Key events
5th August 2008
15th August 2005
27th July 2005
12th April 2005
6th August 2004
The Doom Marine was modelled after John Romero
"I am the Doomguy!"
Few video game protagonists are as iconic as the Doom Marine, which is kind of odd as we only see the first-person shooter hero's body illustrated on the game's cover. But it's an amazing cover, one etched in all of our collective minds as the pinnacle of early 90s heavy metal action. What we didn't know, until now, is that that guy was modelled after Doom's lead designer, John Romero.
Someone once parodied Gone Home by merging it with Doom in the humourous video Gun Home. But now ex-BioShock and The Cave developer JP LeBreton is taking that seemingly ludicrous juxtaposition of first-person games seriously in his upcoming Doom 2 mod / memoir Autobiographical Architecture.
Speedrunner sets new world record for Doom... 3?!
Sprints through campaign in under 65 minutes.
With all the hullabaloo around id Software's shockingly sterling Doom reboot, folks have been revisiting previous Doom titles. One such series fanatic, YouTuber Corpseflesh, even set a new world record for blazing through 2005's Doom 3 in record time.
John Carmack to get this year's BAFTA Fellowship award
C++ for acceptance speech.
Legendary and maybe part-machine programmer John Carmack will receive this year's BAFTA Fellowship award, joining the likes of Gabe Newell, Shigeru Miyamoto, Will Wright and many others. He'll receive the award at the BAFTA Games Awards 7th April in London - an event happening alongside EGX Rezzed.
Todd Hollenshead and his hair leave id Software after 17 years
That salon time.
Todd Hollenshead has walked from id Software, Bethesda has confirmed.
Original Doom 3 returns to Steam
Costs six quid.
The original Doom 3 is back on Steam.
If you want the original Doom 3 from Steam you have to pay £76
UPDATE: Bethesda: "We're looking into options" for those who want to buy the original Doom 3.
Update: When contacted about this, a Bethesda rep offered the following reply:
Digital FoundryDoom 3 PC: Original vs. BFG Edition Video
Comparison video pitting the 2004 original up against the 2012 BFG edition on PC.
Comparison video pitting the 2004 original up against the 2012 BFG edition on PC.
Doom 3 source code finally released
Carmack announces free download now available.
Rage developer id Software has released the entire source code of its seminal shooter Doom 3.
Lawyers hold up Doom 3 source code release
Carmack writing new code to dodge patent issue.
Legal issues have held up the planned release of Doom 3 source code.
Doom 3 source code ready for release
Carmack: It's "packaged and tested".
Rage developer id Software has classic shooter Doom 3's source code ready for release, co-founder John Carmack has revealed.
id: how Rage improves on Doom 3
Bigger and deeper, says Hollenshead.
id Software has explained why Rage, its upcoming first-person shooter, is better than Doom 3.
id to release Doom 3 source code
Carmack wants other devs to follow suit.
id Software is to release the source code for its 2004 shooter Doom 3 to the public later this year, technical director John Carmack has announced.
Carmack: games "reduce aggression"
Doom creator sees shooters as "cathartic".
Doom creator and industry veteran John Carmack has hit back at accusations that games promote violent tendencies in players, arguing that they're in fact "cathartic" and more likely to reduce aggression.
DOOM film reboot green-lit - report
To be smothered in 3D.
Universal wants to make a new DOOM film, despite the first unanimously falling foul of critics and averaging a lowly 34 per cent (Metacritic).
Happiness is a warm gun.
There's nothing like a comment thread filled with hate to plant a seed of doubt in the mind of a reviewer. Or vitriolic emails from grumpy elder gamers (and even some olden-times paper letters sent in actual envelopes), telling me the 90 per cent I'd just awarded Doom 3 in PC Zone was a clear sign I was corrupt, clueless or both.
PC makers see piracy as "hidden benefit"
Reckons Id CEO Todd Hollenshead.
Id Software's CEO Todd Hollenshead has stated that he believes PC manufacturers' acceptance of piracy is the PC hardware industry's "dirty little secret", GamesIndustry.biz reports.
Sales show Doom 3 was "not bad" - Willits
But he gets why it divided opinions.
Doom III designer Tim Willits has said he understands why some people found the first-person shooter disappointing, although he maintains he's very proud of it.
Id Software CEO Todd Hollenshead ripped into people retrospectively criticising Doom III earlier this year, declaring "they get no credibility", and Willits echoed elements of that. "Games that sell over three-and-a-half million copies are not bad games," he told Eurogamer.
But he was gentler for the most part. "If you are any self-respecting videogame player, you love Doom, but everyone's vision of Doom and memories they had of playing Doom, and what they thought Doom should be - everyone had a different idea," he explained.
Todd Hollenshead defends Doom III
People slating it "get no credibility".
Id Software CEO Todd Hollenshead has defended Doom III's reputation, pointing out that the four-year-old first-person shooter is "the most successful game in id's history".
Carmack building fancy engine.
Id Software's Todd Hollenshead has revealed that the Quake and Doom creator is working on a new gaming franchise, powered by a brand new engine from developer John Carmack, GamesIndustry.biz is reporting.
UK misses out, gets documentary.
Those of you thinking about buying the Doom film on DVD might have heard that there's going to be a demo of the Xbox version of Doom III on it. Unfortunately, Activision UK just confirmed that that only applies to the US "Unrated Extended Edition DVD" and not the one you'll be able to buy over here. Dang.
New Doom 3 levels on Xbox Live
Grab expansion maps for free.
With Doom 3 expansion Resurrection of Evil out on Xbox today in Europe, Activision's announced that it's making a pair of its seven new multiplayer maps available to owners of vanilla Doom 3 Xbox for free. Nice of them.
Rock! (Actor. No other meaning.)
Going to Mars? Don't bother taking any cheese. Judging by the recently released trailer for the DOOM movie, which is available download now as a High Definition video, there's plenty to go around.
Of course, we've no idea whether the film will be good or bad. We have suspicions, but they're mainly to do with the lack of fountains of Hellish gore in the trailer. If the full film has Hell, lots of big scary demons that don't look at all like men-in-suits-with-four-buglike-eyes-QUICK-RUN and, dunno, they fire half the cast, it might be brilliant.
It's definitely more DOOM III than the others though - heck, it looks like they only have one flashlight, for a start. Heck I tells ya. Take a look anyway. It'll give you something to talk about in the pub, and then back away from occasionally reloading your glass.
Strategy meets shotgun.
The Doom III mod community have created a neat little mini-game, transporting the world of id Software's first-person shooter into chess.
Plus, the stars speak out.
A new trailer for the forthcoming Doom movie is now available to view on US website IGN.
You can also watch a Comic-Con panel discussion with the stars and producers, and find out what The Rock's nickname really means.
The Doom movie begins with Sarge (The Rock) leading his team to a Martian research facility where scientists have just identified the remaining 10 per cent of the human genome, with results that aren't really that hilarious. When it all kicks off and corpses start turning up left right and centre, it's down to John Grimm (Karl Urban) to save the day.
Selling Hell proves fittingly difficult. You kind of have to go there first.
Version Reviewed
Xbox (also available on PC)
Publisher
Right. That's it. London's too hot - we're off to Mars.
Version Reviewed
PC (Xbox version due later this year)
Publisher
Dark, moody, and gory as hell. But when's it out?
Publisher
