Classic Doom Coming To the iPhone Next Month

Two months after releasing an iPhone port of Wolfenstein 3D, id's John Carmack brings an update to the similar effort underway to bring classic Doom to the iPhone as well. He provides some detailed information on the development process, and says they're aiming for a release some time next month. "One of the things I love about open sourcing the old games is that Doom has been ported to practically everything with a 32 bit processor, from toasters to supercomputers. We hear from a lot of companies that have moved the old games onto various set top boxes and PDAs, and want licenses to sell them. We generally come to some terms in the five figure range for obscure platforms, but it is always with a bit of a sigh. The game runs, and the demo playbacks look good, but there is a distinct lack of actually caring about the game play itself. Making Doom run on a new platform is only a couple days of work. Making it a really good game on a platform that doesn't have a keyboard and mouse or an excess of processing power is an honest development effort."

Comments

Already have it on Android

[mysterious_mark]

The original Doom has already been ported to Android, Android beats I-phone again!

Re:Already have it on Android

[ZildjianKX]

FTA: "Making Doom run on a new platform is only a couple days of work. Making it a really good game on a platform that doesn't have a keyboard and mouse or an excess of processing power is an honest development effort."

Re:Already have it on Android

[bemymonkey]

Well, the G1 _does_ have a keyboard. :)

Just wonder how annoying it must be to play Doom on it :D

Re:Already have it on Android

[Schnoogs]

That's like saying "Doom came to the Phantom first....Phantom beats 360 and PS3".

To the millions who own an iPhone who cares if it came out first on some other platform. Technically it was ported to the iPod years ago by hackers so I guess iPod beats Android again! ;)

Re:Already have it on Android

[node 3]

For this quote to apply, you also need to argue that the Android port wasn't an honest development effort, and that his phone doesn't have a keyboard.

Only if Carmack was being absolutely literal and precise (also, you left out the part about the mouse).

It's pretty clear that the keyboard needs to be sufficiently similar to a full-sized PC keyboard, and that "honest effort" doesn't simply mean "earnest" or "intentional", but has a certain level of competence required as well.

And above all, even if you have all of the quoted details correct, nowhere does he imply or promise success.

The takeaway here is that compiling Doom on various hardware is easy. It's even on the iPod. But getting Doom to run at a certain level of quality (not just frame rate and visuals/sounds) can be quite a challenge.

Re:Great!

[Ektanoor]

Pal, you don't get the idea. Every single "smart" or computer stuff I ever used, since Doom came up, has to pass the Doom test. Doom runs, it's good. Doesn't run, it's glamourous high-tech trash for geeky nerds. Even my phone had to pass it :)))))

I never used the Gameboy for some reason... Hehe...

Re:Great!

[mr_da3m0n]

Now that makes me think of buying an iPhone

Why? I tried Doom on the Nintendo Gameboy Advance. It utterly sucked. Its going to be even worse on the iphone.

I take it you have not played the Wolfenstein 3D port Carmack has made for the iphone, because it plays really well. I have played Spear of Destiny on my Pocket PC devices and various other places where it was ported in the past, and it was more of a "hey neat, the game runs" than an actual, enjoyable gameplay experience.

If Carmack could make Wolfenstein 3D the only game I truely enjoy playing on my iPhone, I trust he can repeat the feat with Doom.

Doom EVERYWHERE. God, I'm going to spend hours on the can now.

Which toasters can play doom?

[theMassOfToe]

I have a personal interest in toasters, I would like to know which toasters in particular you can play doom with? ps. I'm serious. pps. I might be getting the wrong end of the stick.

Re:Which toasters can play doom?

[node 3]

There is a toaster which can toast images into the bread. The frame rate will be pretty bad, though.

Oh, and you'll want to be really careful when using the BFG...

Re:Who cares? Quake is on the Nokia E71

[F34nor]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDnGIBei11A SLYT

Re:cross platform!

[binarylarry]

yeah, except that Doom is written in C.