Doom 64

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This page is for the official port from 2020. For the fan-made port from 2011, see Doom 64 EX.

Doom 64

Developers
Original game	Midway Games
	id Software
Windows	Nightdive Studios
Publishers
	Bethesda Softworks
Engines
	Kex Engine 3.8
Release dates
Windows	March 20, 2020
Reception
OpenCritic	76
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase, Subscription gaming service
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
Doom I Enhanced	2020
Doom II Enhanced	2020
Doom Eternal	2020
Doom 64	2020

Doom 64 is a sci-fi FPS 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. 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. 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. 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 followed by an Epic Games Store release on August 18, 2022.

Bethesda sought to end their partnership with Nightdive Studios after Doom 64 was finally released^{[citation needed]}, 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.

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
Epic Games Store		DRM-free when launched from the executable.
GamersGate
GOG.com
Green Man Gaming
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>.
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 has been retired. Users who owned games in their Bethesda.net Library are able to transfer their games to their Steam account for free, even now after the launcher has been officially retired.

Monetization

Type	Notes
One-time game purchase	The game requires an upfront purchase to access.
Subscription gaming service	Available via Xbox Game Pass for PC.

Essential improvements

Skip intro videos

The copyright screen and photosensitive warning will still be displayed.

Use -skipmovies command line argument

Set the value of seta g_showintromovie in kexengine.cfg to 0 (see configuration file(s) location)

Rename/move/delete the movies folder from <path-to-game>

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)	<Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/1148590/pfx/

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)	<Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/1148590/pfx/

10 save slots available.

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
Epic Games Launcher
GOG Galaxy
Steam Cloud
Xbox Cloud

Video

Video settings.

Display settings.

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.
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		Filtering option toggles between nearest-neighbor and N64-style 3-point bilinear texture filtering. 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.
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

Mouse settings.

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.
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.
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).
Controller remapping
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion

Controller types

XInput-compatible controllers
Xbox button prompts
Impulse Trigger vibration

DualShock 4 controllers
DualShock button prompts
Light bar support		Blue light.
Connection modes	USB, Bluetooth

Generic/other controllers

Additional information
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback		Only for XInput controllers.
Simultaneous controller+KB/M

• 

  Key rebinding screen (Keyboard). Cycles through the keyboard and controller bindings.

• 

  Key rebinding screen (Controller). 'Use' is also set as Left Trigger by default.

• 

  Controller settings

Audio

Sound settings.

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls
Surround sound
Subtitles		No voices to show subtitles for.
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost		Always disabled.
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
Croatian				Fan translation: download
French
German
Italian
Brazilian Portuguese				Fan translation: download.
Spanish

Issues fixed

Kex Assertion Failure/Black screen on startup (with sounds playing)

Change the renderer in config files
Navigate to %USERPROFILE%\Saved Games\Nightdive Studios\DOOM 64 Edit kexengine.cfg with text editor. Find a line seta r_rhirenderfamily "vulkan". Set it to either seta r_rhirenderfamily "d3d11" or seta r_rhirenderfamily "opengl". If the config file is missing, download this config and place it in %USERPROFILE%\Saved Games\Nightdive Studios\DOOM 64.

Stuttering camera when moving mouse/gamepad

Set r_forceinterpolatedanglereset to 1 in the dev console

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 to 1 by default.

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 Restoration Patch

A patch 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.

Includes Stereo Project, a patch that attempts to restore the N64 version's stereo panning effects back into the KEX Engine remaster's soundtrack.

Can possibly lead to a Kex assertion failure/black screen on startup when already installed before booting the game for the first time.^{[citation needed]}

Restoring red medical crosses

The red cross symbols on recovery items were altered in this re-release.

Use uncensored.wad for Doom 64
Download Restore Red Crosses and extract uncensored.wad into <path-to-game>. Launch the game with the -file uncensored.wad command line argument. Notes This method disables achievements as it finds loading the WAD as a cheat.

Use Doom 64 Restoration Patch
Notes Eases the ability to patch the game's files to restore the alterations and the changes can easily be reversed. Removes menu graphics pertaining to Bethesda.net. Localization and graphic files in the patch that removes the menu graphics can be omitted by moving/deleting them prior to installing the patch.

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)

Download the compatibility patch from the Steam thread and extract it to a temporary folder. Browse to <path-to-game> of the official 2020 port of Doom 64. Copy the files DOOM64.WAD and DOOMSND.DLS over to the temporary folder of the compatibility patch. Browse to the temporary folder of the compatibility patch, launch run.cmd, and press ↵ Enter. A new folder called output was created that contains the patched Doom 64 EX compatible files. The compatible files can now be moved into the base installation folder of Doom 64 EX and played using the fan-made port. Notes Do not overwrite the original files within <path-to-game> of Doom 64 with the patched files as they have been made incompatible with the official port! As of May 2022 the patcher has been discovered to no longer work with current versions of the remaster, although the same changes can still be done manually using a WAD editor.

Doom 64 CE

Doom 64 CE is a mod that allows Doom 64 to be playable via an archive folder, similarly to Doom (1993) and Doom II: Hell on Earth with GZDoom. This mod has the two campaigns, adds three original ones from previous mods, optional graphical enhancements, new difficulty settings, and new sound effects and enemies from previous games that the original was missing. Requires an unmodified installation of official 2020 port of Doom 64 to play.

How to play Doom 64 CE

Download and extract the contents of DOOM64.CE-[Current Version].zip to a convenient location on the computer. Install the official 2020 port of Doom 64 from either GOG.com, Epic Games Store, or Steam. Run doom64-install.bat and it will localize any installations of Doom 64 to create a custom DOOM64.CE.ipk3 file to be used with this mod. If the DOOM 64 CE installer fails to find an installation of Doom 64, alternatively copying the unmodified DOOM64.WAD file from <path-to-game> and pasting into where DOOM 64 CE is installed also will work. Run gzdoom.exe, select DOOM 64 (DOOM64.CE) (not DOOM 64 (Steam/Unsupported) (DOOM64)) from the IWAD selection menu, and launch the mod. Upon running the mod for the first time, players are prompted to choose a preset of settings and features which can be changed later (by default, it uses the "Modern" preset). Notes Both DOOM64.CE.ipk3 and DOOM64.IWAD generated from the DOOM 64 CE installer are required for the mod to work.

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.