John Romero shows unseen DOOM art for 21st anniversary
Isn't it always embarrassing when your parents break out the baby pictures? Well, spare a thought for the 21-year-old DOOM. In celebration of the classic shooter's anniversary, Id co-founder John Romero has spent the last couple of days releasing never-before-seen early assets from its development.
These aren't just of historical value, either. For the still very-much active Doom modding scene, some of these images mean new semi-official textures that can be used in future WADs.
You can see some highlights over the next few slides, or find the entire collection over at John Romero's Twitter account. Head here for a Dropbox link to high-quality versions.
"Cyberdemon model scan," tweets Romero, "circa 1993."
"Yes, we created even more extreme deaths for DOOMGUY," tweets Romero. "How about decapitation? Torso removal?"
...And here's the decapitation. Brutal Doom would be proud.
Here's a sort of torso trauma medley. Ban this sick filth, etc.
"BFG version 0.9, circa 1993," writes Romero. "It shot out tons of multi-colored plasma balls and slowed down the computer." Ah, the early '90s.
Here's the Demon—or "Pinky"—kind of exploding in a horrendous meat shower. "Something from Scanners?" Romero wonders.
"Archvile model scan," reveals Romero, "circa 1994."
"Some of Adrian [Carmack]'s sketchbook scans about to be turned into wall textures, 1993," Romero explains.
More pre-wall sketches. You may have noticed a theme across this collection. It is "demons".
"Can you believe this? The Spiderdemon original had a MAGIC ATTACK along with the gatling gun," writes Romero. "Too strange." Actually, I can believe that.
"For the DOOM community," writes Romero, "some original wall textures possibly not used."
You probably thought you'd get through this gallery without seeing a vertical wall spine texture. You were wrong.
Here's a scan of the Spiderdemon to round things out.
Phil has been writing for PC Gamer for nearly a decade, starting out as a freelance writer covering everything from free games to MMOs. He eventually joined full-time as a news writer, before moving to the magazine to review immersive sims, RPGs and Hitman games. Now he leads PC Gamer's UK team, but still sometimes finds the time to write about his ongoing obsessions with Destiny 2, GTA Online and Apex Legends. When he's not levelling up battle passes, he's checking out the latest tactics game or dipping back into Guild Wars 2. He's largely responsible for the whole Tub Geralt thing, but still isn't sorry.