From: jwilbur@iat.holonet.net (Jay Wilbur)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games
Subject: Official DOOM information
Date: 5 Nov 92 22:11:37 GMT
Article-I.D.: iat.Bx9KBE.5D8
Organization: HoloNet (BBS: 510-704-1058)

Id Software


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Jay Wilbur
Phone: 1-214-613-3589
FAX:   1-214-686-9288


Id Software to unleash DOOM on the PC

Revolutionary Programming and Advanced Design Make For Great Gameplay

DALLAS, Texas, November 5, 1992--Heralding another technical revolution in
PC programming, Id Software's DOOM promises to push back the boundaries of
what was thought possible on a 386sx or better computer.  The company
plans to release DOOM in the third quarter of 1993. 

In DOOM, you play one of four off-duty soldiers suddenly thrown into the
middle of an interdimensional war!  Wave after wave of demonic creatures
spread through the research base where you're stationed.  You must
eradicate the enemy and find out where they're coming from.  When you find
out the truth, your sense of reality may be shattered! 

Later episodes feature a journey into another dimension, filled to its
hellish horizon with fire and flesh.  Decide the fate of two universes as
you battle to survive!  Succeed and you will be humanity's heroes; fail
and you will spell its doom.

The game takes up to four players through a futuristic world, where they
may cooperate or compete to beat the invading creatures.  It boasts a much
more active environment than Id's previous effort, Wolfenstein 3-D, while
retaining the pulse-pounding action and excitement.  DOOM features a fully
texture-mapped environment, non-orthogonal walls, light diminishing and
light sourcing, variable height floors and ceilings, environment animation
and morphing, palette translation, multiple players, and smooth gameplay. 

Id's Technical Director is very excited about DOOM: "Wolfenstein is
primitive  compared to DOOM.  We're doing DOOM the right way this
time. I've had some very good insights and optimizations that will make
the DOOM engine perform at a great frame rate.  On a 486/33, we're talking
35 frames per second, fully texture-mapped at normal detail, for a large
area of the screen.  That's the fastest texture-mapping around--period."

A Convenient DOOM Blurb

DOOM (Requires 386sx, VGA, 2 Meg of memory)

It's a real-time, three-dimensional, 256-color, fully texture-mapped,
multi-player battle from the safe shores of our universe into the
horrifying depths of the netherworld!  Choose one of four characters and
you're off to  war with hideous hellish hulks bent on chaos and death! 
See your friends bite it!  Cause your friends to bite it!  Bite it
yourself!  And if you won't bite it, there are plenty of demonic denizens
to bite it for you!

DOOM--where the sanest place is behind a trigger.


DOOM FEATURES

Texture-Mapped Environment

DOOM offers the most realistic environment to date on the PC. 
Texture-mapping, the process of putting fully-drawn art and scanned
textures on the walls, floors, and ceilings of an environment, makes the
world much more real, thus bringing the player more into the game
experience.  Others have tried this technique, but DOOM's texture mapping
is fast, accurate, and seamless.  Texture-mapping the floors and ceilings
is a big improvement over Wolfenstein.  Using the power of a 24-bit
scanner and multiple NeXT workstations, Id brings new meaning to
"state-of-the-ART."

Non-Orthogonal Walls

Wolfenstein's walls were always at ninety degrees to each other, and were
always eight feet thick.  DOOM's walls can be at any angle, and be of any
thickness.  Walls can have see-through areas, change shape, and animate. 

This allows more natural construction of levels.  If you can draw it on
paper, you can see it in the game. 

Light Diminishing/Light Sourcing

Another touch adding realism is light diminishing.  With distance, your
surroundings become enshrouded in darkness.  This makes areas seem huge
and intensifies the experience.  Light sourcing allows lamps and lights to
illuminate hallways, explosions to light up areas, and strobe lights to
briefly reveal things near them.  These two features will make the game
frighteningly real. 

Variable Height Floors and Ceilings

Floors and ceilings can be of any height, allowing for stairs, poles,
altars, plus low hallways and high caves--allowing a great variety in for
rooms and halls. 

Environment Animation and Morphing

Walls can move and transform in DOOM, which provides an active--and
sometimes actively hostile--environment.  Rooms can close in on you,
ceilings can plunge down to crush you, and so on.  Nothing is for certain
in DOOM. 

To this we can add the ability to have animated messages on the walls,
information terminals, access stations, and more.  The environment can act
on you, and you can act on the environment.  If you shoot the walls, they
get damaged, and stay damaged.  Not only does this add realism, but
provides a crude method for marking your path, like violent bread crumbs.

Palette Translation

Each creature and wall has its own palette which is translated to the
game's palette.  By changing palette colors, one can have monsters of many
colors, players with different weapons, animating lights, infrared sensors
that show monsters or hidden exits, and many other effects, like
indicating monster damage.

Multiple Players

Up to four players can play over a local network, or two players can play
by modem.  You can see the other player in the environment, and in certain
situations you can switch to their view.  This feature, added to the 3-D
realism, makes DOOM a very powerful cooperative game. 

Smooth, Seamless Gameplay

The environment in DOOM is one big world.  You enter and exit buildings,
climb stairs, and so on.  Just like real life.  Everything is actual size. 
You never have to leave the game environment unless you quit or save your
first game.  And the frame rate (the rate at which the screen is updated)
is high, so you move smoothly from place to place, turning and acting as
you wish, unhampered by the slow jerky motion of most 3-D games.  The game
plays well on a 386sx, and on a 486/33, the normal mode frame rate is
faster than movies or television.  This allows for the most important
aspect of gameplay--immersion. 

DOOM will be available in the third quarter of 1993.  Our shareware
distributor is Apogee Software, P.O. 476389, Garland, TX, 75047. Or call:
1-800-GAME123. 

Our commercial distributor is FormGen, Inc.  Reach them at: FormGen, Inc.,
13 Holland Drive, Ontario, Canada. Or call: 1-416-857-4143. 

EDITORS: Call the contact listed above for continuing development
information and a preview copy when it becomes available.
____________________________________________________________

DOOM, Id, and Wolfenstein are trademarks of Id Software, Inc.

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