Doom is a first-person shooter video game developed and distributed by ID Software in 1993 and headed by the director John Carmack and the designer John Romero.
Doom was a sales success from day one, becoming the most recognised and best-selling game of the year. Such was its influence on players that it came to be installed from the factory on most computers of the time, and despite not being the first video game to belong to the shooter genre, it was responsible for popularising and laying the foundations on which other games in the genre would be based in the future.
In the 1990s, a new market for PC games began to emerge in the United States. In this market, unlike the console market, you could publish your video game directly, as there was no need to pay licensing fees. This led to the emergence of a large number of independent companies that released video games, although the quality of these games, since they were not controlled, was of a low level. The distribution and promotion of these games was done by mail. Several photos of the game and a review published in a magazine were sent and it was up to the buyer to decide if he wanted to buy it. This model evolved into what we know today as shareware.
Shareware is a form of software distribution in which the user can evaluate a product free of charge and with limited limitations. The limitations are usually time or usage limitations.
This same model was used to promote the games. Users were allowed to play the first few levels of the game for free and if they liked it, they bought the whole game. In addition, the emergence of BDS favoured a wider range of distribution expansion.
Having met and with ambitions to excel, John Carmack and John Romero contacted Scott Miller, founder of Apogee Software, to distribute their projects. The team was also joined by graphic artist Adrian Carmack, whom they had met during their time at Softdisk. The three of them left the magazine and started developing several 2D games. After this, Apogee asked them for a 3D game for which John Carmack would develop what would be the first 3D engine. After a couple of unsuccessful releases, what is considered the first FPS ever, Wolfenstein 3D, was released. Its success was so overwhelming that id Software had no doubt that the game had to have a sequel. This was the moment when the concept of Doom began to cross the minds of the developers.
John Carmack and John Romero were big fans of the film Alien (1979) and wanted to make a game based on it. After the success of Wolfenstein they felt the time was right. After several attempts to negotiate the rights to the franchise and create a game based on their favourite film, they decided to abandon the idea and release their own title from scratch, even if this meant an increase in production costs.
Memory: 4 MB RAM.
Graphics: VGA 320x200 pixels. 256 colors.
Engine: Id Tech 1.
Doom has lasted until the present day with the periodic release of sequels that have been included in a saga that today exceeds 8 games and that has been able to adapt to new technologies and platforms. Despite the long time interval between the first release and the latest instalments, they have always tried to maintain the essence of destruction and chaos that makes the player's experience unique. The saga continues to be a hit with gamers, having recorded its best launch ever with its latest game (Doom Eternals in 2020) which reached over 100,000 simultaneous players on the Steam platform.