Doom Source Ports
A Doom source port is a source port of id Tech 1, the game engine used by the video game Doom. The term usually denotes a modification made by Doom fans, as opposed to any of the official Doom versions produced by id Software or affiliated companies.
The source code for the Doom engine was released to the public in 1997. Although Doom was originally created for MS-DOS, the original source release was for the subsequent Linux version. This was primarily due to use of a proprietary sound library in the DOS version. Since the source code had to be initially ported back to DOS, the term "source port" was used. Out of custom, this term has come to be used for all Doom source modifications, even those that are not technically ports to another platform.
The original purpose of source ports was cross-platform compatibility, but shortly after the release of the Doom source, programmers were correcting old, unaddressed Doom bugs and deficiencies in their own source ports, and later on added more source code to enhance game features and alter gameplay.
The source code was originally released under a proprietary license that prohibited commercial use and did not require programmers to provide the source code for the modifications they released in executable form. As a consequence of the source code for GLDoom, the first port to add OpenGL graphics to Doom, being lost in a hard disk crash, the code was re-released in 1999 under the GNU General Public License after requests from the community.
Read more about Doom Source Ports: Virtual Machine and Interpreted Versions
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