Ode to Doom
Just a couple days late for its 10th anniversary, I finally got around to installing the WildPalm Series 60 DOOM port on my Nokia N-Gage and I have to say it's pretty awesome (make sure you get the extra MMC support file). I tried playing it *months* ago on my 7650 then my 3650, but always had memory errors and never could get it to work. Then the other day Jock told me he had it running on his N-Gage and it dawned on me that the 10MB+ of RAM on both the N-Gage and the 6600 would obviously make it work without problems and sure enough Jock was right.
So I just got it installed now and it's *great*! How fun is that game?! How many memories? Has it been 10 years already!?!?! Insane. I remember quite well setting up Deathmatch servers in the Lotus Notes training room with my fellow consultants back in Atlanta, GA where I first started working as a computer professional and playing for several hours a day after work. The original LAN party. Never before or since have I had so much fun playing a video game.
If I remember correctly, you had to have 'decent' hardware to run the software. Isn't it cool that the decent hardware of then is the pocket-toys of now? Really amazing. And it's amazing how well the game has aged as well. Not that I'm super-video-game-boy, but even though Tomb Raider's 3D graphics are supposedly more "real", it just doesn't have that fluidity and speed and sense of depth that DOOM has. Even just now on the little screen I was completely absorbed, and when I went around a dark corner with the strobe light over head and got nailed by one of the fugly monsters, the hair stood up on the back of my neck. Now *that* is a game built to last!
Okay, for those of you keeping track at home, I now have on my N-Gage's 128MB MMC storage card the following games: Tomb Raider, Monkey Ball, and Pandemonium (native N-Gage games that I purchased, but now have as hacked copies on the MMC), MGS Karting S60 app (trial only, I bought a version for my 7650, but haven't tried to transfer the license), the GoBoy Gameboy emulator plus several ROMs including Tetris, Mario World and Wario Land 3, the MAME emulator and a few older games like Pac Man and 1942, a variety of Java-based games including Splinter Cell and Tiger Woods Golf, and now the S60 port of the original DOOM as well. Forget anything I may have said before, the N-Gage is the *ultimate* portable gaming platform hands down. Maybe not the way that Nokia intended it to be (or maybe so) but without a doubt there's no other platform that can play so many types of games out there. If only the device had the horsepower to emulate GBA games, it'd be perfect.
Okay, anyways back to DOOM. Here's an article in GameSpy about DOOM's 10th anniversary which was a couple days ago. It's an interesting read. Also is interesting to note that DOOM's creator, the great John Romero is a big believer in the N-Gage and his company MonkeyStone is set to release Red Faction sometime in the next week or so for the N-Gage as well. Here's a link a review on GameSpy. The game will support up to four people via Bluetooth for Deathmatches which is going to be *great* (and surprising since I'm pretty sure the 3650/6600 can only connect to one other BT device at a time). Four is really the minimum number of people you need in a Deathmatch to get that proper level of chaos. I can't wait to try it...
I'll have to add that game to my Christmas wish list. And of course three other N-Gages as well to pass out to friends. (Hmmm. Friends... Maybe I should add those to the list as well...)
:-)