Doom is certainly one of the games to have benefited from the greatest number of ports since its initial release on PC in 1993. While some of these ports are unofficial and frequently made on improbable media, the legendary FPS has also been entitled to many versions intended for consoles. Almost 27 years later, a group of developers decided to come to the aid of one of the less successful versions of Doom.
Doom just got a patch as impressive as it is unexpected on SEGA 32X. The latter aims to correct many of the problems plaguing the commercial version of the game. And to offer more options to the player. This patch, developed by a dozen people, responds to the title of Doom 32X Resurrection. But before explaining what it brings, a brief reminder of the situation is in order.
SEGA 32X launch game, Doom was released in November 1994 in the United States. But unfortunately for the purchasers of the 32-bit add-on of the SEGA Mega Drive, this version did not do it justice. To get it out on time, Doom 32X has been cut down to a third of the original game’s levels. And that is only part of its problems.
Indeed, the game does not run in full screen and does not allow saving. He also lost part of his bestiary and was given a very poor quality soundtrack. It is for all these reasons that Doom 32X Resurrection has something to catch the attention of those who know the original version.
Doom 32X Resurrection runs in full screen and benefits from a smoother framerate. The developers explain on this subject that they have distributed the rendering load on the two SH2 processors in order to increase the speed of the game. The FPS now benefits from several display modes and resolutions. Some better quality assets have also been imported from other versions and levels have been added.
The SEGA 32X could therefore do better
And the developers didn’t limit themselves to that. The ability to save your game has been added, as has compatibility with various control modes (with the 3-button, 6-button Mega Drive controller or the SEGA mouse). Best of all, a new soundtrack has been added. Players who wish to do so, and who are equipped for it, can also listen to music from a CD present in a Mega-CD attached to the Mega Drive.
List here all the changes made by this patch to Doom SEGA 32X would be off-putting. It is, however, possible to add that many other improvements have been made to the game. These range from the behavior of in-game enemies to the lighting mode of the levels.
At first glance, it makes sense to think that this upgraded version of Doom 32X doesn’t run on the original hardware. But unlike other versions of retro games that have been improved a posteriori, this Doom 32X Resurrection works on the add-on from SEGA. In addition, both PAL and NTSC regions are affected.
Running the game on an original console obviously requires technical skills and hardware. Those curious who do not have either of the two, however, can turn to Mega Drive / 32X emulators. It also works …
What do you say about the work done on Doom 32X? Was it useful to develop such a patch for this game so long afterwards? Have you played the SEGA 32X version of Doom? If so, what memory do you keep of it? Give us your opinion in the comments below.
