Doom 2600 does something that is technically impossible. It brings id Software’s Doom to the classic gaming console. The Atari 2600 was obviously not designed to do 3D games so seeing something like Doom 2600 is impressive. 99% of the game is lost in translation, what is here is still spiritually “Doom”. That is the point of a demake.

Demakes can be quite interesting

Demakes by nature are limited. It is an art to keep the original intent of the game on lesser hardware. Many popular demakes go to the lowest possible hardware, such as the Atari 2600. Remember Halo 2600? Or the Super Mario Bros or Sonic the Hedgehog inspired demakes for the Atari 2600?

Doom being a 3D first person shooter (FPS) in its nature makes it near impossible to demake properly. The Atari 2600 does not have 3D capabilities. The challenge lays in bringing an FPS to a console that should not be able to run it.

Doom 2600 is quite interesting

The gist of Doom is here. Doom 2600 is a work in progress that has plenty of progress to go. What is in the build I tested is the basics of the game. The view is the same as fans are accustomed to. You have a gun on screen and face at the bottom like the original.

Enemies resemble their original PC counterparts. There were concessions made with this port of Doom. Animation being one. What is here right now is very limited. You are limited to cardinal directions, there is no free turning. This makes things interesting when chasing enemies trying to shoot them. Graphics limitations continue to rear their ugly head with no floors and no ceiling graphics. Think the Super Nintendo Doom but even more limited.

You can grab a current build of Doom 2600 for Atari 2600 from the Atari Age forums. Check out the forum link and show the developer some support.

Carl Williams

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