Randomness in Doom

Doom's source code is all online.  Someone posted a link to the RNG used, which is actually just returning a value from the same list of 256 numbers over and over in the same order:

unsigned char rndtable[256] = {
    0,   8, 109, 220, 222, 241, 149, 107,  75, 248, 254, 140,  16,  66 ,
    74,  21, 211,  47,  80, 242, 154,  27, 205, 128, 161,  89,  77,  36 ,
    95, 110,  85,  48, 212, 140, 211, 249,  22,  79, 200,  50,  28, 188 ,
    52, 140, 202, 120,  68, 145,  62,  70, 184, 190,  91, 197, 152, 224 ,
    149, 104,  25, 178, 252, 182, 202, 182, 141, 197,   4,  81, 181, 242 ,
    145,  42,  39, 227, 156, 198, 225, 193, 219,  93, 122, 175, 249,   0 ,
    175, 143,  70, 239,  46, 246, 163,  53, 163, 109, 168, 135,   2, 235 ,
    25,  92,  20, 145, 138,  77,  69, 166,  78, 176, 173, 212, 166, 113 ,
    94, 161,  41,  50, 239,  49, 111, 164,  70,  60,   2,  37, 171,  75 ,
    136, 156,  11,  56,  42, 146, 138, 229,  73, 146,  77,  61,  98, 196 ,
    135, 106,  63, 197, 195,  86,  96, 203, 113, 101, 170, 247, 181, 113 ,
    80, 250, 108,   7, 255, 237, 129, 226,  79, 107, 112, 166, 103, 241 ,
    24, 223, 239, 120, 198,  58,  60,  82, 128,   3, 184,  66, 143, 224 ,
    145, 224,  81, 206, 163,  45,  63,  90, 168, 114,  59,  33, 159,  95 ,
    28, 139, 123,  98, 125, 196,  15,  70, 194, 253,  54,  14, 109, 226 ,
    71,  17, 161,  93, 186,  87, 244, 138,  20,  52, 123, 251,  26,  36 ,
    17,  46,  52, 231, 232,  76,  31, 221,  84,  37, 216, 165, 212, 106 ,
    197, 242,  98,  43,  39, 175, 254, 145, 190,  84, 118, 222, 187, 136 ,
    120, 163, 236, 249
};

int rndindex = 0;
int prndindex = 0;

// Which one is deterministic?
int P_Random (void)
{
    prndindex = (prndindex+1)&0xff;
    return rndtable[prndindex];
}

int M_Random (void)
{
    rndindex = (rndindex+1)&0xff;
    return rndtable[rndindex];
}

void M_ClearRandom (void)
{
    rndindex = prndindex = 0;
}

There is an explanation of it here.  I find these kinds of hacks, used in 80s and 90s era games to save space and increase speed, interesting.

Here is a story of a guy that replaced all the values with the same number:

What does it play like? I tried two values, 0x00 and 0xFF. With either value, the screen "melt" effect that is used at the end of levels is replaced with a level vertical wipe: the randomness was used to offset each column. Monsters do not make different death noises at different times; only one is played for each category of monster. The bullet-based (hitscan) weapons have no spread at all: the shotgun becomes like a sniper rifle, and the chain-gun is likewise always true. You'd think this would make the super-shotgun a pretty lethal weapon, but it seems to have been nerfed: the spread pattern is integral to its function.

With 0x00, monsters never make their idle noises (breathing etc.) On the other hand, with 0xFF, they always do: so often, that each sample collides with the previous one, and you just get a sort-of monster drone. This is quite overwhelming with even a small pack of monsters.