The Sega Saturn port of Doom was developed by Rage Software and distributed by GT Interactive in 1997. Like the PlayStation version (on which this port is based) it contains both Ultimate Doom and Doom II, but is a little disappointing in terms of performance and presentation.

Unfortunately Saturn Doom runs relatively slowly because the developers were prevented from using their own custom engine by John Carmack (because of “texture degradation”, which Carmack has since admitted was a mistake on his part), and they didn’t have enough time to properly optimise the software-rending Doom Engine on the Saturn before the game’s release. The knock-on effect of this is that control response times are slower. Couple that with slower monster reaction times, and faster player reaction times, and the game is relatively easy, as Doom ports go.

Doom on the Saturn also seems a bit lacklustre in terms of brightness and contrast. The game looks a bit over-dark to me and you can’t change the brightness or gamma settings in the options. It’s also annoying that you can’t reconfigure the controls once you’ve started a game (you must do it on the main menu screen), and the game also doesn’t remember the control changes you’ve made, so you have to re-do them every time you reset the console. There’s also a bug that I noticed that doesn’t seem to be documented elsewhere: monsters appearing in front of walls that they should be behind, which seems to happen when they’re coming around corners toward you.

Adding to the mess: the North American release of Saturn Doom doesn’t have a multiplayer component, but the European and Japanese releases do. Also: rumours about the Japanese release of Saturn Doom being more optimised, and therefore running faster than the Western releases, are not true and has been proven by technical comparison.

Like the Sega 32X and 3DO releases: the par times are missing from completion screens, and there are no “you are here” intermission screens.

That said: in spite of the notoriously slow frame rates Saturn Doom is still fun to play to some degree. Some Saturn owners may disagree, but I guess it depends on what you’re prepared to put up with play Doom on the console. I still enjoyed playing it, but then I’m not the kind of player who complains when games don’t run at 60 frames per second…

More: Doom on Wikipedia
More: Saturn Doom on fandom.com