I still play Doom and Doom 2, I even list it as an interest in my HN profile. It's the perfect FPS, to me. There's still a reasonably active community making custom WADs. It's amazing what some people have come up with for this 20 year old series [1]. There's a ladder of difficulty in custom WADs that I've been working my way up over the years before finally throwing in the towel because of Scythe 2 Map 23 [2].
On a side note, John Romero and Tom Hall did an hour long post mortem on the design and development of the original Doom a couple years ago [3]. I found it interesting.
Now and then I wonder why Doom was such a perfect game, mostly I think it is nostalgia besides revolutionary technique at that time. I've also read the book "Masters of Doom" and would recommend anyone who wants to get inspired on creating something from almost nothing by some sort of following your heart and using your (smart) brains. It makes me happy to read the book.
The main ingredients which imho make Doom classic:
- creepy/spacey/metal Adlib music, thanks to Bobby Prince (Adlib was good for that)
- simple, but effective spooky samples playing at random locations
- for the time good textures (need some good graphics artists) to give it a dark feeling
- VGA-graphics, I keep saying this to people: VGA is pixely, but somehow I don't see that when playing Doom, I compare it with cartoon drawings, you don't focus on the details, but how it looks globally and use a bit of fantasy to bring it to life - nowadays graphics are so detailed that I somehow get distracted by too much detail, it's becoming too realistic almost and doesn't look like a 'game' anymore
- deathmatch or coop via modem, calling your friend to play a match via the telephone line, warning your parents that they are not allowed to pick up the phone, playing not too long because you had to pay per minute (in The Netherlands at least)
- everything packed in a few diskettes (3 or 4?) was at that time almost magic that you could have such a 3d world fitting on it
There are many more reasons why for me Doom will always have a good reputation for me, mostly because of a combination of properties which came together at that time.
Yeah, Sunder maps are just insane -- both in beautiful architecture and mind-boggling complexity (map 11 for example has more than 5000 monsters and takes more than 50 minutes to complete for a speed runner). Some on Doom forums claimed that Okuplok (runner in your first link) is a cheater, because they just didn't believe that it was possible to make such demos almost without preparations.
And of course there are plenty of other beautiful recent maps. Thanks to Cacoward [1] (annual award for best Doom mods and maps), it's relatively easy to track them.
I respect the mastery of the Doom creators, but for me personally, it marked the point where computer games went downhill. Shooting at blobs through the eyes of an anonymous virtual character just never worked for me.
I remember playing Wolfenstein 3D for about an hour, then getting bored with the repetitiveness and lack of identification with the protagonist, and never touching the game again.
When Doom came out, I tried it for 10 minutes, concluded it's W3D with better graphics and aliens instead of Nazis, and never touched it again.
Of course I don't mind that others enjoyed the game. Unfortunately these games became so popular that everything turned to first-person 3D and killed most of the genres I had enjoyed, and so I eventually stopped playing completely.
>Unfortunately these games became so popular that everything turned to first-person 3D and killed most of the genres I had enjoyed
Its not like they stopped making turn based games or RPG's or other genres. The Sierra-style hunt-and-peck adventure game died, but Sierra did that themselves by milking franchises and delivering a sub-standard product with, lets face it, boring and cliched gameplay. Not sure what other genre was killed at around that time. If anything, PC gaming flourished. Warcraft, X-wing/TIE fighter, Elder Scrolls, Sim City 2000, Command and Conquer, Mech Warrior, 7th Guest, Civ II, Diablo, etc came out around that time.
Doom was a beast of an engine on its time and achieved some technical feats which were key for our current gaming/graphics scene. Maybe the game isn't really interesting story-wise, but is it really when games went downhill?
We wouldn't have Quake without Doom, and we wouldn't have Half Life without Quake... Half Life is quite a great game, which perfectly blended the FPS genre with an interesting story development. You just can't say Half Life is repetitive or monotonous and you can certainly relate to the main character.
It is really interesting to me that you say there was a lack of identification with the protagonist because for me the best FPS games are ones where I am the protagonist. BJ Blakoqitz (however it was spelled. too lazy to look it up) wasn't a charater. He was a set of eyes for me to look through and I wasn't playing as BJ, BJ was me. I was the one in that situation.
With traditional narrative films I might say, "Wouldn't it be cool to be ____" or "What would I do if I were the main character?" but in a good FPS it is more like "What would I do if I were there?" Which really makes identification a really different thing. I'm not even sure if I would call it identification at that point.
So it is interesting to see that someone doesn't feel like that.
Because nobody ever made another game that wasn't a FPS after Doom, right?
Come on. Be realistic. Yes, the FPS genre is not for everyone. But neither is whatever genre is your favorite.
Just because FPSes exist and are popular doesn't mean that games you like don't get made. And if the games you like really don't get made, then you should go out and make them.
I felt the same way about Wolfenstein 3D. The graphics were neat, but the game was a big step back from its 2D namesake on 8-bit hardware. It was just run and shoot and rub along walls hoping for a secret panel. I never understood why so many people wanted to clone it. Mostly the engine, I guess, because the game was just an ok design.
Doom, though, was amazing. It was a much more realized world, both visually and in terms of mood and design. Eventually the levels got a bit too puzzley, but it certainly deserves all the accolades heaped upon it.
If you like dystopian near-future scifi, try the Deus Ex series. Though FPS in basic concept, they do not need to be played in pure twitching mode, and you should have no trouble identifying with the protagonist.
The FPS genre is stale that's for sure, why is only shooting or killing worthy of first person camera? I think Minecraft is the only game to remotely shake that foundation.
John Carmack is only 43. He was 23 when this was released. It still blows my mind how young he is. Notch is only 9 years younger than him. Some people just get good at a very young age. Carmack is still in his prime and his move to the Oculus, hopefully, will bring sci-fi like VR to the masses.
I Remember reading "Smartbomb: The Quest for Art, Entertainment, and Big Bucks in the Videogame Revolution" and they had a pretty section on Doom.
I remember them quoting Romero when he said Carmack was a beast at programming. He just kept him fed with pizza and diet coke and he would just hammer out code for hours on end.
Still crazy to think these guys were in a kind of heyday for video games. Sure, it's bigger now, but that was when it was in its infancy and they changed an entire industry with one game.
Makes you wonder what 3D Realms could have done had they had the focus these guys had.
Since I've used a professional saw (such as a Stihl 260, a 650 and a Husqvarna 395 among others), the Eager Beaver just looks lame now.
Chainsaws should have a sticker on them that says how loud they are. The three mentioned above are around 115 decibels, three minutes of use without ear defenders will give you permanent hearing damage.
Certain processes are vital to the computer's operation and should not be killed. For example, after I took the screenshot of myself being attacked by csh, csh was shot by friendly fire from behind, possibly by tcsh or xv, and my session was abruptly terminated.
Wolfenstein 3D played a large part of driving my interest in computers and learning how they really work under the hood when I was young. Plus the release of MapEdit really made you feel powerful and a young kid getting involved in computers.
Doom is the point where I became interested in programming and it got me looking to how you actually made these games. id Software eventually open sourcing Wolf3D really helped spur that on. On top of that, Carmacks talk and his always interesting .plan file (a blog before blogs) made him seem very accessible and really opened up the world of game programming. I still enjoy going back and reading parts of the Wolf 3D or Doom code to see how they handled certain problems/limitations.
I'd agree with the other poster that 'Masters of Doom' is a great read and worth it to grab if you haven't read it already.
It's also worth reading his some of his .plan archives as well which have been stored in various places. Lots of interesting bits of wisdom, insight into his thought processes, and even odd practices like going away to a hotel for a week to just spend time alone to learn new tech or code :-) (something I'd love to try someday..)
Ditto! Making Doom mods was the main reason that I taught myself programming. And I probably learned more about development (in a general sense) from making Doom maps, than I ever did in school...
John Carmack to me is the closes thing to a real Rock Star programmer in the world. He's one of the best software engineers and I follow him on Twitter to see what he's up to. Almost always it's something crazy and new.
I just finished "Masters of Doom" a couple of days ago, and I've been on a sort of Doom/Quake/id/Carmack/Romero information frenzy ever since. It is beginning to consume almost too much of my time but very fulfilling since I was a huge Doom fan back when it came out (I created many levels and mods) and I also really liked the early Quake games.
So in the past weeks I read up on all the early id guys, and what became of them after they were fired or left, I did quite some (probably too much) reading on the mess that was Daikatana and how it came to be. I actually find this really interesting, to learn how a project backed with so many employees and so much money can fail so badly, there're probably lessons to learn here (I've even watched somebody play through Daikatana on Youtube).
While being on my search, I've found a lot of interesting or not so interesting things. So if you want to spend some time, here's an unordered list of trivia that I stumbled upon:
- Romero Himself on Daikatana, including a GB port of the game that actually got good reviews (never made it to the US though) http://rome.ro/games_daikatana.htm
- If you read Masters of Doom, you'll remember that it all started at Softdisk, when Carmack and Hall created "Dangerous Dave in Copyright Infringement", a Super Mario Bros copy. Romero uploaded the original game including their level editor, you can find it here: http://planetromero.com/games/dangerous-dave-in-copyright-in...
Sadly, the original Doom editor, DoomEd was never released. I read that it wasn't particularly good (compared to what is available nowadays) but since it was written in NeXTSTEP, I'd love to port it current OSX (or at least give it a go).
Just finished Masters of Doom on the plane Sunday. Fantastic read. I highly recommend it to all software folks, even if you're not a gamer. Tons of a highly relevant stories and accounts in there.
Very cool links, thanks. I have been on a similar journey as I also finished reading "Masters of Doom" last week.
Also interestingly, John Romero made a brief appearance at the Homebrew Computer Club Reunion last month (which I attended).
I would be very interested in hearing about your ideas for porting DoomEd to OS X. My contact is in my profile. I played Doom and Quake casually back in the day and followed the Daitkatana saga in the game magazines, but never got a chance to play seriously or mess around with the mods (I had a really crappy computer).
It is strange that Ravenwood Fair used Domovoi as one of monsters. The should use Leshy instead. Domovoi belongs to home, whereas Leshy belongs to forrest.
Funny how very very creepy this game was and yet there was no problem with that. More than gore and 'biological' lets say, it had ingredients more haunting than Indiana Jones Temple of Doom (NPI) : corpses hanging, skulls, metal chains, spikes ... It didn't require effects to scare you, no hidden monster suddenly revealed through thromboscopic lights as in Doom 3. You just sink in this filthy space.
This is very fitting since I started reading "Masters of DOOM" book just a couple days ago. Haven't been able to put it down. Great read about the two Johns and the story of id Software.
An anecdote: One of my professors, Dan Gordon, authored a paper [1991 Gordon and Chen] which was used in Doom's engine implementation of BSP [1]. He was quite happy to learn about it from me, some 15 years later :)
I was a Mac kid, so my world was Marathon, but I think a lot of the lessons are the same. I remember building my own custom worlds, really screwing up the physics, and then deleting en masse.
Whenever I play shooters now, I still think, "Man, I should just get a copy of Doom and play that instead." Too much noise in some of these games –– I just want to blow stuff up.
I preferred Marathon a lot over Doom. Some reviewers have called it "the thinking man's" shoot-em-up and I think this holds some truth. Of couse Marathon was released almost a year after Doom's release, so Bungie had plenty of time to improve the genre in many areas. Not just in looking up and down, the game also featured:
- weapons with multiple modes and reload mechanics
- advanced lightning effects
- "5D" space (one of the multiplayer levels used this)
- physics (e.g. grenade hopping and missile ballistics)
- neutral and allied npc's
- more varied elevator / switches system (e.g. in the "Colony Ship For Sale Cheap" level)
- motion tracker in UI
- nifty level mechanics, like the levels without air (e.g. "G4 Sunbathing")
I still wonder if Jason Jones could have become an equal to Carmack if he kept his focus on coding games ...
Another Marathon guy here. Spent some summers ago just playing the first two games through, they're still great. I especially like the music.
The Marathon community is still alive with AlephOne (http://marathon.sourceforge.net/), an open source port of the Marathon engine, with multiplayer support.
I also played Marathon. I still occasionally hear the alien chatter. The way you could aim up and down was something that made Marathon way better for me - especially in multiplayer.
I would argue that Wolfenstein 3D is more responsible for ushering in the first person shooter genre than Doom.
Wolfenstein was original in it's technology, Doom was based on that tech. Both were extremely popular in their time. The main difference is that iD sold their Doom 3d tech (which produced games like hexen and heretic) and did not with their Wolfenstein tech.
.. But Doom sure felt like next gen tech to the end user. What was impressive and inspiring about id was how they raised the bar on every major release. I remember how many of my friends had to pony up for 4MB of RAM and a new sound card just play DOOM, and how they reacted the first time they played just the trial demo. It was mind blowing. That's what I like about Carmack as an example of an amazing hacker, he pushes the envelope and delivers the goods, and then shares how he did it with everyone else, even competitors. That's what really made the entire gaming industry leap forward.
If you want to get nit-picky, Wolfenstein 3D's tech wasn't original either. It was based on their previous title, Catacombs 3D, which was itself based on the tech of another previous title called Hovercraft 3D.
Maybe it was a revolution in video games. But to me, it coincided with my forced transition from Amiga to PC. From then, I almost completely stopped playing video games (and programming as a hobby).
On a side note, I recommend the book "masters of doom" that that tells the story behind the game.
[+] [-] mcphilip|12 years ago|reply
On a side note, John Romero and Tom Hall did an hour long post mortem on the design and development of the original Doom a couple years ago [3]. I found it interesting.
[1]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxFlWeduknY
[2]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guHbCtbxiEo
[3]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKg85-TXY5w
[+] [-] tjeerdnet|12 years ago|reply
The main ingredients which imho make Doom classic:
- creepy/spacey/metal Adlib music, thanks to Bobby Prince (Adlib was good for that)
- simple, but effective spooky samples playing at random locations
- for the time good textures (need some good graphics artists) to give it a dark feeling
- kiss play experience (see how it probably would be done nowadays: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4yIxUOWrtw )
- VGA-graphics, I keep saying this to people: VGA is pixely, but somehow I don't see that when playing Doom, I compare it with cartoon drawings, you don't focus on the details, but how it looks globally and use a bit of fantasy to bring it to life - nowadays graphics are so detailed that I somehow get distracted by too much detail, it's becoming too realistic almost and doesn't look like a 'game' anymore
- deathmatch or coop via modem, calling your friend to play a match via the telephone line, warning your parents that they are not allowed to pick up the phone, playing not too long because you had to pay per minute (in The Netherlands at least)
- everything packed in a few diskettes (3 or 4?) was at that time almost magic that you could have such a 3d world fitting on it
There are many more reasons why for me Doom will always have a good reputation for me, mostly because of a combination of properties which came together at that time.
[+] [-] trycatch|12 years ago|reply
And of course there are plenty of other beautiful recent maps. Thanks to Cacoward [1] (annual award for best Doom mods and maps), it's relatively easy to track them.
[1] http://www.doomworld.com/cacowards/
[+] [-] swah|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pavlov|12 years ago|reply
I remember playing Wolfenstein 3D for about an hour, then getting bored with the repetitiveness and lack of identification with the protagonist, and never touching the game again.
When Doom came out, I tried it for 10 minutes, concluded it's W3D with better graphics and aliens instead of Nazis, and never touched it again.
Of course I don't mind that others enjoyed the game. Unfortunately these games became so popular that everything turned to first-person 3D and killed most of the genres I had enjoyed, and so I eventually stopped playing completely.
[+] [-] drzaiusapelord|12 years ago|reply
Its not like they stopped making turn based games or RPG's or other genres. The Sierra-style hunt-and-peck adventure game died, but Sierra did that themselves by milking franchises and delivering a sub-standard product with, lets face it, boring and cliched gameplay. Not sure what other genre was killed at around that time. If anything, PC gaming flourished. Warcraft, X-wing/TIE fighter, Elder Scrolls, Sim City 2000, Command and Conquer, Mech Warrior, 7th Guest, Civ II, Diablo, etc came out around that time.
[+] [-] ahoy|12 years ago|reply
Your post sounds an awful lot like "they stopped making good music back in [year I graduated high school]."
[+] [-] kaoD|12 years ago|reply
Doom was a beast of an engine on its time and achieved some technical feats which were key for our current gaming/graphics scene. Maybe the game isn't really interesting story-wise, but is it really when games went downhill?
We wouldn't have Quake without Doom, and we wouldn't have Half Life without Quake... Half Life is quite a great game, which perfectly blended the FPS genre with an interesting story development. You just can't say Half Life is repetitive or monotonous and you can certainly relate to the main character.
Gaming went downhill when the industry took over.
[+] [-] jccalhoun|12 years ago|reply
With traditional narrative films I might say, "Wouldn't it be cool to be ____" or "What would I do if I were the main character?" but in a good FPS it is more like "What would I do if I were there?" Which really makes identification a really different thing. I'm not even sure if I would call it identification at that point.
So it is interesting to see that someone doesn't feel like that.
[+] [-] ebbv|12 years ago|reply
Come on. Be realistic. Yes, the FPS genre is not for everyone. But neither is whatever genre is your favorite.
Just because FPSes exist and are popular doesn't mean that games you like don't get made. And if the games you like really don't get made, then you should go out and make them.
[+] [-] jiggy2011|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] the_mat|12 years ago|reply
Doom, though, was amazing. It was a much more realized world, both visually and in terms of mood and design. Eventually the levels got a bit too puzzley, but it certainly deserves all the accolades heaped upon it.
[+] [-] gcv|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] smrtinsert|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] drzaiusapelord|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] terhechte|12 years ago|reply
They're all so young.
[+] [-] at-fates-hands|12 years ago|reply
I remember them quoting Romero when he said Carmack was a beast at programming. He just kept him fed with pizza and diet coke and he would just hammer out code for hours on end.
Still crazy to think these guys were in a kind of heyday for video games. Sure, it's bigger now, but that was when it was in its infancy and they changed an entire industry with one game.
Makes you wonder what 3D Realms could have done had they had the focus these guys had.
[+] [-] NAFV_P|12 years ago|reply
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCulloch_Motors_Corporation
Since I've used a professional saw (such as a Stihl 260, a 650 and a Husqvarna 395 among others), the Eager Beaver just looks lame now.
Chainsaws should have a sticker on them that says how loud they are. The three mentioned above are around 115 decibels, three minutes of use without ear defenders will give you permanent hearing damage.
If you want to see a really mean saw...
http://www.southsidesales.com/stihl-ms-880-magnum-chain-saw....
[+] [-] deletes|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cmdkeen|12 years ago|reply
At least with Steam the more obnoxious DRM has died a death for many games (Ubisoft I'm looking at you).
[+] [-] ColinWright|12 years ago|reply
Submitted here, but no discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6881099
[+] [-] deletes|12 years ago|reply
I wish there was something like that in windows.
[+] [-] jimwalsh|12 years ago|reply
Doom is the point where I became interested in programming and it got me looking to how you actually made these games. id Software eventually open sourcing Wolf3D really helped spur that on. On top of that, Carmacks talk and his always interesting .plan file (a blog before blogs) made him seem very accessible and really opened up the world of game programming. I still enjoy going back and reading parts of the Wolf 3D or Doom code to see how they handled certain problems/limitations.
I'd agree with the other poster that 'Masters of Doom' is a great read and worth it to grab if you haven't read it already.
[+] [-] petercooper|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] fdej|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sergiotapia|12 years ago|reply
Here's a video of John choking someone out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X68Mm_kYRjc
He's a great role model to aspire to as a software engineer. :)
[+] [-] terhechte|12 years ago|reply
So in the past weeks I read up on all the early id guys, and what became of them after they were fired or left, I did quite some (probably too much) reading on the mess that was Daikatana and how it came to be. I actually find this really interesting, to learn how a project backed with so many employees and so much money can fail so badly, there're probably lessons to learn here (I've even watched somebody play through Daikatana on Youtube).
While being on my search, I've found a lot of interesting or not so interesting things. So if you want to spend some time, here's an unordered list of trivia that I stumbled upon:
- Somebody playing through Daikatana: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nm3b0NJzhnQ
- Romero Himself on Daikatana, including a GB port of the game that actually got good reviews (never made it to the US though) http://rome.ro/games_daikatana.htm
- Awful public clash between John Romero and Mike Wilson (former Ion Storm Marketing guy): http://www.kotaku.com.au/2008/01/gamecock_head_tears_into_jo...
- Ravenwood Fair is a Facebook game that Romero did a couple of years ago (so that's what he's been up to recently): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ravenwood_Fair
- If you read Masters of Doom, you'll remember that it all started at Softdisk, when Carmack and Hall created "Dangerous Dave in Copyright Infringement", a Super Mario Bros copy. Romero uploaded the original game including their level editor, you can find it here: http://planetromero.com/games/dangerous-dave-in-copyright-in...
- Unreleased Doom Midi Music Files: http://planetromero.com/2007/06/doom-archaeology
Sadly, the original Doom editor, DoomEd was never released. I read that it wasn't particularly good (compared to what is available nowadays) but since it was written in NeXTSTEP, I'd love to port it current OSX (or at least give it a go).
[+] [-] prezjordan|12 years ago|reply
http://www.amazon.com/Masters-Doom-Created-Transformed-Cultu...
[+] [-] mjn|12 years ago|reply
More recently, he's working for the University of California, Santa Cruz, teaching in & co-directing a 1-year professional masters degree program: http://news.ucsc.edu/2013/09/gpm-directors.html / http://gpm.soe.ucsc.edu/faculty/
[+] [-] azsromej|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pirateking|12 years ago|reply
Also interestingly, John Romero made a brief appearance at the Homebrew Computer Club Reunion last month (which I attended).
I would be very interested in hearing about your ideas for porting DoomEd to OS X. My contact is in my profile. I played Doom and Quake casually back in the day and followed the Daitkatana saga in the game magazines, but never got a chance to play seriously or mess around with the mods (I had a really crappy computer).
[+] [-] thesz|12 years ago|reply
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domovoi
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leshy
[+] [-] redbonsai|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] neovive|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] agumonkey|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] MichaelTieso|12 years ago|reply
http://www.amazon.com/Masters-Doom-Created-Transformed-Cultu...
[+] [-] aaronetz|12 years ago|reply
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_space_partitioning
[+] [-] rzt|12 years ago|reply
Whenever I play shooters now, I still think, "Man, I should just get a copy of Doom and play that instead." Too much noise in some of these games –– I just want to blow stuff up.
[+] [-] wsc981|12 years ago|reply
- weapons with multiple modes and reload mechanics
- advanced lightning effects
- "5D" space (one of the multiplayer levels used this)
- physics (e.g. grenade hopping and missile ballistics)
- neutral and allied npc's
- more varied elevator / switches system (e.g. in the "Colony Ship For Sale Cheap" level)
- motion tracker in UI
- nifty level mechanics, like the levels without air (e.g. "G4 Sunbathing")
I still wonder if Jason Jones could have become an equal to Carmack if he kept his focus on coding games ...
[+] [-] ptr|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lostlogin|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bstar77|12 years ago|reply
Wolfenstein was original in it's technology, Doom was based on that tech. Both were extremely popular in their time. The main difference is that iD sold their Doom 3d tech (which produced games like hexen and heretic) and did not with their Wolfenstein tech.
[+] [-] afreak|12 years ago|reply
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_3D_Noah's_Ark
I have the SNES version on a cartridge and it resells for as high as $300 CAD.
[+] [-] snorkel|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Narishma|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ben1040|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] js2|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] robodale|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] D9u|12 years ago|reply
Carmack is one name I can vividly remember, but the one that stuck with me the most is Todd Replogle, of Duke Nukem fame.
It was before Wolf 3D and Duke Nukem was one of my first PC time-sinks.
Thanks for the trip down memory lane. (again)
[+] [-] yodsanklai|12 years ago|reply
On a side note, I recommend the book "masters of doom" that that tells the story behind the game.