If you grew up in the 1990s, when Id Software’s original Doom PC game was released, you might think we’d have not only flying cars and jetpacks by now, but interdimensional portals to hell, as well — but you’d be mistaken!
1993’s Doom is a seminal first person shooter that had a major hand in popularizing the genre. The story centers around a lone, gun-toting Marine who must defend Mars — and later, Earth — from an invasion of demons after a teleportation experiment gone wrong accidentally brings them to our realm. Despite a misconception that the game takes place in this very month — that isn’t true — according to John Romero, co-founder of Id and designer of Doom and Doom II.
“DOOM does not take place in March 2022. DOOM is timeless,” Romero wrote on Twitter while sharing a tweet that was propagating the rumor. “Somehow, the manual for the Super Nintendo DOOM had a date in it, but that date did not come from anyone at id.”
The Doom games certainly are timeless, that’s for sure. After the franchise was long dormant, following the release of 2004’s more horror-centric but still praised Doom 3, a highly acclaimed reboot rejuvenated the series in 2016, along with a celebrated 2020 follow-up, Doom Eternal.
Though Romero left Id to found his own company — Romero Games — and did not have a hand in developing the games past 1994’s Doom II, he did develop an unofficial fifth episode to the 1993 original, called Sigil. Doom‘s current publisher, Bethesda, later picked up the episode and added it as an official patch for the console ports of the retro game.
In addition, Romero released a new level for Doom II, released via his website, with 100% of the profits going toward humanitarian efforts for the people of Ukraine amid Russia’s invasion.
