There's no denying, the influence, of older titles on the ones that come after, them though, they never admitted, developers. Play other games they. Take ideas and, absorb. Concepts. And use, those in games they, develop, it's not surprising it's, commonplace, and. Expected. We, see something we like it so we use it to improve, things that we create, this is the basis, of ideation, however. There, are some, titles, that are more influential, than others there's, always a game that does something, first. Some. Titles influenced a lot of people or, force major changes, upon the industry, some, create, new genres, or introduce, wild, new technologies. They, might lead to controversies. Or simply, introduce new concepts, of gameplay or even. Bring people together in completely, new ways some. Titles have incredible. Teams working, on them and through, the development, process those, team members are, discovered, and they, become, influencers. In their own right of course, there's one game that did all of this, in fact did some of it multiple, times it's. The most influential, game of all, time and if you haven't guessed by now it's, doomed. To. Understand, why doom is the most influential. Game, you have to look at the history, of doom, now I could certainly post a bunch of PowerPoint, slides on the screen each titled, with something, that doom has done or influenced. I could, read them off in a list in a nice monotone. Voice but understanding. Why doom, is so influential. Is more, than just, the things it did or just the. People it influenced, its where it came, from the time it was born in and the era of gaming that existed. At that time this. Was one of the biggest, games of the decade creating, hundreds. Of millions, of dollars in profit, and it didn't, involve hundreds. Of developers, chained to their desks, in a sweatshop there was no massive, marketing, team or focus, groups there weren't influencers. Making, videos, about it or massive, sales pushes, coupons, and priority, placement on Steam doom, came, from ed software. In, 1993. But this wasn't, its first rodeo, founded. By John Romero, and John Carmack along, with Adrian, Carmack confusingly. Not related, and Tom, Hall it started, as a group of rogue developers. Working for soft disk this company churned, out new games created, by individual. Programmers. Stuffed, them on a floppy and mailed them out to paying subscribers. Typically, they would just rip a popular, game or add new levels or textures, to an existing, game and there you go see, the flood of bad games didn't, start, with steam one, night John, Carmack a very, genius, programmer, wanted. To port super mario to the pc this was something that was impossible, because of the smooth movement, of the character screen, from, left to right see on a PC if you moved the screen it, would jolt, over and then draw a new line of pixels, it wasn't, smooth because pcs, weren't, anywhere, near as powerful as the dedicated gaming, devices, called consoles, Carmack. Decided. He could do it and as, an exercise, a test, of his mental ability he, stayed all night with Tom Hall and remade. Super Mario, Riis first level, in a game called dangerous, Dave in copyright. Infringement Dave, was a character, that Romero, had used in games before working, at soft disc and Carmack. Had done it in a few nights when, all the other programmers. In the world had failed, he. Had, cracked, the, scrolling, screen, problem. Romero, came into work the next morning saw, this literal. Game-changing. Technology. And they decided they would pitch it to Nintendo, so, stealing. Computers, from work since, they were so, expensive, and using, them on weekends, and then rushing, them back to work before anyone, would find out they remade, Super, Mario 3, for, the PC, in a pixel, perfect reproduction. By. Hand, they, sent this to Nintendo, a completed. Game and said you can sell this it's already done it works just pay us for our work, Nintendo. Of course wanted, to sell NES, consoles. Not necessarily. Sell Mario, NES. Owned the, cartridges, they made money off every. Single game on the NES and people, bought the NES for Mario, then, bought more games meaning, more cartridges, sold, so, they, told the two John's no, during, this period of time Romero. Had received, a lot of fan mail he, made good games quality. Games, several. Of those fan letters came from the same address, with different, names all asking, for a phone, call, after seeing this same address in a magazine attached. To the name Scott Miller definitely. Not one of the fan names on the letters he, decided to call him yell at this guy for lying about being a fan but, Scott, was a fan, and the, owner of a company called Apogee.
C Soft disk opened, fan mail and would hide headhunting, offers in order to keep their talent, and Scott, had, an offer for Romero remembering. This conversation. Romero, called, Scott and asked if he wanted to publish a game like Mario a side scroller on the PC, and Scott, definitely did, they produced the title, called Commander, Keen and they sold it through shareware. This means you could download on, this newfangled, thing called the Internet a portion, of the game usually a few levels and, once he reached the end of the free portion, you could choose to pay for more usually, on the phone or by mailing a check then, a few weeks later you'd get a disc and you could continue to play the game Apogee, made about, $7,000. A month off, this new, method, of selling games the, first ten days that Commander, Keen was available, they made. $30,000. And just, like that John, Romero John. Carmack, Adrian. Carmack and Tom Hall were self-employed. Game developers, their company, ideas. From the deep was just, a terrible name and they needed a name the, first two letters of ideas, and the first letters of ideas, and deep, our ID which. Also, coincidentally. Is the acronym used, for in-demand plus, the word it is the psychological. Embodiment, of the part of the mind that focuses, on pleasure and it's shorter, it's, software, produced, more, Commander, Keen but both, Carmack's, were, Restless, John, was developing, new technical, marvels, and Adrian, just plain hated, how cute, Commander, Keen was John, wanted to make things that were technologically. Perfect. And Adrian. Wanted to make things that were gory, and bloody and, definitely. Not cute, since, they didn't have computers. When they made Commander Keen a former, employer soft, disk didn't have to think too hard about how it made, it the game they, forced, it to agree to make a game for their, subscribers once, every, two months to avoid a lawsuit now, at this time Wing.
Commander, Was popular, and it was super, pretty, Wing Commander made it think, about doing games, from a first-person, point, of view so they made a couple of test games for soft discs one hover tank was essentially, Wing Commander without the third axis, since, it only went to soft disks subscribers. Nobody really played it but the technology, was sound, and it was fast, it, was clean. Carmack's, technology. Was, better they refined, this with, their game and accidentally. Started a revolution when, they made catacombs. 3d, this, game included, a hand, on the screen you could see your. Hand. Not hidden in a tank or gripping the joystick, of a spaceship, but in the open with the enemies Apogee. Saw this an amputee, wanted. It one of the funny things about copyright. Is how easy it is to lose it and that's just what happened to Castle, Wolfenstein. The company, that owned Castle, Wolfenstein, went out of business and lost their copyright, thankfully. That meant that Wolfenstein. 3d, could exist and it, exploded. Since it wasn't tied to soft disk it could be sold through shareware, this, means millions, of players could play it and it sold well instead. Of, $30,000. Wolfenstein. Brought in two hundred, thousand, dollars every. Month for. A year not. Once to sit and relax it, wanted, to make another game, they decided not to make a sequel to Wolfenstein, finish, their copy of Wolfenstein, 3d, for the Super Nintendo and, started, thinking of a new game at first they thought they might make a game in the aliens, franchise, but they didn't want to give up creative control to a movie studio they, all played Dungeons, & Dragons and, Romero thought they could maybe make a game about demons, that'd be cool and they could throw in some of the sci-fi tech, from aliens, to make it unique and John, Carmack knew, just, what to call it he'd seen the scene in the color of money where Tom Cruise, a pool shark brings, out his secret weapon, a special, pool cue. Do. Doom. Was first seen as a leaked, tech demo and the audiences, loved, it they wanted, more and if the tech demo was this good the game would, be perfect. Players created, a monstrous. Hype for the game and when it finally released, as a shareware download, at midnight, on December 10th 1993. It crashed, the university, that hosted, the shareware campaign, server. Instantaneously. The level of Internet activity that dooms released, created, had never been conceived. Of before, Carmack. Had created, an impossible. Game while it wasn't true, 3d, his, engine allowed for non-orthogonal, level, design meaning, rooms, didn't, have to be squares, connected. By hallways, you could have simulated, curves, and roundish, rooms it, introduced, differences. In elevation so, you could walk up stairs and look down on lower areas, beneath you or fight enemies, above, you it created, dynamic, lighting with flickering, lights dark and bright areas, light switches and transitions. From pitch-black to well-lit the doom engine allowed, for indoor, and outdoor. Areas with, faraway, mountains, as a backdrop and a sky. And combined. With the rest you can walk around a doughnut-shaped, area, shooting, from the darkness at enemies down on the ground outside where. It was bright this, was a scenario, that had never happened, in a game before and now you, could do it, Epic Games founder. Tim Sweeney said, when, Doom came out I gave up on programming, for a year, because this was some unimaginable. Witchcraft. Dooms, engine, was not true, 3d it represented, everything on a single flat, plane, the, height differences. Were stored separately, in a technique called, displacements. A similar. Technique is still used today in, modern games, to create huge, outdoor, environments. Even more impressive, this engine was fully separate, from the game that's not something, that was done at the time games, were built in their engines, not on top, of them the game engine and, the game were the same thing, but not with doom the, assets, and the engine, were different, this, to, license, their engine, to other games and they did that a lot hex in half-life and Medal of Honor are just some of the games that used that engine over time though heavily, altered to, make their own gains one of the other benefits, of a separated, engine was the ability to edit the game and create, machine, cinema, or small, in-game.
Engine Films, with stories, or often, just showing perfect, speedruns, you might know this term better today as machinima. Editing, assets, also allowed for aspiring, developers. To modify, the game adding, in new assets. New skins, weapons, levels, or changing, everything if they really wanted, to in, a process, they liked to call modding, and there was blood and, gore. There were explosions, and, violence, gaming. Had never seen, such insanely. Realistic. Visceral, combat on the screen before Adrian. Carmack took all the dark twisted, imaginings. He had while making cute, little cartoon characters. In Keane and created. The most incredibly. Detailed horrific. Monsters, ever seen, they, sculpted, every monster in clay then scanned, them into the computer to produce the most awe-inspiring. Enemies. Players had ever seen, so. Much so that the gaming industry decided. To capitulate to concerned, citizens, and formed, the entertainment. Software ratings, board the ESRB. In fact, the first console, game to ever receive a mature, rating was, doomed besides. Setting new standards for. Graphics, quality and graphic. Violence, in gaming, this engine also had a second, feature that became remarkably. Popular, over time doom was not the first game that allowed you to play with other players but. It was the first game that allowed you to play against. Three, other players, in a four-person, brawl, or head-to-head. Against, another player on the Internet, this allowed players to engage, in matches, to the death something. John Romero engaged, in daily and he was noisy, he, yelled and would often curse, at his opponents, telling them to suck it down when, firing off a rocket, launcher, gaming, had always been a quiet, endeavor, but, Romero's. Force of personality led. To out, ages trash-talking. Which became a staple of the game of course this new type of game mode needed, a name and romera liked to just call it deathmatch. Of course, introducing, the world to deathmatch, multiplayer, wouldn't, have been so exciting, if not for the fact that doom had three other things in it that no other game could match doom, had a huge, arsenal of weapons, unlike, other games he didn't have one or two weapons, you had eight and this became prototypical. Amongst later competitors. For a decade. Doom, also, introduced, speed. Speed, is the most important, aspect of doom Carmack, and Romero both threw out anything, that slowed down the pace of the game Doom, is fast, you, run and you gun and you kill everything. As quickly, as possible and, when you kill those things they explode into little giblets, of flesh something, I'd like to call jibs. Jibbing a friend into tiny pieces or something a lot of people like to do so many people in fact that doom was the number one cause of decreased. Productivity in, the world at, time of release it became such a problem for employers, taking, up the time of the employees, and the bandwidth of networks, that companies, such as Intel Lotus. And Carnegie Mellon introduced, policies specifically. To stop people from playing doom at work in fact while Wolfenstein. Had sold around, 200,000. Copies Doom, was reported, to be installed on over 10 million, computers. In. 1994. It, was unsolved, on more computers, than Microsoft's. Windows 95, operating. System, Bill Gates had spent millions of, dollars trying to convince people to buy Windows and. Hadn't, been as successful, as a couple of guys in a small office in Mesquite Texas selling.
Their Game online for $45. This led Bill Gates to think about buying it, he, even shot a commercial for Doom in order to suggest that Windows would be the right place for gaming, to produce this, Windows, version, of doom he put together a team of in-house, programmers. To port it over natively, into, windows gates, put a very, talented programmer. In charge of this project a man named Gabe Newell, Newell, saw the influence. Of doom the incredible, wealth of it and the amazing, passion, in the gaming industry, while working on doom he, also saw what Microsoft, was missing, in their gaming division. This made Newell's start thinking about making his own game, and his own company, for games and he credits doom with making him realize that gaming, was the future of entertainment he, later would make his own game company called. Valve and use, his ideas, for improving Windows, to create steam players. Scrambled. To get doom the, multiplayer, component alone, led to electronic, stores being unable to cope with the demand for networking dongles, selling, out immediately, and staying sold out for months Doom was truly, revolutionary, in that way and introduced, gamers to more than just pretty technology. It was also the first game to feature a Space Marine as the main character, and it introduced, the concept, of horror, in video games to many players and while it also introduced, secrets and exploration, its demand for speed, threw, some things out the window Carmack, had created, the idea of a secret room for Wolfenstein, and those were kept in doomed but story, was, unimportant. Since it had self-published. Doom abandoning. Amputee, in favor of keeping all the, profit, they were raking, in the cash and, when Carmack, publicly, said that story in a video game was like story in a porn expected. But unimportant. That carried, weight many. Games that followed it in the new doom clone genre. Would forego story in favor of gameplay as well, these doom, clones, shooters. From the first person perspective kept. All of Doom's important, changes, they all showed you your character's hands, they started having online multiplayer, where you could engage in deathmatch. They were fast, with, large amounts of guns that you could jib your friends with and put cool Easter eggs in secret rooms they had blood and gore, they were also rated M and, eventually. There were enough doom clones, that these titles were just called first-person. Shooters, or fps, instead. Doom. Wasn't, just, a technological, marvel. It wasn't just a collection of the best design, levels ever seen or just. The most visceral art, never before imagined, it wasn't, even just a collection of experi chances at lands, with people shouting curses, at each other in deathmatch doom, was a force. That made gaming, viable. As a career. When aspiring, developers. Saw the two John's buying, Ferraris. Or saw another, new platform. Headed to the already most. Ported, game of all time. They saw a career, path and you didn't have to work for Ciara or Nintendo, to do it the people influenced. By doom were far, and wide and their responses. Widely. Different, Genova. Chan co-founder. Of that game company, said doom is my very first memory of a horror FPS, since, I really don't like horror as an emotion, I learned to stay away from the dark when we make games and, later went on to make non violent games like journey and flower on the opposite, side of the coin Harry teased Lee said that when designing half-life.
The Team wanted to scare, you like Doom did and even, non-professionals, like Robin Walker were influenced. Deeply, when he took a doom map called fortress. A team, versus, team multiplayer. Arena, with two opposite, bases, and used, that to create his own mod and later game named after the map team fortress of course, the employees, of it took the way doom influenced, them into their future projects. As well, one of Adriane Carmack's assists, in artists, American, McGee would go on to make his own psychological. Thriller American, McGee's Alice Tom. Hall one of the original founders would go on to make Duke Nukem 3d and, pray and later co-found, ion storm, Mike Wilson aids marketing, guy would go on to found the gathering, of developers, publishing. Titles like jazz jackrabbit, railroad, tycoon, oniy serious, Sam age of Wonders cropper Co and Max Payne before. Additionally. Founding, devolver, digital publishing. Hotline, Miami shadow, warrior, always sometimes monsters, had a full boyfriend, not a hero and many many many more assistant. Level designer, sandy Peterson, would go on to help create Age of Empires rise, of Rome Age of Kings and the conquerors, John Carmack now, finally, over 21, years old well he would go on to create quake, one two three and four doom, two and three doom are eg orcs and elves enemy. Territory, rage and of course doom 2016. He would also later help work on the oculus rift but. The superstar. The Rockstar, of it, John Romero he, went on to create a whole new games, company, romera wanted to create an incubator, for new ideas in gaming, and with Tom Hall he went and founded ion storm, he recruited, a developer, named Warren, Spector and they started producing games, games, like Deus, Ex and invisible, war and thief, deadly, shadows it's, hard to imagine a gaming, world without deus, ex or thief two incredibly, influential, titles, in their own right and it's impossible, to imagine a world where they exist without doom ion, storms, designers, would go on to create Dishonored. Prey Bioshock. 2 Counter, Strike global Offensive Tomb Raider legends, and so much more while the publisher, would eventually, fall, under the hubris of Romero stardom, there's little denying, that the games it created. With dooms funding. And the people who learned and got their start from the master, of doom would, not have been the same without it while lots, of games are influential, and everyone, is influenced. By many things, some. Titles, are more, influential, than others there's, always a game that did something, first, and that, game is doom. Thank. You to Aaron Black edits and war from Phoenix, and V cards for helping to storyboard. And edit this video without them there would literally, be, no, video I'd, also like to thank all our patrons on patreon, whose donations. Provide impetus to keep delivering, I'd like to know your opinion, do you think I'm wrong and something, else was more influential, if you say Deus Ex I'm going to be mad leave, a comment let's have a discussion about it convinced me doom is not my favorite. Game but, it is the game I am most fascinated. With it's, affected, so much so visibly, and it's hard to imagine other games being as important. But, with regards, to being important. Ah when. A word. Important. What, is an, important. Game and what games are, important. In the next talks video I'll lay, it out for you as usual. If you liked this video please leave a like and share it if you didn't, don't, if you did like it however you can watch another video, in the corner right now and as always we'll, see you on the next one.
2018-01-28