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Doom 1.9 original setup floppy disk (Source: Etsy UK)
Labeled by PC Gamer in 1998 as “probably the most imitated game of all time,” id Software’s Doom is celebrating its 30th anniversary today. Released for MS-DOS, it has sold an estimated 3.5 million copies by 1999. This game marked the birth of a franchise consisting of multiple video games, two movies, tabletop games, a novel series, and more.
On the 10th day of December 1993, id Software released Doom, a first-person shooter that was the third game of the company, after Commander Keen and Wolfenstein 3D. The latest desktop PC release in the franchise rooted in Doom is Doom Eternal, which was unleashed upon the world in 2020. However, a mobile game, Mighty Doom, arrived this March on Android and iOS.
As if video games weren’t enough, the Doom franchise also includes a set of four novels that were published in the mid-1990s, followed by two more, launched over a decade later. Marvel released a sixteen-page comic book in May 1996 in a limited edition that was given away at the Electronic Entertainment Expo convention. Doom: The Boardgame arrived in 2004. In late 2020, a fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons module entitled Doom Eternal: Assault on Amaros Station was published by Critical Role Productions.
But wait, there’s more! Universal Pictures made two film adaptations as part of the Doom universe. The eponymous one, released in 2005, stars Karl Urban and Dwayne Johnson. Doom: Annihilation arrived as a direct-to-video film adaptation in 2019, but without any big Hollywood names involved. Who doesn’t love a good movie adaptation?
The original game managed to sell 3.5 million physical copies, as well as 1.15 million shareware copies by 1999. From the initial MS-DOS release on 3.5-inch floppy disks, the game landed on virtually any imaginable hardware platform, including portable media players compatible with the Rockbox firmware, printers, old phones, digital cameras, and more.
However, the most impressive part of Doom’s legacy is that it was the first title to offer multiplayer support over LAN on IBM PCs. This game has made an incredibly significant impact on the entire gaming industry. The best part is that id Software had only one requirement for the resulting files, and that was to make them available for free. Truly revolutionary!
But the story doesn’t end here! Recent leaks have suggested that a new game set before the events of the original might launch as Doom: Year Zero as soon as 2024. Until then, collectors can go ahead and spend some of their money on rare items such as the shareware IBM PC version, which is currently around $120 on eBay (plus shipping). It looks like there’s a lot more to come from this iconic franchise!