Doom 64 (Nintendo 64)

Development Info Prototype Info Prerelease Info

Unused Enemies#

Green Marine / Player Bots#

The Marines in the title screen are actually enemies, and are referred as Player Bots in the code. There are two variants used in the title screen, but a third Green Marine variant goes unused. (Pictured in the center here) The Marines act just like any other monster and are hostile to the players, but the Cyan and Red Marine are not used outside of the title screen. The Red and Green ones will always gib no matter what.

If spawned in a custom map, the Green Marine will shoot burst hitscan shots similar to those used by the Zombieman. The Green Marine will fire six shots at once. It has no speed so it will also be immobile similar to the Cinematic Cyberdemon. Interestingly, there is a blue palette that exists for the Player Bots, but is never assigned to any Player Bot.

Unused Graphics#

Watch on YouTube

An odd texture that, unsurprisingly, doesn't appear during regular play. It automatically appears on walls that lack textures. Very rarely seen, it can be found when the player "breaks" the room-over-room effect, stumbling into a room inescapable without cheating. It's titled with a question mark in the game's internal WAD.

Unused Sounds#

SNDZSIT3#

SNDZDIE3#

Two sounds related to the Zombieman and Shotgun Guy enemies that go unused, because the game has a limit of at most 2 sets of sounds for enemies sighting the player and their death animation.

SNDRVACT#

SNDRVHIT#

Two sounds related to the Revenant enemy from Doom 2 that were most likely carried over from the PlayStation version of Doom, which Doom 64 is based on. One being the "action" sound Revenants chasing the player make, and the "punching" sound they make when their melee attack connects.

According to Tim Heydelaar, the monsters from Doom 2 that didn't make it into the game were cut due to storage constraints. Apparently, there were intentions to include at least the Revenant, since Randy Estrella has expressed his favoritism towards the enemy. Other sounds related to the Revenant are found within the ROM, but are given different names and uses. The swinging fist sound (originally DSSKESWG, renamed SNDDART in Doom 64) is reused as part of the dart traps found in some of the maps, and the Revenant fireball sound (DSSKEATK, named SNDTRACR in Doom 64) is used by the homing fireball traps, as well as Mother Demon's homing fireball attack.

Breakdown Secret#

In an interview with the website Doom Depot, level designer Tim Heydelaar claimed that there was an undiscovered secret in Level 20: Breakdown. While this secret has seemingly been removed from the final game, remnants of it still exist – in particular, several one-sided linedefs with no action and method of activation are flagged as hidden. The hidden flag is used for obscuring sector height differences and interactive lines in the game's automap, making them appear as normal one-sided lines, and its use is pointless in the case of these lines.

While these flagged lines may simply be a mistake, several are in the room with the red key and one is in the secret room with the BFG9000, locations Tim mentions in the interview. In addition to the flagged lines, macro 17 is intended to activate on level start, but lacks the flag required to do so. Macro 23 lowers the floor of a sector with tag 27, but no sector with this tag exists. There are also references to macros 24 and 25, which do not exist.

Heydelaar would later state that the secret was a love note that featured darts forming initials with a heart in-between them.

The secret can be seen in action in the evaluation prototype.

Debug Features#

Features Menu#

Enter the password ?TJL BDFW BFGV JVVB or beat secret MAP32: Hectic level, then pause during gameplay to access a features menu, which contains a level select, invulnerability, health, and weapon toggles, and an option to view the whole map.

If the game or console is restarted, you will need to re-enter the code or complete the MAP32: Hectic level again.

Leftover Debug Strings#

Stored in the ROM in the list of strings used for the various menus are strings:

DEBUG
TEXTURE TEST
WALL BLOCKING

MACRO PEEK
MUSIC TEST
WARP TO FUN

LOCK MONSTERS
SCREENSHOT

(They are separated by various used strings.)

These strings are all that is left of debug functionality that was to be part of the Features menu. You can re-activate these in the Features menu with the below GameShark code, however they do not have any functionality left.

Debug Crash Text#

If the game ever crashes in a certain way, these messages will appear on-screen and lock the game.

Unused Text#

Medikit Message#

This message apparently even appears in this game, and the way it works is the also the same: if the player picks up a medikit with less than 25 health, this should be displayed:

Picked up a medikit that you REALLY need!

As health is added before the check is made, the player's health is always greater than 26 when it checks which message to use. This message is eventually restored in the 2020 remaster of the game, as stated by Quasar.

Regional Differences#

US	Europe/Japan

US (max brightness)	Europe/Japan (max brightness)

The game's brightness had been readjusted for the European and Japanese releases with the slider for those being increased.

US/Europe	Japan

The blood spatter sprites have been recolored green in the Japanese version. The blood on the monster death sprites and various gore decorations is still red, however. The original red blood sprites are still present in the WAD and can be re-enabled through the use of codes.

The green blood sprites are also present in the European version, but are unused. They can also be enabled with codes.

In the US and European versions, waiting about 30 seconds while the player is dead will display some messages mocking the player. These messages are completely removed from the Japanese version.

Revisional Differences#

Two versions (1.0 and 1.1) of the US ROM exist. The 1.1 version contains two minor code changes.

• Quitting a game, changing the brightness on the main menu, then starting a new game no longer causes a crash.
• The screen position (changed by the "Center Display" option) is reset to default when resetting the console.

The 1.1 version also contains an unused copy of the European version's copyright screen (under the lump name "PLLEGAL"), but does not carry over the increased default brightness from the actual European ROM.

The lumps for the three copyright screens (named "USLEGAL", "PLLEGAL" and "JPLEGAL") are all present in both the European and Japanese versions, but the two extra ones in each are unused.