How To Play Classic DOOM On Linux With Doomsday Engine
Even to this day, DOOM remains one of the most important PC games of all time. It introduced the world to fun first-person shooters, fast-paced gameplay, and ingenious level design. Sadly, if you play Classic Doom on Linux, the experience isn’t all that great as the creator of the game largely neglects the platform and only offers aging solutions. Thankfully, Doomsday Engine exists.
Doomsday Engine a project to make playing old games like DOOM easier. Better still, it offers easy game enhancements like high resolution, V-SYNC, and more!
Install Doomsday Engine
Installing the Doomsday Engine under Linux is quite easy, as the developer has binary packages available on the website. To install the Doomsday Engine, open up a terminal and enter the commands that correspond with your operating system.
Ubuntu
Doomsday Engine supports Ubuntu users via a downloadable Debian package. To get this package, you’ll need to open up the terminal and use the wget tool to download it.
wget https://api.dengine.net/1/builds?dl=doomsday_2.0.3_amd64.deb
With the file downloaded, use the dpkg packaging tool to install it to Ubuntu.
sudo dpkg -i doomsday_2.0.3_amd64.deb
Having issues installing the package? You may have run into dependency issues. Luckily, this issue is easy to fix. In the terminal prompt, run the following:
sudo apt install -f
Launch the Doomsday Engine under Ubuntu by searching for “Doomsday 2” in the Gnome dashboard.
Debian
Like Ubuntu, Debian users looking to get the latest version of the Doomsday Engine must install the package from the website.
Install the Doomsday Engine by grabbing the package with wget, then install it on the system with dpkg.
wget https://api.dengine.net/1/builds?dl=doomsday_2.0.3_amd64.deb sudo dpkg -i doomsday_2.0.3_amd64.deb
Additionally, fix any dependency issues with:
sudo apt-get install -f
To run Doomsday Engine, search for “Doomsday 2” in the app menu on Debian.
Arch Linux
The Doomsday Engine developers don’t provide any instructions to Arch users for the package. Luckily, Arch fans who want the program can easily install it via the AUR.
Before downloading anything from the AUR, you’ll need to install the latest version of Git to Arch.
sudo pacman -S git
With Git working, it’s safe to download the latest snapshot of Doomsday Engine from the AUR.
git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/doomsday-bin.git cd doomsday-bin
At this point, the installation is ready to begin. Though, keep in mind that because Doomsday Engine depends on files from the AUR, the makepkg command may fail. In the event that this happens, you’ll need to fix the problem by manually installing all dependencies.
Generate and install Doomsday Engine on Arch Linux by running the makepkg command.
makepkg -si
Fedora
Fedora Linux users will have an easy time installing the Doomsday Engine, as an RPM file is available on the official website. Using the wget tool, download the package.
wget https://api.dengine.net/1/builds?dl=doomsday-2.0.3-1.x86_64.rpm
Install the Doomsday Engine RPM on Fedora via the DNF package manager:
sudo dnf install doomsday-2.0.3-1.x86_64.rpm -y
OpenSUSE
Installing the Doomsday Engine on OpenSUSE is a breeze thanks to the provided RPM file on the website. Follow the instructions below to get it working.
wget https://api.dengine.net/1/builds?dl=doomsday-2.0.3-1.x86_64.rpm sudo zypper in doomsday-2.0.3-1.x86_64.rpm
Generic Linux
Tthe developers of Doomsday Engine have made the source code available so the program can easily be built on any Linux distribution. Follow the steps below to build and install the Doomsday Engine on your operating system.
Step 1: install the required dependency files
-
Qt 5 (modules: Core, Network, Gui, OpenGLExtensions, Widgets)
-
Qt 5 X11Extras module (on Unix/X11)
- Git
- Cmake
Step 2: use the Git tool to download the source code to your Linux PC.
git clone --recursive https://github.com/skyjake/Doomsday-Engine
Step 3: create a new build directory in the source code.
mkdir Doomsday-Engine/build
Step 4: move the terminal from the Doomsday-Engine folder to the new build sub-folder.
cd Doomsday-Engine/build
Step 5: compile the code.
cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release ../doomsday
Step 6: install Doomsday Engine.
make make install
Set Up Doomsday Engine
With the engine installed, the hard work is over. The last part of the process is downloading the actual game. In the terminal, use the wget tool to download the latest Doom shareware files.
mkdir -p ~/WADS wget https://www.jbserver.com/downloads/games/doom/misc/shareware/doom1.wad.zip unzip doom1.wad.zip
Alternatively, if you’d rather play the commercial release of Doom, place the game files in the ~/WADS folder.
Play Classic Doom
Startup Doomsday Engine and load it up. When it finishes loading, click the “Add Folder” button next to the WADS section of the program.
Browse for ~/WADS and load the DOOM1.WAD file up.
Loading up the DOOM1.WAD file should automatically generate a playable DOOM game profile. To start DOOM, click the play button.
