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DOOM 3DO Source Released On Github

Posted by timothy on from the you-are-doomed dept.

New submitter burgerbecky writes The port that was as hellish as the game world itself, DOOM for the 3DO's source code has been released on github. The original programmer outlined the corners cut and why.

26 of 323 comments (clear)

  1. Yes another developer lead down the path .... by cold+fjord · · Score: 5, Insightful

    FTA:

    Firstly, this was the product of ten intense weeks of work due to the fact that I was misled about the state of the port when I was offered the project. I was told that there was a version in existance with new levels, weapons and features and it only needed "polishing" and optimization to hit the market. After numerous requests for this version, I found out that there was no such thing and that Art Data Interactive was under the false impression that all anyone needed to do to port a game from one platform to another was just to compile the code and adding weapons was as simple as dropping in the art.

    I'm starting to think that as a developer the automatic assumption should be that you are being hired for a death march unless there is strong evidence to the contrary.

    --
    much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
    1. Re:Yes another developer lead down the path .... by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 3, Insightful

      yet more on why unions as needed

    2. Re:Yes another developer lead down the path .... by rockout · · Score: 3, Informative

      Another over-simplified common argument from someone that doesn't know anything about unions, just knows that they don't like them, because, uh... Ayn Rand! or something.

      Steelworker jobs disappeared as a result of automation. One quick example that you can find in 5 seconds of googling:

      “When I joined the company, it had 28,000 employees,” said George Ranney, a former executive at Inland Steel, an Indiana mill that was bought out by ArcelorMittal in 1998. “When I left, it had between 5,000 and 6,000. We were making the same amount of steel, 5 million tons a year, with higher quality and lower cost.”

      But keep spreading that myth of "unions=job loss". They're lapping it up in the red states. Amazing how so many middle-class people will vote against their own self-interests.

      --
      I've learned that they're worthless, so I don't read AC comments anymore.
  2. Re:The fact remains... by BronsCon · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Someone cared enough to post the source, with a writeup about their experience with it, someone cared enough to submit it, someone cared enough to approve it, at the very least I cared enough to read it and even browse the source a bit. At least one more of the over 7 billion people on the planet will probably care, as well.

    --
    APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.
  3. Unions, a case study. by SuperKendall · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Result before unions:

    Sometimes programmers hired on death marches, feel free to leave and find better work.

    Result after unions:

    All programming now inherently a death march because unskilled "coders" most senior members of any team, cannot be fired and also direct architecture.

    Leaving a job where the petty minded rulers feel like you slighted them means you will never work as a coder again because other union shops are told not to work with you.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  4. IB4 Michael Hardy by Nyder · · Score: 3, Informative

    http://youfailit.net/?p=49

    My guess is this guy will start selling this game, claiming he programmed it, and a 3DO emulator source he'll also claim as he did.

    --
    Be seeing you...
  5. Re:HP-UX by Guy+Harris · · Score: 4, Informative

    I had some opportunity to work with HP-UX (built GnuMake on it for a in-company build/QA system), it was always an interesting and very different beast. Is it still around in any form?

    Yes.

  6. Re:Can't blame him/her by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 4, Funny

    If I had 10 weeks to port Doom to the 3DO I would have cut my dick off too

    Please, don't let that stop you!

    At least this way you won't be as much of a dick :-)

    --
    "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
  7. Re:IBM and HP, please release the source! by _merlin · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The trouble is there's so much cross-licensing and license pollution involved. No-one would know for sure whether a codebase contains something licensed in a way that prevents them from redistributing it in source code form. Well, IBM might, but I wouldn't expect anyone else to.

  8. Anti-worker would mean against, not for... by SuperKendall · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Yea, cause that is totally how unions work.

    Reply modeled after real world examples, including Teachers Unions.

    If you don't think any group with power over workers prevents "troublesome" workers from finding work, you are simply naive.

    nice anti-workers rhetoric

    What could be more pro-worker than protecting workers from predation? Being anti-union is inherantly being for the workers, not the overseers.

    I forgot to add the third aspect of "after union" - you make 20% less pay and your union leader lives in a mansion.

    are you just a temporarily embarrassed millionaire?

    A) Never be ashamed at having a strong opinion.

    B) Not even close to a millionaire, temporary or otherwise. I work for a living thank you very much.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re:Anti-worker would mean against, not for... by ArmoredDragon · · Score: 3, Interesting

      IMO the reason unions are anti-worker is because unions work in the best interest of the union management. Take for exapmle the whole mess with Hostess where the union bosses called it a success because the workers stood their ground, even though their members were all jobless after that (but the union bosses still retained their higher paying jobs...)

      Unions are also anti-worker because most of the ones that exist today started via mafia style tactics (threatening workers who didn't join the union and pay dues with violence, in addition to threatening business owners with violence.)

      Yes, pushing for higher wages is part of their motivation, but that's only because the higher your wages, the more dues they collect from you. They don't give a shit if you're a bad employee, just so long as you're a dues paying member.

      Oh and who remembers the Obamacare provision that permitted union management to keep "Cadillac" health insurance plans while nobody else was allowed to?

    2. Re:Anti-worker would mean against, not for... by rockout · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Being anti-union is inherantly being for the workers, not the overseers.

      I forgot to add the third aspect of "after union" - you make 20% less pay and your union leader lives in a mansion.

      Both of these assertions are such complete bullshit and make it obvious that your entire knowledge of unions is based on no real-world experience with them.

      Let's start with your "like teachers' unions" analogy. Right there you've equated a union in a public service job (government paycheck) with all unions, which is ridiculous. Yes, it's true that it's tougher to fire a teacher than it is to fire a McDonald's employee. It's also true that you have no clue about how private sector unions are formed, or why they're formed. Their primary purpose is not protectionism, it's to get paid more. You can't just lump all unions into one box and declare they're all evil. Are some corrupt? Yes, of course. Do people like you then erroneously believe they're all corrupt, just because you've got some right-wing dogma implanted in your Archie-Bunker-like skull? Yes, you do.

      When the people with 99% of the money dictate what you should be paid, and their decrees have nothing to do with your fair market value, because they're a near-monopoly that believes in getting workers for the absolute minimum amount possible, the only way to push back is with a union. You can't do it yourself, period. I'm in a union of freelancers (not programming or IT related, but I am a technician) and before the union was formed, the people in charge of setting the rates for freelancers had a "take it or leave it" attitude, even though their profits was very very comfortable - that didn't matter, they wanted more. Well, guess what? Us freelancers wanted more too. We got the union formed, and my day rate went up about 30% almost overnight. And was there less work as a result? Not at all. The execs and shareholders making the money are still making money, they're just making a little bit less profit than they were before. It's not like they were going to say, "Oh we were getting .26 on the dollar before, and now we're only getting .23 on the dollar.... fuck it! let's shut the whole operation down."

      Everyone wants to make more money. Unions are the only way for the workers to push back - if workers don't push back, they'll just make less and less and less over time. Take your anti-union rhetoric and toss it back to Fox News where it belongs. The real world is much more complex than the simple cliches you've trotted out.

      --
      I've learned that they're worthless, so I don't read AC comments anymore.
    3. Re:Anti-worker would mean against, not for... by DexterIsADog · · Score: 4, Funny

      B) Not even close to a millionaire, temporary or otherwise. I work for a living thank you very much.

      Mmm, not to nitpick, but plenty of us who are millionaires also still work for a living. And some of us despair a little as we slide closer to retirement, knowing we will likely have to settle for a lesser lifestyle when we stop working.

    4. Re:Anti-worker would mean against, not for... by SuperKendall · · Score: 3, Interesting

      When the people with 99% of the money dictate

      And you accuse me of dogma... trigger warning people!

      The Hostess example the other guy posted shows clearly enough the same thing applies when unions are in the public sector.

      It's not being inherently anti-union, it's understanding human nature. Unions are simply another kind of company that over time uses workers to maximize union income. Note I did not say union worker income... that may be a side benefit, though usually a short-lived one.

      Everyone wants to make more money. Unions are the only way for the workers to push back

      That is not at all true. You can either ask for a raise, or find somewhere else to work for more money.

      Programmers (and I include myself here) traditionally find it difficult to ask for more money, even though it can be very effective. But they don't find it very difficult at all to look for work, because there is usually a good range of choice as to where a programmer can work. So programmers have not really needed unions because getting more money is easily done, if desired...

      Which brings up another point; programmer pay is high enough usually that a union giving them more pay is seen as kind of pointless, when most feel like they make a good living already. Base pay for programming is high enough that salary is usually a secondary concern to other factors.

      Take your anti-union rhetoric and toss it back to Fox News where it belongs.

      I haven't watched Fox News pretty much ever; take your blindly applied stereotypes and your squawking parroting of talking points and bat them around the little bubble of unreality you live in.

      --
      "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    5. Re:Anti-worker would mean against, not for... by lgw · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Disney shareholders, Viacom shareholders... the list goes on. I care about their pockets exactly the same amount as they care about mine - zero.

      Why do you hate retired people? No, seriously - that's the vast majority of shareholders in the modern world. More than half of Americans own stock, usually as part of some 401k or pension plan (it was up to nearly 2/3s before the 08 collapse). The "owning class" is, well, everyone these days.

      Sure, ownership is unduly concentrated, but time and a broad interest in investing will fix that. All you have to do is buy stock, no 1%er can stop you.

      Why don't I and my fellow union members, in your view, have the right to seek more profit, just like they do?

      Hey, go for it, whatever. I can always sell my stock, and work elsewhere. Just don't take over an industry, that's a monopoly practice as bad as any other. I think you'll find most software developers rather enjoy the idea of meritocracy, and aren't particularly eager for a system based solely on seniority, but maybe there some group somewhere who aren't - people who think they're below average are sure to like the concept!

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
  9. Cars got made by rsilvergun · · Score: 3, Insightful

    and continue to get made well in Germany with Union Labor. Also, I'm fed up with the guys putting parts on at the assembly line getting blamed for for shitty American Cars. They just tightened the bolts people. Yes, it's hard, mind numbing work; but at the end of the day it was management going to engineering to say "Make a car _this_ cheap that we can sell for _this_ much that created shitty American Cars. Engineers just do what they're told, and Management wasn't unionized.

    --
    Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
    1. Re:Cars got made by I'm+New+Around+Here · · Score: 4, Interesting

      and continue to get made well in Germany with Union Labor. Also, I'm fed up with the guys putting parts on at the assembly line getting blamed for for shitty American Cars. They just tightened the bolts people.

      My father worked for GM and was in the UAW. It never stopped him from telling us how bad his coworkers and fellow union members were. Stupid and lazy people are not excluded from union membership.

      One of my teachers in high school also had UAW experience. One story I remember was of the spot welders that were supposed to make a dozen precise welds as the frame moved down the assembly line. Some days the workers just didn't care, and made eight welds that were near where they were supposed to be. Those cars would rattle from the missing and misplaced welds. Also, he mentioned the senior union members who came in late, left for lunch early, and never returned. Or worse, returned from lunch drunker than they were earlier.

      So, for all the good than someone can point out in unions' favor, there are just as many examples of how they eventually fail. As another post points out, it is more the character of the worker than his membership in a union that determines the quality of his work.

      --
      If you think I voted for Trump because of this post, you're wrong. I voted for Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party. Again.
  10. Re:Can't blame him/her by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    In case people are missing it:

    In the book "Masters of Doom" about the formation and early years of Id Software, there was a character mentioned called Burger Bill, who had a penchant for nibbling on an old cheeseburger he kept in his desk draw.

    I remember reading in the comments on a story here years ago that Burger Bill was now Burger Becky, who it seems is the person who did this port.

  11. if ohshit by rwven · · Score: 4, Funny

    Well, I've been looking for like 5 minutes and already found this gem:

    https://github.com/Olde-Skuul/...

    1. Re:if ohshit by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Cue all the programming nazis^purists who thing that "you should never use a goto in c".

      The code's very readable - bonus points for style.

      --
      "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
    2. Re:if ohshit by phantomfive · · Score: 3, Informative

      The code's very readable - bonus points for style.

      Seriously? It has a DO loop inside of a GOTO loop inside of another GOTO loop. Those are the ones I've found so far. Also, it doesn't actually abort when it goes to ABORT.....from there it jumps back to AGAIN. The structure of that code is exactly why GOTOs are considered evil.

      And for the record, I don't oppose gotos, but I do oppose them used in ugly code.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
  12. Re:Can't blame him/her by haruchai · · Score: 4, Informative

    You're correct - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R...

    S/he was born William Salvador Heineman

    --
    Pain is merely failure leaving the body
  13. Re:The fact remains... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    All 5 of them?

  14. Re:My hat is off to you, sir! by burgerbecky · · Score: 5, Informative

    The ARM linker for the 3DO will link each and every function in the source file if only one function in a file was used. It was common practice in the 80s and 90s to write library code with each function in its own source file to get around the problem of accidental code bloat. Look to the early GNU stdlib implementation and you'll notice they did the same thing. Modern linkers with Link Time Code Generation don't suffer from this issue since they will remove every piece of dead or unused code wherever it is, which is why Burgerlib 5 is in a lot fewer source files than Burgerlib 1, 2 or 3.

  15. Background: Dijkstra's case against goto by tepples · · Score: 3, Informative

    And if anybody doesn't understand: The goto statement is considered harmful, except when it's not. When used in situations where structured programming (while and friends) expresses the intent more cleanly, it's harmful. But when used as the backend of a coroutine macro library, it's not. And when used to jump to cleanup code in exceptional conditions, as seen here, it's not.

  16. Re:The fact remains... by rujasu · · Score: 3, Informative

    "burgerbecky" is Rebecca Heineman, who programmed The Bard's Tale III and Dragon Wars, two of my favorite old computer RPG's. I had no idea she worked on 3DO Doom.