I remember playing Doom at my horrible just-after-college job in the mid '90s. After my boss left for the day, I'd turn off the lights in my office, fire up the Mac version on my PowerMac 8500 tower, don some cheap headphones and start blasting away at extraterrestrial demons.
It speaks to how well the creators of Doom nailed the atmosphere of the game that I actually got a little creeped out as I played, staring at a VGA-resolution monitor while listening to the synth-rock tunes and monster roars through drug-store headphones, sitting in the comfort of a locked office with plenty of snacks.
See also: The 15 Best Free iPad Games
Doom made its debut 20 years ago, on Dec. 10, 1993, when id Software uploaded it to a "crowded BBS and FTP server" as Ars Technica describes. The birthday is commemorated perfectly by this YouTube video (Spoiler alert: It's violent ... cleverly).
There were "shooter" type video games before (most notably, Wolfenstein 3D), but Doom was by far the most influential, spawning plenty of imitators (hello, Duke Nuke 'Em) and several sequels — including a (horrible) movie starring the Rock. There's even an iOS version.
Plenty of gamers have tried to explain why Doom became so immensely popular. My theory, adapted from my friend and Bob the Angry Flower creator Stephen Notley (whose tricked-out PC gave me my first taste of Doom), is that it turns the idea of a nightmare on its head. Sure, it would be terrifying to suddenly find yourself surrounded by demons and other beasts, but what if you had a shotgun? Or a rocket launcher? Or some kind of futuristic rifle that can vaporize a bunch of stuff all at once?
However, Doom isn't just a nonstop cavalcade of violence like many of the zombie shooters of today. With each progressing level, you feel you're descending deeper into the game's virtual hellscape, and that something — something tougher and smarter than the growling demons you're fragging (a word the game popularized) — is working against you. After Doom, you couldn't do a shooter without a "boss."
So happy birthday, Doom. On behalf of gamers everywhere, thanks for the many hours of fun, guiltless slaughter as we blasted evil, low-res monsters to smithereens. Perhaps you even helped a few otherwise craven gamers feel confident and invincible in their real lives for a little while, bestowing a bit of virtual courage that gave them some direly needed confidence.
Then again, maybe we all just wasted a lot of time in the '90s.
Bonus: 5 Facts You Didn't Know About Video Games

Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.
Image: id Software