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I cleaned up my hard drive and found this picture.

Reference picture

The file is dated 1997, so the source must be older (obviously). It is probably related to the computer game Doom by id-Software. Somehow, that was the first thing that came to my mind after i saw the image for the first time after 16 years ;)

The monster looks similar to the Doom Cyberdemon, thats all i managed to figure out.

Cyberdemon

I don't have much hope that someone comes up with something, but i thought its at least worth a try. It may even be fan-made, but somehow the monster looks too "good" for that.

EDIT:
After looking at the picture again, I noticed something familiar about the background. Look at the picture below. Those are textures from the Doom game. Doesn't the third one look like the background? While this does not explain where the marine/monster comes from, it supports the fact that the picture really is Doom related and that it probably has been edited. Or maybe I am seeing things that aren't there ;)

enter image description here

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  • 1
    Pretty sure the Cyberdemon, and probably this monster, was based off of the classic Minotaur. So, this is probably less likely to be DOOM related than it is some movie spun from Greek mythology.
    – Iszi
    Apr 13 '13 at 18:33
  • @Iszi: That is very possible. I added some additional content that supports the theory that the image was edited to make it look Doom-like.
    – Rev
    Apr 13 '13 at 19:16
  • @Rev1.0 - You were indeed correct about the background :-)
    – Valorum
    Jun 21 '15 at 8:30
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I ran a Google image search on this picture, and ended up on the homepage of one Matthias "Matt" Weber, a German Doom fan, last updated so long ago that he feels the need to supply his CompuServe email address, and is proud of the specs of his gaming machine, a Pentium-133 with 16MB of RAM and a 14k4 modem (AWESOME!)

Our man Matt here has this image of yours on his page, and he hesitantly attributes it to the Doom movie:

That's it for computers and Doom and such. Now we come to other, less important things. For instance, cinema:

I expected more from Independence Day. But let's see what this next film has to offer.

enter image description here

Right. This is the famous boss from DooM, who just mauled a marine. Supposedly this picture comes from the "DooM film." Anyway, after Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat, it's about time for it, so I hope the film to one of the "best games ever" will also come to cinemas.

This is strange, because the Doom movie only came out in 2005 (IMDB), quite a few years after our Matt's homepage 1996 timestamp.

So, my final conclusion is that this image comes from some low-budget horror movie, and only has a coincidental resemblences to Doom's Cyberdemons. This resemblence, however, was enough for some Doom fan to put it up on his page, and perhaps it rolled onwards from there to you.

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  • The colouring on the still suggests that the film was made in the 60s or 70s.
    – Christi
    Apr 13 '13 at 16:31
  • Have a +1, good find. I tried Google Goggles on the image, but that did not yield any useful results. I thought Google image search was using the same mechanics. It would still be interesting to identify the original source (doom related or not). Maybe i will try to contact the guy from the homepage and ask where he got that image ;)
    – Rev
    Apr 13 '13 at 16:33
  • @Kevin: Your translation wasn't entirely accurate. He just states that, after there were already 2 movies for other video games, he hopes that there will also be a movie for "the best game ever" :) I hope its clear from my edit (English is not my native language).
    – Rev
    Apr 13 '13 at 18:41
  • 2
    Cool! His pages midi soundtrack still works on my modern smartphone
    – Doug T.
    Apr 13 '13 at 19:15
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    Here's to hoping that somewhere out there there's an unrleased 1996 Doom movie
    – CamelBlues
    Apr 14 '13 at 4:51
7

From the Itrunsdoom forum, we've got a little extra detail. The pictures were originally taken (by Art Data) to demonstrate what the FMV cut-scenes for the 3DO version of the game would look like.

When the game was cancelled, the images were cannibalised for publicity shots but never formally released.

You can see some high quality shots here;

enter image description here

enter image description here

enter image description here

And this twitter confirms that although these were shot as stills, no video was actually made

enter image description here

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  • Awesome! When I posted the question I would've never thought that it leads to something, considering the image is 15-20 years old. Oh, now I feel old as well ;) Its interesting how bad the quality of my picture is compared to the original. It was probably already converted back and fourth 10 times by the time I got it.
    – Rev
    Jun 22 '15 at 6:25
4

When I was a kid I had a video game magazine with this picture in it. The magazine was advertising the 3DO if anyone even remembers that. It was a video game system that didn't make it. Well they used the picture to advertise Doom being on the platform. I'd say there's a chance it might have been made just for the ad, or perhaps was intended for a potential commercial for the 3DO.

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