"HAPPY 21ST BIRTHDAY, DOOM!" John Romero tweeted yesterday. "In honor of this legal drinking age birthday, I'm about to release some never-before-seen DOOM game art!"
I know what you're thinking - "21 years old! The US drinking age is barbaric." Then you pause and realise "Wait, never-before-seen Doom art? Ooh!" And yes, it is splendid. Since then, the id co-founder has shared treasures including scans of the clay models id turned into monster sprites, and all sorts of abilities, textures, and gore that never made it into Doom. It's a joyous Doomdump.
Now, I might simply point you to Romero's timeline, but Twitter's ephemeral nature means all these things will soon scroll down out of sight. So let's embed them and have a nice big colourful post. You can download high-res versions of many from his Dropbox too. I think I might've seen a few of these before, or maybe similar pieces, but it's still a tweet-o-treat-a-rama. Tweets, go!
Let's start out with the scans. Lots of Doom's sprites were based on scanned objects, some items they found and some clay models sculpted by Adrian Carmack (no relation to John).
Freshly cleaned-up background of the DOOMGUY clay model, 1993. pic.twitter.com/hsqHLR7CNo
— John Romero 🤘🏽 (@romero) December 11, 2014 To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Manage cookie settingsDid you know the Pinky demon was drawn over a video scan of a dinosaur toy?? IT IS TRUE. pic.twitter.com/cBlTLZSthZ
— John Romero 🤘🏽 (@romero) December 11, 2014 To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Manage cookie settingsPre-pixel edit scan of the Baron of Hell, 1993. pic.twitter.com/b62TmncdK6
— John Romero 🤘🏽 (@romero) December 11, 2014 To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Manage cookie settingsLost Soul scan, 1993. pic.twitter.com/Zu4UyjPavm
— John Romero 🤘🏽 (@romero) December 10, 2014 To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Manage cookie settingsPre-pixel edit scan of the Cyberdemon, 1993. pic.twitter.com/yiMNODH3Ba
— John Romero 🤘🏽 (@romero) December 11, 2014 To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Manage cookie settingsGregor Punchatz was behind other models, including Doom II's new enemies.
The Revenant from DOOM II, direct from video scan, 1994. pic.twitter.com/CdwMUasAl9
— John Romero 🤘🏽 (@romero) December 11, 2014 To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Manage cookie settingsArchvile model scan, circa 1994. pic.twitter.com/uwExWsstCb
— John Romero 🤘🏽 (@romero) December 10, 2014 To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Manage cookie settingsWell, most of Doom II's new enemies.
The Icon of Sin, original scan of my head from a Businessweek photo shoot in 1994. Not the exact pic, but from then. pic.twitter.com/fEbkYObyw9
— John Romero 🤘🏽 (@romero) December 11, 2014 To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Manage cookie settingsSeveral weapons were based on scans.
Here's the video scan of the DOOM pistol before editing. pic.twitter.com/LXJ3jchyxu
— John Romero 🤘🏽 (@romero) December 11, 2014 To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Manage cookie settingsToy scan for chaingun, 1993. pic.twitter.com/0p75pzUGjX
— John Romero 🤘🏽 (@romero) December 10, 2014 To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Manage cookie settingsSome objects were scanned to use in level textures too.
Circuit board scans for wall textures, 1993. pic.twitter.com/6xn4dqVOli
— John Romero 🤘🏽 (@romero) December 10, 2014 To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Manage cookie settingsAnd some artwork started out as sketches on paper.
Some of Adrian's sketchbook scans about to be turned into wall textures, 1993. pic.twitter.com/Tn8Hfgi4qR
— John Romero 🤘🏽 (@romero) December 11, 2014 To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Manage cookie settingsAlmost finished cleaning up Adrian's sketchbook scan and about to make a new wall texture, 1993. pic.twitter.com/c9nTQWCd1k
— John Romero 🤘🏽 (@romero) December 11, 2014 To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Manage cookie settingsHere are Adrian's scans from his sketchbook for various screens, pre-pixel edit. pic.twitter.com/MU0mp0O3gR
— John Romero 🤘🏽 (@romero) December 11, 2014 To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Manage cookie settingsNow onto unused stuff, much of which the Doom community is already busy converting to finally bring to Doom. Getting new id stuff for Doom after all these years is pretty weird and cool.
Pile of meat, never used. Maybe it was too gross in 1993. pic.twitter.com/xLrAjOSCKB
— John Romero 🤘🏽 (@romero) December 11, 2014 To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Manage cookie settingsWe did make some bushes, but never used 'em. pic.twitter.com/KwQzM1hl0B
— John Romero 🤘🏽 (@romero) December 11, 2014 To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Manage cookie settingsWe bullet casing art, but never implemented it. pic.twitter.com/LZsIuAX3gm
— John Romero 🤘🏽 (@romero) December 11, 2014 To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Manage cookie settingsNot sure what kind of death Pinky was experiencing – something from Scanners? pic.twitter.com/bW7gAVJlVa
— John Romero 🤘🏽 (@romero) December 11, 2014 To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Manage cookie settingsYes, we created even more extreme deaths for DOOMGUY. How about decapitation? Torso removal? pic.twitter.com/hs60pO5XLV
— John Romero 🤘🏽 (@romero) December 11, 2014 To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Manage cookie settingsFor the DOOM community, some original wall textures possibly not used. pic.twitter.com/TLCXYaD2gB
— John Romero 🤘🏽 (@romero) December 11, 2014 To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Manage cookie settingsMore DOOM wall textures for the amazing DOOM community. pic.twitter.com/pWGqPkMpgy
— John Romero 🤘🏽 (@romero) December 11, 2014 To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Manage cookie settingsHow about some wall textures we didn't use? DOOM Community wins again! pic.twitter.com/83CWVhrQOY
— John Romero 🤘🏽 (@romero) December 11, 2014 To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Manage cookie settingsYes, we did create a bottom for the door, but we couldn't make the bottom translucent. pic.twitter.com/Suf5ctUZol
— John Romero 🤘🏽 (@romero) December 11, 2014 To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Manage cookie settingsMore DOOM wall textures for the community. From 1993. pic.twitter.com/hJXVGcDxds
— John Romero 🤘🏽 (@romero) December 11, 2014 To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Manage cookie settingsTom Hall wanted some signs for walls, so some walls had signs on them, just not these. pic.twitter.com/bih45wM9eE
— John Romero 🤘🏽 (@romero) December 11, 2014 To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Manage cookie settingsA vertical spine wall. Sliced up, too. 1993. pic.twitter.com/0Eno7SJ5aR
— John Romero 🤘🏽 (@romero) December 11, 2014 To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Manage cookie settingsHe's shared early and test versions of things too.
BFG version 0.9, circa 1993. It shot out tons of multi-colored plasma balls and slowed down the computer. pic.twitter.com/mUlmukAkwL
— John Romero 🤘🏽 (@romero) December 11, 2014 To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Manage cookie settingsA couple of original DOOM title logo tests. Plus, a possible background for the title. pic.twitter.com/yEbQesA4IV
— John Romero 🤘🏽 (@romero) December 11, 2014 To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Manage cookie settingsThe original Lost Soul character before further revision, circa 1993. pic.twitter.com/i4s4JN4SvB
— John Romero 🤘🏽 (@romero) December 11, 2014 To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Manage cookie settingsExperimenting with various Pinky demon mouth-opening sizes, 1993. pic.twitter.com/soTdtvgvyo
— John Romero 🤘🏽 (@romero) December 11, 2014 To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Manage cookie settingsCan you believe this? The Spiderdemon original had a MAGIC ATTACK along with the gatling gun. Too strange. pic.twitter.com/k6YQQOMcri
— John Romero 🤘🏽 (@romero) December 11, 2014 To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Manage cookie settingsGuess what the original in-game DOOM font was like? pic.twitter.com/NdoY3kHgbv
— John Romero 🤘🏽 (@romero) December 11, 2014 To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Manage cookie settingsThis original DOOM II box cover was painted by Julie Bell. The Cyberdemon didn't look right so we switched to BROM. pic.twitter.com/u3RjhXZh1O
— John Romero 🤘🏽 (@romero) December 11, 2014 To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Manage cookie settingsIf you look closely, you can see some of Julie's background city in DOOM II's skybox. pic.twitter.com/j4PRrSGkS0
— John Romero 🤘🏽 (@romero) December 11, 2014 To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Manage cookie settingsAnd back to those fine models.
Here's a photo of the DOOMGUY clay model when Adrian was done making it. The Baron of Hell lurks in the background. pic.twitter.com/Wy4XxHRO4J
— John Romero 🤘🏽 (@romero) December 11, 2014 To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Manage cookie settingsHere is a photo of the Cyberdemon when Adrian finished it (1993). pic.twitter.com/qNhnSDrYAq
— John Romero 🤘🏽 (@romero) December 11, 2014 To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Manage cookie settingsHere are the Spiderdemon Mastermind and Mancubus near the scanning table. pic.twitter.com/vQNxidqpa7
— John Romero 🤘🏽 (@romero) December 11, 2014 To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Manage cookie settingsHere are photos of the DOOMGUY and Baron of Hell taken just last year. Yes, they still exist in great shape. pic.twitter.com/ul4MyiQh4J
— John Romero 🤘🏽 (@romero) December 11, 2014 To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Manage cookie settingsBless 'em.
This pic was taken for an interview in 1994 while making DOOM II. Jay, Adrian, Bobby, Kevin, John, me in front. pic.twitter.com/8e9aAsxLVs
— John Romero 🤘🏽 (@romero) December 11, 2014 To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Manage cookie settings
