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Mobygames has a scan of the packaging:

https://www.mobygames.com/game/1068/doom/cover/group-1549/co...

"System Requirements: PC compatible 386 or greater"

But unofficially, you needed a fast 486 to run it properly. On a 386 you have to switch to low detail mode and/or shrink the view area to get an acceptable frame rate.




I seem to remember having a good time with it on a 386SX 20mhz. If I am remembering correctly (I have about 75% confidence in these memories) I just dialed down the view area by a notch or two which worked well for most of the game until I got to an area with a looot of monsters.

It was pretty tolerable since quicksave and quickloads were so fast. If you stumbled into an area where you took a bunch of damage because your frame rate dropped to 5fps you could just quickload, downsize the viewport, and try again.


Only if you somehow time traveled and brought a FAST DOOM source port with you.

386SX 20MHz no cache: https://youtu.be/osgld_uynl8?t=95

486SX 8KB cache: https://youtu.be/osgld_uynl8?t=151

386DX 40MHz 8MB RAM: https://youtu.be/9_2qGaIOvjs

386DX 33MHz 8MB RAM ET4000: https://youtu.be/KQDEKoRcXZc?t=140

386DX 40MHz 4MB RAM 256KB cache (probably bullshit), full viewport: https://youtu.be/L6U8fyEgRH4

Notice how it's fine in the corridors but starts to lag at any open space. There was a reason DOOM/2 got it map design.


HAH! Wow, I'm glad I didn't say I had 75% confidence instead of 100%.

That's really cool. Thank you for posting that, it's super interesting.

I guess I was playing it on my 486SX 33mhz then.


What's bullshit about that last one? I had a 386DX40, AMD made them, they were a popular budget option in the early 90s and the first time I played Doom was on that PC. It ran better than that video demonstrates, even at full res, though I ran it half-res and with the window downsized a notch. I presume they're using a particularly crappy video card.


The amount of cache. I'm not sure why but my BS-meter went off on that one.


That's about how I remember my 40MHz 386 playing it. At the time, it was mind-blowing anyway. I would usually play it with the window shrunk a couple notches.




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