SNES vs. 32X Doom

[E Nice]

On another note the loss of circle-strafing does bother some people, but the 32X doesn't have it either and I never did that much anyway.

I never quite understood the control issue people made about prefering the SNES controls over the 32X. There wasn't true circle strafing with the Genesis controllers but you could do it, just not perfectly. All you just had to do was continuously release the sidestepping button, while trying to turn. Trying to do this with the SNES wasn't as feasible, mostly you just wound up going off to the side at an angle. For some reason the SNES sidestep button was slow to start up and to stop movement. The 32X sidestep worked pretty quick and I never had a problem of trying to circle strafe except for my own inability to maintain the timing of the button presses.

[Thrillo]

I personally consider this proof positive that on cart chip expansions were never going to reach the level of a true console add-on like the Sega CD or the 32X. Even an early SNES CD-ROM spec would have turned out a better Doom adaptation.
Huh, I thought even the later version of the SNES CD-ROM only had a SuperFX 1 as it's processing core before it finally got canned for good. What were the initial specs?

[sheath]

First, complaining about the SNES soundtrack is utterly bizarre. It's got an amazing soundtrack that sounds impressively close to the PC original's. Apart from a couple of missing songs it really couldn't possibly be much better.

Slow gameplay - Yeah, it is a bit slow, but I don't mind and don't think it hurts the game. The same goes for the framerate, it plays fine once you get used to it. On another note the loss of circle-strafing does bother some people, but the 32X doesn't have it either and I never did that much anyway.

Low resolution - It is true that everything is blocky on the SNES (SNES Doom is the ugliest looking version of Doom), but I could always make out enough details to matter -- if something's moving in the distance it's an enemy and I should probably shoot at it, and you can tell the different enemies apart too. So yeah, it is an issue, but not a game-breaking one.

I thought I was clear that the SNES game is totally playable. I played it almost all the way through and I did get used to its relatively poor graphics and speed along the way. Back then I didn't own a computer capable of playing the game, my Mac would only run Doom II at 1 frame per second.

As to the soundtrack, I really cannot tell how anybody thinks SNES Doom is even remotely close to any of the PC music available. SNES Doom's music lags with fast instruments, it is heavily filtered, and it generally doesn't stand out (which I guess is better than people hearing farts). The warble of SNES sound always stands out to me though, and hearing instruments play off key or too slow really annoys me. SNES Doom does all of the above.

[sheath]

Huh, I thought even the later version of the SNES CD-ROM only had a SuperFX 1 as it's processing core before it finally got canned for good. What were the initial specs?

The earliest SNES CD-ROM specs emphasized insane loading speed and had no graphics hardware1. Later on the Phillips CD-ROM attachment was supposed to use a SNES cart with RAM and ROM to assist it, even while it somehow supported CDI games2. Bill White even later claimed that the SNES CD Cartridge would have enhanced processors that allowed the system to "control the outcome of the battle with the Sheriff of Nottingham" in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves3





1"Electronic Gaming Express...Sony Unveils Play Station Technology At Interactive Electronics Show," Electronic Gaming Monthly, December 1991, 36.

2"EGM Express, Nintendo Releases Specs on Super NES CD-ROM...!" Electronic Gaming Monthly, March 1992, 42.

3"Nintendo Answers Your Questions," "The Gamepros," Gamepro, April 1992, 8.

[Drixxel]

Bill White even later claimed that the SNES CD Cartridge would have enhanced processors that allowed the system to "control the outcome of the battle with the Sheriff of Nottingham" in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves

Hoo boy, if it can do that, Doom's a cinch! LOL

[sheath]

Hoo boy, if it can do that, Doom's a cinch! LOL

I can only imagine he was referring to a hypothetical FMV game, which just goes to show how popular that genre was at the time. But yeah, the implications of White's statement go well beyond that. Just not quite as far as Sony claiming you could jack into the PS2 with the same interface as in The Matrix. ;)

[Cloud121]

I call shenanigans on that. There are plenty of games that play music while pushing far more complicated 3D graphics than Doom does. A more likely reason is that Atari was pressuring them to release the game as fast as possible and they just didn't have time to figure out how to do it properly.

Funny you say that, as the Jaguar port was done my none other than John Carmack himself.


As for the 3DO port. On paper, it's easily the best port. Notice I said "on paper". It's problem is that it was just too ambitious for it's hardware, and thus the frame rate suffers. The enemies could be viewed from all angles. They added some at least one new monster. And if I recall correctly, it used all the original levels. Not the stripped down ones Carmack had to use for the Jag port, and majority of future ports were based on.

[tom]

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c173/thomasholzer/IMG.jpg

John likes the Jaguar version.

But I guess the SNES version of DOOM is not bad, it being a slow 8/16 hybrid console.

[Pr3tty F1y]

My personal preference is the SNES version of DOOM compared to the 32x version.

The SNES' SPC700 definitely pumps out higher quality music than the Genesis/Megadrive FM synth (and arguably better than the PC MIDI implementation of the day); however, it is quite clear that the sound FX would often be delayed. Listening to both the MIDI and SPC rips of the game music should clear up any conception that the music on the SNES "drags" (which, from what I hear, it does not). The SNES' sound processor was essentially self contained so the slowness of the game engine itself would not have an effect on the music nearly as it does with the sound effects. For comparison, I think the SNES version of The Demons from Adrian's Pen and Intermission are vastly superior to the PC MIDI (and yes, I know Demons from Adrian's pen was used on the "wrong" level in the SNES version, but for me, it atmosphere better).

And granted that the SNES version is quite pixelated and tends to chug, I still consider it playable. Nonetheless, to reiterate what others have said before, the SNES was more colorful, had more accurate geometry, and had more levels than the 32X. The use of the shoulder buttons to strafe was quite nice as well. Despite the limitations of the SNES, it was definitely much more polished than the 32X version.

Could the 32X have pumped out a version that was clearly better than the SNES? Most definitely, looking at the fantastic use of color and processing horsepower displayed in some of the more quality titles. Unfortunately, it was a crude rush job and that is what really taints it for me. The developers settled for ugly and bland graphics backed up by the soundtrack that didn't even attempt to use the strengths of the FM synth sound hardware.

Truthfully, I find the SNES version of DOOM the most graphically impressive game on the system. It's DOOM and running on late-80s era 16-bit hardware with an additional RISC processor that was built for a price-point, not computational throughput. Does it have its flaws? Most definitely, but it is something amazing that was put together on a system with relatively meager resources, even with the add-on chip.