Side by Side: Doom (32X vs. Saturn)

[InternalPrimate]

Good job, Melf!

Great job NICK!

[Melf]

Yeah, the thanks goes all to Nick. It's his great article.

I agree with the comparison between the 32X and the Saturn version over the SNES. Do we really need to establish a side by side comparison of those two to see which is better? It's kind of obvious, in my opinion.

The Saturn is a better comparison, since the 32X is supposedly a 32-bit accessory. It seems more like the Saturn in terms of horsepower than the SNES FX chip, which isn't even as powerful as the Sega SVP chip (which is weaker than the 32X).

[Arjak]

Right, shows how much I pay attention. Sorry, Nick!

[evildragon]

i think the ending IS in Doom 32X.. i faintly remember seeing it a couple years ago.

thing is, when you use ANY form of cheating, the ending is disabled until the system is power cycled.. you literally have to play the game through, on a hard level, without cheating, THEN you get the ending..

Also worth mentioning, if it's not already done so, is the lack of the BFG9000 in Doom 32X! It's there, but you need a CHEAT just to get it.. WTF!

[kevinski]

Erm...Melf, if you're somehow implying that the 32X version is better than the SNES version, then you may want to rethink that. Honestly, the SNES version is quite playable and offers more levels (and they're generally more accurate to the original PC version's levels) than the 32X version. It also has a larger viewable screen area than the 32X version. I've actually played through the entire SNES version of DOOM. It really isn't all that bad.

[Joe Redifer]

Would it be "kosher" to have a 3 or 4-way Side by Side article? I'm not specifically referring to Doom, but any game that has multiple incarnations that could be compared.

[steve]

Hey y'all. My 1st post here. I had to sign up just to say I appreciated the disclaimer part of the comparison piece. Yes, the Japanese Doom version on Saturn is much better than the US and UK Saturn version. Why, I don't know, but it was released several months after the US version, which leads me to believe those months were used to tweak the frame rate.

At times it does slow down to 10 FPS... but on the whole it's somewhere between 15 and 20. I don't mean to sound cocky or bragging, NOT AT ALL, but I was pretty much the 1st one to spread the word on the JP Doom version being pretty damn good, esp. in comparison to the US/PAL version. I posted this in 2004 and was laughed and mocked by some. They asked me to give proof but at the time I had no means. In 2005 I discovered YouTube and those clips on the disclaimer... they belong to me. I'm AKA Kikko.

Anyway, I've since sold JP Doom. I just can't enjoy any other version these days other than the original PC classics. JP Saturn Doom is somewhat hard to find, but shouldn't fetch more than $15. Diehard Saturn fans might want to give it a shot, but everyone else you ain't missing much. A good do-over, but why bother?

Great site, BTW

[steve]

Erm...Melf, if you're somehow implying that the 32X version is better than the SNES version, then you may want to rethink that. Honestly, the SNES version is quite playable and offers more levels (and they're generally more accurate to the original PC version's levels) than the 32X version. It also has a larger viewable screen area than the 32X version. I've actually played through the entire SNES version of DOOM. It really isn't all that bad.

Oooh, the SNES version for me was way too choppy to be enjoyable. I disliked it back in '95 when it came out, gave it another shot last year and still hated it. Out of curiosity and I don't want to venture too far OT, but Kevinski what did you think of snes wolfenstein 3D? I loved that game, so I understand diff strokes for diff folks. I just couldn't get around Doom's choppiness and wall-stickiness on SNES. Nice red cartridge casing though

[evildragon]

Erm...Melf, if you're somehow implying that the 32X version is better than the SNES version, then you may want to rethink that. Honestly, the SNES version is quite playable and offers more levels (and they're generally more accurate to the original PC version's levels) than the 32X version. It also has a larger viewable screen area than the 32X version. I've actually played through the entire SNES version of DOOM. It really isn't all that bad.

um, i could never use the SNES version.. the controls totally sucked.. i think diagonals were a pain in the butt, not to mention, the floors and ceiling were missing their textures!

[j_factor]

Yeah, Doom SNES was horrible. The framerate, graphics, and controls were just a mess.

I don't know how I feel about this article. I have actually never played the US Saturn version of Doom. I was never a big fan of it, but back when Saturn was dying in the US and I was still looking for games to play, particularly looking at imports (this was 1998), I saw the Japanese version of Doom for very cheap at an import store, and decided to pick it up. I had never paid attention to how the Saturn version of Doom had been reviewed, but I assumed on the spot that given the platform (and the quality of other Saturn FPSes), it would have to be a perfectly good port. I was pleased that it included most of Doom and Doom 2, but ironically, at the time I was disappointed in the framerate, although it was playable. Then, after playing it, I read some reviews and wondered why they were so scathing. "Sure," I thought, "the framerate isn't as good as it should be, but it doesn't make the game unplayable." For years I wondered why everyone hated the Saturn version of Doom so much.

[Rusty Venture]

And here my most disliked memory of "Doom" was trying to get it to run on a PC with 4 Meg of RAM.

Even better was having 12 Meg of RAM and being told I don't have enough memory.

How I don't miss you DOS.

[CMA Death Adder]

Even better was having 12 Meg of RAM and being told I don't have enough memory.

QEMM to the rescue!!

[Zebbe]

Would it be "kosher" to have a 3 or 4-way Side by Side article? I'm not specifically referring to Doom, but any game that has multiple incarnations that could be compared.

Ah, cool, you're gonna do Thunder Force III and both SNES and arcade versions of Thunder Spirits? Very good! Remember though, emulators KILL slowdown.

[kevinski]

I've never played Wolfenstein 3D on SNES, but I've played the PC version and never really cared for that particular game. As for the SNES version of DOOM, though, you guys need to realize that it's on a 16-bit console, rather than a more powerful 32-bit add-on. The SNES version of the game has more enemies and more levels, and all of the weapons are available within the scope of the normal game. (In the 32X version, you can only access the BFG via cheat code.)

I'm completely aware of the fact that the SNES version didn't feature ceiling and floor textures, for the most part, but that isn't something that detracts from the overall playability of the game. The controls on the SNES version were quite good. Yes, there was a bit of wall sticking, but I didn't experience it very often, personally.

Just check out this video on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6-beSWGoMY

Sure, the game is at a lower resolution than most other versions of DOOM, but I can't say that there were any instances (aside from one or two instances of not being able to tell which floors would hurt me) that really affected my chances at taking on the enemies in-game.

[Zebbe]

That guy doesn't know that the Super FX-chip runs a 11 MEGA hertz, not regular hertz. And how to use "than" and "then". But since he says the SNES port is better, I still think it should have been included in this feature.