I had almost forgotten about this…
When the first DOOM shareware was released on December 10th, 1993, I spent hours trying to download it from BBS’s. iD software had taken their “3D” engine tech to another level!
I had my trusty Intel 486 DX2 66Mhz machine primed with 4 megabytes of RAM, ready to rock and roll.
Since I am of similar age to John Romero (co-founder of iD, and iD’s lead designer at the time), I was super excited that this sort of game could even be done.
I played DOOM shareware tirelessly.
Then came the reports of motion sickness and nausea…
Its such an interesting parallel to today’s VR locomotion issues that I just had to mention it here.
As mentioned in the definitive guide to iD’s early years, “Masters Of Doom“, by David Kushner:
“But players didn’t need virtual reality goggles to feel immersed. In fact, the sense of immersion was so real that many began complaining of motion sickness.
Calls were coming in even at the Apogee office saying that people were throwing up while playing the game.”
The funny thing is, nowadays you don’t hear much about non-VR related motion sickness in gaming, so what’s going on here?
Anyway, I thought it was an interesting point and one that I had completely forgotten about until I re-read “Masters Of Doom”
I highly recommend this book if you are a gaming aficionado!
You can find it here!