Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Step Aside Fruit Ninja, I've got Doom To Play

My friend Nick reported the astounding news: Doom has been ported to Android. There's nothing to it, you just head over to Google Play and install it like any other app. And it works!

OK, the controls are a bit awkward. I'm not quite sure (yet) how to effortlessly cruise around. But, I can shoot, change weapons (chainsaw anyone?!), so I'm off to a good start. The graphics look smooth enough, and most importantly, the sound track is there. You've got to love the growling, shooting and other gruesome sounds.

I've never been a gamer, but Doom holds a special place in my heart. True, it's one of two games I ever mastered (the original Super Mario Bros, was the other), but there's more to it than that. I can't fully recall the circumstances, but back in high school I had reason to be on a college campus with a group, and we found ourselves in the computer lab. For reasons that escape me, a networked copy of Doom was kicked off, and all us kids went to work shooting at each other. It would turn out to be my first exposure to Computer Lab Culture. The geeks in that Computer Science (CS) lab had technology (Doom) that mere mortals could barely imagine.

When I went to college and majored in CS, I practically lived in the CS lab. And it was in the lab that I learned to master tools that would only become widespread years later. It was one of those environments where you could practically learn by osmosis. Nowadays, with kids bringing massively powerful computers to school, I wonder if the lab holds the same importance?

1 comment:

  1. DOOM!! I remember playing that at your house a zillion times. Does it have the same cheat codes as the original version? I could tell you one off the top of my head...

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