
The Shareware Scene, Part 4: Doom - dmazin
https://www.filfre.net/2020/06/the-shareware-scene-part-4-doom/
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rasz
> By transparently shifting the processor between its real and protected modes
> on the fly, Rational Systems’s “DOS/4GW” could make it seem to the
> programmer as if all of the machine’s memory was as effortlessly available
> as the first 640 K.

This describes EMM386 expanded memory manager. This is not how DOS/4GW
extender works :/ DOS/4GW is a manager between your program and DOS Protected
Mode Interface (DPMI) (or bare metal MMU in case DPMI host is not loaded). You
run your code in flat linear address space protected mode all the time.

~~~
mwcampbell
I think the "transparently shifting the processor between its real and
protected modes on the fly" part was referring to how a DOS extender had to
switch modes, and copy stuff between low and high memory, when calling out to
DOS (e.g. INT 21h). It was basically like the switch between user mode and
kernel mode in an OS today, except that ironically in this case, it was the
"kernel" that was limited in its access to memory.

~~~
throwanem
I think Jimmy Maher set out to be a historiographer rather than a tech writer.
He's damned good at it, too.

~~~
mwcampbell
He's definitely a good historian. But, as shown in his book about the Amiga,
The Future Was Here, he's also pretty knowledgeable about programming.

~~~
throwanem
True, but a book from MIT Press benefits from considerably more editing ahead
of time than a blog post. It's like the mention of network "broadcast
packages" in talking about how Doom's netcode destroyed LANs - yeah, I get
that it's not technically accurate, but I also know what he's talking about,
and that his commenters will catch it and he'll fix it in post.

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ttul
Such lovely nostalgia. I recall excitedly going to my friend's house - he ran
a pirate BBS - and playing one of the early beta releases of Doom (likely Doom
v0.3). It was nothing short of astonishing that this could run on his crappy
1992-vintage PC, which was a low-end 486 model with something like 4MB of RAM.

~~~
29athrowaway
486 was not that bad for 1992. The only better thing you could have was a
486DX2 that was released that year.

The Pentium came only the next year, 1993.

~~~
jandrese
Low end in 1992 would have been a 386, which might still have been capable of
playing DooM, albeit with the window size reduced and if you were lucky enough
to get 4MB of RAM on that box. Low end boxes might still only come with 640k.

~~~
29athrowaway
In 1992 I had a 286, and while some software would not run on it, you could
still run a lot of games on it, in VGA mode if you had support for it.

As well as WordPerfect, Lotus 123, Quattro Pro, QBASIC, Turbo Pascal, Turbo C,
dBase, Clipper, etc.

Also, Windows 3.1.

~~~
bluedino
And Wolf3D!

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TedDoesntTalk
Read the book “Masters of Doom” for more detail than this article. Great book
on the rise and fall of id software.

~~~
adventured
> Great book on the rise and fall of id software.

I think one of the nice things about the id story, is that they never actually
fell; they didn't fail or collapse. They just kept on with making games.
Romero didn't do well with Daikatana & ION Storm after departing, however id
went on to make Quake 2 next which was also successful. They never again quite
hit the high level of importance they had reached in the industry with Doom &
Quake, however they sold for $150 million to ZeniMax in the end and were still
fully operational as a game making company (despite spending six years on
Rage).

~~~
dleslie
I like the band analogy best:

The core creatives eventually went their separate ways. Some started new
bands, some changed industries, and some stayed together under the original
name.

But like a rock band id will be forever defined by the creatives involved in
each era. The Keen, Doom, and Quake eras all had slightly different members,
and it shows strongly in their product.

Then most of the remaining band left, and John Carmack kept touring with
studio musicians.

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dhosek
Man, I remember playing Wolfenstein on a computer at work (kids, don't do this
today). I could last about 15 minutes before I had to stop from motion
sickness.

~~~
mercer
I remember quite a few concerned discussions by the adults about how playing
Wolfenstein could mess up your balance permanently. Well, and about how the
violence would destroy society.

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unicornporn
Just now diving into the contemporary Doom scene. Seems very lively and
fascinating.

Can recommend this podcast I listened to today:
[https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/inthekeep/doom-is-
dead](https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/inthekeep/doom-is-dead)

~~~
user_0x
i recently started playing doom online with doomseeker. i was pretty
disappointed that it was mostly modded to hell and back and all the good
deathmatch servers were in russia with 200+ ping. still fun, you just can't
really aim right. . .

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mrlonglong
Someone should port Doom properly to Nintendo, just to stick it to them.

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DrTung
There's a Doom cartridge/game for Nintendo 64, I remember playing it say 20
years ago. Think it's still around here somewhere, I can take a photo if you
want...

Edit: found it here
[https://store.steampowered.com/app/1148590/DOOM_64/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1148590/DOOM_64/)

~~~
ido
It is actually considered an excellent version of Doom! Not done by id
themselves tho, so true to the story in the article.

~~~
christkv
It’s just been remastered and re released on consoles I think.

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TedDoesntTalk
Read the book

