Arizona Daily Star from Tucson, Arizona • Page 56

Page Twelve Section Section Page Thirteen v. if t. Oct. 10 is release date for sequel to wildly popular-game 1 1 ''vL One called simply "Cheese," features a McDonald's restaurant in which the monsters work behind the counter. Those who play "Cheese" offer cryptic warnings about the bathrooms By Robert S.

Cauthom The Arizona Daily Star They call Oct. 10 "Doom's Day." It will be a time when demons walk the Earth, cities burn and humans have vanished, save for malevolent zombies stripped of their souls. Everyone else is gone. Except for one lone space marine. That's right A space marine.

This particular Doom's Day isn't a biblical conflagration. Instead, it will mark the release of a computer game called Doom II: Hell on Earth. The date is significant because the game's first incarnation, simply called Doom, is far more than an adrenalin-laced shoot'em-up. The release of Doom marked a paradigm shift that has ramifications beyond the realm of games. And the game, its creators and the culture that has sprung up around it hark back to the good old days of computers, back before buttoned-down corporate interests started to take all the fun out of things.

The brainchild of id Software, whose staff of 10 calls Mesquite, Texas, home, the game does more to bring virtual reality into people's lives than anything else to date. It's downright refreshing billion-dollar companies talk about virtual reality but don't deliver it, while the tiny, creative force of id Software shows everyone how it might be done. Being daring and fun has enriched the company and made Doom the most popular shareware game in history. Estimates of the number of active players range between 7 million and 10 million. The first "episode" of the game is freely available on computer bulletin boards, commercial on-line services and Internet software archives.

To get the second two episodes, players must register the game for $40. Considering the appeal of Doom, some people have invented a new term for the game: hookedware. According to id's Jay 100,000 people have registered the game since its release in 1993. Wilbur is the company's CEO, but he prefers to be called its "business manager, because it sounds friendlier and is less corporate. Past games by id Commander Keen, Wotfenstein and Wotfenstein 3D were also hits.

But nothing like Doom. "We get asked a lot whether we knew bow I big the game would be," Wilbur said. "I mean, we afl play games here, and we know a good game when we see one. We made Doom because we wanted to play Doom, if you know what I But no, it would be impossible to predict a reaction Eke this." Originally designed on Next computers and released for MS-DOS machines, Doom is busily being ported to other computer systems and operating systems. Windows, Macintosh and OS2 versions are in development, it is also available in a couple of Savors of Unix.

When people are Erst exposed to Doom, their reaction is usually slack-jawed wonder. A rich, fast-moving 3-D environment, Doom is a mixture of haunting fight effects, creepy music. stairs and windows, and secret rooms in a benighted realm. And it is a place of monsters, lots of monsters, coming from all angles. You can go in any direction in this sprawling 3-D world.

When you climb stairs, your head bobs. It's so realistic that Doom players wind up trying to peek around the sides of their computer monitors when their on-screen proxy tries to peek around a comer to get a glimpse of monsters in the distance. If that was all there was to Doom, it would be enough to make it the best action game ever devised for the computer. The sense of reality is so seamless that on the Internet, where many Doomers gather, there is a FAQ (frequently asked questions) document that talks about Doom-induced motion sickness. Combine an ingenious multi-player design and a virtual invitation to bend the game to your own will, and you wind up with something that smacks of genius.

And when it comes to battle, Doom leaves people panting. Its sensibility and design owe much to the claustrophobic panic of the James Cameron movie "Aliens." In interviews conducted via e-mail over the Internet, many players report having the "Doom Dream. After long sessions late at night by consensus a choice time to enter this nightmare world players find that they dream of being in those hallways, hearing the whoosh of hydraulic lifters and the dang of dosing doors. Interestingly, several people report that at the end of the Doom Dream they wind up as themselves, battling evil imps at their workplace. You take your catharsis where you find it.

But the game's most compelling aspects reach beyond the details of the play-action itself. This is because Doom has become a collaborative affair for tens of thousands of players. The game designers included the ability to play Doom over computer networks or phone fines via modem. Players may cooperate to defeat the monsters or by far the more --L-t-'- Vii-'i Ui.J. iJts popular choice hunt each other in "deathmatch" mode.

Unlike other multiplayer games, in which your opponent is always right next to you, in Doom the human adversary could be hiding behind pillars, crouched in secret rooms far away or, as often happens, running by you accidentally during the hunt This ability to play others has made the game an enduring hit The on-line services are thick with lists of people in various area codes looking for others to play via modem. The game also became an underground hit in corporate networks. Responding to a question in an e-interview about Doom, Lee Stewart wrote The Arizona Daily Star that the first time he heard of Doom was when his company, Legent banned it from the network. Curious, Stewart downloaded a copy and has been playing it on his home computer ever since. At one point, Carnegie Mellon University's network had so many student Doomers playing that the system nearly ground to a halt University officials appealed to id Software for a patch that would use fewer network resources, Wilbur recalled, and id fixed the matter in short order.

"The only reason I play is because I can play against a person'." Christopher Wells wrote in an e-interview. Anyone can fight monsters, Wells added, and if that was all there was to the game, he would have tired of it by now. "Playing against a living person that thinks is very unpredictable. That unpredictability is what kept my interest If modem play was not possible, I would probably delete it from my hard drive in a matter of weeks after purchasing An MBA candidate at the University of Denver, Wells usually plays fellow students, although he also has made new friends via modem Doom. "Doom is the best and most remarkable stress reliever I have ever experienced," WeUs maintains.

Interestingly, the modem play makes Doom a cross-gender and cross-generational hit Males, females, adults and teens are all equal prey in this place. More importantly, Doom offers built-in hooks that permit players to design new levels and monsters by creating files. In other words, Doom is as much a game aivhitecture as it is a game. Soon after the release of Doom, player-designed "episodes" began appearing on line. On the Internet, the Usenet discussion group devoted to Doom teems with announcements of new levels.

Combine an ingenious multiplayer design and a virtual invitation to bend the game to your own will, and you wind up with something that smacks of genius. Doom has become a shared experience for many gamers. Some user-created files are specially crafted for death-match play, while others are elaborate environments filled with secret dements. Still others are funny. If you want, you can replace the existing monsters in Doom with If it players into a monstrous new virtual reality Other companies have taken note of Doom because of its clever architecture.

By loading descriptions of the environment on individual machines and using their distributed power, all the communications link needs to do is trade information about where other players are and -what they're doing. Toss in the ability to create new environments, and commercial applications appear virtual reality home walk-throughs and the like. Wilbur confirms that id has been approached about creating a virtual shopping mall where people could interact in real time. Demons optional, presumably. Then there's Quake, the next game on id's slate.

Wilbur won't reveal much about the Jay Wilbur confirms that id Software has been approached about creating a virtual shopping mall where people could interact in real time. Demons optional, presumably. project "Because we're in development, anything I told you might be a be by the time I hang up the phone." However, Wilbur confirmed previous id hints that the general direction is something of a combination of Doom and an Internet MUD ft. V. i zs zfi ir promises to draw the first game's millions of textures that you've created, getting panicky in traps you've set up, finding the secret caches of ammo and health, etc" For Ziring and others, the pleasure of making new levels setting the music, making secret elements and then sharing them has become as big a pleasure as the game itself.

"I really enjoy picking up a new mission off the net," Ziring wrote. "There is quite a thrill for me in experiencing the vision of another Doom author, and playing through their work." Because players have a proprietary interest in Doom, a remarkable thing happened a couple of weeks ago. Someone put illegal copies of Doom on pirate bulletin board systems and the Internet Instead of swooping in to pick up the software, most Doom players openly condemned the piracy. Like many shareware vendors, id has always kept faith with the online community, and now that community rose up to defend id's interests. Wilbur said Doom reflects id's dearest beliefs about gaming.

"Multiplayer is where it's at," he said. "And building in the hooks means that people can be creative with Doom and add their own ideas." The company resists overtures to sell its technology, despite offers. "We could do that and wind up in a stuffy corporate environment, but that's not what we want to do," Wilbur said. "We'd rather stay small, cool and fun." By general acknowledgment id is definitely the coolest game shop the world. And its reach is extending the game is reportedly a hit among Hollywood movers and shakers, so it's no surprise movie rights have been sold.

Due to be released in early October, Doom II The sense of reality is so seamless that on the Internet, where many Doomers gather, there is a FAQ (frequently asked questions) document that talks about Doom-induced motion sickness. Barney the dinosaur, aliens from Cameron's inovie or Disney characters. A quick show of hands: Who would like to frag Barney? Toast Minnie Mouse? The sense of humor found in these creations has a delirious appeal One called simply "Cheese," features a McDonald's restaurant in which the monsters work behind the counter. Those who play "Cheese" offer cryptic warnings about the Neal Ziring, the Columbia, Va. -based author of several highly regarded fiks such as "Elements" and "Subway21," based on the Washington, metro wrote in an e-interview: "It's pretty exciting to release a new mission.

You've worked for a long time; typically, a single mission requires 20 to 60 hours. For example, 'Elements' is five related missions, and I stopped keeping track (of my work) at 100 hours. When you feel like you've put together a good new thing, you are excited that other folks will be playing it on their machines, seeing the rooms and halls and (multi-user dimensiondungeon). A computer server maintains a description of the physical environment, objects in the game and players' activities. People will log in and play with others in real time.

The server will maintain the environment between sessions. In other words, if you hide objects you've gathered before you log off, they'll be there when you come back, provided no one else has found them. On the Internet, there are hot rumors about the communications ability in Quake. The most intriguing is that the game might support voice communications between players who have the right equipment Wilbur said the plan is to allow "Quake" to' support as many simultaneous players as the server will allow. Potentially, this means hundreds of people, conceivably thousands, could play in teams or individually.

The other applications of this vision are obvious and powerful. Officially, Quake is supposed to be released next summer, though Wilbur said it might be released at Christmas 1995. "We've got an amazingly creative group of game designers here, and they have high standards. When it's ready, it's ready." In the meantime, Doom software, add-on levels and discussion groups can be found on all the major on-line services and many local computer bulletin boards. On the Internet it is available via anonymous ftp at ftp pubdoom- The Doom discussion group on Usenet is alLgames.doom.

Doom II will be a commercial release available in software stores..