DOOM

Few games have a reputation like DOOM. Released by id Software in 1993, it set the template for the first-person shooter and still plays faster than most modern ones. This page runs The Ultimate DOOM, the edition that includes all four episodes, through a DOS emulator, so you get the original levels, monsters, music and that unmistakable crunchy pixel look — no remaster, no changes, just the real thing in a browser tab.

The Story in One Breath

You are a space marine stationed on Mars. Experiments with teleporters on the moons Phobos and Deimos have gone very wrong, something came through from the other side, and you are the only one left standing. That is all the plot DOOM needs. The rest is told through the levels themselves: clean techbases that slowly turn bloody, then twisted, then into Hell itself.

The Four Episodes

• Knee-Deep in the Dead – the Phobos base. Zombie soldiers, imps and the first demons. Every level here is a classic, starting with Hangar.
• The Shores of Hell – Deimos, where the architecture gets stranger and the Cyberdemon waits at the end.
• Inferno – Hell proper, with fire, flesh walls and the Spider Mastermind.
• Thy Flesh Consumed – the extra episode added in The Ultimate DOOM, built for players who already know the game and want it brutal from the first room.

You can pick any episode from the New Game menu, along with one of five difficulty levels from I'm Too Young to Die up to Nightmare!, where monsters respawn and move twice as fast.

Playing With the 1993 Keyboard Layout

• Arrow keys – move forward and back, turn left and right.
• Ctrl – fire, Space – open doors and press switches.
• Shift (held) – run, Alt (held) + arrows – strafe sideways.
• 1–7 – switch weapons, Tab – automap, Esc – menu, save and load.

These are the original 1993 keys. They feel odd for about a minute if you are used to mouse aiming, and then they click: DOOM has no vertical aiming at all, so you only ever turn left and right and the game handles height for you.

Shotgun First, BFG Later

You start with a pistol and your fists. The shotgun shows up almost immediately and quickly becomes your most trusted friend — it drops zombies and imps in one or two blasts. The chaingun chews through crowds, the rocket launcher deals splash damage you need to respect in tight rooms, and the plasma rifle and BFG 9000 come later as rewards for exploring. The chainsaw is hidden early in the first episode and is perfect for pinkies, the charging demons that soak up ammo.

Know Your Demons

Each monster asks for a different answer. Zombiemen and shotgun guys are former soldiers who drop ammo when they fall, so clearing them first refills your pockets. Imps throw fireballs you can sidestep. Pinkies rush you and bite, which is why the chainsaw and the shotgun shine against them. Lost souls are flaming skulls that charge in straight lines, cacodemons float and spit lightning, and the Barons of Hell guarding the end of Episode 1 take a frightening number of shotgun shells. Learning which weapon fits which enemy is half of getting good at DOOM.

How to Survive Longer

• Keep moving. Imp fireballs and zombie shots can be sidestepped, and a marine who stops to line up every shot soaks up damage he never needed to take.
• Let monsters fight each other. If an imp's fireball hits a zombie, they turn on each other. Infighting saves a lot of ammo.
• Learn the keycards. Blue, yellow and red keycards (or skull keys) open matching doors. When you are stuck, open the automap with Tab and look for doors you have not passed yet.
• Hunt secrets. Walls with a slightly different texture, a flickering light or a suspicious alcove often slide open with Space. Secrets hold armor, ammo and sometimes whole weapons early.
• Save often. Press Esc and use Save Game before every big room. On harder skills it turns a frustrating level into a fun one.

Why It Still Works

DOOM's levels are mazes built around keys, switches and ambushes, but they never stop you for long. The pacing is relentless: open a door, a room full of imps wakes up, you back into the corridor and fight them one at a time. The music by Bobby Prince pushes everything forward. It is easy to play one level on a short break and end up on E1M5 an hour later.

If you want more retro shooting, Doomori borrows the look and humor, and Blockpost gives you a modern multiplayer shooter in the same browser window. For a slower, creepier kind of tension, Five Nights at Freddy's is the opposite of DOOM — there you cannot fight back at all.