five seconds.

The Bottom Line
DOOM is the second first-person shooter that id Software has made, and it is a good one. It has a large number of features that stand out, including better graphics, an excellent soundtrack, more weapons, multiplayer support, and the ability to load and play custom WADS. I like the backgrounds used in all three episodes, as well as listening to the excellent soundtrack that the game has to offer. One neat thing about the enemies in the game is that you always know when they are around, and you can walk up and destroy them, just like that.

If gamers have waited an extra two years, then they would have gotten The Ultimate DOOM. As well as letting them play the original three episodes, they can get to play just one more episode called “Thy Flesh Consumed”. The Ultimate DOOM even doesn't require the original game to run. This episode picks up where episode three left off: you basically take revenge on the person who killed your pet rabbit Daisy.

If you have played the original three episodes but didn't think they were challenging enough, then you should hunt down a copy of The Ultimate DOOM as this gives you one more episode that proves to be a challenge. Or, if you don't want to spend the extra money, you could just upgrade the original game to v1.9, which is the same as buying it retail.

DOS · by Katakis | カタキス (43086) · 2009

[ View all 4 player reviews ]

Discussion

Subject By Date
release date? Rola (8478) Jan 25, 2015

Trivia

Developer commentary

  • According to John Carmack, The Ultimate DOOM "was never a real focus at id", which is why there wasn't a new end boss, among other things.

[Source: John Carmack Interview (Doomworld.com)]* When asked "who's the guy responsible for Ultimate Doom (...) in fact why did they make an ultimate Doom", John Romero had this to say:

*"Actually the decision to create Ultimate DOOM was brought up by me but it was going to happen eventually.

You see, every id Software game was released as shareware, then at some point down the line, we would release the registered version into retail stores (where previously you could only purchase the full registered version over the phone).

Ultimate DOOM was the retail version of DOOM, but with an extra episode. I thought that we should create an extra episode and give the buyers more value, so Episode 4 was born. I had several people creating maps for the episode, which is why the consistency isn't there like Episode 1.

And the 4th episode was supposed to be VERY tough, which is why we had lots of outrageous names for the levels. We were putting together the 4th episode as early work on Quake was happening and I was busy doing executive producer work on Hexen."*

(source: rome.ro)

Easter eggs

  • In the first level of the fourth episode, it is possible to lower a platform, and as such uncover the logo of the band Nine Inch Nails: "NIИ". It's interesting that the music of the next id Software hit, Quake, was written by the band's frontman Trent Reznor.
  • The revised version of the map E1M1 in The Ultimate DOOM contains 666 sidedefs. A sidedef contains the wall texture data for each linedef, while the linedefs themselves are what make up the "shape" (for lack of a better word) of a map. 666 is, of course, the Number of the Beast.

Episode 4 as update for registered Doom

id Software released a free patch to upgrade registered Doom v1.9 to Ultimate Doom.

References

All level names of Episode 4 (with the exception of the secret level) were taken from the following passages in the King James Version of the Bible:

  • Thy Flesh Consumed

Proverbs 5:11 - And thou mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed

  • E4M1: Hell Beneath

Proverbs 15:24 - The way of life is above to the wise, that he may depart from Hell beneath.

  • E4M2: Perfect Hatred

Psalm 139:22 - I hate them with perfect hatred: I count them mine enemies.

  • E4M3: Sever The Wicked

Matthew 13:49 - So shall it be at the end of the world: the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just

  • E4M4: Unruly Evil

James 3:8 - But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.

  • E4M5: They Will Repent

Luke 16:30 - And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent.

  • E4M6: Against Thee Wickedly

Psalm 139:20 - For they speak against thee wickedly, and thine enemies take thy name in vain.

  • E4M7: And Hell Followed

Revelation 6:8 - And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.

  • E4M8: Unto The Cruel

Proverbs 5:9 - Lest thou give thine honour unto others, and thy years unto the cruel

Steam version

The Steam download version of the game is listed as Windows 2000/XP/Vista platform because the executables are modified to use a DOSBox variant (v 0.70); additionally the traditional setup.exe is missing.

Is confirmed that neither Valve or id Software contacted the DOSBox project staff and initially the game didn´t includes the TXT´s that must be present under the GPL license (so they failed to fulfill 2 points of the GPL license).

2 days after the launch, there was an update that includes COPYING, AUTHORS and THANKS .txt of the DOSBox 0.71

Xbox port

In April 2005 a full port of this game was brought to Xbox as part of the Doom 3 special edition.

Xbox 360 version

The game's Xbox LIVE Arcade version is notable for being one of the (if not the) only game on the service to get delisted and then added again later. What happened is that, in October 2010, the game was delisted from the Xbox Marketplace at the request of Bethesda Softworks due to Activision (the port's publisher) no longer being able to maintain the game on there, due to id Software's acquisition by ZeniMax, who also own Bethesda (the Xbox 360 port of id's previous Wolfenstein 3D, also published by Activision, was not removed, strangely). Then, on January 2012, the game was finally put back on the service, under the publishing of Bethesda.

In the Xbox 360 port of the game, the stimpack and medikit sprites were edited so that, instead of a red cross, they depict a red-and-white pill. This is likely because the rights to the red cross symbol are owned by the International Committee of the Red Cross (who have expressed concern that usage of the symbol in video games cheapens its special significance), and its usage in video games technically violates the Geneva Conventions.

Information also contributed by DarkDante, JudgeDeadd, Medicine Man, MegaMegaMan, and Rola

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Related Sites +

  • ClassicDOOM.com
    Walkthroughs, cheat codes, passwords, demos, FAQs, reference files and more, for game-console and PC Doom games.
  • DoomWorld
    The latest Doom news, levels, Total Conversions (TC's), ports and more.
  • JDoom
    Arguably the best revisited Doom engine. Take your original WAD files from Doom 1, 2 etc. and run them on this D3D/OpenGL and A3D enabled engine.
  • S&F Prod.'s Doom Page
    Here you'll find a Duke Nukem in Doom add-on and more.
  • Ultimate Doom
    The official homepage (older version)

Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 707
  • [ Please login / register to view all identifiers ]

Contribute

Are you familiar with this game? Help document and preserve this entry in video game history! If your contribution is approved, you will earn points and be credited as a contributor.

Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Benjamin Tucker.

Xbox One, PlayStation 4 added by Kam1Kaz3NL77. Xbox Cloud Gaming added by Sciere. Xbox 360, Macintosh, iPhone added by Terok Nor. Windows added by DarkDante. Nintendo Switch added by Ms. Tea. Windows Apps added by Koterminus. iPad added by me3D31337.

Additional contributors: Tomer Gabel, Terok Nor, Ola Sverre Bauge, Paul Budd, Xantheous, Ledmeister, Frenkel, Alaka, Havoc Crow, Litude, Lance Boyle, Kam1Kaz3NL77.

Game added January 9, 2000. Last modified August 9, 2024.