Bill Gates' Doom Video From 1995

Ant writes "ReelSplatter.com has a copy of the video showing Bill Gates, dressed in a black trench coat and carrying a shotgun, within id software's Doom. The downloadable 11 MB 3.25 minute Windows Media Video (WMV) file (Putfile has a streaming copy) was used to introduce Windows 95 and DirectX at the Microsoft Judgement Day event on October 30th, 1995. Note: The DOOM game map is episode 1, map 2."

GIR says...

[Sugar Moose]

Let's sing the Doom Song!

Doom doom doomy doom doom doomy doom...

Re:GIR says...

[Kazzahdrane]

Or perhaps more appropriately: "Why is his head so big? Why iiis his head sooo biiig?!"

Re:GIR says...

[CaptainFlyingToaster]

"Why is his head so big? Why iiis his head sooo biiig?!"

I just feel bad for his mother....

Re:GIR says...

[Kazzahdrane]

A true fan would no that Dib had no mother ;)

Re:GIR says...

[iced_773]

I remember reading a story about this [computerpoweruser.com] from one of the people on the DirectX 1.0 developer team.

Re:GIR says...

[Schemat1c]

Let's sing the Doom Song!

Doom doom doomy doom doom doomy doom...

Isn't is more like:

Doom doom dooma doom. Where gonna doomy doomy doom doom doom...

He'll be doing it again soon...

[Goalie_Ca]

He'll be doing it again soon with the co-launch of vista and duke nukem forever.

Re:He'll be doing it again soon...

[stupidfoo]

Ughhh... stop reminding me about DNF. I keep forgetting about it.

And any self respecting Slashdotter should not need to have been told what Doom level that was.

Re:He'll be doing it again soon...

[Zixia]

And any self respecting Slashdotter should not need to have been told what Doom level that was.

I have no respect for myself. In fact, I abuse myself daily, IYKWIM.

Motion to Replace Borg Bill with Shotgun Bill for

[Kawahee]

Place your support here!

Re:Motion to Replace Borg Bill with Shotgun Bill f

[Anonymous Coward]

Hmm, where did Gates go to school?

"Don't disturb me!"

Re:Motion to Replace Borg Bill with Shotgun Bill f

[Baikala]

I would second that motion but there are no dicernible features from the shoulders up, and with a full body pic it would be hard to undoubtely recognize god^z^z^zevil old Bill.

<I-know-you're-going-to-mod-me-down-confesion>I used to think Bill Gates was cool back then, with this video I remember why. (I know the whole video was Alex St. John's idea, but I don't picture Bill Gates allowing himself to participate in something as cool, fun and unconventional as this video in the present days)</I-kno

Re:Motion to Replace Borg Bill with Shotgun Bill f

[game kid]

It's kinda tough. He assimilated me with his Express Editions and Windows XP and the like, and with Microsoft putting proverbial bullet holes in competitors and patching security holes in said Windows...I'd go with a shotgun-toting Borg.

Oh noes!!

[Chrismith]

Call Jack Thompson -- obviously these violent games have had a detrimental effect on our corporate overlords. I hear that these days they're even throwing chairs around.

You've got to admit it...

[avalys]

You've got it to admit it, the man has charisma.

*cough* *chuckle* *splutter*

Re:You've got to admit it...

[C0rinthian]

No kidding [theonion.com]

I F%^#&^KING HATE DEMONS!!

[Hikaru79]

Personally, I can't wait for the "Steve Ballmer Edition" of this video. Now with extra obscenities and demon-throwing action!

Re:I F%^#&^KING HATE DEMONS!!

[ClamIAm]

Will it be a mod for Dungeon Master? Evil Genius? Call of Cthulhu (going insane)?

Re:I F%^#&^KING HATE DEMONS!!

[tsa]

Yeah, he has this amazing new weapon... :-)

One thing's for sure...

[MentalMooMan]

Either the person playing at the start of the video was using the arrow keys instead of a mouse, or he was really crap at doom. And he just stood there while bill stood right in the crosshairs! What's up with that!?

Re:One thing's for sure...

[Dixie Flatliner]

Keyboard /instead/ of a mouse?... Heh, I think you've got Doom confused with post-Thresh Quake.

Re:One thing's for sure...

[MentalMooMan]

Well, I was wondering about that slightly when I posted it, but I definitely remember playing Doom II with a mouse.

Re:One thing's for sure...

[DrSkwid]

Doom was mouse friendly,

heck, we even tried a joystick, even more useless than keys !

Re:One thing's for sure...

[ThatComputerGuy]

IIRC, Doom was the one that came with a note in the multiplayer docs, along the lines of "Use the mouse, this isn't single player anymore."

Re:One thing's for sure...

[Jamu]

And he just stood there while bill stood right in the crosshairs!

I guess he was waiting until he got the chaingun just outside; so he could shoot him with that.

Re:One thing's for sure...

[dasunt]

That bastard also doesn't seem to know about the soul sphere and chaingun/ammo hidden nearby.

DirectX and id???

[Midnight Warrior]

Since when was id a fan of DirectX, let alone Direct3D? (If this sentence doesn't make any sense, you didn't watch the video) An article [azillionmonkeys.com] from the time clearly show's id's lead engine developer, John Carmack in complete opposition to the Direct3D API. I haven't followed things after that, but let's assume the API hasn't gotten any simpler, especially with all the new shading specifications.

Re:DirectX and id???

[fredrikj]

Carmack wasn't a DirectX fan. In fact he wasn't interested in porting Doom to Windows at all - and thus Microsoft did it themselves.

Re:DirectX and id???

[dave1g]

they did it themselves??? proof please.

Re:DirectX and id???

[AlexMax2742]

I beleive the Doom95 frontend was done by Microsoft, and not by id. It was also bundled with a version of DirectX. Unfortuniatly, I can't find the credits of who ported it to back me up. I'll reply to this thread if I find any details.

Re:DirectX and id???

[AlexMax2742]

Found a source: http://doom.wikicities.com/wiki/Doom_95 [wikicities.com]

Hope that helps.

Re:DirectX and id???

[bigbigbison]

As the beginning of the video notes, the book, Masters of Doom, has the details. According to the book, Microsoft was trying to get people to write games for Win95 and not DOS so they tried to get id to write a version of Doom for Win95 and they wouldn't. They did let Microsoft write rewrite it though.

I'm pretty amazed this video has finally surfaced. It was yanked by Microsoft immediately after it was shown, so many assumed that the original copy had been destroyed. Ever since I read about this in Masters of Doom I've wanted to see this. Awesome find.

Re:DirectX and id???

[ClamIAm]

id still supports OpenGL. That's why we get OS X and Linux versions of their games without a 2 year delay.

Re:DirectX and id???

[BrynM]

It wasn't id that ported it [wikicities.com]. I remember salivating at the chance of playing Doom ][ under NT 3.51. Then Quake came out and changed everything (dual boot DOS to play). Ah, back when those tech baby steps were truly exciting.

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Bill didn't shoot

[BushCheney08]

You can tell that Bill didn't really shoot that dood that came onscreen at the 2 minute mark cos his ammo stays at 33. I suspect that Ballmer must've hit him from behind with a chair...

Re:Bill didn't shoot

[afish40]

Also worthy of note: his hand wasn't on the trigger.

Re:Bill didn't shoot

[Raseri]

You can tell that Bill didn't really shoot that dood that came onscreen at the 2 minute mark cos his ammo stays at 33. I suspect that Ballmer must've hit him from behind with a chair...

Looks like George Lucas is up to his old shenanigans...

Alpha Blending

[xwizbt]

Strangely, Bill fits in perfectly with all the demons and other mutants. I reckon it's the coat that does it.

Did anyone else notice...

[lurch84]

... that Bill Gates was using God-mode?

Conclude what ye will...

God mode

[W2k]

I thought it strange that his health didn't drop, but then I noticed, he's playing with IDDQD and IDFA. Cheater!

Btw, anyone who can remember the difference between IDFA and IDKFA gets a cookie.

Re:God mode

[StonedRat]

IDKFA = all weapons, ammo and KEYS
IDFA = all weapons and ammo.

now where's my dammed cookie?!

Re:God mode

[cyrax777]

idfa, full ammo no keys idkfa keys and full ammo.

Re:God mode

[Asmor]

K=keys

Re:God mode

[sonamchauhan]

... and the most fun was IDSPISPOPD -- it was 'no clipping' from what I recall.

Re:God mode

[Shaper_pmp]

Nah. Way more fun was IDCHOPPERS - Switches God mode on, gives you/selects the chainsaw and prints "Doesn't suck - GM" at the top of the screen.

Re:God mode

[sonamchauhan]

Hey, IDCHOPPERS isn't one I remember.

I'd normally go...
IDKFA
IDDQD
IDSPISPOPD

I remember getting these codes sometime around 1993 from (I think) Byte magazine.

Using these codes at the end of the game, (when you enter the 'dark portal' and are killed by monsters as your health automatically counts down), I was able to kill all the monsters and clip back into lit area where of course, there was nothing left to do. So it was neat as I actually 'won' the game.

Doom 1 was cutting edge, Doom 2 was squeezing the franc

Re:God mode

[DataPath]

I want a cookie!

IDKFA - Keys, Firearms, Ammo
IDFA - Firearms, Ammo

Re:Cleaning up the mess

[SnoopJeDi]

My question is: When are they going to clean up this *Windows* mess?!

As soon as they order some more Windex.

Bu-dum-tshh.

Re:"THE gaming platform for the future"

[Jarlsberg]

Well, for argument's sake, Win95 was the game platform the future - it was and Windows is still the premier gaming platform on the PC. Xbox runs an NT core, so it's still Windows all the way.

Ugh...

[RobTFirefly]

Worst PWAD ever.

prophetic?

[minus_273]

'Microsoft : who do you want to execute today"

Re:prophetic?

[Landshark17]

You want prophetic? How about a Doom player with a shotgun and a trenchcoat killing over a minor infraction?

wmv10?

[dave1212]

so it's encoded in WMV 10 I guess? It won't play on VLC or mplayer on OS X. that usually means it's using the newest WMV format. lame.

Re:wmv10?

[All_Star25]

I managed to play it in VLC 0.8.2. And according to the stream info, it's Windows Media Audio/Video 9.

Re:wmv10?

[Psykechan]

...and you are probably playing it through VLC on either a Windows or an x86 Linux system using a binary codec. There is no real working codec to play newer WMV files for PPC which would account for just about every Mac out there.

Most of the Linux users who would normally complain about an "incompatible" media format when WMVs are used remain silent because it doesn't affect them; they can play it fine.

Re:wmv10?

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, last time I checked, lame was an Mp3 encoder, not a wmv encoder...

Re:wmv10?

[BushCheney08]

When I come across WMV files that don't play in mplayer OS X or VLC, guess what I do? I open them in Windows Media Player for OS X [microsoft.com]. And it usually works (assuming my lowly ibook/600 can keep up). Shocking, isn't it?

Re:wmv10?

[dave1212]

I have a rule about having no Real or WMV software installed, they tend to have rather draconian EULAs and seem to install more files than they should need.

I guess I'll wait for a new VLC build.

suppose I could use my Virtual PC xp pro drive 'Hurting' and try it on there, I just prefer not to run it unless I really have to test something.

Re:wmv10?

[BushCheney08]

I completely understand the rationale behind your decision. Just so you know, to the best of my knowledge, WMP for OS X doesn't install anything else in the system (no comment on the EULA though). However, it is a crappy player and the only thing it's good for is playing the random odd WMV file that nothing else wants to.

Re:wmv10?

[Bustbang]

I'm surprised more people aren't using Flip4mac's quicktime codec.
http://www.flip4mac.com/wmv.htm [flip4mac.com]
You can play wmv files in quicktime as if you were on a pc using WMP classic.

I'm using a 6 year old dual 450mhz g4 and I'm getting 30 fps with 13 apps open.
I say it works much better than windows media player,mplayer or vlc.

Watch out, jocks.

[apflwr]

Bill Gates is in the Trenchcoat Mafia.

Re:Watch out, jocks.

[Guppy06]

Yeahhh... Somehow, I don't see Bill getting much flak in high school. He strikes me more as one of the student government/debate club people who came to school in khakis and collared shirts while everybody else was in jeans and a t-shirt.

Re:Watch out, jocks.

[Guppy06]

"Yeah, those kids didn't get *any* flak..."

They had peers, they had friends, they had extracurricular activites they felt they fit into, and they had something to look forward to after graduation.

Don't interrupt me!

[Peter Cooper]

I'd love to see The Matrix with Bill Gates as Neo.. "Don't interrupt me!".. I almost crapped my pants at that line.

Anyone have a different format?

[idonthack]

WMV != teh viewable

A torrent would be a good idea also...
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Made my day

[Cliff.Braun]

That was really, really funny. First off that bill sucks at Doom, secondly the whole premise of the video. Also, did anyone else start laughing when bill says, "don't interrupt me?"

trench coat...

[kisrael]

Huh, when did Trench Coats get associated with shotguns?
Besides the way that the latter can conceal the former.

Was it the Terminator movies?

I think you wouldn't see this presentation made post-Columbine...

Now all I need...

[slaker]

Now all I need is a new copy of the "The Cast of Friends Introduce Us to Windows 95" video...
No, seriously.

I didn't know who those people were in 1995. I only vaguely have an idea today. But I saw that video in 1995 and it was fucking hysterical, even setting aside the celebrity kitsch.