DOOMScroll, a Twitter bot that is slowly posting an entire playthrough of Ultimate DOOM frame-by-frame, is a fascinating subject for gamers to follow. The 1995 title serves as an updated edition of id Software's 1993 first-person shooter, coming complete with an additional episode and more challenging levels. The DOOM franchise has long been the subject of fan-made mods and strange tributes, with one gamer recently making DOOM playable with a rotary phone in place of a controller.
id Software's DOOM is considered by many to be the world's first true first-person shooter, with the demonic adventure paving the way for an extremely popular and successful gaming genre. The title's three-dimensional environments, varied weapon arsenal and horde of unique enemies all established core pillars of the modern first-person shooter. DOOM's shareware distribution method also played a huge role in the demonic franchise's success, giving gamers free access to the title's first episode. Even today id Software's beloved series continues to show dominance, with 2020's Doom Eternal delivering a more modernized rampage against the forces of Hell. Unique fan projects like Tweet2Doom, which made DOOM playable on Twitter, have also helped to keep the infernal shooter relevant in the modern day.
Similar to the Tweet2Doom project, Twitter account DOOMScroll is slowly posting an entire playthrough of Ultimate DOOM. As reported by Rock Paper Shotgun, the account posts one frame of the playthrough every hour, with the entire four-hour playthrough consisting of 15,770 frames total. The frames are being posted in reverse order, so that users quickly scrolling down on Twitter can experience the demonic slaughter in a stop-motion style. At the time of writing DOOMScroll had posted frame 15,542, meaning the account still has thousands of hours to go before it reaches zero. The original Ultimate DOOM playthrough used for the project was performed by Retro Game Spacko and posted to YouTube by LongplayArchive.
Fan projects like Tweet2Doom and DOOMScroll can resurrect Doom in an entirely new medium, and the intense shooter also has a long history of fan mods. These modifications range from simple additions, like new levels and weapons, to far more complex projects like a recent DOOM 2 NFT mod. The humorous fan creation maintains the retro title's first-person shooter gameplay, but it also puts a hilarious new spin on the game by replacing enemies with non-fungible tokens. The bizarre monkey art is intended for ownership, but the mod swaps out heavy weapons for a simple camera which is used to "steal" the simian artwork.
Doom is an endlessly iconic part of video game history, and gamers continue to pay tribute to the shooter in various different ways. DOOMScroll is creatively turning a full playthrough of Ultimate DOOM into a Twitter thread, so by the time the project ends gamers will be able to experience the entire game by scrolling. While a rumored DOOM and Fortnite crossover could bring Doomguy to new frontiers, DOOMScroll is already putting a unique twist on the beloved franchise.
Sources: Rock Paper Shotgun, DOOMScroll/Twitter, LongplayArchive/YouTube