The Sydney Morning Herald from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia • Page 38

compatibility The top-rated, best selling contact manager. Simply the best way JWT2 A JL inside and COMMUNICATIONS Tuesday, OCTOBER 25, 1994 37 Edited by Tony Sarno Doom II, the world's fastest selling computer program, may be a precursor to a new wave of violent computer games, reports tony sarno. 6v mi ERSONAL computers can help maintain privacy when it's not such a good idea. Teenage cybersurfers can easily download X-rated photos from '4 4 "Ml the Internet while the latest CD-Rom encyclopedia plays on the computer's screen for their parents benefit Or they can play a computer game called Doom, which at first looks nothing more sophisticated than a shoot-'em-up, arcade game. The parents will never know unless they watch over their children's shoulders as they master Doom that the game gradually escalates to levels of graphic violence of the kind you wouldn't see on late night adult television.

The sequel to Doom, Doom II, has one of the most unnerving endings of any computer game. Once vou've navigated oast obsta- that publishes Doom, id Software, from Mesquite, just outside Dallas, told us last week that Doom II had already sold 850,000 copies worldwide. This was despite being banned in countries like Germany. Locally, distributor Sega-Ozisoft said it sold to dealers 10,000 copies of the game in the first two days of its release. Sydney's biggest computer superstore, Harvey Norman's at Auburn, said Doom II was its biggest selling game.

Since Doom can be played over a computer network players can hunt each other or co-operate against the enemy it has became a favourite in networked corporate offices. But the original Doom worked over networks inefficiently, slowing them down if too many games were played. That, at least, was the excuse used by companies such as chip-maker Intel in banning the game from its computers. There is an edict at Microsoft Australia's North Ryde headquarters that Doom should not be played on the company's networks until after hours. Microsoft's product manager, Leighton Jenkins, said: "We discovered performance degradations in the network because people were playing the game." Mr Wilbur told the Herald from Mesquite on Sunday he had heard all the complaints about the violence in Doom.

But it was good against evil, he said. "We know of a nun who enjoys playing Doom because she enjoys destroying Satan's minions." Most people cles to its final level, you come face to face with the lead programmer from the team that designed Doom, 27-year-old John Romero. A photo-realistic rendering of his head, jammed on top of a stake, stares at you. You have to kill Romero to win. Use the BFG (which any 16-year-old Doom nut knows stands for Big Gun) and you can watch Romero's face curdling with pain before it disappears.

In spite of this, or maybe because of it, Doom II has become the fastest selling computer program in the world in the two weeks since its release. Some dealers report it's selling like a new version of MS-Dos. Mr Jay Wilbur, the chief executive mm vvf I -1 rfll; I 4 1 officer of the small Texas company Continued Page 40 I. officer of the small Texas company Continued Page 40 '1 s''4 Ak Collage of Doom II art by ADAM TAYLOR. 3 IP 0) THE COMPUTER WAREHOUSE CLOSES ITS DOORS AT ANNANDALE THIS SATURDAY, OCTOBER 29TH AT 3PM AND REOPENS NEXT WEDNESDAY AT 112 VICTORIA ROAD, ROZELLE.

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