by Kevin Campkin

Created on: February 19, 2007   Last Updated: April 12, 2007

Unlike most of my contemporaries, my first experience of Doom wasn't the PC version. Although in time I would end up owning the Doom packs including the original, the sequel and associated add-ons for the PC, my first memories of Doom were on a plucky little 16bit system - a relationship that seemed impossible at the time.

SNES Doom has been unfairly criticised for not being up to scratch compared to the PC version. Whilst I suppose there is a grain of truth to this, you have to ask yourself - at the time, even a cheap PC (it ran on more or less anything without too many issues) would've cost you a couple of hundred, plus the thirty for the game. For less than half that, you could own a SNES and a copy of Doom; you would be left with a lot of change and a perfectly adequate conversion, whereas your gloating PC-owning best mate would have a game that is more or less the same but without the cash in their pocket. They certainly would not have a few hundred pounds extra of game compared to you. They had something sharper, and they had a multiplayer and a couple of extra levels. All very nice, but for me, as someone who owned a console but not a PC at the time, it just wasn't enough to convince me.

Graphically, SNES Doom is remarkable. Although the graphics weren't quite as precise as the PC, the creatures not quite as detailed (always facing you to save on memory) and the screen eye-squintingly small, it was still slick and it moved at a healthy pace without any hint of slowdown in the framerates even when the action got hectic. The weapons were not works of art - the chaingun barely spun and the chainsaw looked as though it was turned off - but adequate to identify between them. More impressively, even in the vast rooms and occasional forays into the outdoors, there was no pop-up, no walls or creatures suddenly surprising you with their random appearance. You entered a room or a wide open walled enclosure and everything was there before you.

The sound was good, if not great. All the monsters growls and cries were all there, and the gunfire sounded good, if slightly patchy. Occasionally the chaingun or the chainsaw (again culprits) would sound as though they were randomly cutting out, but these are minor niggles. The music, although still a bit tinny, was good for the atmosphere and arguably of a better standard than the PC version, although, as with all games of this nature, it is a better experience when it is turned off.

I wanted to cover the graphics and sound

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