Episode 573: DOOM Clones (Patreon)

Good morning, Diamond Feit here. We're fast approaching the 30th anniversary of DOOM, id Software's infinitely replayable & reshapable first-person shooter. And as much as I'd love to spend two hours of my life talking to fellow DOOM-heads about why that game absolutely rules, the truth is Retronauts already has an episode dedicated to that topic.

What I did instead was invite Stuart Gipp and David L. Craddock onto the show for a conversation about DOOM clones, the catchall term we once used to describe the first-person shooter genre before that new identifier took over. Together we attempt to define what makes an original game a DOOM clone, highlight our favorite examples from the 1990s, and speculate as to when and why the term died. But first, we open the show by gushing about DOOM and why that game absolutely rules because of course we did.

Be sure to watch David's documentary about this perpetually popular genre called simply First Person Shooter.

Episode art from John Pading, edits by Greg Leahy. Music credits:

• 11:20 - Doom (PSX): Credits & Demo
• 20:33 - Doom (PC): Intermission from Doom
• 32:54 - Heretic (PC): The Graveyard
• 47:36 - Doom II (PC): Evil Incarnate | Duke Nukem 3D (PC): Grabbag
• 54:39 - Redneck Rampage (PC-CD): UFOs, Big Rigs, and BBQ
• 1:04:55 - Alien Trilogy (PC-CD): Derelict
• 1:16:58 - Blood (PC): Shipwrecked
• 1:29:07 - PowerSlave Exhumed: Set Arena
• Closing - Doom 64: Finale