About
Gloom is a 1995 Amiga computer game, notable as the first commercially released Amiga clone of the first-person shooter Doom. ZGloom is a from-scratch re-implementation of the Amiga FPS Gloom, including support for its Zombie Massacre content. It runs on Windows and Linux via SDL2, SDL2_mixer, and libXMP, but requires the original Gloom game files to run rather than shipping its own assets.
How it differs from the original
Its renderer is a custom implementation with its own quirks, including Z-fighting artifacts not present in the original, and it's currently missing the original's defender sub-game and has an incomplete HUD with infinite lives.
Getting started
You need the freely-released original Gloom game files first; download and unzip those, then place the ZGloom binary inside that same folder before running it. Custom in-game music can be added by dropping tracker modules into the sfxs folder and referencing them from the level script.
Known limitations
- rendering: Z-fighting artifacts present that do not exist in the original.
- audio: Sound is deafening on occasion; variable volume playback and priority system needed.
- gameplay: No defender sub-game implemented.
- compatibility: LibXMP's MED playback is not great on some tunes.
Media
Additional notes
- License
- The original Gloom source release only open-sourced its .s and .bb2 files, leaving the licensing of some baked-in graphics and lookup tables unclear; the author plans to avoid using the original title screen art as a result.