I believe that Doomguy, the protagonist of seminal FPS series Doom, may have a more whimsical reputation than he deserves. The culprit? His belly, which is readily visible in Don Punchatz’s cover art for the 1993 classic. Doomguy did not go into battle wearing a jaunty little cutoff tee, nor did he have a uniform purpose-stitched to display his impeccable abs, but I believe he may have left this impression on untold thousands (millions?) of gamers.
Whatever the in-universe explanation for the tummy window on Doomguy’s outfit, it has become a persistent feature of his design in both fan and official works. When his OG outfit is replicated in the HD era, you always see the abs: Doomguy’s classic skin in Quake Live has it, as does the equivalent skin in Doom Eternal
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This arresting fan art by user Dalia and Sam on Artstation takes it as inspiration for a full-on, early 2000s, low-rise midriff take on the reboot Doom Slayer armor. Even the brown paneling over the belly on the Doom Eternal Slayer armor is clearly evoking the tummy window
Dozens of us
Take a gander at this 2021 Doomworld forum thread on the subject. “His undershirt is ripped (presumably) exposing his six pack, right? Yeah, we all definitely realized that,” user Terraformer9x wrote in the introductory post.
“Wearing a belly shirt leaves Doomguy open for tickles,” quipped out_of_service further down the thread. Many commenters wondered how the exposed skin plays with the Martian atmosphere and sub-zero temperatures.
LastSpaceMarine took a moral stand against the tummy window being anything but a deliberate aspect of Doomguy’s outfit, in-universe. “I refuse to accept that the shirt is ripped,” they wrote in 2021. “As far as I’m concerned, it’s an intentional ab window. Doomguy just wanted to look hot while he kills demons.”
Watch On
I got on this beat via the 2007 mod, Classic Doom 3, a recreation of Doom 1 Episode 1, Knee Deep in the Dead, in Doom 3. YouTuber DarthVR recently uploaded a longplay of the project, to give you an idea of what it looks like. The mod begins with a heinously, deliciously amateur voice-acted cutscene setting the stage—let me tell you, never in my life have I been more amenable to Doom programmer John Carmack’s famous assertion that story in a game is equivalent to story in a porno.
Anyway, you can see Doomguy suit up in an id Tech 4 recreation of his classic outfit, and his tummy is out, matching Don Punchatz’s iconic artwork. I immediately assumed the author shared the same misapprehension I did for many years: That the Doomguy’s shirt was always like that, like a saucy little cutoff tee is the official uniform of the Union Aerospace Corporation (UAC)’s paramilitary wing.
“Casualties have been up since they instituted the hunky cheesecake uniform,” these far future jarheads might grumble to each other. Clearly, I am not a smart man.
The thought has since occurred to me that this was just a tongue-in-cheek visual allusion rather than a painstaking 3D recreation of Doomguy, but we press on. Before any action, before any demon might have had the chance to expose Doomguy’s belly to the world, this fanmade Doomguy was both sun’s out, guns out and hellspawn free, tummy for thee.
When I told my colleagues the horrible truth—that I’d long known there was solid evidence that Doomguy’s shirt had actually been torn in battle— I found out I was most definitely not alone in thinking he was just feelin’ himself for all those years.
“This is news to me, also,” wrote PCG senior editor Robin Valentine. “Could it be… Doomguy was never as slutty as I hoped?” News writer Lincoln Carpenter chimed in with: “Dude didn’t just want to show off his ab work?” It’s an astute observation: Doomguy has an incredible, some might say anabolic physique.
Whether Doomguy is natty or not is a question for another day (I think he’s juicing): I’m here to talk about his shirt (or lack thereof). To prove I’m not insane, I’ve embedded a close-up of my McFarlane Toys Doom Slayer (Classic Doomguy Skin) action figure above. You can clearly see frayed edges where the shirt was ripped, yet viewed from far away, it almost looks like a window to the abs—so perfectly does it frame them, it must have been tailored.
Window to the soul
To confirm this unsexy revelation, I got in touch with the man who would know best: John Romero, id Software co-founder, programmer, and designer. In his memoir, Doom Guy, Romero described the day a model was brought in to pose as reference for Punchatz—there was no mention of the shirt situation, though. I had to ask: Was the torn shirt a visual design priority for id, or an artistic flourish from Punchatz?
“As you can see from the Doom box cover,” Romero wrote, “Doomguy’s shirt was torn by demons. His armor is still there, but the shirt below is shredded. This was all Don’s idea. In the game you are fully clothed.”
That last part was a bit of a bombshell for me, and something that was brought up as a point of discussion in that old Doomworld thread. I’m sure I’d seen, but never really noticed, that the in-game Doomguy sprite had a fully intact shirt.
Another bit of evidence on Romero’s side is the 1996 Doom comic, in which Doomguy’s midriff remains chastely covered while he yells. “I’VE GOT A HANDFUL OF VERTEBRAE AND A HANDFUL OF MAD!”
Subsequent generations of game and fan artists turned not to Doomguy’s in-game model, but Don Punchatz’ art as a primary inspiration to bring Doomguy to life in different art styles or with modern graphics.
I can’t blame them—Punchatz’ art is iconic for a reason—but Doom’s cover shows a single moment in the Doomguy’s crusade, one where his shirt happened to get torn in a particularly playful and sexy way. Now that moment is part of his identity in perpetuity.
But let it be known: Doomguy did not show up to the Martian hellbreach dressed like he was going to utterly dominate a beach volleyball tournament, he showed up ready for business. I’m sorry if this news is a disappointment.
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