I've used the PSX music and Doom 64 sound effects in my Doomsday config for Doom 1 & 2 for the past decade.
The music compositions themselves for Doom 1 and 2 weren't horrible, but the windows midi synths are just complete ass. The
SNES versions and Bobby Prince's Roland synth MD2s actually sound much better, but not good enough to justify compiling them into a wad and playing with those. There are a bunch of fan reduxes out there, but the Classic Doom soundtrack is the only one I've ever heard that actually sounds like a proper "redbook audio" rendition of the original songs, with live recorded instruments for the guitars and drums, and
quality synths for the strings and effects. And unfortunately, the Classic Doom soundtrack only covers episode 1 of Doom 1.
By contrast, the PSX Doom soundtrack offers redbook quality music throughout Doom 1, 2, TNT and Plutonia on par with Doom 64. It might be lacking in melody, but it's got loads of atmosphere. If you ask me, it's more in-keeping with the original idea for Doom to do a serious scifi horror portrayal, rather than a GWAR concert. The GWAR take would be fun to revisit on occasion, except beyond Knee Deep in the Dead, all you get is Microsoft's crappy synth versions of GWAR.
As far as the sound effects, I don't know if there's any differences between the PSX and N64 versions, but in general the N64 versions are simultaneously so faithful yet so much higher in quality, that I don't know how you can dislike them. It's really hard to beat the boom-chick-chick of that single shottie.
As for
gamepads, the real problem is that their build quality is so inconsistent. The wireless Xbox 360 pad is basically the best analog stick gamepad out there, yet even brand new out of the box, you still need a deadzone of ~15% in Xpadder to keep your crosshair from drifting on its own, because the analog sticks don't spring back to center properly. A couple pc gamepads like the Belkin nostromo and Logitech Rumblepad have more consistent sticks, but since they're positioned like the Sony Dualshock, anyone over the age of 12 will have to cramp their hands and risk their thumbs colliding and blocking eachother when executing right strafe and left turn movements simultaneously. Moreover, all analog sticks degrade over time, so you keep needing a larger and larger deadzone to prevent drifting crosshairs, which results and increasingly less precision.
Basically unless you custom order an
industrial grade pad using frictionless hall effect thumbsticks intended for flying drone planes, you're stuck buying a new $50 gamepad every few years in order to keep top precision. All that being said, even with a slightly worn-in 360 pad, I can still score air rockets on level 80 CPMA bots, so it's not unplayable even for an ultra fast-paced precision twitch shooter.
In any case, for gaming on the couch, you are still better off with a
PS Move nav controller paired with a wireless mouse, the
Alpha Grip, or the
Razer Hydra.
