Ultimate Doom — doom

The Ultimate Doom (or The Ultimate DOOM as a brand) is an updated version of Doom released on April 30, 1995, that adds an exclusive fourth episode to the game named Thy Flesh Consumed, which contains a total of 9 new maps. This enhanced version is not only the first retail version of the original Doom, it is also the first CD-ROM version of said title. All four episodes run on id Software's latest patch for the game, 1.9, that was released separately for the original mail order versions as well.

Story

The player takes control over an unnamed marine, who must battle his way through hell and back and eliminate hordes of demons.

Design

The Ultimate Doom CD from the collection. — *The Ultimate Doom* CD from the *Depths of Doom* collection.

The Ultimate Doom's map design for the fourth episode was handled by John Romero, American McGee, Shawn Green and two fan modders from the doom community at that time, John "Dr. Sleep" Anderson (who would later work on Daikatana) and Tim Willits (who eventually became one of id Software's designers), while the artists Kevin Cloud and Adrian Carmack did a few extra graphics. Since the expansion was produced while id Software was already developing Quake, not much thought was put into the overall cohesiveness and thematically accuracy of the fourth episode, thus making it look like a random map pack with no strings attached. The final screen message at the end of the game, with the marine holding a rabbit named Daisy, is another testimony to that sentiment and makes it clear that the designers' main concern was getting the game out and nothing else. As Doom II features were present in the executable, some of these were used in the additional levels as well, namely sector type 17, switches that require keys to activate and other linedef actions.

Name

Before the expansion's release and before the name The Ultimate Doom was picked, the game was referred to as The Definitive Doom Special Edition. References to the original name can be found in the source code and in the DOS installer of the game, which features the shortened name DOOM: Special Edition on the titlebar and suggests DOOM_SE as the default installation directory.

Episodes

Knee-Deep in the Dead
The Shores of Hell
Inferno
Thy Flesh Consumed (exclusive to Ultimate Doom)

DOS Print (Exit Screen)

Exit Screen of the original DOS version of The Ultimate Doom. — Exit Screen from the original DOS version of The Ultimate Doom.

If the original DOS version of Ultimate Doom is being exited, an Exit Screen will pop up in the form of a DOS Print. In this screen the player is being thanked for playing the game and the game credits are being shown. These credits would normaly show the constellation of id software at that time and the exact positions within that company that each member held. However with this particular Re-Release of the initial doom game the information giving here is a bit convoluted, since the members involved in creating the fourth episode only, are presented like they were involved in these positions in the original development of Doom in 1993 too, but some of them weren't even a member yet and others didn't have that position.