For me it's Doom II on DOS, played at my cousin's place for the first time after a childhood spent alongside Nintendo and adventure games from Sierra and LucasArts. At this point I had played Wolfenstein 3D briefly - but found it more funny than revolutionary. Doom II on the other hand was pure insanity. First-person action unlike anything I'd ever seen.

It was the total package - from the music, sound design, to the animation, and of course weapons. This was before we found out about IDDQD and IDKFA and other cheats - we simply spent hours finding all the right coloured keys, new weapons, and secret rooms full of demon slaying loot. This was the age of VGA too, with PC games getting decent sound and visuals, so from a pure tech perspective it looked incredible at the time. One of those "games can't get much better looking than this" moments.

It's great to see that Bethesda and id Software are celebrating the franchise in style.

A quarter century has passed since DOOM was released to the unsuspecting masses. More than two decades later the franchise has spawned multiple sequels, spin-off titles, films, comics, and cemented itself as part of the pop culture lexicon. Over the next year we’re celebrating 25 years of ripping and tearing. Twenty-five years of mods, gibs, guns, and the most passionate, unwavering, and ardent fan base this side of Phobos. Whether you cut your teeth in 1993 or if DOOM (2016) was your first trip to Hell, we’re asking all DOOM Slayers past, present, and future to unite in celebrating one of entertainment’s most iconic franchises. Welcome to the Year of DOOM.

They've even set up something called the Slayer's Club, which you can check out here. Which is offering an exclusive Zombie DOOM Slayer skin for DOOM Eternal, kicking off a year of Doom celebrations. Perhaps this means Eternal will be a holiday 2019 release.

And with that out of the way, feel free to share your first memories of Doom.

The first time I saw DOOM2 running on a 486 was a special moment. Up until then I had only played it on a 386. I didn't know it was possible to play DOOM that buttery smooth.

My first exposure to Doom was a shareware copy on the IT teachers computer in high school during a lunch period. I can't really remember when it was but I'd have to say 94 at some point as it was well before I got my first PC in 95 not long before Ultimate Doom came out. Pretty sure I've still got the box somewhere.

Doom I, I was about 18 at the time I think?

I had a friend who had a PC clone and it had it on it. I hijacked his PC for a few hours after I saw it, his Mum thought it was hilarious I refused to get off the thing like a dog with a bone.

I've got a cool story. My dad was doing some sort of contract work at Victoria Barracks for the Army near Paddington in Brisbane City. He took me to work one day when I was a little kid and showed me DOOM for the first time on one of the computers there. We both loved it. That would have been around 25 years ago.

Come to think of it, that's how I was first introduced to most games. The first one I remember him showing me was Space Invaders, on a computer at work. He used to take my brother and I to arcades all the time too, when we were kids.

Having just come from my Commodore 64 and AMiga 1200 days I jumped into the pc world with an outrageously fast Dx4/100 with 32mg of ram and had to learn this thing called Dos. But when I found DOOM I was forever hooked. Used to play ALL night EVERY night with a guy down at Wynum via 56k modem. Man did I have some awesome init strings for that Netcomm modem...she used to fly! :) played DOOM fine which was all I wanted.

We would play until like 3/4am in the morning and I'd get up go to work at 8/9am, which might be fine for many BUT when you're riding a huge Police Motorcycle it was only because I was so young and super fit I could stay alert. Coffee was my friend in those days. Then came the infamous QGL lans and Duke NUken and all the other games that DOOM spawned. Doom cost me a degree and was the beginning of my lifelong hardware addiction. And I'm ok with that. Gaming life was/is good. :)