I just bought Doom on the 360 Live Arcade Marketplace… Ahh the memories! As a port it’s quite cheaply done, doesn’t even properly support 16:9 screens, and they certainly haven’t touched any gameplay, graphics or features. But the old magic is there: maze-y levels, secrets with disguised hints, cheap scares, and LOTS of baddies to rip apart! Raw, unadulterated gameplay, without catering to mundane things such as "story", "realism" or "coherence". 🙂 All that would soon change with Lucasarts’ Dark Forces, and a few years later Half-Life would complete the evolution of the FPS genre.

Since most of us back then played with keyboard (I only knew two mouse users), the analogue controller proves quite natural. I still hate the digital pad, most of the times when I open the map I also accidentally switch weapons! I was surprised to see Mike Abrash credited, I thought he had joined Id Software for Quake, not Doom. It is also interesting to see how times have changed: the original game gave away the complete first episode, whereas the 360 Arcade demo only offers the first level.