The Original Doom Had Some Weird Sources for Sound Effects
Doom helped lay the foundation for decades of FPS games, rising to be one of the longest-running gaming franchises on the market. And while its protagonist Doom Guy is as much of an icon as his arsenal of weapons, it appears that the game is being brought to life by some pretty interesting sound effects, including one's that players may recognize from other places.
A new video by YouTube "decino" explores where all 107 sound effects in Doom come from, and as it turns out, most of them are stock sound effects that can be found in a variety of other games, cartoons, and so on. The video shows specific examples, like the sound of Doom's doors also being used in Courage the Cowardly Dog, the classic cartoon.
The unintentional crossovers between the various games, movies, and other forms of media is due to the use of Sound Idea's Sound Effect Library, a resource containing thousands of royalty-free sound effects, which appears to have been fairly popular. While many fans likely never noticed the crossovers, it is hard not to hear the similarities in the ones that decino shares throughout the video.
As fans likely expect, some of the sounds are mixtures of ones found in the library, like the sound of an imp dying layered with an explosion for larger demon's death. Others are a bit more strange. It isn't unusual for odd sound effects to be used for games, like old Xbox consoles being used for Halo. But Doom apparently takes this one step further, with effects like a washing machine switch being used for the game's wall switches.
There are, of course, numerous animal sounds scattered throughout the game, ranging from leopard sounds to lower, ambiguous guttural sounds. Audio is one of the aspects that can make a game, but is often under-appreciated by fans. Doom would be a racially different game if the shotgun were to sound any less punchy, and while the sound effects may be surprisingly generic, that doesn't make them any less iconic.
The Doom franchise is still kicking, with Doom Eternal slated to get new DLC soon, so it safe to say the sounds have had an effect on the game's longevity. Id Software is still a major player in game development, and with any luck, the studio will continue to create FPS experiences for years to come, especially those with cool sound effects.
Doom is available now.
Reviewed by Unknown
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August 23, 2020
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