Doom 64
This page is for the official port from 2020. For the fan-made port from 2011, see Doom 64 EX.
Developers | |
---|---|
Original game | Midway Games |
id Software | |
Windows | Nightdive Studios |
Publishers | |
Bethesda Softworks | |
Engines | |
Kex Engine | |
Release dates | |
Windows | March 20, 2020 |
Reception | |
OpenCritic | 76 |
Taxonomy | |
Monetization | One-time game purchase |
Microtransactions | None |
Modes | Singleplayer |
Perspectives | First-person |
Controls | Direct control |
Genres | Action, Shooter |
Themes | Horror, Sci-fi |
Series | Doom |
⤏ Go to series page | |
Doom (1993) | 1993 |
Doom II: Hell on Earth | 1994 |
Final Doom | 1996 |
DRL (unofficial game) | 2002 |
Doom 3 | 2004 |
Doom 64 EX (unofficial port) | 2008 |
Doom 3: BFG Edition | 2012 |
Doom (2016) | 2016 |
Doom VFR | 2017 |
MiniDoom 2 (unofficial game) | 2018 |
Doom I Enhanced | 2020 |
Doom II Enhanced | 2020 |
Doom Eternal | 2020 |
Doom 64 | 2020 |
Doom + Doom II | 2024 |
Doom: The Dark Ages | 2025 |
Doom 64 is a sci-fi first-person shooter game developed by Midway Games, id Software, and Nightdive Studios, and published by Bethesda Softworks. It was the Nintendo 64 exclusive sequel to Doom II: Hell on Earth from 1997 in the Doom series, and was ported using the KEX Engine.
The game was originally released on March 31, 1997 for the Nintendo 64, using a modified, hardware-accelerated version of the id Tech 1 engine based on Doom's PlayStation port, and introduced new features to the engine such as animated sky textures, colored lighting, fog effects, smoother liquid texture animations, among other features while taking advantage of the console's unique 3-point filtering algorithm for its new higher resolution sprites.[1] It was, however, often mistaken for another port of the 1993 Doom during its initial release despite being an entirely new game in the Doom series due to its title (the original working title was The Absolution, referenced in its final level) at a time where most of its ports struggled to bring the PC version's experience to a console, while competing with the likes of GoldenEye 007 and Turok: Dinosaur Hunter with their advanced 3D graphics on the Nintendo 64.
For many years, Doom 64 did not see a release on other platforms, and with Midway Games filing for bankruptcy in 2009, the chances of the game being re-release elsewhere seemed uncertain, however, there were efforts by Doom modder Samuel "Kaiser" Villarreal to port Doom 64 to PC unofficially, starting with his Doom 64: Absolution project, a total conversion of Doom II: Hell on Earth, followed by Doom 64 EX, a port that runs off data extracted from the original Nintendo 64 cartridge. Samuel along with fellow Doom modders Edward "Edward850" Richardson and James "Quasar" Haley went onto to work for Nightdive Studios and developed an official port of Doom 64 with a partnership with Bethesda.[2] It was initially announced for the Nintendo Switch to accompany the then-upcoming Doom Eternal, originally slated for a November 22, 2019 release until they was delayed to March 20, 2020 but announced versions of Doom 64 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. The game was released on the planned release date (through Bethesda.net and Steam), and features many quality-of-life improvements such as support for higher framerates, widescreen resolutions, an updated HUD message system, as well as a new set of levels that ties the storyline of the classic Doom games with the modern Doom (2016) reboot.[3] The official re-release of Doom 64 also features haptic controller feedback on all versions, a first for the KEX Engine. A GOG.com version was later released on June 23, 2022.
Bethesda sought to end their partnership with Nightdive Studios after Doom 64 was finally released, thus preventing any further updates or fixing overlooked issues such pixel-scaling distortion caused by the PC version's stock DirectX 11 shaders and inability to remap key bindings on non-QWERTY keyboard layouts. Samuel has provided players with workarounds to address issues with the DirectX 11 shaders. Almost 2 years after Microsoft's acquisition of Bethesda, Nightdive was able to return to the work on the game and provided players with a patch to address the most glaring issues with the game.[4]
General information
- Steam Community Discussions
- GOG.com Community Discussions for game series
- GOG.com Support Page
- Official list of differences from Doom 64 EX
Availability
Source | DRM | Notes | Keys | OS |
---|---|---|---|---|
Retail | ||||
GamersGate | ||||
GOG.com | ||||
Microsoft Store | Xbox Game Pass for PC, Xbox Play Anywhere | |||
Steam | Bethesda.net account creation can be skipped. DRM-free when Steam is not installed or by creating a steam_appid.txt file containing its Steam App ID number 1148590 in <path-to-game>.[5] |
|||
Bethesda.net (unavailable) |
- Granted to pre-orders of Doom Eternal.
- The game's Official Soundtrack and 20th Anniversary Extended Edition Soundtrack are available for purchase or streaming via the composer's Bandcamp page.
- The Bethesda.net release is no longer available as the Bethesda.net Launcher is being retired. Users who own games in their Bethesda.net Library will be able to transfer their games to their Steam account for free, even after the launcher is officially retired.
Version differences
- Background music on Level 20: Breakdown (Track name "The Rotted Foul" according to Doom 64 Official Soundtrack listing) plays differently in comparison to the Nintendo 64 equivalent, with some samples playing too fast or at too high a pitch. Level 21: Pitfalls background music (Perfect Hate) also has minor differences starting around the 0:30 mark.[6]
Essential improvements
Skip intro videos
- The copyright screen and photosensitive warning will still be displayed.
Use -skipmovies command line argument[7]
|
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Set the value of seta g_showintromovie in kexengine.cfg to 0 (see configuration file(s) location)[8]
|
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Rename/move/delete the movies folder from <path-to-game> [8]
|
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Game data
Configuration file(s) location
System | Location |
---|---|
Windows | %USERPROFILE%\Saved Games\Nightdive Studios\DOOM 64\kexengine.cfg |
Microsoft Store | %USERPROFILE%\Saved Games\Nightdive Studios\DOOM 64\ |
Steam Play (Linux) | <SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/1148590/pfx/[Note 1] |
Save game data location
System | Location |
---|---|
Windows | %USERPROFILE%\Saved Games\Nightdive Studios\DOOM 64\saves\ |
Microsoft Store | %LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\BethesdaSoftworks.Doom641997_3275kfvn8vcwc\SystemAppData\wgs\ |
Steam Play (Linux) | <SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/1148590/pfx/[Note 1] |
- 10 save slots available.
Save game cloud syncing
System | Native | Notes |
---|---|---|
GOG Galaxy | ||
Steam Cloud | ||
Xbox Cloud |
Video
Graphics feature | State | WSGF | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
Widescreen resolution | |||
Multi-monitor | |||
Ultra-widescreen | |||
4K Ultra HD | |||
Field of view (FOV) | Min. seems to be 74° (vertical) and max. 140°. Screen change is Hor+. Values outside of that range can be set using r_fov X console command.[7] |
||
Windowed | |||
Borderless fullscreen windowed | |||
Anisotropic filtering (AF) | Filtering option toggles between nearest-neighbor and N64-style 3-point bilinear texture filtering.[7][9] The 3-point bilinear filtering, while not anisotropic, does not suffer from blurry distant oblique textures in the way that is typical of isotopic filtering.[10][11] | ||
Anti-aliasing (AA) | SMAA, FXAA and FXAA-Fast | ||
Vertical sync (Vsync) | |||
60 FPS and 120+ FPS | Multiple options for FPS cap in addition to uncapped (labelled as Max). Make sure to leave Interpolation enabled for the game to scale from original internal 30fps. | ||
High dynamic range display (HDR) | See the glossary page for potential alternatives. |
Input
Keyboard and mouse | State | Notes |
---|---|---|
Remapping | Problematic rebinding with non-QWERTY keyboard layouts was fixed in February 24, 2022 patch, despite not being mentioned in notes.[12] | |
Mouse acceleration | Slider for acceleration and few options for mouse smoothing are available. | |
Mouse sensitivity | ||
Mouse input in menus | ||
Mouse Y-axis inversion | Game doesn't allow for looking up and down.[7] | |
Controller | ||
Controller support | ||
Full controller support | Despite the Steam page stating partial controller support, it seems like every aspect of the game can be fully navigated using gamepad (menus / gameplay).[7] | |
Controller remapping | ||
Controller sensitivity | ||
Controller Y-axis inversion |
Controller types |
---|
XInput-compatible controllers | ||
---|---|---|
Xbox button prompts | ||
Impulse Trigger vibration |
PlayStation controllers | ||
---|---|---|
PlayStation button prompts | ||
Light bar support | Blue light. | |
Adaptive trigger support | ||
DualSense haptic feedback support | ||
Connection modes | , Wired, Wireless (Bluetooth) |
Generic/other controllers |
---|
Additional information | ||
---|---|---|
Controller hotplugging | ||
Haptic feedback | Only for XInput controllers. | |
Digital movement supported | ||
Simultaneous controller+KB/M |
Steam Input | ||
---|---|---|
Steam Input API support | ||
Hook input (legacy mode) | ||
Official controller preset(s) | ||
Steam Controller button prompts | ||
Cursor detection |
Audio
Audio feature | State | Notes |
---|---|---|
Separate volume controls | ||
Surround sound | [13] | |
Subtitles | No voices to show subtitles for. | |
Closed captions | ||
Mute on focus lost | Always disabled. |
Localizations
Language | UI | Audio | Sub | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
English | ||||
French | ||||
German | ||||
Italian | ||||
Brazilian Portuguese | Fan translation: download. | |||
Spanish |
Issues unresolved
Issues fixed
Kex Assertion Failure/Black screen on startup (with sounds playing)
Change the renderer in config files[14] |
---|
|
Stuttering camera when moving mouse/gamepad
Set r_forceinterpolatedanglereset to 1 in the dev console[15]
|
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Set the value of seta r_forceinterpolatedanglereset in kexengine.cfg to 1 (see configuration file(s) location)
|
---|
- In the GOG release of the game, this option has been changed to
seta r_force_interpolatedanglereset
and is set to1
by default.
Change the polling rate of your mouse to 125Hz (Proton only) |
---|
Replace the existing SDL2.dll with the newer one from the official page by downloading the 64 bit Windows binary file (Proton only) |
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Other information
API
Technical specs | Supported | Notes |
---|---|---|
Direct3D | 11 | |
OpenGL | 3.2 | |
Vulkan | ||
Shader Model support | 5 |
Executable | 32-bit | 64-bit | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
Windows |
Middleware
Middleware | Notes | |
---|---|---|
Audio | FMOD | |
Input | SDL2 |
Command line arguments
Parameter | Description |
---|---|
-window | Sets the game to run in windowed mode |
-fullscreen | Sets the game to run in fullscreen |
-width X | Sets game window's width |
-height Y | Sets game window's height |
-skipmovies | Skips intro movies / company logos |
-warp X | Warps to level ID, where first level is 1 |
-skill X | Sets difficulty to X, where "Be Gentle!" is 1, "Bring It On!" is 2 etc. Use in combination with -warp X command. |
-nomonsters | Disables monsters. Sets cheat flag, disabling achievements. |
-fast | Enables fast monsters |
-file *.wad | Loads additional wad file. Sets cheat flag, disabling achievements. |
-basepath <path> | Sets the base path from which to load files. |
SuicideMachine's Unofficial Configuration Tool
- Written by wiki user Suicide machine, unofficial configuration tool was developed with intention of simplifying key rebinding process, especially on non QWERTY keyboards. Tool also features access to basic graphics options, helpful when scaling basic issues with the game. Can be downloaded here.
Mods
Doom 64 EX Compatibility Patch
- The Doom 64 EX Compatibility Patch is a patch that converts the game files of Doom 64 into a format that the fan-made port from 2008, Doom 64 EX, can recognize and play. This allows owners of Doom 64 to make use of the added features of the fan-made port, such as enabling mouse look, disabling auto-aim, etc.
Install the compatibility patch (Windows only)[16] |
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Notes
|
Restoring red medical crosses
- The red cross symbols on recovery items were altered in this re-release.
Use uncensored.wad for Doom 64 |
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Notes
|
Restore the red crosses via SLADE[17] |
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Notes
|
Doom 64 Restoration Patch
- A mod for the KEX Engine remaster that aims to restore and emulate features from the original Nintendo 64 version of the game. Can be downloaded here.
System requirements
Windows | ||
---|---|---|
Minimum | Recommended | |
Operating system (OS) | 10 | |
Processor (CPU) | Intel Core i5-750 | Intel Core i5-2400 AMD Phenom II X6 1075T 3.0 GHz |
System memory (RAM) | 8 GB | |
Hard disk drive (HDD) | ||
Video card (GPU) | Nvidia GeForce GTX 660 AMD Radeon R7 240 Intel HD Graphics 530 | Nvidia GeForce GTX 780 AMD Radeon R9 290X |
- A 64-bit operating system is required.
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Notes regarding Steam Play (Linux) data:
- File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data.
- Games with Steam Cloud support may also store data in
~/.steam/steam/userdata/<user-id>/1148590/
. - Use Wine's registry editor to access any Windows registry paths.
- The app ID (1148590) may differ in some cases.
- Treat backslashes as forward slashes.
- See the glossary page for details on Windows data paths.
References
- ↑ Doom 64 - The Doom Wiki at DoomWiki.org - last accessed on 2020-10-28
- ↑ DF Retro EX: Doom 64 - Remaking an N64 Classic For PS4, Xbox One, Switch + PC! - YouTube - last accessed on 2020-10-28
- ↑ Doom 64 (2020 version) - The Doom Wiki at DoomWiki.org - last accessed on 2020-10-28
- ↑ DOOM 64 - Minor Update - last accessed on 2022-02-25
- ↑ Steam games you can play without the Steam client :: GOG.com Community Discussions
- ↑ Doom64: Nintendo 64 and 2020 Re-release BGM differences - last accessed on 2020-03-31
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 Verified by User:Suicide machine on 2020-03-19)
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Skip Intro Videos - Steam Community Guides - last accessed on 2020-04-10
- ↑ Maxime Lebled on Twitter: "The new PC version of Doom 64 by @NightdiveStudio is replicating the N64 3-point texture filtering! That attention to detail is awesome to see! 😮
- ↑ Verified by User:SirYodaJedi on 2020-03-19
- Eyeballed. I've complimented 3-point filtering before.
- ↑ DF Retro EX: Doom 64 - Remaking an N64 Classic For PS4, Xbox One, Switch + PC! - YouTube - last accessed on 2020-04-05
- "The only downside to [doing texture filtering manually as a shader] is that it's-it's basically impossible to do, like mipmapping, or any other sort of filtering through this method."
- ↑ Verified by User:Suicide machine on 2022-02-25
- ↑ Verified by User:KainXVIII on 2020-07-08
- Tested with Special K
- ↑ black screen with sounds but no video - last accessed on 2020-03-21
- ↑ With the new update my framerate is unlocked but the mouse movement its not right - last accessed on 2022-06-07
- ↑ Verified by User:Aemony on 2020-03-23
- ↑ Uncensoring Doom 64 and You aka Red Cross Restore Guide - Steam Community Guides - last accessed on 2020-04-06