Jamul
07-09-2001, 08:00 PM
No, not the band... when Doom was about to come out in 1992, people who were sick of hearing about it (since it didn't even exist yet) on the newsgroups made up a joke that if it had been called something longer than simply Doom, people wouldn't be able to post so much about it. They suggested "Smashing Pumpkins Into Small Piles Of Putrid Debris"... somebody else said that then people would just abbreviate it SPISPOPD. From there, tons of people got in on it, making up posts about the game like "how do I get past the demon in the refrigerator on level 18??", and it was all a big joke. So to take part, I wrote the game itself. Not nearly the technological masterpiece it was made out to be in the fictional discussion, but still, a silly game with the right name and contents. That was the original 10-level version, made in 48 hours, which is awfully hard to find, and I do not have a copy of it. The VERY original version even was missing a ladder on level 3, making it impossible to complete. Then after that, I slaved away for six months to turn it into the super cool 70some level version which is available on this site and probably doesn't work on anyone's computer.
The cheat code "IDSPISPOPD" in Doom was indeed based on this joke. It let you walk through walls.
So the whole thing wasn't even my idea, and it has nothing to do with my feelings towards pumpkins at all. But the character of Bouapha is based on someone I knew at the time. So is Rinley. There are thousands of other in-jokes built into the game as well, like when ReggaeBoy pops up and says "Toasty, Mon!"... that's a parody of Mortal Kombat 2... press down and enter when he appears to fight the dreaded pumpkin Smog in his own lair. And one level is laid out in the form of the letters "GHK" - those are the initials of someone from my dorm, who requested his presence be made visible in the game, since he drove me to the airport at the conclusion of the 10-level version (you'd know about that if you'd heard the ending to it - a very delightful sound file that was ACTUALLY recorded as I was rushing out the door to get to the airport... it says something to the effect of "Yay, I'm really glad you won, okay, I've gotta go to the airport now, bye!"). He's in the credits as "Transportation Engineer".
So it's all fun!! WHEEEEEEEEEEEE!
Mike Hommel
Marshmallow Head, Hamumu Software
http://www.hamumu.com
jamul@hamumu.com
The cheat code "IDSPISPOPD" in Doom was indeed based on this joke. It let you walk through walls.
So the whole thing wasn't even my idea, and it has nothing to do with my feelings towards pumpkins at all. But the character of Bouapha is based on someone I knew at the time. So is Rinley. There are thousands of other in-jokes built into the game as well, like when ReggaeBoy pops up and says "Toasty, Mon!"... that's a parody of Mortal Kombat 2... press down and enter when he appears to fight the dreaded pumpkin Smog in his own lair. And one level is laid out in the form of the letters "GHK" - those are the initials of someone from my dorm, who requested his presence be made visible in the game, since he drove me to the airport at the conclusion of the 10-level version (you'd know about that if you'd heard the ending to it - a very delightful sound file that was ACTUALLY recorded as I was rushing out the door to get to the airport... it says something to the effect of "Yay, I'm really glad you won, okay, I've gotta go to the airport now, bye!"). He's in the credits as "Transportation Engineer".
So it's all fun!! WHEEEEEEEEEEEE!
Mike Hommel
Marshmallow Head, Hamumu Software
http://www.hamumu.com
jamul@hamumu.com