BoingBoing pointed me today to a Doom Comic, part of the huge and new-to-me site DoomWorld. And oh, the memories.

Allow me to geek out for a moment here.

Doom and Doom II were two of my favourite games of all time. I didn't play them a huge amount on my own, but my ex-husband and I used to have a great old time downloading wads for deathmatches. We had a few favourite wads for this, but one level in one wad was our all-time favourite, filled with nothing but Rocket Launchers (my favourite) and BFGs (his favourite). No other guns existed in the level, and the entire level was one cavernous room with many columns and pillars to hide behind. Maniacal laughter filled the house as we ran around blowing each other's heads off. The music was ripe, a midi version of some throbbing heavy metal song that would get both of us pumped up and ready to frag the moment we heard it. Fun times.

But for me these games really took off when we started finding freeware and shareware to make our own wads. I had a great deal of fun, particularly learning the hacks whereby you could make hidden doorways and cubbyholes to hide weapons. And of course, making the level make sense and look pretty was also a big part of it.

You see, there were thousands of wads out there (probably millions, by now), but there were always a few that rose to the top and nearly every gamer seemed to have them. But each of them seemed to have a (for want of a better word) UX problem - an area that didn't make any sense to navigate, doors that didn't really work properly because they weren't placed correctly, or just butt-ugly patterns and designs used in the level.

Even then, I was leaning toward UX design. Who knew.

To this day, Tricks of the Doom Programming Gurus sits on my bookshelf. I don't have the software any more, but it's fun to flip through the book and remember the good old days.

Very few games have engaged me since. I don't know why - maybe it was a phase - but I like to think it was because of the game's orginality. Back then, Doom was doing something that no one else was. They were engaging the player. Allowing the player to hack their own system, make modifications, make it better, make it their own. There are some good lessons to be learned by id's story (the company that made the game). It's worth learning about.

And they inspired millions of FragFests around the world. Including many in my own home.

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