Doom
From Homestar Runner Wiki
From the DVD commentary for alternate universe:
MATT CHAPMAN: Anybody that's developing portals right now, in the military or in science, needs to stop. 'Cause if video games have taught us anything, it's that a bunch of evil demons from Hell are gonna come out of it and kill us all.
Doom is a video game series centering around a space marine who fights hordes of demons and zombies to save Earth. The first game in the series is widely credited with defining and popularizing the first-person shooter genre, while gaining a notorious reputation for its graphic violence and hellish imagery. The Brothers Chaps have made several references in the Homestar Runner body of work to the series, especially the first two games and Cacodemons, the floating one-eyed demonic foes that appear in the game.
[edit] Appearances
- Peasant's Quest Movie Trailer — The ending snort made by Trogdor is from the Pinky monster.
- Email secret identity — "Initiate sbemail-refresh daemon" is a reference to "Init DOOM refresh daemon", a line of text output from the original game.
- Email alternate universe — Strong Bad remarks that his alternate universe portal could release Cacodemons.
- strongbad_email.exe Disc Five — If the viewer waits too long to select a toon, a Cacodemon appears, and Strong Bad comments on it. The text that appears after it is also a modified version of the DooM font.
- Jibblies 2 — Pom Pom dresses up as a Cacodemon for Halloween. When he gets the jibblies, the "mouth" of his Cacodemon costume pulses with electricity the same way the Cacodemon sprite in Doom is animated when using its electricity projectile attack.
- Email specially marked — "Blue Laser Blasts!" uses the DooM font, which is based off of the font used in Doom.
- Strong Bad Classics! (and its teaser) — Strong Bad changes the text to have the ocelot say, "You must find a husband by sunrise or Doom 2 bad guys will come out of my ears!" and draws a Mancubus, a Baron of Hell or Hell knight, and a Lost soul doing just that.
- Hell knights and Barons of Hell are differentiated by coloring, so it is unclear which one Strong Bad's colorless drawing is meant to depict.
- @StrongBadActual tweet (12 Feb 2020) — Strong Bad shared a GIF of an ASCII art "cackledemon" (which he clarified as his intentional mispronunciation of "Cacodemon").
- Disk 4 of 12 - FriendlyWare — Strong Bad complains the Killer Maze had no Med Packs or Ammo Clips collects and should have at least provided an ASCII Cacodemon as a reward.
- @StrongBadActual tweet (4 Oct 2021) — Strong Bad remarks that The Cheat's drawing of a Red Steckled Elbermung resembles the "pinky" Demon from Doom, and creates a pair of custom sprites for the beast.
- StrongBadActual's Twitch.tv bio reads "I'll initiate YOUR refresh daemon!!", again referencing "Init DOOM refresh daemon".
[edit] Doom WADs
The Brothers Chaps also make several references to .WAD files. An abbreviation for Where's All the Data?, these file packages are typically fanmade mods for Doom that include new levels, graphics, and other game data. WADs are portrayed as functioning with many various programs, although in reality they are only usable by the Doom engine.
- Email secret identity — Strong Bad checks his email by running "strongbad_email.wad".
- SBCG4AP Advertisement — Strong Bad runs a program called "strongbad3Dtotal.wad", a simple 3D game.
- @StrongBadActual tweet (4 Oct 2021) — Strong Bad suggests the Elbermung sprites could be used "for a custom .wad".