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 (opens in new tab). Head here (opens in new tab) for a Dropbox link to high-quality versions.

"Cyberdemon model scan," tweets Romero (opens in new tab), "circa 1993."

"Yes, we created even more extreme deaths for DOOMGUY," tweets Romero (opens in new tab). "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 (opens in new tab). "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 (opens in new tab).

"Archvile model scan," reveals Romero (opens in new tab), "circa 1994."

"Some of Adrian [Carmack]'s sketchbook scans about to be turned into wall textures, 1993," Romero explains (opens in new tab).

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 (opens in new tab). "Too strange." Actually, I can believe that.

"For the DOOM community," writes Romero (opens in new tab), "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.