The Courier-Journal from Louisville, Kentucky • Page 20

PRODUCTS, TRENDS AND GIZMOS Lovers of guts and gore should meet this Doom By RIC MANNING SCENE Gizmo Editor Joseph Lieberman would hate Doom. Lieberman is the U.S. senator from Connecticut who wants government to censor video games that are too violent or graphic. He fo ram V-rSftt1. MANNING With gun pointed, a player blasts away at a mutant creature in the bloody Doom.

"Why candy-coat it?" he said. The game casts the player in the role of a space marine sent to clean up a moon base full of mutants and miscreants. You can play alone, or up to four people can gather on a network to hunt the moon creatures or stalk each other. Every part of the game is rendered in three dimensions, so attacking creatures change in size as they run toward you. And you get the feel of peeking around a corner as you approach a danger spot.

The scenery and soundtrack create an uncommon sense of realism. The walls of the moon base's convoluted corridors are drawn in pinpoint detail. The main character grunts as he races from one room to the next collecting an arsenal of weapons that range from a pistol and shotgun to a rocket launcher and even a chain saw. Fire a volley at an attacker and your enemy crumples to the floor in a pile of gore. Shoot a grisly pink creature and blood spurts from the top of his head.

Wilbur says the developers at Id have one philosophy governing the design of their games: "Is it cool?" A lot of people think it's way cool. In the five months since the game was released, Wilbur says Id has sold more than 65,000 copies of the full version a big hit by computer-game standards In addition, more than 1 million copies of the shareware version are probably in circulation. cused much of his attention on Mortal Kombat, a bloody martial-arts game for the Sega and Nintendo game machines. But while junior was in his room ripping out spinal cords with Mortal Kombat, his big brother and maybe mom and dad have been sitting at their computer screens blasting soldiers and alien mutants into bloody heaps. Consider the title of the Doom episode that's now making its way through shareware and computer bulletin-board channels Knee Deep in the Dead and you'll get a good idea of what the action is all about.

"We were going for that horror movie type of feel," said Jay Wilbur, chief executive of Id Software, the Dallas company that developed the game. "We want you to get scared, to get your heart pounding, to have you yell and smack your monitor. And that happens around here." Sure the game is violent, says Wilbur, but so is "Jurassic Park" and Arnold Schwarzenegger movies. The network version has become so popular that it's been banned from some campus computers. "People sprint in here falling all over each other to play it," said David Cox, a student supervisor for the South Computer Lab at the University of Louisville.

He said administrators let students play, but not install the game permanently. "We have a nice little program that goes through the system and deletes Doom," he said. Id also appears to have found a winning approach to marketing its games. The company released the first of three episodes of Doom and its previous hit, Castle Wolfenstein 3-D, as shareware, which means users are free to pass around copies or post the game on bulletin boards. The first episode of Doom also is available for $5.

"That's the teaser," Wilbur said. "It turns our users into salesmen." If players want all three episodes of Doom, they can buy the commercial version for $40 direct from Id. Selling direct means most of the money goes to the developers. "If the Evil Empire (the major game companies) published this game, it would cost $60 or $70 and, in most cases, the developers only get about $5 a box," Wilbur said. So far, the game is available only in a version for IBM compatible PCs.

Users need about five megabytes of hard disk space, at least a 386 processor, a VGA monitor and a sound card. Wilbur said other versions are in the works, including ones for Sega and Jaguar game machines. A Windows version is due out before Christmas. And, just like those bloody Hollywood horror movies, work has already started on the sequel: Doom II. tmmmmm STONYBROOK 10 'I" 1 HURSTBOURNE PKWY.

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3406 BARDSTOWN RD, LOUISVILLE 4594700 1-65 A HWY 131 CLARKSVILLE 283-3000 12:45 3:30 7:10 9:50 1:25 4:20 7:15 9:45 12:15 passes SAT. ONLY Page 2 The Courier-Journal SCENE May 7, 1994.