After 27 years, 'Doom' and 'Doom 2' get widescreen support

Later this year, Doom and Doom 2 will turn 27 and 26 years old, respectively. Yet id Software still somehow found time while working on the new expansion for Doom: Eternal to update the two games (via Polygon). The update adds substantial enhancements across all the platforms where they're available — well, minus some of the more unusual places where you can play Doom.

If you plan to replay either game anytime soon, the improvement you'll likely appreciate the most is official support for widescreen resolutions. Id tweaked the Doom engine to render scenes in 16:9 without letterboxing. The studio also increased the field-of-view so you can see more to the side of where you're aiming. The title, intermission and ending screens have gotten the widescreen treatment as well, and so have various add-ons.

Speaking of mods, there's now official support for DeHackEd, a tool people have been using for years to modify the games. Another tweak adds an optional crosshair. According to id, enabling the feature can help some players who experience motion sickness when playing the games. There's also a new timer next to the minimap that's accurate down to the millisecond, which Doom's passionate speedrunning community will appreciate.

The iOS versions of Doom and Doom 2, in particular, got a lot of care and attention from id, with the studio adding new touchscreen controls, support for controllers and the option to play the game at 60 and 120 frames per second if you own a device that has a compatible refresh rate. Support for frame rates above 30 FPS is also available on Android and PC.

There are almost too many changes to summarize in a short news article, so make sure to read the full changelog if you're interested. And, no, you don’t need a Bethesda.net login to access the update. A patch like this is something that will keep people playing Doom and Doom 2 for many more years to come. It should also help those who weren’t around when the games were first released to experience a bit of video gaming history.