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RetroBIOS

PrBoom

PrBoom emulates Doom and Heretic. It reads 16 files, none of them required: it starts games without them.

About this profile
Detail Value
Type libretro
Classification Game engine
Source https://github.com/libretro/libretro-prboom
Upstream http://prboom.sourceforge.net/
Version v2.5.0, stated in libretro/libretro.c
Revision libretro/libretro-prboom@4849268e7342
Profiled 2026-10-23
Profile YAML, JSON
Cores prboom
Systems Doom, Heretic
Install this emulator's files

The installer finds your setup and its BIOS folder, then downloads only the files this emulator reads there and checks each one.

Open the Start menu. Type PowerShell and open it. Paste the line. Press Enter.

PowerShell
&([scriptblock]::Create((irm https://abdess.github.io/retrobios/i.ps1))) --emulator prboom
Technical notes

PrBoom is a Doom source port based on MBF (Marine's Best Friend), itself derived from Boom. The libretro port plays Doom, Doom II, Final Doom, FreeDoom, Heretic, and custom WADs/PWADs.

prboom.wad, the engine data WAD (font glyphs, palette, colormaps, sine/tangent tables, gamma tables, menu graphics), is compiled into the core from src/prboom_wad_data.h, 143312 bytes, the same bytes as the prboom.wad at the repository root (md5 72ae1b47820fcc93cc0df9c428d0face). D_DoomMainSetup adds it as an embedded WAD after the IWAD and never opens prboom.wad on disk (src/d_main.c:1449-1465).

Content is a .wad, .iwad, .pwad, .lmp, .m3u, .pk3, .ipk3 or .zip file (libretro/libretro.c:1029). An IWAD is passed as -iwad and needs nothing else (libretro/libretro.c:2621-2625). A PWAD with map markers, or a PK3, is paired with an IWAD of the matching generation searched next to the content, then in system/prboom/, then in system/ (find_iwad_for_kind, libretro/libretro.c:2202-2266, 2647-2693, 2733-2754). A PK3 also loads gzdoom.pk3, or else zdoom.pk3, from the same places before the mod (find_base_resource, libretro/libretro.c:2274-2305, 2756-2790). When no IWAD is paired, FindIWADFile tries the standard_iwads list through I_FindFile and the core stops with "IWAD not found" if none is found (src/d_main.c:146-158, src/d_main.c:1020-1038, src/d_main.c:1123-1124). File names are matched case-insensitively (libretro/libretro.c:787-836).

I_FindFile search order (libretro/libretro.c:4332-4413). A name that is absolute or contains a folder separator is first tried as given:

  1. WAD directory (same folder as the loaded content)
  2. system/prboom/ subdirectory
  3. system/ directory directly
  4. Parent folders of the WAD directory (recursive, if enabled)

A baseconfig is read from <content>.prboom.cfg beside the content, else prboom.cfg through I_FindFile (libretro/libretro.c:2594-2599, libretro/libretro.c:2811-2816).

Files

Section titled “Files”

16 files: 0 required, 16 optional.

By kind: 1 BIOS and 15 game data.

In this collection: 13 in repo, 2 missing and 1 unsourceable.

Optional

Section titled “Optional”
FileStatus

prboom.cfg

  • System: Doom
  • Passed as -baseconfig when no <content>.prboom.cfg sits beside the content.
  • Not collectable: user settings in PrBoom's config format, with no canonical contents (acknowledged gaps)
Source
unsourceable

Game data

Section titled “Game data”
FileStatus

doom.wad

  • System: Doom
  • Registered or Ultimate Doom. Paired with a Doom 1 PWAD.
Source
optional in repo game data

doomu.wad

Source
optional missing game data

freedoom1.wad

Source
optional in repo game data

freedoom.wad

Source
optional missing game data

doom1.wad

  • System: Doom
  • Shareware Doom.
Source
optional in repo game data

doom2.wad

  • System: Doom
  • Paired with a Doom II PWAD or a PK3, and tried first when the PWAD's maps are not recognised.
Source
optional in repo game data

doom2f.wad

  • System: Doom
  • French Doom II. The name selects the French language.
Source
optional in repo game data

plutonia.wad

Source
optional in repo game data

tnt.wad

Source
optional in repo game data

freedoom2.wad

Source
optional in repo game data

heretic.wad

  • System: Heretic
  • Paired only with a PWAD recognised as a Heretic add-on, never with a Doom one.
Source
optional in repo game data

heretic1.wad

  • System: Heretic
  • Shareware Heretic.
Source
optional in repo game data

blasphem.wad

  • System: Heretic
Source
optional in repo game data

gzdoom.pk3

  • System: Doom
  • Loaded before a PK3 mod so the stock ZDoom assets it names resolve.
Source
optional in repo game data

zdoom.pk3

  • System: Doom
  • Loaded before a PK3 mod when gzdoom.pk3 is not found.
Source
optional in repo game data

Next steps

Section titled “Next steps”
.

Maintained by Abdess on GitHub. Report a problem.

Packs from release v2026.10.10, .

MIT for the tooling and metadata. BIOS and firmware files are third-party system software, preserved for personal backup, archival and interoperability.