Thoughts on a DOOM custom cab?

Giving it a go :)

Id recommend playing the campaign so you learn the guns and get some shooting practice but like most Doom games its way more fun multiplayer.

If you are a crappy shot you are going to die a ton so work on your aim etc.
 
Concerns over controls are valid and probably the biggest hurdle for me in the "design" phase. I wouldn't be implementing the new games (although the 2016 DOOM is great), so it would be Ultimate DOOM, DOOM II and Final Doom. Those games were meant to be played without being able to look up/down and having auto aim enabled, so that would make it easier to implement into an arcade style.

To get a control scheme that feels natural is tricky. I was thinking for movement have a 'WASD' shaped clump of buttons, and then set them up to where the left and right buttons are strafe, and up and down are just forward and back. Then have a button below that and to the right for the 'USE' key to mimic the Space Bar. Cycling through weapons and looking left and right would take some thinking on how to implement, and I'm going to research the ports of DOOM and DOOM II in order to see how the game's been implemented when the devs had less buttons to work with.

I found this online for the quake setup.. something similar would work. Not sure how easy to use or get used to it would be though.
 

Attachments

  • 36841_02_rare_quake_arcade_tournament_edition_on_ebay_1_of_20.jpg
    36841_02_rare_quake_arcade_tournament_edition_on_ebay_1_of_20.jpg
    34.8 KB · Views: 37
I found this online for the quake setup.. something similar would work. Not sure how easy to use or get used to it would be though.

I like how that looks, and for me personally it wouldn't be the worst transition from a mouse and a keyboard (of course I haven't actually used it). I would want it to be as accessible to other people as possible, so I would probably make the Use and Shoot buttons ambidextrous (2 buttons for the same action but one on the left and one on the right). For cycling weapons I was thinking having 2 buttons to mimic the scroll wheel (like how on the GBA port of DOOM you use the L and R buttons to cycle forward or back) either on the left side or right side of the control panel, I'm not sure
 
I like how that looks, and for me personally it wouldn't be the worst transition from a mouse and a keyboard (of course I haven't actually used it). I would want it to be as accessible to other people as possible, so I would probably make the Use and Shoot buttons ambidextrous. For cycling weapons I was thinking having 2 buttons to mimic the scroll wheel (like how on the GBA port of DOOM you use the L and R buttons to cycle forward or back) either on the left side or right side, I'm not sure

I still like the idea of a 2 way joystick on the left, and a 8 way flight type stick on the right :D

I think to make it worth it, you need to have a trigger to pull.
 
I still like the idea of a 2 way joystick on the left, and a 8 way flight type stick on the right :D

I think to make it worth it, you need to have a trigger to pull.

That's actually pretty dope, but I'd keep movement to buttons to mimic the keyboard, which I think is the most natural for most people. Having a 2 way Tron-style joystick, with the fire button being the trigger would be sick, but the only problem with that is I think you would lose the precision that a trackball gives
 
That's actually pretty dope, but I'd keep movement to buttons to mimic the keyboard, which I think is the most natural for most people. Having a 2 way Tron-style joystick, with the fire button being the trigger would be sick, but the only problem with that is I think you would lose the precision that a trackball gives

Agreed that it would cut down on playability using a flight stick. I would worry about using the thumb as the fire button with a trackball like in the quake cp photo. Seems like that might be a little clunky.
 
Agreed that it would cut down on playability using a flight stick. I would worry about using the thumb as the fire button with a trackball like in the quake cp photo. Seems like that might be a little clunky.

I don't think it would be as bad with DOOM since the trackball will be only moving your view left and right (only on the X plane). Idk if there's a better solution for that setup though... Maybe have the fire button be in the upper left and upper right to kinda recreate an ambidextrous mouse? You'd use your pointer finger as the fire button just like on a mouse.
 
And in order to make it comfortable I would need a cab with a large flat control panel so people have lots of room to rest their hands (like for Golden Tee or Silver Strike Bowling, not like a Dynamo CP where they're not very wide)
 
I don't think it would be as bad with DOOM since the trackball will be only moving your view left and right (only on the X plane). Idk if there's a better solution for that setup though... Maybe have the fire button be in the upper left and upper right to kinda recreate an ambidextrous mouse? You'd use your pointer finger as the fire button just like on a mouse.

I think the trackball setup could work, as long as it works with acceleration. I'll play around with my centipede trackball. Maybe using a smaller trackball for your thumb and having buttons for your fingers could be an interesting way to add more buttons but also have a good bit of precision. Since it's just x-axis, a roller like on Moon War or Major Havoc could be an interesting option.
 
needs some rocketjump: seta _rocketJump "cl_anglespeedkey 50000;+speed;+lookdown;wait;wait;+moveup;+attack;wait;wait;-lookdown;+lookup;wait;wait;-attack;-moveup;-speed;-lookup;cl_anglespeedkey 1.5"
 
I think the trackball setup could work, as long as it works with acceleration. I'll play around with my centipede trackball. Maybe using a smaller trackball for your thumb and having buttons for your fingers could be an interesting way to add more buttons but also have a good bit of precision. Since it's just x-axis, a roller like on Moon War or Major Havoc could be an interesting option.

Yeah I would get the trackball to mimic a mouse, so how far your view moves would be dependent on how softly or hard you move the trackball. A roller would be interesting, but the repro ones are pretty expensive, no? And I'm not sure if I could get that to interface with a computer in the same way as a trackball

needs some rocketjump: seta _rocketJump "cl_anglespeedkey 50000;+speed;+lookdown;wait;wait;+moveup;+attack;wait;wait;-lookdown;+lookup;wait;wait;-attack;-moveup;-speed;-lookup;cl_anglespeedkey 1.5"

Haha a dedicated rocket jump button!
 
No one believes me on this and I obviously can't prove it, but I swear to god my local mall had a doom arcade cabinet in the late nineties, around 1995-1998

It was this weird deal where you you had a sort of periscope faceplate you looked into and it was early stereoscopic 3D.

I want to say you used a flightstick that was attached to the cabinet. In retrospect it must have been some sort of prototype and it was time based so like a $1 bought you 3min or something.

The same mall had one of those 4D shuttlepod rides, it was a crazy place.
 
Last edited:
I love the old DOOM games and love arcade games... But they're way different beasts and while I bet it would look amazing, I'm not sure the game would be fun in that format.

I'm not sure how you'd deal with switching weapons (1-9 keys) for example. And for the authentic arcade experience, you'd want it locked to Nightmare difficulty.
 
I love the old DOOM games and love arcade games... But they're way different beasts and while I bet it would look amazing, I'm not sure the game would be fun in that format.

I'm not sure how you'd deal with switching weapons (1-9 keys) for example. And for the authentic arcade experience, you'd want it locked to Nightmare difficulty.

Addressed the switching weapons issue earlier
For cycling weapons I was thinking having 2 buttons to mimic the scroll wheel (like how on the GBA port of DOOM you use the L and R buttons to cycle forward or back) either on the left side or right side of the control panel, I'm not sure

And while I get that Nightmare difficulty is most analgous to arcade game difficulty, I'd probably just leave it up to the user's choice like how the default game is
 
Not saying anyone is hating, I'm just pointing out initially online haters told me Zelda would suck as an arcade format over and over again.....and that nobody would like it that way.

Turns out, pretty much everyone that's played it loves it. One dude at a show even said he'd beaten the game 3 dozen times and he liked playing it with joystick better....he was shaking he was so excited. (He also beat the game in 45 minutes right in front of me. Haha)

I think you'll be surprised....lots of fans for Doom...and they may enjoy experiencing a new spin on an old game. :)
 
Not saying anyone is hating, I'm just pointing out initially online haters told me Zelda would suck as an arcade format over and over again.....and that nobody would like it that way.

Turns out, pretty much everyone that's played it loves it. One dude at a show even said he'd beaten the game 3 dozen times and he liked playing it with joystick better....he was shaking he was so excited. (He also beat the game in 45 minutes right in front of me. Haha)

I think you'll be surprised....lots of fans for Doom...and they may enjoy experiencing a new spin on an old game. :)

I appreciate it, and I do welcome constructive criticism and critique, it will only help me improve my idea in the concept phase
 
So did anyone download the user made levels for Doom back in the day? I remember there being tons of user made levels, and I loved to try new ones.

That shit was so addictive.

:D
 
Back
Top Bottom