Doom2 - All about getting Doom online., A guide of sorts.

What is doom?

Doom (or DOOM) is a 1993 computer game by id Software that is among the landmark titles in the first-person shooter genre. It is widely recognized for its pioneering use of immersive 3D graphics, networked multiplayer gaming on the PC platform, and the support for players to create custom expansions (WADs). Distributed as shareware, Doom was downloaded by an estimated 10 million people within two years, popularizing the mode of gameplay and spawning a gaming subculture; as a sign of its impact on the industry, games from the mid-1990s boom of first-person shooters are often known simply as "Doom clones". Its graphic and interactive violence has also made Doom the subject of much controversy reaching outside the gaming world. According to GameSpy, Doom was voted by industry insiders to be the #1 game of all time.

For more info on that, check the wiki page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doom

Doom as pretty much an unlimited amount of addons which you can download from the IDgames archives which are updated almost every day with new wads.

How do I play it online?

First of all, get yourself the Doom2.wad. Illegaly or legitimatley, it's up to you.

When Doom was first released, it came with a wonderful online multiplayer code. Attemping to try this 1993 code today is a complete waste of time. It is virtually dead, and possibly no one plays it anymore. So enter, doom ports.

What is a port?

A port is basicly a modified version of the source code ID released, usually to work with different platforms and OS. For example, if you tried to play doom.exe using windows XP you would fail without using some sort of port. The term usually denotes a modification made by fans, as opposed to any of the official versions produced by id Software or affiliated companies. Ports also usually contain new bugfixes and features to add to the game. Things such as mouselook, improved physics and even totally new rendering systems (that's graphics for the newbs).

What port should I use?

For the online gaming community there's only seriously two ways to play doom online. And that's Zdoom/GZdoom and Skulltag.

ZDoom is probably the most refered to because of the massive amount of things you can do with it. Jumping, crouching, mouselook, custom weapons, custom monsters, scripting and virtually custom ANYTHING. Multiplayer wise, it uses a flawless netcode using a peer to peer networking system. This means however, that you cannot host servers like you can in more moden games such as Quake 3 or Counter strike etc etc.

And that's where Skulltag comes in. ST is a modified version of Zdoom which adds the feature of hosting servers for ingame joining and a ton of new game modes. The difference is it isn't updated as regulary, and the netcode can be quite buggy and innacurate at times.

In other words...

Zdoom:
Updated regulary
Flawless netcode
No ingame joining

Skulltag:
Uses all/most of Zdoom's features
Server hosting and ingame joining playability
More gamemode types
Less accurate netcode
New rendering mode

What about GZdoom?

GZdoom is another modified Zdoom port which gives it a brand new GL renderer, meaning you can have 3d floors, dynamic lights and a few other things. It's not updated as much as ZDoom however so versions will vary.

Steps to play with ZDoom or GZDoom

1) Obtain Doom2.wad (Buy doom in otherwords, or if you're a pirate...)

2) Download The latest version of ZDoom or The latest version of GZdoom.. Remember BOTH PLAYERS MUST BE USING THE SAME VERSION OF ZDOOM/GZDOOM or you will get errors.

3) Download ZDL

4) In your doom folder you should have Doom2.wad, Zdoom/Gzdoom files and ZDL.

5) Run (G)Zdoom and configure your settings for the first time.

6) Run ZDL and configure settings there. It's pretty self explainitary. Just make sure you have Doom2 selected as the main wadfile.

Let's get networking!

One player has to be the host, usually the one with the fastest connection. The others must be joiners.

TO HOST

1) If you're behind a router, you must open port 5029.

2) Obtain your IP address. Get this from www.whatismyip.com or some other IP telling tool. Once you have it, tell all the joiners this IP.

3) In ZDL choose the gamemode co-op or deathmatch. If you're deathmatching on a regular doom2 map remember to add "-nomonsters" to the command line.

4) Again in ZDL, pick the number of players who are going to play (including yourself!)

5) When everyone is ready, launch the game and tell everyone to join. If everyone joined correctly the game will begin! If there is a problem the game will not launch and will wait until everyone has connected.

TO JOIN

1) Obtain the HOST's IP address.

2) In ZDL paste the host's IP address into the host IP address box.

3) Under players in ZDL, choose Joining.

4) Launch the game when the host is hosting the game. If you've successfuly connected it will tell you. Once all the players have joined the game will begin!

Remember!

All players must be using THE SAME version of Zdoom or Gzdoom.

All players must be using the same addons and the same version of the addons or you will get an out of sync error during play.

Steps to play with Skulltag

Coming soon...

Doom links

Links to ports mentioned above
ZDoom
GZdoom
Skulltag

Links to wads/addons
IDGames database - THE place to get all kinds of Doom Wads
A few wads created for Zdoom

i can host, so you goons give me a shout if you want a game

Might be a good idea to arrange it on IRC too

I could play.
Also on another note: I like how the demons are portrayed in this picture. Only two of them have horns and they don't show up that much! Also what gun is that marine holding? And why does that demon have a gun for an arm!? Its not cyberdemon! Never noticed the other marine either!

There's three marines in the picture.

It's just doom art, doesn't mean anything with the real game.

No **** sherlock.