I think Jimmy Maher set out to be a historiographer rather than a tech writer. He&#x27;s damned good at it, too.

I think the &quot;transparently shifting the processor between its real and protected modes on the fly&quot; part was referring to how a DOS extender had to switch modes, and copy stuff between low and high memory, when calling out to DOS (e.g. INT 21h). It was basically like the switch between user mode and kernel mode in an OS today, except that ironically in this case, it was the &quot;kernel&quot; that was limited in its access to memory.

&gt; By transparently shifting the processor between its real and protected modes on the fly, Rational Systems’s “DOS&#x2F;4GW” could make it seem to the programmer as if all of the machine’s memory was as effortlessly available as the first 640 K.This describes EMM386 expanded memory manager. This is not how DOS&#x2F;4GW extender works :&#x2F; DOS&#x2F;4GW 
 is a manager between your program and DOS Protected Mode Interface (DPMI) (or bare metal MMU in case DPMI host is not loaded). You run your code in flat linear address space protected mode all the time.

Optimal 386DX40 setup with great VGA card does up to ~9 fps in DOOM in high detail, up to ~12fps in low (half horizontal resolution). Was enough for me in early nineties :)

on a 386 DX 40 with 4mb I was able to play max sized but with low render resolution, F5 was the button to switch between high and low.
once I got a 486 SX 25 I could play max size and high res

Low end in 1992 would have been a 386, which might still have been capable of playing DooM, albeit with the window size reduced and if you were lucky enough to get 4MB of RAM on that box. Low end boxes might still only come with 640k.

True that. We lived a life of privilege.

486 was not that bad for 1992. The only better thing you could have was a 486DX2 that was released that year.The Pentium came only the next year, 1993.

We played it (plus bz, what a hoot) in a chemistry computer lab filled with SGI workstations at around that same time. Really annoyed the students attempting to get their homework done, but man those workstations could fly.(Edit: it was bz at the time. bzflag is the modern inheritor)

Doom wouldn&#x27;t even start on my 386 because I didn&#x27;t have 4MB.

I recall trying it on a 386sx25. Could only run smoothly at postage stamp size. 486&#x2F;25 could run it decently with 2mb, almost with 1mb.

Such lovely nostalgia. I recall excitedly going to my friend&#x27;s house - he ran a pirate BBS - and playing one of the early beta releases of Doom (likely Doom v0.3). It was nothing short of astonishing that this could run on his crappy 1992-vintage PC, which was a low-end 486 model with something like 4MB of RAM.

I like the band analogy best:The core creatives eventually went their separate ways. Some started new bands, some changed industries, and some stayed together under the original name.But like a rock band id will be forever defined by the creatives involved in each era. The Keen, Doom, and Quake eras all had slightly different members, and it shows strongly in their product.Then most of the remaining band left, and John Carmack kept touring with studio musicians.

&gt; Great book on the rise and fall of id software.I think one of the nice things about the id story, is that they never actually fell; they didn&#x27;t fail or collapse. They just kept on with making games. Romero didn&#x27;t do well with Daikatana &amp; ION Storm after departing, however id went on to make Quake 2 next which was also successful. They never again quite hit the high level of importance they had reached in the industry with Doom &amp; Quake, however they sold for $150 million to ZeniMax in the end and were still fully operational as a game making company (despite spending six years on Rage).

Read the book “Masters of Doom” for more detail than this article. Great book on the rise and fall of id software.

I remember quite a few concerned discussions by the adults about how playing Wolfenstein could mess up your balance permanently. Well, and about how the violence would destroy society.

Man, I remember playing Wolfenstein on a computer at work (kids, don&#x27;t do this today). I could last about 15 minutes before I had to stop from motion sickness.

i recently started playing doom online with doomseeker. i was pretty disappointed that it was mostly modded to hell and back and all the good deathmatch servers were in russia with 200+ ping. still fun, you just can&#x27;t really aim right. . .

Just now diving into the contemporary Doom scene. Seems very lively and fascinating.Can recommend this podcast I listened to today: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.stitcher.com&#x2F;podcast&#x2F;inthekeep&#x2F;doom-is-dead" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.stitcher.com&#x2F;podcast&#x2F;inthekeep&#x2F;doom-is-dead</a>

They did release Doom on the SNES. I remember because it was one of the few games utilizing the Super FX 2 chip:<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;doom.fandom.com&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Super_NES" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;doom.fandom.com&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Super_NES</a>

It is actually considered an excellent version of Doom! Not done by id themselves tho, so true to the story in the article.

There&#x27;s a Doom cartridge&#x2F;game for Nintendo 64, I remember playing it say 20 years ago.
Think it&#x27;s still around here somewhere, I can take a photo if you want...Edit: found it here <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;store.steampowered.com&#x2F;app&#x2F;1148590&#x2F;DOOM_64&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;store.steampowered.com&#x2F;app&#x2F;1148590&#x2F;DOOM_64&#x2F;</a>

There’s Doom and Doom II on Gameboy Advance - low resolution, but authentic look and feel:<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=CEncPfs5VWw" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=CEncPfs5VWw</a>

Someone should port Doom properly to Nintendo, just to stick it to them.

The Shareware Scene, Part 4: Doom