Oh yes. So I did a little research into this game and thought I'd share my findings. Doom is broken up into four episodes with nine levels each. The first episode was released as "freeware" by id Software to anyone who wanted it. This is the reason behind the game's massive penetration and in 1993, Doom was deemed "the number one cause of decreased productivity in businesses around the world". Seeing that it was pretty much the coolest game on the market, and the first game to bring online deathmatches to the mainstream, the title was definitely earned.
One of the other cool things about Doom was the fact that the developers allowed anyone access to their development tools - allowing anyone to create levels for Doom, or to create entirely new games based on the game's engine with the ability to share their creations online. Many amateur and professional games were developed using id's tools - games based on South Park, Aliens, and Pokemon were some of the fan creations, while Chex Quest - a professionally developed "advergame" was quite popular, garnering an underground fan base.
Chex Quest
As far as my experience with Doom, it started off fairly sour, until I adjusted my thinking to that of a early 90s PC gamer. For example, there are zero checkpoints within levels. You die, you are sent back to the beginning of the level and stripped of every gun and armor upgrade you acquired. But you can save anywhere at any time. So I simply had to force myself to save after every minor victory to make sure I didn't end up in frustration-ville. The other big brain retrain was the fact that you cannot look up or down. If an enemy is above or below you, you simply have to aim your X axis at him and the gun will automatically shift up or down to compensate. A minor, but important thing to remember.
Overall, I'm absolutely loving this game. I've never gotten as far as I am now (halfway through Episode 3), and I'm excited to see this thing through to the end. Hopefully you are too.
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