If you were holding off on buying a
Pre until it had some great games, start warming up that credit card. We knew homebrewers were
already at work and one of those, a bloke who goes by the name Sargun, has managed to get the iconic Doom running on the phone -- or the open-source PRDoom, anyway, which is close enough for us. Sargun re-built the game to use the DirectFB graphics library to pipe all the two-barreled action to the Pre's framebuffer, and said getting the whole thing up and running was "actually fairly trivial." Your mileage may vary depending on your compiler skills, but with any luck someone will host up some binaries to save us all the trouble. Video proof of this great achievement after the break.
posted Jun 12th 2009 7:29AM
my neck has a crick in it now..mmkay...thx
Why would I want to play doom on a cellphone that doesn't have a D-PAD ?
I have Doom on my Gameboy SP and I was able to enjoy that but when it comes to cellphones - especially touchscreen models, I think the best control scheme is using the accelerometers for driving and flying, or, playing RPG's.
Galaxy on Fire (iPhone) is almost as good as Colony Wars on the Playstation for example.
Still the pre have a keyboard... should be easier to play most games.
@Quantumphysics
Think: proof-of-concept.
Off Topic:
Any news on when will the GSM version of the Pre hit the rest of the world?
I can imaging playing doom on a phone would give you a sore neck...
Next feat for phones: Can it play crysis?
Well, the screen is bigger than a Game Boy's so it's not that bad. In fact this is what tipped me over the edge into deciding to buy a Pre; of course, it's easy for me to make such decisions when I can't get a new phone for another year while my contract runs out, but by then it should be on Verizon. And interestingly, I actually know the kid in this video.
nothing to freak out about it playing doom. the zdoom port for palm os could allow your centro (yes, palm centro) to play doom too. i personally prefer quake and snes games on my centro
http://www.engadget.com/2007/08/11/apples-iphone-yes-it-plays-doom/
http://gizmodo.com/5286884/doom-resurrection-for-iphone-due-next-week-heres-the-trailer
You really have no idea of the point of this post in relation to a famous internet phrase. You just saw a opportunity to whip your iFanboy out in a Pre post.
Whooshing sound over one's head? Yeah, there's an app for that.
Yeah the iPhone plays doom, and it's VERY playable:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghAD_PqYxLI&feature=related
/end sarcasm
So does the 5800. It's rubbish with a touchscreen. The N95 does it way better and, indeed, did so two years ago.
Or as Peanut would say. Knee...ow
fuzzyshoo the point
Oh yes, I forgot that Engadget's comment system gets upset with greater-than and less than symbols.
Let's try this instead:
fuzzyshoo ◄---------------------------------- 2875 light years ------------------------------► the point
I'm just asking, so no-one jump down my throat... but I assume all games on the pre will be in portrait mode? Is that because of the keyboard or the way one interacts with the touchscreen?
Probably bad to assume that. It's software, so damn near anything's possible.
It's definitely going to depend on the type of game. Turn the Pre to landscape and the keyboard will only be able to be used by one thumb/finger which is kinda lame to me. The keyboard's use in Portrait mode will work just fine for little people...
For those who can't / don't want to read the links:
1) The first gen iPhone ran Doom, Engadget reported it in August 2007.
2) There is also a brand new game in the series arriving specifically for the iPhone next week.
I'm not sure if intention of the article is saying "Hey the Pre has the graphic capabilities to run the finest FPS 1993 could offer" or "Hey there's homebrew on the Pre", or some combination of both. What I am sure of though, is that this is by no means a spectacular accomplishment in either case.
If you are going to choose a phone, wouldn't you pick one with unique capabilities that suit your specific needs, not one that clone something that was done two years ago, but is relevant because it's shiny and new?
"If you are going to choose a phone, wouldn't you pick one with unique capabilities that suit your specific needs, not one that clone something that was done two years ago, but is relevant because it's shiny and new?"
So email your post back to 2007 so people there can roll their eyes at this as well.
What an Apple fanboy. This was an article about the Pre. Why do you have to try to promote the iPhone? Are you worried that there is another great smartphone out there besides Apple's?
Yeesh...let it go.
Except that's exactly what people did in 2007 when Doom had been ported to other smartphones (along with Quake, Quake II, etc) quite some time before.
The point is that this is a nice demonstration of the Pre's technical abilities and that people are obviously prepared to develop for it. The fact that it's Doom is largely irrelevant, it's the fact that people want to develop for the Pre that is.
But I guess you missed that one, huh?
This is the first example of a native binary app running on the Pre. It's good news coming less than a week after launch, because it means even if Palm never gives the official OK, Independent developers should still be able to exploit the full power of the hardware. I know it's tough to step out from your iWorld and understand that news can be viewed in a light other than "how does this compare to the jesus phone", but give it a shot every once in a while.
If you're so insistent, though, on keeping your filter on, how about this: how many homebrew apps were there for the first gen iPhone 6 days after launch? IIRC at that point apple was still in the "web apps are good enough for anyone" phase.
I think it is just a post to say, "Hey, the Pre has been out for less then a week and we can run homebrew games already". That in itself seems like an accomplishment. I also believe Apple fanboi's were touting the lack of apps that will come out for it as well as games, this article shows you that there will probably be plenty to come in the future since it seems easy enough to port software too. I think you can expect a lot of hackers and programmers out there that will develop for the Pre, seems like it will be pretty easy.
Without the author's input I cannot say for certain what the point of the article was BUT I'm pretty sure that everyone above is wrong. Prior to the Pre's release there had been concerns that its use of HTML, CSS and JavaScript as development languages would mean that it would be poor at games due to the lack of compiled code. What this article shows is that the Pre will be able to play games and, hey, who doesn't love Doom.
Still, let's be honest here, the likelihood that the Pre is going to come close to the iPhone for games is remote. But then that isn't what the Pre is for - it's a Blackberry-killer rather than an iPhone-killer.
"Still, let's be honest here, the likelihood that the Pre is going to come close to the iPhone for games is remote. But then that isn't what the Pre is for - it's a Blackberry-killer rather than an iPhone-killer."
So let's be even more "honest" and just say you have no clue, and are just giving an opinion, likely what you hope, more than anything else.
@Look_Around_You
Well, if you care to explain how running Doom on the Pre is any indication of gaming credentials then, please, be my guest. Frankly, I don't much care which platform is "the gaming king", but I don't see it being the Palm - it's not aimed at that sort of market. If someone wants to direct me to a technical demonstration or even an actual product that shows the same sort of games quality as the iPhone then I'm happy to watch it.
Honestly, why everyone is so partisan on these things is quite beyond me.
The original iPhone couldn't handle Doom without lagging and it also only had a touchscreen so it is the very definition of "Unplayable."
So I wouldn't be bragging about the iPhone's capabilities on this subject. The iPhone needs games made specifically for it and because it has such a large user base it gets that. But emulation is where it fails.
Also, Android runs Doom as well.
Hey fucktard ! DO you even know that the Pre and the new iPhone 3Gs are similarly powered and infact use the same porcessor and GPU? Except for the fact that iPhone uses a Samsung SoC package. Palm aint doing what was done 2 years ago, they're doing what is going to be (Apple's) future. Btw, the iPhone 3Gs cant even exploit that power since the majority of devs will want the game or app to work on all iPhones which is just OpenGL ES 1.1 complaint. And they can't make use of 2.0 improvements. But the Pre can and will. So, stay the fuck on your chair wanking off to an image of the iPhone 3GS !
@Ameen
Firstly, take a deep breath.... Relax... Prepare yourself to think rationally. OK, let's continue.
The Palm Pre is undoubtably a great phone (they aren't available here yet so I'm going with reviews and videos on this one) but it is quite clearly not aimed at the same audience as the iPhone. And, hey, why should it? If you are going to go after the smartphone market then you might as well go after the leader, and that isn't Apple - it's RIM and the Blackberry. It's quite clear that the WebOS is not really well suited to gaming beyond what you can find online - the only 3D gaming that I've seen for the device are games running via the Palm OS emulator. The device needs native compiled code, which Palm may make available later but isn't available now. I entirely agree that the Pre is using the same hardware as the 3GS but I haven't seen any evidence of it being put to use in gaming (e.g. developer presentations, for example).
The other thing to consider is the sheer scope of the iPhone market, which comprises not only the iPhone but the iPod Touch, and that's going to a bigger overall market than Palm will be able to cater to, simply because they don't have a non-phone product.
Finally, if you think that developers won't write applications that run only on the iPhone 3GS then you are incorrect. This is like suggesting that developers won't write games for the XBox 360 because people already have the XBox. iPhone 3GS-only titles will certainly appear and I have no doubt that, come September, Apple will be announcing a new iPod Touch with the same hardware.
Think rationally about these things based on the evidence.
@Kelmon: Hey internet wise ass! (yeah, I said it)
Do you even know that the iPhone 3Gs will be treated as an extension and not an entire platform for atleast an year from its launch? And also that your stupid comparisons about Xbox and Xbox 360, this is more like Nintendo DS and the DSi. Just look at how many games are specifically made for the DSi (ans: Not Many). And Developers wont just ignore 20 Million+ of their Market (iPhone 3G and iPod touches till now). Btw, I'm a freelance analyst so I know how this shit works. So, the next time you want to sound like an all knowing Poobah, just know what you're talking about.
Peace.
Time will tell but I'll say now that I have a very low opinion about analysts, mostly because they are either wrong or tell us things that we already know. I do agree that there will continue to be a lot of applications and games developed for the original iPhone and 3G, particularly with the 3G being reduced to $99, but I am also very certain that 3GS titles will also appear if the sales of the 3GS are high. How soon this happens will depend on the sales of the 3GS but making a "spectacular 3GS-only" title is certainly one way of differentiating your product from the 2,500 other titles and almost guaranteeing sales from the 3GS-owners who are looking for something to show off.
And, yes, I do know what I am talking about. Forgive me if I explain these things in rational terms and don't resort to the usual name calling and other nonsense that makes Internet forums sound like a children's playground. I certainly hope you do not use language like that in your profession and, if not, I do not see why you would use it, and the attitude, here.
@Kelmon
You may be correct, but I still think your analogy is faulty. People often own 2 (or more) gaming consoles, because more times than not they still enjoy playing their older titles. Who's gonna run around with an Iphone 3G and 3Gs at the same time? Other than the most rabid fanboys that is.
Well, for the time being I am quite certain that applications that run on the iPhone (original and 3G) will continue to run on the iPhone 3GS, much like GBA games would run on a DS. All hardware runs the same version of the iPhone OS and since the 3GS does not lack any hardware present on the older versions without equivalent replacements there is no reason why existing titles won't run on the new hardware. However, I am quite prepared to admit that my analogy may be faulty and that's often the case with them when they won't quite fit the current situation. I wonder if there are any parallels with the Nokia Ngage platform but I don't know much about that.
Excellent point @dsunbury. When I originally thought about gaming on the Pre, I hadn't considered the portrait mode. Think about the extreme case of tunnel vision you'll have playing in that orientation!
Kudos to Sargun for getting this (somewhat) working in less than a week!
what sucks is that the one game that runs on everything, I DON'T EVEN LIKE!!! sigh, guess that's my luck though
im pretty sure my calculator could play doom
OMG!... My Nokia E65 runs Doom.
....and SNES, and Sega Genesis, and GBA....etc.
The thing is, there's an iFail that struggles with most of that.
@TareX
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8--2Z9Z1H-8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LMWRWT1Jck
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_uyUi9H49s
Yah.. boy that iFail sure has some crap quality games to offer.. Red Alert, Assasins Creed, 'Real Racing'.. don't know what they where thinking over there..
[/s]
LOL ... It's on Android already too ... just to throw that out there
In before Crysis.
Yes, but can it play Cry... FUCK.
Physical keyboard FTW.
This is why I don't buy touchscreen only phones.... this and emulators.
Yep- it looked SO easy trying to look on the screen and control your movements and actions in a fast-paced game like Doom.
I can see the frantic moments now- you just bash the whole keyboard with all of one thumb...
Yeah, those microscopic keyboards on cell phones are full of win. Or full of fail since you can't control any game with them accurately.
"Yeah, those microscopic keyboards on cell phones are full of win. Or full of fail since you can't control any game with them accurately."
Actually, it works just fine. I play doom on my g1 when I'm bored, and I can pretty much move as fluidly there as when i play quakelive on my pc. left thing handles movement, right thumb on the trackball does mouselook.
My Nokia N80 has been able to run Doom ever since it was released (blazing fast I might add). Even Nokia N70 ran Quake long time ago.
Honestly, I'm not that impressed about Palms WebOS. I doubt we will see any real applications, just this web crap. Symbian is way ahead of competitors and it is extremely advanced (SMP support, multitasking...), however S60 UI is outdated and it hasn't had any major updates since 2nd edition in terms of looks and usability. That's going to be fixed when Symbian Foundation gets new QT based Orbit UI.
Uh, the whole point of this post is that the homebred community has already gotten something else than a web-app to run natively after less than a week ;)
I remember when they used to test the power of FULL COMPUTERS using Quake...
@ Suomaa
God you are an idiot. Good luck hanging on to your declining market share... keep consoling yourself that "yeah... but we did it first!".
@ Sarig
Thank you for spelling it out for those too clueless.
Full disclosure : I'm an iPhone user. But I've been HUGELY impressed with how quickly the walls have come tumbling down on the Pre. This thing is full blown Linux, so anyone worried about this "web crap" is a complete fool. What the "web crap" does is help enable quick and standardized ways of modifying UI functionality within WebOS... that doesn't mean the root system is inaccessible or will remain that way.
I think the important part that people have missed is that the double-barreled shotgun is only in Doom 2, not the original...
Looks like most of the animations/models have been swapped, too. The armor isn't the same, nor is the head, or the shotgun.
RTFA.
"...or the open-source PRDoom, anyway..."
Oh wow. My apologies. Thanks Matt.
i wonder, why do people only port doom to all kinds of platforms and not any other games.
i'm on level 28 of Doom 2 on my Nokia N95, i have to finish it before i get a new phone :D
it's one of the best games ever
It can't be officially considered an electronic device until it can play Doom!
That's right, microwave! Go cry.
Its because doom (or prboom), is trivially easy to compile and get running, thats why its almost always one of the first games ported to any new system. It has very very basic requirements as far as what libs are necessary for compile so it needs the least amount of work all around for dependencies and the game itself
@Galactor963 #&$! you. Now I've spewed perfectly good coffee all over my perfectly good iMac.
But does it run Lin... oh.
My 3 year old Sansa (Rockboxed) plays Doom...
WOW a game i had played to death 14 years ago ! any chance of anyone writing new games for these phones ?
Probably after more than one week.
Awesome icon, by the way.
*mutters something unintelligible about crysis-blending overlords*
But does it play D... yes, yes it does.
I was wondering if anyone else would notice...
My old htc hermes ran tombraider with updated graphics better than the original, doom, a quake port and many other games. Thats a phone from 2006.
Lets see the new generation of phones run some of the last generation games like FEAR. that would be impressive.
I'd be impressed, and thrilled, by Half Life. Maybe get some Thief, Deus Ex, and System Shock in there. Probably not as likely, not having Linux friendly binaries to begin with. However, an optimized release of the the open source Quake, or maybe even Quake 2 engine would open a lot of doors.
Dude, I can run Doom in my Zire 71, which I still own and use :D
Hey, I remember those! That was one of the first ones to actually have the camera built in. Great device for the time. I was stuck with a measly Palm V.
I wanna be a space marine!!
Instructions are at http://predev.wikidot.com/doom
Welcome to 2003.
Love,
Nokia
yey.
Seriously, make a 3DMark or something for mobiles.
http://www.futuremark.com/products/3dmarkmobile/3dmarkmobilees11/
iPhone fanboys are really scared these days... The amount of flame wars they want to start lately over anything encroaching on their domain is proof enough of that.
Oh, please. That comment applies to almost every topic on Engadget. Whatever product is being discussed, you can pretty much guarantee that someone will chime in with "my product does that already" or words to the affect. I don't know why people feel the need to do this but I wouldn't take it as being an indication of fear. I mean, what is there to be fearful about? Is the iPhone going to spontaneously combust if the Pre sells more? No.
Knowing Apple's history with batteries...
I see your Doom and raise you a Quake 3 with keyboard and monitor support. :)
http://koti.mbnet.fi/hinkka/Download.html
Can we stop using the meaningless and irritating phrase "after the break" please?
What would you suggest using instead? It's just a simple phrase to inform you that there is more material in the article to be seen if you click the link. I fail to see the irritation. Now, with things like, "Will it blend?" etc. ad nauseum, I'm with you.
Christ, people, it's a demonstration of homebrew/hacking, not of content. No one's trying to attack your precious iPhone or Nokia or whatever. What is wrong with you?
There are a lot of stupidity in this thread.
palm been making phones for over a decade
Apple been making phone 2 years
iPhone 50,000 apps n games
Pre less than 4 games out
How weak is that
Pre until u have at least 80 games on your platform than we can sit down n talk , until then u a disappointment, palm u been making cells since 90,s
U have no excuse to have at least 30 decent games at launch
You comment makes no sense whatsoever. The real comparison isn't how long the company has been making phones. It's how long the phone platform has been available. In this case, the iPhone has been out for 2 years, the Pre has been out for 6 days. Hell, the Pre's SDK isn't even publicly available yet and someone has already ported Doom to it.
Man... how do you even start to pierce this bubble of insanity?
Peope need to stop making excuses for palm
It's like fiat all of a sudden producing new Chrysler
With no ac.
Palm gas had 3 years to make 1 game for pre n it hasn't
At least admit it has failed in regards to games
And yes apple has failed also at not having copy paste n mms since launch.
Your logic still doesn't make any sense at all. How many apps/games did the iPhone have at launch? Comparing Palm's history to the iPhone's is comparing apples and oranges. Compare the iPhone to the Pre. Having a limited selection of applications available at the launch of a brand new phone, with a brand new OS, with a brand new SDK isn't a failure, it's an inevitability.
You know that PalmOS had way more applications than iPhone when it was launched right? Now, how weak isn't that?
Sure, iPhone got 50k apps. BUT, how many of these applications are "serious"?
iFart, iShit, iPee, iPoo etc.
You missed something....
Add Classic + ALL the hundreds of thousands of PalmOS games and BAM! You have a larger software catalog than the iPhone.
PLUS the Pre is LESS THAN A WEEK OLD! When the iPhone was a week old, you had.... Oh wait, you HAD NO SOFTWARE TITLES! The SDK was not released for 6 months! And it was even longer before it was JailBroken.
The pre does NOT NEED to be jailbroken, you can just install software onto it! There is no special software needed, the Pre works on Mac, Windows & Linux without any hacks or extra software. Want a ringer or wallpaper, just plug in and Drag-N-Drop!
So you wave the "We hav 50,000 software titles on our store." flag all you want to make you feel better. But in 6 months (probably less) there will be some amazing apps for the Pre. (As well as ported versions of such fun & pointless apps as iFart)
Palm vs Iphone
Apple :2 years + 50'000 iphone apps. = 50002
Palm :10 years (a decade) + 4 games = 14
Apple wins!
:-P
@TavisJohn
Yes, but when the iPhone was originally released there was no SDK and there was no App Store. When the Pre was released the SDK had been available for 2-months. The line of argument that you are attempting to pursue is incorrect and doesn't make much sense. Rather, you can argue that developers haven't had sufficient time with the SDK yet to release their titles and they will come later. However, it certainly can be argued that if Palm wanted the Pre to compete with the Apple App Store then they should have released the SDK earlier. 2-Months is a very short space of time and the results make the Pre look a little silly compared to the iPhone which was able to launch the App Store with many more applications because the developers had almost 5-months.
This sort of thing is normal in business and comes as a result of Palm having to dance to Apple's beat. I am sure that Palm would have preferred to wait longer to release the Pre in order to give developers longer with the SDK and therefore launch with a bigger App Store. However, the rumours of a new iPhone at WWDC was probably enough that they decided that they wanted to get the Pre out there and ensure that the new iPhone did not receive the media attention that it certainly would do so with no competition.
@kelmon
The SDK's been available for two months? And to whom has it been available to?
Pre zero games at launch palm been making phones over a decade ,.
Is that a success or a fail ,??
You know what's failing right now---you.
Your like a sinking ocean liner with it's engines running full speed into an iceberg.
Check the app store again. There are 2 (Maybe 3) games out now.
On launch day I downloaded Sudoku @ Connect 4 Demo.
There is also Speed Brain, which is more like a brain test/training game, but it is still a game.
Oh plus the iPhone had 0 games at launch. (And for about the first 6 months of its existence as well)
This was susposed to be a reply to "hated".
POS COmment System!!!!
exactly u prove my point when iPhone launched on 062907
Apple had only been manufacturing cells for 1 day.
Pre laiunched on 060609 n had 10 years experience manufacturing cells n had less than 3 games.
Palm had zero excuse
What if in 10 years apple launches iPhone v8
With no games,? Now that would be a fail.
Agree??
Yeah, no excuses for not having a truckload of games when releasing a phone! Next thing you know they'll be making a fridge that can't microwave a cow!