If you own either game already, you’ll get it for free.
Except this new release doesn’t erase the existing game, and doesn’t prevent people from continuing to make mods however they want.
It’s a new version with new features and content, and they’re even giving it to existing owners for free, but people still find a way to complain.
It’s a weird take from someone kind of uninformed. The assumption that the company would base the release off of the GPL’d version and not the original source code is odd. Also, the claim that it’s Windows only when it’s cross platform so…?
One of her points that resonated with me was that to get modern levels to work they did have to re-implement Boom features, which were GPL.
Looks like it’s a different engine, actually. So yeah, makes sense that if they needed to reimplement features, it’s new code that wasn’t pulled from Boom, so doesn’t need to be GPL.
My main takeaway is that the original Dooms owe much of their cultural relevance to work done by the community for free, under the open source ethos.
And then there’s the creative work done using those tools: thousands of hours worth of megawads, total conversions, one offs, and weird little experiments - that have been responsible for keeping Doom actually relevant.
For decades, nothing new happened with Doom 1, 2, or 64, that wasn’t authored by us, and for free. The retro dooms weren’t exactly abandonware, but for all intents and purposes the franchise has been community run. Yeah you buy the official IWADs from their license holders, but that was the extent of it.
Yes they have the legal right to charge for this work, but like, it’s not the coolest move given all the history.
EDIT oh wait I read on a bit - it’s free? That changes things. Definitely wish it was more open, but at least it’s not a cash grab
It’s a whole new port of the game given away freely to those who had previously paid for the more recent ports.
Saw a similar complaint on cohost (too long to fit in a screenshot) https://cohost.org/lexyeevee/post/7224213-empty
It’s the same person.
EDIT: Sorry, it was reposted by the same person as the above.
Given the fuckups around definitive editions and the fact that there’s already so many great, free, open source Doom engines and content, this feels like a money grab and a step backwards.
How is a free update now somehow a money grab? This is definitely not a step backwards. They even made a new episode.
I own both, but on a set of 3.5" floppies somewhere in my dad’s basement. If they even still work… Doubt I’ll be able to claim my copy somehow.
It’s an upgrade to the DOOM (1993) and DOOM II versions on Steam currently, which usually are only $2-3 each from what I remember.
I was going to say the same thing - will they send me a floppy disk with the upgrade?
That would put me in a bit of a pickle, my last floppy drive went out of business sometime in the mid 2000’s. As soon as bootable USB sticks for recovery became viable, don’t exactly know when. But in my last 2 desktop computers I doubt I used the floppy drive once… Built them in mostly out of nostalgia. Or habit maybe.
I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again. Doom is the best game ever made.
What if I want to keep the original version? Can I still access it? I’m getting sick and tired of my games being replaced with shit I never asked for, even if it is arguably a “better” version.
If you check the folders as well, all the .WADs are there for everything (if you want to use them with a different port/engine). Not sure if it detected which games I already owned, but my version is actually Doom + Doom 2 + Final Doom + Master Levels + Sigil + NRFTL + LOR (new campaign). Plus all the featured mods (from the recent console ports) and a regular user-driven mod browser.
It’s a pretty overwhelming update to the already decent Kex engine port that’s been on consoles for a while. They added a bunch of dvd-extras too like concept art and such. It’s not my favorite way to play but it’s still a pretty great free update!
