We often talk about Doom—the original 1993 shooter from the young upstarts at id Software—as one of the most influential videogames of all time. But the Washington Post, one of the country’s most highly-regarded papers of record, has elevated it to an even higher plateau: It has selected Doom as one of the 25 most influential works of American culture, representing the absolute pinnacle of its era.
The list, assembled to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the United States of America, covers a remarkable breadth, from Thomas Paine’s Common Sense to the Star Spangled Banner, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, the Battle Hymn of the Republic, Levi’s jeans, Mickey Mouse, and the recordings of legendary blues man Robert Johnson: One selection marking the highlight of each decade of America’s existence, bolstered by a handful of honorable mentions.
And there, for the decade of 1986-1995, is Doom—beating out heavyweight competition including Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club, Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing, The Simpsons, Seinfeld, and the MTV reality series The Real World.
“In December 1993, Id Software gave away part of its new videogame free over the internet. College networks buckled under the traffic, and bulletin boards lit up, as the game eventually was installed on more computers than Microsoft Windows 95 at the time,” Washington Post videogame critic Gene Park wrote.