The Doom Age

As computers began to advance, and processors became more potent, drawing 3-D graphics in real time was no longer a dream of the future. ID Software's legendary breakout game, Wolfenstein 3D, released in 1992, changed video games forever. Running on DOS, it revolutionized the PC gaming world. The game was based during World War II, and was one of the first games where players were firing at humans, rather than aliens.In Wolfenstein 3D, the player is an American soldier named BJ Blazkowicz attempting to escape from a Nazi stronghold; there are many armed guards, as well as attack dogs. The building has a number of hidden rooms containing various treasures, food supplies, and medical kits, as well as three different types of guns and ammunition.


Doom, released in 1993, is widely recognized for its pioneering use of immersive 3D graphics, networked multiplayer gaming, on the PC platform, and the support for players to create custom expansions (WADs). Distributed as shareware, Doom was downloaded by an estimated 10 million people within two years, popularizing the mode of gameplay and spawning the gaming subculture. This game was incredible. The player takes the role of a nameless space marine ("Doomguy"), "one of Earth's toughest, hardened in combat and trained for action", who has been deported to Mars for assaulting a senior officer when ordered to kill unarmed civilians. He is forced to work for the Union Aerospace Corporation (UAC), a military-industrial conglomerate that is performing secret experiments with teleportation between the moons of Mars, Phobos, and Deimos. Suddenly, something goes wrong and creatures from Hell come out of the teleportation gates, or "Gateways". A defensive response from base security fails to halt the invasion, and the bases quickly get overrun by demons; all personnel are killed or turned into zombies. At the same time, Deimos vanishes entirely. A UAC team from Mars is sent to Phobos to investigate the incident, but soon radio contact ceases and only one human is left alive — the player, whose task is to make it out alive.


These games are revolutionary because for the first time the player was able to play the game literally through the eyes of the character. These games sparked countless imitations and spin-offs ("Doom Clones"), including The Duke Nukem Series and The Quake Series, among many others.