The Hidden Magic of Doom on PS1

Exploring Doom’s most horrifying entry

One of my earliest memories is staying up way too late with my Dad. Watching him play Doom in a dark bedroom with the volume down for my sleeping Mom. A CRT screen was our portal into another world, where we crawled through techno-dungeons hunting for keys. Every step forward elevating my terror as I waited for hordes of pinkies to rush us as soon as he touched the holy red keycard. Both of us trying — failing — to contain our fear lest we wake my Mom. The oceans of blood, fleshy skin walls, and hanging human bodies haunted my thoughts for years afterword.

It was all so awesome.

The creatures, more weighty and terrifying than anything I’d seen before. Their snarling sounds reverberated off the chunky metal walls. That slimy searching sound lit my young mind up with visions of a creature of the deep lurking through the pools of green acid. Our only protection from those creatures the roar of our shotgun beating back the demons.

Every monster was scary to me. Every encounter life or death. I tried to play through it on my own many times throughout my childhood and never even reached the Barons of Hell. To this day the part of Command Control where you have to run through acid makes me sweat. As a child, every little thing seemed so important. I’d hunt…