Vintage Doom Mail Order

Funnily enough my middle school had Doom on 5.25" floppies. That was the only time I ever saw that version. I would imagine it is a hell of a collector's item because I would think most people were using 3.5" floppies when Doom came out. My dad got the shareware through a work friend on 3.5" and I purchased the retail version on CD-ROM.
 
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Funnily enough my middle school had Doom on 5.25" floppies. That was the only time I ever saw that version. I would imagine it is a hell of a collector's item because I would think most people were using 3.5" floppies when Doom came out. My dad got the shareware through a work friend on 3.5" and I purchased the retail version on CD-ROM.
Sitting on my desk...

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Shareware was the way to go back in the day. Try the software, if you like it and want to keep it then pay for it.

Nowadays it's all about pre-ordering, give us money now and we'll eventually release something that sorta works, then sell you expansion packs and microtransactions to keep the income stream coming so we can try to squash bugs.
 
Funnily enough my middle school had Doom on 5.25" floppies. That was the only time I ever saw that version. I would imagine it is a hell of a collector's item because I would think most people were using 3.5" floppies when Doom came out. My dad got the shareware through a work friend on 3.5" and I purchased the retail version on CD-ROM.

Nah, Doom dates way back to when people had 386/486. Not uncommon at all. (all CDROM devices had proprietary controllers then)
 
Registered versions of DOOM on 5.25" floppies are fairly uncommon compared to 3.5" in my experience (I always follow them on ebay)... We had 5.25" drives in dec of 1993 but 3.5" drives were commonplace by then as well and the disks were (seemingly) more reliable. If you page through any PC mag from early 1993 you had a choice of floppy drive in budget PCs and more "expensive" ($1200+) models came with both 5.25" and 1.44MB 3.5" drives. Even my 286 came with a 3.5" drive, though I think that was purchased around 1990. Can't remember exactly when, it does have VGA though so very late 286..

My copy of doom was and is also 3.5" no less. shame I tossed everything but the disks.
 
You know, I only ever played the shareware levels from DOOM.

Might want to go back and eventually beat it someday (I did own DOOM II full version and beat that).
 
The full version of Doom was only mail order, that's why the shareware versions are so common. It wasn't until Doom II (1994) and Ultimate Doom (1995) until the full retail versions came for widespread purchase in stores.

Here's my modest Doom collection.. still need an original mail order Doom copy, among others:

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Nah, Doom dates way back to when people had 386/486. Not uncommon at all. (all CDROM devices had proprietary controllers then)
We had a i486DX2-66 when Doom came out in 1993. It came with both a 3.5" floppy drive and 2x CD-ROM drive. High detail and fullscreen at 35 Hz in its full glory.
 
Seems like I remember 5.25" floppies were something you specifically had to request at purchase time from id's mail order operation, at which point I think they'd just mail you both sets. The heyday of 5.25" disks was already well past by then, and now I'm wondering if it was possible to install Windows 95 from them. That'd be an occasion for a full pot of coffee and inviting a friend over.

Around 1996 one of my friends grabbed Ultimate Doom for his ancient 386DX/40 with no CD-ROM drive, and one of the floppies was bad. I took a look at my CD copy's files, and sure enough, id had taken the floppy's installer files and kept them all in the same folder on the disc, so the installer would read them sequentially. I slapped his bad disk's file onto an AOL floppy and handed that to him, and he was up and running a half hour later. Those were really different times.
 
Seems like I remember 5.25" floppies were something you specifically had to request at purchase time from id's mail order operation, at which point I think they'd just mail you both sets. The heyday of 5.25" disks was already well past by then, and now I'm wondering if it was possible to install Windows 95 from them. That'd be an occasion for a full pot of coffee and inviting a friend over.

Around 1996 one of my friends grabbed Ultimate Doom for his ancient 386DX/40 with no CD-ROM drive, and one of the floppies was bad. I took a look at my CD copy's files, and sure enough, id had taken the floppy's installer files and kept them all in the same folder on the disc, so the installer would read them sequentially. I slapped his bad disk's file onto an AOL floppy and handed that to him, and he was up and running a half hour later. Those were really different times.
The RTM upgrade of Windows 95 was made available on 5.25" floppies, if I remember correctly. It would have to have been on 20-25 1.2MB disks. I know the 3.5" floppy upgrade was on 15 1.44MB disks. I can't find any reference to the 5.25" version, though. The full retail release was only ever available on CD-ROM as the installation package was over 300MB, or about 210 1.44MB 3.5" floppies.
 
The RTM upgrade of Windows 95 was made available on 5.25" floppies, if I remember correctly. It would have to have been on 20-25 1.2MB disks. I know the 3.5" floppy upgrade was on 15 1.44MB disks. I can't find any reference to the 5.25" version, though. The full retail release was only ever available on CD-ROM as the installation package was over 300MB, or about 210 1.44MB 3.5" floppies.

I wonder how many floppies the included Weezer music video would have spanned across now.
 
Rise of the Triad was so good. They need to bring that game back.

Not sure, but it may have been one of the first dual wielding FPS games.
 
The full version of Doom was only mail order, that's why the shareware versions are so common. It wasn't until Doom II (1994) and Ultimate Doom (1995) until the full retail versions came for widespread purchase in stores.

Here's my modest Doom collection.. still need a retail Doom copy, among others:

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I preordered. I know, I know. But I feel this pre-order stands the test of time. :)

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No, I don't have the box still.
 
We had a i486DX2-66 when Doom came out in 1993. It came with both a 3.5" floppy drive and 2x CD-ROM drive. High detail and fullscreen at 35 Hz in its full glory.
I didn't know a DX2-66 could pull off a full 35fps. My 486DX2-66 with an ATI Mach64 VLB and wait states of "1" can only reach about 32fps on full screen / full detail, with SB Pro 2 loaded. What are the specs of the system you ran?

Doom Benchmark list: https://www.complang.tuwien.ac.at/misc/doombench.html
 
We had a i486DX2-66 when Doom came out in 1993. It came with both a 3.5" floppy drive and 2x CD-ROM drive. High detail and fullscreen at 35 Hz in its full glory.

My first PC (hated the architecture, what can I say), was when the Pentium 90 came out (mainly to run Linux). I had a combo 3.5/5.25 unit and a Mitsumi CD and an ATI Graphics Ultra (?) I think maybe less than the Pro? Anyway, it would do 1024x768 8bit, which is what I wanted.
 
I didn't know a DX2-66 could pull off a full 35fps. My 486DX2-66 with an ATI Mach64 VLB and wait states of "1" can only reach about 32fps on full screen / full detail, with SB Pro 2 loaded. What are the specs of the system you ran?

Doom Benchmark list: https://www.complang.tuwien.ac.at/misc/doombench.html
I'd have to pull it out to find out because I can't really remember. Off the top of my head 4MB RAM, Cirrus Logic Pro 2MB?, a 16-bit Galaxy sound card of some sort. The VGA card was upgraded to a Creative Labs something at some point.
 
My 386 had 5.25 and 3.5 floppy in addition to a whopping 117MB HDD (hahaha). I never had Doom but my friend later did on his 486. It was impressive game back then. I did however (before Doom) have Wolfenstein 3D and Commander Keen which were fun. I still have that old 386 and it still works. Always hoped someday to have time to relive the old games again but never have time.
 
I didn't know a DX2-66 could pull off a full 35fps. My 486DX2-66 with an ATI Mach64 VLB and wait states of "1" can only reach about 32fps on full screen / full detail, with SB Pro 2 loaded. What are the specs of the system you ran?

Doom Benchmark list: https://www.complang.tuwien.ac.at/misc/doombench.html

From personal experience a DX2/66 was enough for a solidly enjoyable experience, but probably wouldn't sustain 35 fps unless you decreased the window size a little. Maybe with L2 cache and a fast graphics card, like a VESA Local Bus Tseng Labs or a PCI card in a later Socket 3 'board, but I'd still be a little suspicious. A well-configured DX/4 100 would be up to the challenge, and a Cyrix 5x86 in the same 'board would stomp Doom flat.
 
It may have been a first gen 60 MHz Pentium. I haven't touched that PC in around 20 years so my memory about it is fuzzy. I was also only 9 years old at the time. No way I can trust 9-year old me :cautious:.
 
I remember playing DOOM on my friend's 486 (this was before my family got a PC) and it was amazing.

There was a part where you go to grab a health pack and a closet door opened and a gimp was there, I legit screamed out loud. My have been the first time a game scared me like that.
 
I'm convinced some of these obscure, "high-value" auctions/sales are completely inflated by simply selling it to someone you know, swapping digital currency for real currency and then repeating every so often. It's not worth what the buyer will pay, it's worth what the buyer thinks OTHER buyers HAVE paid.
 
Oh man, I used to love Electronics Boutique. I used to go there like several times per week and just walked around looking at the cool PC game box art.

This was by far my favorite box, still not sure why I never bought the game myself even though I loved it so much.

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Man this thread reminds a bit more of the VOGONS forums. it's a retro computing forum but, i was poor enough that all my stuff was so outdated, google search often brought me there :ROFLMAO:
 
I wonder how many floppies the included Weezer music video would have spanned across now.

Hey now, that's a classic from one of the best albums ever ;).

But as for this auction. I just can't imagine that there are that many 5.25" floppy versions out there period.
 
Registered versions of DOOM on 5.25" floppies are fairly uncommon compared to 3.5" in my experience (I always follow them on ebay)... We had 5.25" drives in dec of 1993 but 3.5" drives were commonplace by then as well and the disks were (seemingly) more reliable. If you page through any PC mag from early 1993 you had a choice of floppy drive in budget PCs and more "expensive" ($1200+) models came with both 5.25" and 1.44MB 3.5" drives. Even my 286 came with a 3.5" drive, though I think that was purchased around 1990. Can't remember exactly when, it does have VGA though so very late 286..

My copy of doom was and is also 3.5" no less. shame I tossed everything but the disks.
5.25 disks weren't too bad, but you had to make sure you parked them before ejecting. 3.5" disks automatically parked when you pressed the eject button, at least the later ones did.
 
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