As evinced by how frequently the terms have been used on Usenet, "Doom clone" was more common than "first-person shooter" until the late 1990s.

A Doom clone is a computer game that mimics the gameplay of the 1993 first-person shooter Doom. That is, the player explores a three-dimensional world seen through the eyes of the protagonist, and uses various weapons to kill usually monstrous enemies. Usenet is a distributed Internet discussion system that evolved from a general purpose UUCP network of the same name. ... A computer game is a game composed of a computer-controlled virtual universe that players interact with in order to achieve a defined goal or set of goals. ... Game play (or gameplay) includes all player experiences during the interaction with game systems, especially formal games. ... A first-person shooter (FPS) is a computer or video game where the players on-screen view of the game world simulates that of the character, and there is some element of shooting involved. ... Doom1 is a 1993 computer game developed by id Software, and one of the most seminal titles in the first-person shooter genre. ... The rewrite of this article is being devised at Talk:3D computer graphics/Temp. ...

Due to the popularity of Doom, a large number of clones appeared throughout the 1990s. Games in this genre are now known as first-person shooters, but "Doom clones" was the more common term until the late 1990s. The term "Doom clone" is still used occasionally, mainly in reference to early first-person shooters. Events and trends Technology Explosive growth of the Internet; decrease in the cost of computers and other technology Reduction in size and cost of mobile phones leads to a massive surge in their popularity Year 2000 problem (commonly known as Y2K) Microsoft Windows operating system becomes virtually ubiquitous on IBM...

In modern usage, the term sometimes has negative connotations. The gameplay in Doom (as well as many of its clones) was relatively simple-minded, mainly relying on "shooting everything that moves", and featuring dumb enemies that do little but move towards and shoot at the player. Reference to Doom is sometimes used to contrast with modern first-person shooter games which usually involve more strategy-oriented gameplay and enemies with sophisticated artificial intelligence (for example, Halo: Combat Evolved). A strategy is a long term plan of action designed to achieve a particular goal. ... Artificial intelligence (also known as machine intelligence and often abbreviated as AI) is intelligence exhibited by any manufactured (i. ... Halo: Combat Evolved, or simply Halo, is a video game in the first-person shooter (FPS) genre, created by the Microsoft-owned Bungie Studios. ...

Although the simple-minded action in Doom has become less popular with time, some games such as Serious Sam (2001) have deliberately returned to it. Serious Sam is the title of a series of first-person shooters created by the Croatian company Croteam. ...

Doom-likeness is sometimes also associated with the game's "2.5D" graphics, as opposed to full 3D which was introduced with Quake (1996). 2. ... For an overview of the Quake game franchise go to Quake series. ...

List of games

Among the games commonly counted as Doom clones are those based on the Doom engine, which include: The Doom engine is the game engine that powers the id Software games Doom, Doom IIand Doom III. It is also used by HeXen, Heretic, Strife and HacX, and other games produced by licensees. ...

• Chex Quest (1996)
• Heretic (1994)
• HeXen (1995)
• Strife (1996)

Games that use different engines include: This is a screenshot where the chexguy is toasting a flemoid. ... Heretic is a first-person shooter video game created by Raven Software, published by Id Software, and distributed by GT Interactive in 1994. ... 1994 was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International year of the Family. ... HeXen: Beyond Heretic is a first-person shooter computer game developed by Raven Software, published by id Software, and distributed by GT Interactive beginning on October 30, 1995. ... Strife, published in 1996, is a computer game developed and published by now defunct Velocity that was a big leap forward from the standard Doom engine. ...

• Blood (1997)
• Star Wars: Dark Forces (1995)
• Descent (1995)
• Duke Nukem 3D (1996)
• Rise of the Triad (1994)
• Serious Sam (2001)

Blood is a PC game developed by Monolith Productions and distributed by GT Interactive in 1997, utilising the first Build engine from Ken Silverman to feature voxels. ... Star Wars: Dark Forces is a video game produced by the LucasArts Entertainment Company. ... Descent is a 3D first-person shooter computer game noted for popularizing the use of portal rendering technology and providing the player with six full degrees of freedom (often abbreviated 6DOF) to move and to look around. ... Duke Nukem 3D title Duke Nukem 3D is a first-person shooter developed by 3D Realms and released on January 29, 1996 by Apogee Software, featuring the adventures of Duke Nukem, loosely based on a character that had appeared in earlier platform games by the company : Duke Nukem and Duke... Rise of the Triad is a first person shooter computer game, first released on December 21, 1994 by Apogee Software. ... 1994 was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International year of the Family. ... Serious Sam is the title of a series of first-person shooters created by the Croatian company Croteam. ...

References

• Turner, Benjamin & Bowen, Kevin (December 11, 2003). Bringin' in the DOOM Clones (http://archive.gamespy.com/articles/december03/doom/clones/). GameSpy.
• Google Groups Usenet archive (http://groups-beta.google.com/)