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Last modified: Wed Jun 5 16:56:58 EDT 2019


DOOM 95

DOOM 95 was an officially sanctioned and supported port of Vanilla DOOM to Windows.  As such, it is often the best choice to run on hardware that is well-supported under Windows 98 but is too new for DOS.  However, in addition to various typically flaky Windows behaviors, it does have a serious fail.


(Screenshot scaled from 640×400 to 640×480 to preserve original appearance.)

Description:  "Official" source port of Final DOOM v1.9 to Windows 95 with higher resolution graphics (up to 640×480) and a different music driver.

Source:  Retail package DOOM Collector's Edition on CD-ROM.

Windows XP et seq.

The mouse / track ball doesn't work.  This is a documented issue and it has no fix.  There is an unofficial workaround that I have not yet tested.

Windows 98 SE

DOOM 95 is playable under Windows 98 SE if you install working drivers and respect its limitations.  However, it has enough issues (some internal, some inflicted by Windows) that I can't really recommend it over DOS DOOM.

Obviously, the gun graphic is messed up, but that's not a big deal.

Mouse driver

DOOM Collector's Edition failed to include the mouse driver, DMOUSE.VXD.  A description of the problem and the remedy for it is available at http://www.classicdoom.com/dmouse.htm.  In summary, you have to put this file in the same directory as DOOM 95 and then make sure DOOM 95 is configured to use the mouse.

Launcher limitations

The option to run in a window does not work.

The configuration sometimes becomes corrupt, with one possible symptom being that the mouse still does not work.  (Mouse sensitivity is one of the configurables.)  This is fixable by deleting the configuration and rebuilding it.

If DOOM 95 is exited and relaunched, it hangs.

Graphics limitations

There is no correction for the aspect ratio when 320×240 or 640×480 modes are selected, resulting in vertically compressed graphics.  The workaround is to stick to 320×200 or 640×400 mode.

Graphics driver

This is not the fault of DOOM 95, it is just something that needs to be worked around if you are going to play it.

With an nVidia GeForce2 MX 200 graphics card, versions 71.89 and 81.98 of the nVidia ForceWare drivers are unable to render 320×200 or 640×400 modes correctly.  The graphics appear letterboxed in what is actually a 320×240 or 640×480 screen.  Version 66.94 of the ForceWare drivers does not have the problem.

Sound bugs

When used with a PCI SoundBlaster Live! and the drivers that came with the card I did not notice any sound glitches.  However, when used with an ISA SoundBlaster 16 PnP and Microsoft's sound drivers I had trouble with sound effects cutting out.

Music is apparently played using the default MIDI sound font and device; the awful rendering I get with a SB16 is reproduced exactly by opening d_e1m1.mid in Windows Media Player 6.  [Experience the awfulness]  W98SE includes a "Microsoft GS Wavetable SW Synth" with a Roland sound font that is just fine, but when it installs the SB16 drivers all you get is a generic and bad implementation of General MIDI on OPL3:

Vanilla DOOM does so much better with exactly the same hardware if Windows just gets out of the way!

After installing a Yamaha softsynth and enabling DirectSound in its configurator I was able to get plausible music out of DOOM95.  Still, there were plenty of drop-outs and glitches and the sound effects all played too slow.

The FAIL

Invisibility is rendered in a totally broken fashion, essentially converting the "invisible" monsters into abstract art monsters.  If you can ignore that, you're all set.


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