Doom (1993 video game)

Doom
Cover art by Don Ivan Punchatz featuring the Doomguy
Developer(s)	id Software
Publisher(s)	id Software
Designer(s)	John Romero Tom Hall Sandy Petersen
Programmer(s)	John Carmack John Romero Dave Taylor
Artist(s)	Adrian Carmack Kevin Cloud
Composer(s)	Bobby Prince[a]
Series	Doom
Engine	Doom engine
Platform(s)	MS-DOS 32X Atari Jaguar Mac OS PC-98 SNES PlayStation 3DO Windows Sega Saturn RISC OS Game Boy Advance Xbox Xbox 360 iOS PlayStation 3 Android Nintendo Switch PlayStation 4 Xbox One
Release	December 10, 1993 MS-DOS NA: December 10, 1993 EU: December 1993 32X NA: November 21, 1994 PAL: January 1995 Atari Jaguar NA: November 28, 1994 Mac OS NA: December 1995 PC-98 JP: December 9, 1994 SNES NA: September 1, 1995 EU: October 26, 1995 JP: March 1, 1996 PlayStation NA: November 16, 1995 EU: December 1995 3DO NA: April 26, 1996 Sega Saturn NA: March 26, 1997 EU: 1997 RISC OS EU: 1998 Game Boy Advance NA: October 24, 2001 EU: November 16, 2001 Xbox 360 WW: September 27, 2006 iOS EU: October 30, 2009 NA: October 31, 2009 PlayStation 3 NA: November 20, 2012 Android, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One WW: July 26, 2019
Genre(s)	First-person shooter
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer

Doom is a first-person shooter game developed and published by id Software. Released on December 10, 1993, for DOS, it is the first installment in the Doom franchise. The player assumes the role of a space marine, later unofficially referred to as Doomguy, fighting through hordes of undead humans and invading demons. The game begins on the moons of Mars and finishes in hell, with the player traversing each level to find its exit or defeat its final boss. It is an early example of 3D graphics in video games, and has enemies and objects as 2D images, a technique sometimes referred to as 2.5D graphics.

Doom was the third major independent release by id Software, after Commander Keen (1990–1991) and Wolfenstein 3D (1992). In May 1992, id started developing a darker game focused on fighting demons with technology, using a new 3D game engine from the lead programmer, John Carmack. The designer Tom Hall initially wrote a science fiction plot, but he and most of the story were removed from the project, with the final game featuring an action-heavy design by John Romero and Sandy Petersen. Id published Doom as a set of three episodes under the shareware model, marketing the full game by releasing the first episode free. A retail version with an additional episode was published in 1995 by GT Interactive as The Ultimate Doom.

Doom was a critical and commercial success, earning a reputation as one of the best and most influential video games of all time. It sold an estimated 3.5 million copies by 1999, and up to 20 million people are estimated to have played it within two years of launch. It has been termed the "father" of first-person shooters and is regarded as one of the most important games in the genre. It has been cited by video game historians as shifting the direction and public perception of the medium as a whole, as well as sparking the rise of online games and communities. It led to an array of imitators and clones, as well as a robust modding scene and the birth of speedrunning as a community. Its high level of graphic violence led to controversy from a range of groups. Doom has been ported to a variety of platforms both officially and unofficially and has been followed by several games in the series, including Doom II (1994), Doom 64 (1997), Doom 3 (2004), Doom (2016), and Doom Eternal (2020), as well as the films Doom (2005) and Doom: Annihilation (2019).

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