First level of Atari 8-bit port of VicDoom to be released

April 18, 2022 • Updated: Mar 08, 2025 - 01:31 AM

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Atari 8-bit computer users will soon be able to enjoy the first level of the port in development of «VicDoom» - a version of the classic first-person shooter originally made for the Commodore VIC-20.

"There will soon be an executable file with the option to play one level for now," says Polish Krzysztof "Saint" Święcicki, who asWe reported earlier in Ataritecaseeks to port to the Atari XL/XE series computers the game created by Steve "Kweepa" McCrea in late 2013.

The video shows us the level called "Russian Hangar", which includes music and sound effects corresponding to the original version of "Doom" (id Software, 1993) made in POKEY. In addition, there is finally a map that allows the player to visualize the "secrets" to be explored.

"I've added the ability to change weapons, sound effects on the overview board and the board itself. About 80% of the code has been rewritten, fixed or recompiled," Święcicki himself says on his YouTube channel.

According to information shared by Krzysztof "KAZ" Ziembikin the AtariOnline portal forum, "Saint" spent an entire month on this latest update - which consists of nearly 19,500 lines of code in ASM and C, which compiles to 32-bit resolution despite the limitations of the Atari processor.

Likewise, Tomasz "Tebe" Biela had previously posted another explanation from Święcicki with technical details of the development of the port. "As for the viewport, it is also interesting because the algorithm of «Doom» uses convex polygons to define sectors - the player is always inside a polygon and using invisible lines or doors he renders other sectors; so the viewport narrows as the foreground is generated."

"So the texturing speed itself doesn't matter much because here, apart from transparent objects, it just renders a line in the field of view - it uses the Z buffer for that; and if something at a certain position has been rendered, it ignores that spot when drawing the walls outside the sprites. A very confusing algorithm," he concluded.