Perhaps a little overlooked back in the day, Doom 64 stands as one of my favorite installments in the series. With its reworked art, atmospheric score, solid frame-rate and foreboding environments, it’s an N64 game that still holds up beautifully today – 23 years after its initial release. However, for those without retro Nintendo hardware, it’s a slice of Doom history inaccessible to many – a situation that changed for the better with the recent release of Doom 64 for all current-gen platforms, developed by Nightdive Studios.
We can’t think of any developer better suited to the task. Nightdive specialises in sympathetically restoring classic games for today’s hardware and has delivered superb work in the form of Turok: Dinosaur Hunter and its sequel, Forsaken, Blood and other. Lead Engine Developer Sam Villarreal is also responsible Doom 64 EX and Doom 64 Absolution – two earlier attempts at bringing the classic original to PC but this official port goes further, seeking to replicate the game with extreme accuracy.
Doom 64 EX was an attempt to implement N64’s extra functionality and bespoke assets into a version of the game playable on modern PCs. The new game sees Doom 64 itself more thoroughly reverse-engineered and then re-coded into Nightdive’s own KEX engine (more accurately, a frame-work – it has no renderer) and supports higher resolutions and 60fps. This process brought about near-perfect accuracy and for the first time, the in-game demos would run just as they should – a factor of Doom 64’s object motion and collision detection being correctly modelled for the first time.
But what makes porting Doom 64 a worthwhile exercise? The original was created through a partnership between id Software and Midway – and yes, John Carmack himself was partially involved in the project. Although core coding is based on Carmack’s original Jaguar version of the original, Doom 64 is the first in the series to offer 3D hardware-accelerated visuals, enabling a range of techniques that elevate the game beyond the original software renderer. All of the artwork was created from scratch for this version complete with new 3D rendered models that were used as the basis for the sprites, which were themselves of a higher resolution than the PC original’s.
An increased colour depth is immediately apparent when you sit down with Doom 64. Walls now feature smooth gradients where the top and bottom of a wall can utilise different shades leading to dramatic effects. Sprites, textures and the skybox are all more nuanced than the original game with more colors used in each them. Even in-game water rendering gets a substantial revamp over prior Doom titles, looking significantly smoother.