Doom on a calculator

The Doom Bible

I just love this: here's the Doom Bible, written by Tom Hall, the original design manual for the (at the time of writing still unfinished) video game Doom. It outlines ideas for Doom, including an intricate plot, most of which were later scrapped in favor of a more simple, straightforward game. So whole passages regarding the back story are totally different to the final release. Also, there are multiple characters mentioned, whereas in the final game, you only had the opportunity to play as an anonymous "Space Marine". This change in direction was what ultimately led to the resigning of Tom Hall, the original creative director of the game.

Parts of the manual are more like a collection of notes or brain-storming, with passages going like "Insert interesting description of behavior and how they are beat here."

You can also find out that the BFG 9000 has been in the game all along:

BFG 2704 (red). Horrible hallway-scouring weapon. Damages user a bit. Awful recoil. BFG stands for "Big Fucking Gun." Safest use: back to wall, distant target.

Also, apparently one of the first things Hall planned was a "nude" mode, check out these command-line parameters:

DOOM /bubbies Replace all actors with naked women
DOOM /prude Cancels effects of bubbies parameters
DOOM /drunk Occasionally invokes the bubbies mode

The Doom Bible is dated November 28, 1992 and is a lot of fun to read. You just gotta love the whacky typeface, sketchy in-joke descriptions and general nerdiness attached in this, thankfully preserved, document.

Doom World: The Doom Bible

UAC

Looking for a new exciting investment opportunity in these unstable times? Here's a tip: why not go and invest in Union Aerospace Corporation, most probably the most evil company ever devised. If you've never played a game from the Doom franchise, UAC is the supplying company to the US military, building teleporters on the Mars' moons Phobos and Deimos, which leads to the opening of the gates of hell and spawning of all kinds of demons and imps and whatnot, killing everything in sight.

Union Aerospace Corporation :: Homepage

Dynamars Corporation updates

The Dynamars Corporation Updates were started on Something Awful in 2004 as a tongue-in-cheek parody of games and movies like Doom and Event Horizon. As can be learned from the updates, the Mars settlers are busy fighting trans-dimensional doorways to Hell, out-of-control fast food restaurants, animals appearing out of nowhere, and also extremely strict company policy. Below is a list of all articles, starting with the first one.

Surviving residents are advised to ignore the ominous transmissions coming from Ares Station. In all likelihood, Resident #010 mistakenly activated a damaged subsystem, causing the station to automatically transmit dire predictions of death. DynaMars Corporation wishes to remind all residents that these predictions are the beliefs of a damaged Ares Station subsystem, and not those of the DynaMars Corporation itself.

• 06-05-2293 - 11-02-2293
  
  
• 03-12-2295 - 09-20-2295
  
  
• 05-15-2301 - 07-14-2301
  
  
• 07-15-2301 - 08-07-2301
  
  
• 03-01-2304 - 03-11-2304 [Complaint Queue Logs]
  
  
• 04-02-2304 - 04-04-2304 [Command Queue Logs]
  
  
• 04-07-2304 - 04-21-2304
  
  
• 06-23-2305 - 07-10-2305
  
  
• 08-16-2305 - 08-26-2305

Bill Gates with a shotgun

Bill Gates talks about how great Windows 95 and DirectX are for games in a promotional video for the Microsoft Judgement Day event on October 30th, 1995.

Blame It On The Voices: Bill Gates - Doom commander, 1995