Doom, ZDoom and GZDoom gameplay

Gameplay showing three ways to play the original Doom series.

1. Through DOSBox, which Steam uses, keeps the original engine
2. Through ZDoom, a port with software renderer.
3. Through GZDoom, an OpenGL fork of ZDoom.

If like me, you enjoy WASD controls, and the ability to look up and down, you may be disappointed that Doom on Steam includes no improvements to the original. Fortunately, projects like ZDoom have created an updated game engine, bringing new life to the old classics.

ZDoom uses a software renderer, GZDoom uses OpenGL. With gzdoom you can also look in any direction, whereas zdoom limits how far you can look up and down (and looks warped when you do)

Both of them will automatically play your Steam copy of Doom, and are pretty easy to set up.

Can't be bothered with all the menus? here's my settings file:

[jgaines]

man i cant believe i actually thought this game was scary when i was a kid playing it back in the

[danhoang]

I moved from DOOM to zDOOM and prBOOM. I have never felt so much fast action in my life! The demons were hella quick, especially.

[NathanDarkson]

Original doom: OPL Synth (during the Windows 3.1 days).
ZDoom and GZDoom: standard Microsoft MIDI Synth.
I prefer the OPL Synth since it gives that old school feels

[zernix]

It's fascinating that the original dos box version actually is a bit reminiscent of doom 3 with the atmospheric darkness. likewise, the shifting pixels give a greater sense of detail than is actually present.

[ikagura]

Chocolate/Crispy Doom for vanilla feelings.
Zdoom/GZDoom for mods

[brosephjames]

gzdoom uses hardware rendering so it supports full 32 bit coloring. the original doom, and zdoom, use software rendering at 16 bit color so they have color problems in shadows etc. also the original doom only supports low resolution, whereas zdoom and gzdoom have high resolution support which creates a lot less aliasing on the edges which is better especially on modern LCD displays. gzdoom 1.7 has good lighting support, it's the best of the bunch.

[sidandamber]

I know at least with GZDOOM, there's a TON of graphical options that make everything look a ton prettier. Also, you can use custom soundfont files to make the music sound much more updated. I personally use the Crisis GM 3.01 soundfont. So in short, MUCH better graphics and sound quality using GZDOOM. It's like I'm playing DOOM for the first time all over again.

[adnanchowdhury]

The Zdoom source port in my opinion has the vanilla style gameplay. what I also liked about the port is that it also has better music than the Gzdoom and steam port of doom.

[Lb]

Is there a way to disable vertical mouselook on GZDoom and still have the PC fire upwards/downwards like in the original?

[johneygd]

Doom and zdoom seems to use fake 3D whereas gzdoom seems to use true 3D, hence things don’t look warped in gzdoom, what zdoom is doing is just stretching and scewing an image to fake looking up and down, still trough i found it very clever what they could do with such alternative technology😁

[pablo.bl]

i still play this all Zdoom GZDOOM and normal doom, it was fun

[SolusAgomor]

If you want a cvlt, oldschool feeling, try Chocolate Doom. It's the most true to the original. Actually bugs from the original game were put back. There's way to play with sort of mouse look and remapping keys.
Most of the times I use ZDoom and GZDoom though. Specially GZDoom for mods like Project Brutality, Winter's Fury and Psychophobia.

[ashleywhite]

ZDoom's renderer was really good
LZDoom is goated

[xenfree]

GZDoom is the best way to play some classic DOOM or DOOM 2, simple as that.

DosBox (the original game) is terrible to play and the mouselook in ZDoom is nauseating.

[NFournaridis]

Yes. Go to options and turn mouselook off but keep "autoaim" on.

[prulcan]

I have ZDoom but how can i turn on OpenGL? I am running this masterpiece on Win7 Starter.

[jndominica]

The brightness in Zdoom and Gzdoom look "washed out" (too bright), particularly the monster sprites. In the original, distant objects outside the bright circle around the player get more juicy saturation. Recent versions of Gzdoom are overall the best with sector lighting set to software and all gamma stuff on default zero/one. Yamaha OPL3 music is stereo and without clicks. Distant walls don't show any pixel swimming with anti-aliasing enabled.

I can't believe that old Doom didn't have a jump command and was locked down to 320*200 resolution. Duke3D is high definition in comparison. It's time to kick ass and chew bubble gum, those alien bastards are gonna pay for shooting up my ride.

[SylkaChan]

I just read that it is possible to do Doom demos in normal Zdoom even though it can't do demos the way vanilla does. The Wiki mentions both "chasecam" and "TITLEMAP". I don't know how to do this, but I would like to. Does the same apply to GZdoom? BTW, Zdoom looks very close to 'vanilla' in comparison to GZdoom.

[mdmenzel]

The sound on ZDoom is so tinny compared to the other two.  I wonder why, given that ZDoom and GZDoom are supposed to share the same sound library.

[door]

I have GZDoom and the midi sounds NOTHING like what I just heard on this video. It sounds crystal clear to me on my computer. It’s a little better than ZDooms’s midi.