In much the same way as certain artists and bands throughout history are responsible for inspiring new eras and ushering in change when it comes to games Doom is, well the Mona Lisa.

Doom (the 1993 one, not the later remakes) and its cousin Wolfenstein changed gaming. You can’t say we wouldn’t have had Call of Duty without Doom, but it may not have turned out the same. In an article on PCGamesN Ed Smith waxes as lyrical as I do about this seminal moment in games history.

Along any game’s development path a myriad of changes, both for design and for technical reasons are always going to take place. What would Doom have looked like if those different decisions had been taken at key points in its creative cycle?

Very different that’s what, and now the long abandoned prototype of Doom has been restored by modder DrPypsy and is playable in all its glory. 

But can it run Doom?

Doom Delta 3.0 is the result – taking from id’s legendary Doom Bible design document that birthed the masterpiece. Many of the things cut from the game make it into Doom Delta. New weapons, extra characters, and a new HUD design. Many of the original aspects of the planned game ended up on the cutting room floor, waiting one day to be restored as the daddy of the boomer shooter (you kids, seriously do not know you are born.)

Playing as any of the characters and not just Doomguy feels strange having become so used to the original. Transfer Doom Delta and play it on any of the bazillion Doom wads out there and see how your favorite maps might have played out.

Doom Delta is a hugely interesting piece of work that must have taken an age to put together and if Doom is the Mona Lisa, akin to me taking a few of Leonardo da Vinci’s initial sketches and painting an almost completely different lady (for context, I cannot paint, so mine would have been a poor effort).

Paul McNally

Gaming Editor

Paul McNally has been around consoles and computers since his parents bought him a Mattel Intellivision in 1980. He has been a prominent games journalist since the 1990s, spending over a decade as editor of popular print-based video games and computer magazines, including a market-leading PlayStation title published by IDG Media. Having spent time as Head of Communications at a professional sports club and working for high-profile charities such as the National Literacy Trust, he returned as Managing Editor in charge of large US-based technology websites in 2020. Paul has written high-end gaming content for GamePro, Official Australian PlayStation Magazine, PlayStation Pro, Amiga Action, Mega Action, ST Action, GQ, Loaded, and the The Mirror. He has also hosted panels at retro-gaming conventions and can regularly be found guesting on gaming podcasts and Twitch shows. He is obsessed with 3D printing and has worked with several major brands in the past to create content Believing that the reader deserves actually to enjoy what they are reading is a big part of Paul’s ethos when it comes to gaming journalism, elevating the sites he works on above the norm. Reach out on X.

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