Getting this to work on original hardware is a masterpiece, but it wasn't easy to set up.
Several versions of Doom were released back in the game’s heyday, though only one floppy version contained the hellish secrets of the lesser-known multi-monitor Doom mode. Having acquired Doom v1.1, presenter AkBKukU of the TechTangent Youtube channel has been messing around with some horrendously beige hardware and finally managed to get Doom running on not three, but four CRT monitors.
Man, is it a beautiful sight to behold.
After assessing the sorry state of four single-core Intel Pentium 4-powered machines, thankfully with only a few bulging capacitors on their motherboards, AkBKukU decided they were willing to risk powering them on for a Doom experiment. The Dark Lord commanded it, and so it shall be done.
Once he had all four up and running MS-DOS 6.22, AkBKukU had to do some networking wizardry to get each one working in tandem. The next step was to hunt down some LAN controller software, which proved awkward since those found on the Intel archives were impossible to unpack on the systems. Eventually AkBKukU discovered an Intel Pro/100 LAN adapter software download for DOS, “from Lenovo, of all places.”
Yet more hurdles came in the form of the “disgusting” floppy drives, which despite AkBKukU believing they had been properly cleaned, ended up gouging the network driver floppy disk they had made. From that point on they resolved to use only a GoTek floppy emulator to load any subsequent software.
(Image credit: Future)
Best CPU for gaming: The top chips from Intel and AMD
Best gaming motherboard: The right boards
Best graphics card: Your perfect pixel-pusher awaits
Best SSD for gaming: Get into the game ahead of the rest
“I’m not risking anything like my real Doom v1.1 disks in any of these disgusting floppy drives, even if I think I get them clean… because I really thought I had it clean there. So that ain’t happening.”
Once all the software was installed it was just a case of getting everything connected and zooming out on the two side monitors to hide the HUD. Three monitors astride, Doom looks just as brutal, and with a wider field of view the game must be that much easier. AkBKukU even added an extra machine and monitor so they could have the map up constantly while playing.
A true Slayer if ever there was one.
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