

On the other hand, the title screen of The Ultimate Doom and the ending screen of Thy Flesh Consumed show it with a birdshead grip. The Doom II title screen and in-game third person sprite show it with a semi-grip stock. The appearance of the shotgun's stock is inconsistent depending on where it is shown.The alpha version of the player's in-vision display screens attributed it with 'DAM 30, RPS 20, MAX 99, RNG 50'. The shotgun model and animation were present, although the gun graphic had a muzzle brake. The shotgun was the earliest weapon to appear in Doom, dating from the February 1993 pre-release alpha of the game ( Doom 0.2).The images for the shotgun in Doom are of those of a toy shotgun called the "TootsieToy Dakota", manufactured by the Strombecker Corporation of America.The extra pieces of the shotgun sprites were finally cut off for v1.6. The whole sprites can only be viewed in a level or resource editor. As with many other weapons of Doom, the shotgun's early FPS view weapon sprites ( SHTG, v1.0) are not shown on the screen nearly in their entirety.If shells are the only plentiful ammo, the shotgun is less wasteful and fires faster if one needs to snipe or deal with lone humanoids scattered in mazes. However, these problems are less extreme than for the super shotgun.

The shotgun's main disadvantages are the slow rate of reloading (which can leave the player vulnerable to counterattacks, especially in tight corridors), the pellet spread which weakens it at long range and the fact that the gun is difficult to use against tougher enemies such as a baron of Hell for inexperienced players, especially in large numbers. For riot control, say large crowds of former humans, imps, demons, or several hell knights and cacodemons, it is better to use available weapons with greater firepower such as the plasma gun and rocket launcher for Doom II the super shotgun is perhaps the best alternative since there is no splash damage and because it draws from the plentiful shell ammo pool. The shotgun is considered a light-medium weapon, stronger than the fists or pistols, so it is generally good for dealing with small groups of humanoids, and the occasional tough monster scattered in mazes. This tactic works well when combined with circle strafing. Against tougher enemies, such as cacodemons, it is usually best to lunge forward and fire at short range, then dodge the enemy's attacks while reloading. It should usually kill an imp with a well-aimed blast or a demon in two, but this is often not the case. Packs of weaker enemies are particularly vulnerable to shotgun fire, and it is often possible to kill two or more zombiemen or shotgun guys with a single shot. In a pinch, the shotgun can be used for sniping, though the spread of the pellets makes it hard to do much damage at long range.

The shotgun packs a deadly punch at close range, and the grouping of the pellets is tight enough to make the weapon useful for medium-range attacks. The Doom 64 shotgun and its pickup sprite, as seen in MAP06: Alpha Quadrant.
