This episode is exempt from the Cloning Prohibition Act of 1997

Fact: DOOM was not the first first-person shooter. We can champion its place in history and laud id Software for their work, but we cannot say the genre began in December of 1993. What happened next, though, is indisputable: Everyone loved DOOM and the demand for more DOOM proved insatiable.

As is so often the case in our favorite medium, many video game developers took it upon themselves to meet the needs of the clamoring public by making their own version of DOOM, sometimes with the same engine as id Software, sometimes with more advanced software given the rapidly changing technology of the 1990s. Hence publications and ordinary people alike started labeling these new projects as DOOM clones.

On our podcast this week, I (Diamond Feit) welcome regular co-host Stuart Gipp and special returning guest David L. Craddock (writer & co-director of the documentary First Person Shooter) to chat briefly about the excellence of DOOM before moving on to the broader phenomenon of DOOM clones, sharing a few of our favorite examples along the way.

Description: Diamond Feit, Stuart Gipp, and David L. Craddock resurrect and re-examine the term “DOOM clone” as they recount their favorite examples of other first-person shooters from the 1990s.

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Artwork for this episode by John Pading and editing thanks go to Greg Leahy.