DOOM
DOOM is a genre-defining first-person shooter franchise created by id Software in 1993. Spanning legendary video games, expansion packs, novels, comic books, and feature films, the series centers on an unstoppable space marine fighting off demonic invasions unleashed by interdimensional energy research.
Cronologia
Overview
Created by id Software core pioneers—including John Carmack, John Romero, Adrian Carmack, Kevin Cloud, and Tom Hall—DOOM debuted in 1993 as a groundbreaking first-person shooter on MS-DOS.
The franchise has since expanded across more than three decades into a major multimedia intellectual property comprising 11 main mainline and expansion titles, mobile and VR spin-offs, four official tie-in novels, a Marvel one-shot comic book, and two feature films (released in October 2005 and October 2019).
Origins
Development of DOOM began in late 1992 while id Software was completing Spear of Destiny. Lead programmer John Carmack developed a custom engine that simulated three-dimensional environments using non-orthogonal walls, variable height levels, full texture mapping, dynamic lighting, and stereo audio.
Inspired by sci-fi and horror films such as Aliens and Evil Dead II, Carmack named the game after a famous line spoken by Tom Cruise in The Color of Money.
Early development involved designer Tom Hall's 'Doom Bible,' which detailed complex story elements and interactive features; however,Carmack favored faster, action-oriented gameplay, leading to Hall's departure. Visual graphics were created by digitizing physical clay and latex sculptures crafted by Gregor Punchatz based on concept designs from Adrian Carmack and Kevin Cloud. Released via a shareware distribution model featuring its first episode 'Knee-Deep in the Dead,' DOOM spread rapidly across floppy disks and BBS network servers, reaching an estimated 10 million computers by 1995.
Characters
I PEZZI DI DOOM
Collecting
For DOOM enthusiasts, physical history begins with vintage 1990s PC software releases and promo artifacts. Early physical 3.5-inch shareware floppy disks, original mail-order registered copies of the 1993 release, and boxed retail editions of The Ultimate Doom (1995) represent prized retro gaming items.
Secondary market highlights include commercial PWAD CD-ROM compilations from the mid-1990s—such as Master Levels for Doom II, Maximum Doom (featuring 1,830 community WADs), and WizardWorks Software's D!Zone series. Another notable physical collector item is the rare 1996 Marvel Comics one-shot DOOM Comic, which was originally distributed physically inside Final Doom PC CD-ROM jewel cases. High-end historical production items trace back to the physical clay and latex sculptures made by artist Gregor Punchatz, which id Software used to digitize character sprites for the original 1993 release.
DOOM was placed on the German youth-protection index in 1994, a ban that remained active until Bethesda Softworks successfully appealed it in 2011.
