Gloom


What is it?
The first successful FPS for the Amiga, 1995. This game is from Germany.
What computer or emulator will it run on?
An Amiga 1200 or 4000 (AGA) or CD32.
Similar Games
Alien Breed 3D, Nemac IV, The Hidden Below.

There is a certain irony in the fact that the first successful Doom clone for the Amiga (Gloom was released in the same year as, but before, Alien Breed 3D) came from Germany. Irony, because the German system of laws is all but friendly towards this genre. Justification of violence is considered a punishable offense; violent games or movies might also run afoul of the constitutional article that human dignity is sacrosanct; but what what might happen at the least, and what usually happens, is that violent games get "indicted": They are considered detrimental to adolescents, and while they still may be legally owned or sold, they must not be sold to minors or by mail order, displayed where minors could see them, or even advertised where minors might see the ad. Since courts have found that even a neutral review constitutes advertising, you are not even supposed to mention them in public. In the German version of Marc Saltzman's "Game Design: Secrets of the Sages", offending titles like Doom, Heretic, Quake or Duke Nukem 3D were replaced by random strings sharing only length and first letter with what they replaced. A CD with add-on levels for Doom was sold under the title Toom. This aversion to violence is not a post-WWII development, by the way: up to about 1910, boxing matches were illegal in Germany and therefore performed in secret, behind closed doors.

There's not much to say about the game itself. It is generally considered one of the best Doom clones on the Amiga. It had modem, null-modem, and split-screen multiplayer, with a horizontally split screen. And like the others, it could not hide the fact that an Amiga 1200 wasn't really made for this sort of game, but it was successful enough to warrant a few sequels.


Last modified 2007-08-31