DOOM

Year: 1993-1995
Place: Prince George, BC; St. Albert, AB; High Level, AB
My age: 15-17

I was actually less of a gaming nerd in the '90s than I am now, but I did have my moments in video gaming. I owned a Sega Master System in the early '90s, and Jake had a NES, but when consoles started to be replaced every four or five years, my parents weren't willing to continue buying me consoles. We did, however, always have a PC starting in 1992. I played and enjoyed Wolfenstein 3D and its sequel, Spear of Destiny, but the game that really blew my mind was id Software's DOOM.

Many hours in Prince George and St. Albert were spent at the computer with the lights off and the sound turned up while I crapped my pants as I played DOOM. It may be a very dated and unimpressive game by today's standards, but at the time, it was a cutting-edge game that made the first-person shooter genre of video games what it is today. Wolfenstein may have invented the genre, but DOOM put it on the map. The graphics were amazing compared to any other game at the time, the mood was perfectly eerie, the enemies were legitimately frightening, and the music either got your blood pumping or cranked up the suspense.
I found a website that has all of the music from the game, and I'm actually listening to it as I write this. I can picture the action of the game as I listen to the song from each level. Visit this link to hear the music from the first level of the game.

The first computer I played DOOM on was actually not quite powerful enough to handle it, so the movements on screen were very jerky and a little delayed. It was maddening at first, but the game was too good for me to stop playing, and I gradually learned to compensate for the lag in my computer's processor, and I got to the point that I could finish the game on it's Ultra-violent difficulty level. When we got a better computer, and the movement and controls were fluid and perfect, I was an unstoppable DOOMing machine.
DOOM II came out in either '94 or '95, and I wasted no time mastering that game, too. I spent the summer of '95 in High Level, and my cousin Mark and I would have nightly death match games against each other online. He and I were very equally skilled at the game, and it was a lot of fun to play against him.

There were cheat codes that I learned later which could be used to make the game easier, but I quickly grew bored of them because it took the challenge out of the game. I still remember some of the codes, though. IDDQD was god-mode, making you impervious to damage. IDKFA gave you all weapons, full ammo, and all the keys for the level. IDFA gave you all weapons and full ammo. IDBEHOLD brought up a menu that you could choose from, such as turn clipping off (walking through walls), berserker (super strength when you punch), partial invisibility, and goggles that allowed you to see in the dark.

I bought DOOM 3 a couple of years ago, but it just wasn't the same. I'd rather play Half-Life 2.