With the next-generation Doom reboot quickly approaching, more gamers than ever are going back to revisit the classic shooters that started it all.
Amazingly, and despite the fact that they lack traditional features like jumping or looking up and down, the original Doom games are still an absolute blast to play. They're a testament to game design - proof that it doesn't matter how old a game is if it's well-designed.
That being said, for a long time, playing the original games wasn't easy. Before the days of Steam and digital downloads, finding an operating system that the older games could actually run on was anything but simple - for many, emulators and illegal downloads were the only way to go.
Thankfully, that's no longer the case. Finding a copy of Doom and a system that can run it is easy - now, the challenge comes from knowing which version of the game to play. Over the past two decades, Doom and its sequel have hit just about every platform out there. So, that begs the question: what's the best way to play Doom?
With so many different options out there, we've narrowed it down to a few select choices - if you've never played Doom before, these are definitely the best places to start.
Doom Classic Complete
Available on: PC, Xbox 360, PS3
Let's say that you're absolutely against paying for Doom, that you'll only play the game if it's 100 percent free of charge. Well, luckily for you, there's an option for that - though you'll have to make some sacrifices along the way.
It's easy to forget that Doom was originally made for MS-DOS, especially after it became the poster child for gaming on Windows. Before Microsoft's OS even existed, gamers were still required to program their computers just to get games up and running - and now, you can get the same experience in your Internet browser of choice. Not only that, but you can actually play old DOS games, Doom included!
Even when playing on an Internet browser, Doom can be a lot of fun, though your mileage when using the DOSBox browser emulator may vary. In our experience, there were times when the game would go from relatively playable, to downright ugly, to absolute garbage before crashing out entirely. Again, if you absolutely refuse to drop a few bucks on Doom, playing on DOSBox is a valid option - it's just not a very good one.
Doom On A Calculator
Available on: TI-Nspire Graphing Calculator
All right, this is just getting ridiculous:
As you can see, there are a ton of different ways to play through the classic Doom titles, but if you're willing to wait for a more modern take on the series, id Software's reboot isn't all that far off.
Bethesda's next-gen Doom reboot is set to launch on May 13.
