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Doom Guy: Life in First Person
MP3 CD Format The inspiring autobiography of video game designer and DOOM cocreator John Romero Doom Guy: Life in First Person is the long-awaited autobiography of gaming's original rock star and the cocreator of DOOM , Quake , and Wolfenstein --some of the most recognizable and important titles in video game history. Credited with the invention of the first-person shooter, a genre that continues to dominate the market today, he is gaming royalty. Told in remarkable detail, a byproduct of his hyperthymesia, Romero recounts his storied career--from his early days submitting Apple II code to computer magazines and sneaking computers out of the back door of his day job to do programming projects at night in his garage to a high-profile falling out with his id Software cofounder John Carmack, as well as his continued role in the gaming industry today as the managing director of Romero Games Ltd. His story is truly one of a self-made man, founding multiple companies after a childhood filled with violence and abuse drove him to video game design where he could create new worlds and places to escape to. An alcoholic father, a racist grandfather who did not approve of Romero's parents' mixed-race coupling, and a grandmother who once ran a brothel in Mexico combine for an illuminating story of his youth--a story that has never before been revealed. After years in the gaming spotlight, Romero is now telling his story--the whole story--in his own words.
18 pages, MP3 CD
First published July 18, 2023
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 212 reviews
March 31, 2023
Wolfenstein 3-D, one of the first PC games I remember playing, always meant a lot to me. It was super fun and quite innovative for the time. That game was developed by id Software, who’d continue to innovate with games like Doom and Quake. I never got into the latter two games due to their darkness and my lack of a powerful enough PC to run them. I do recognize their importance to games, though.
In these dark, post-COVID times, I gravitate towards non-fiction books about things I’m nostalgic for. When I heard that id Software co-founder John Romero had one on the way called Doom Guy: Life In First Person, I knew I had to read it. Romero is a controversial figure in the games industry due in part to the “rock star” persona fostered upon him by marketing people and the press. He successfully surmounts that persona in Doom Guy. Turns out, despite what the advertisements for his first post-id game said, he doesn’t want to make you “his bitch.” That was all marketing.
The book begins with Romero being asked to give a talk at a game conference. They wanted him to talk about something he hadn’t addressed before, so he discussed his childhood. His upbringing and the things that went on in his family were quite interesting. One relative ran a brothel, there was some drug dealing, and other wild stories I won’t give away here. Sometimes I feel like memoirs start too early in their subject’s life. Romero stays with his childhood enough to give you a good overview of where he came from before getting to game design. And he keeps a good balance of personal and professional stories. There’s quite a bit of tech talk, but he describes it in such a way that even non-professionals would understand.
Doom Guy: Life In First Person is a wonderfully entertaining account of an important and influential company and designer. Video Games would not be where they are today without Romero. I highly suggest giving it a read if you’re a fan of games or tech history.
I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley. It will be released in July.
In these dark, post-COVID times, I gravitate towards non-fiction books about things I’m nostalgic for. When I heard that id Software co-founder John Romero had one on the way called Doom Guy: Life In First Person, I knew I had to read it. Romero is a controversial figure in the games industry due in part to the “rock star” persona fostered upon him by marketing people and the press. He successfully surmounts that persona in Doom Guy. Turns out, despite what the advertisements for his first post-id game said, he doesn’t want to make you “his bitch.” That was all marketing.
The book begins with Romero being asked to give a talk at a game conference. They wanted him to talk about something he hadn’t addressed before, so he discussed his childhood. His upbringing and the things that went on in his family were quite interesting. One relative ran a brothel, there was some drug dealing, and other wild stories I won’t give away here. Sometimes I feel like memoirs start too early in their subject’s life. Romero stays with his childhood enough to give you a good overview of where he came from before getting to game design. And he keeps a good balance of personal and professional stories. There’s quite a bit of tech talk, but he describes it in such a way that even non-professionals would understand.
Doom Guy: Life In First Person is a wonderfully entertaining account of an important and influential company and designer. Video Games would not be where they are today without Romero. I highly suggest giving it a read if you’re a fan of games or tech history.
I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley. It will be released in July.
August 27, 2023
If you are a nerd and have nostalgia for DOOM, Wolf3D, Commander Keen, BBSes etc. then the first two thirds of this book are a mildly interesting read, albeit very poorly written. After Ion Storm it rapidly becomes incredibly dull, cos who wants to read about Gunman Taco Truck or whatever else nonsense dude has done since id? Not me!
August 28, 2023
Я каким-то образом прочитал три или четыре книги, рассказывающих историю ранней id Software, и все они, закончив с описанием невероятного взлета, теряют запал, переходя к вопросу "а что все же случилось потом?".
Эта, как первая имеющая характер мемуара (а не журналистского расследования) гораздо более сентиментальна, и предлагает личный closure истории.
После нее в принципе можно больше не читать ничего по теме, хорошо (а то сколько можно уже).
Эта, как первая имеющая характер мемуара (а не журналистского расследования) гораздо более сентиментальна, и предлагает личный closure истории.
После нее в принципе можно больше не читать ничего по теме, хорошо (а то сколько можно уже).
July 18, 2023
john, you're amazing, but you don't need to repeat everything thrice, we get you from the get-go.
other than that - unique POV of a unique person.
p.s. hyperthymesia sounds like my personal nightmare and I remember about 70% of my life clearly, 100% would be nightmare fuel
other than that - unique POV of a unique person.
p.s. hyperthymesia sounds like my personal nightmare and I remember about 70% of my life clearly, 100% would be nightmare fuel
September 25, 2023
How I read this: Free audiobook copy received through Libro.fm
I really loved this book. Romero himself is narrating it, which made it so much more personal to me (plus, he just has such a nice friendly voice, I tripped time and again over my mental math trying to figure out how he can sound so young, lol).
I have never played Doom myself, but Quake III was the first FPS I ever had a chance to try (although from what I understand, he wasn't a part of that specific one anymore), and of course I played the demo levels of Wolfenstein, who hasn't? (Okay, so I guess Quake III wasn't the first!)
Anyway, I'm not much of a gamer, but I've always been very interested in gaming history, I watch way more YouTube essays about it than I should, considering I'm not a gamer myself. This hit the spot, it was so interesting to read about how Doom, the game that they'll put on anything these days, was made (I think I saw a video where A RING runs Doom??! Like a ring that you put on your finger!)
John Romero's childhood is also no joke, and was very interesting to read about. I had my own opinions about how little his family and interpersonal relationships show up in his radar in his adult life, but also, you can just tell, Romero is just so deeply concentrated on his craft that his craft IS his life (or maybe he didn't want to talk too much about his personal life in this book.) Truly a one of a kind person, and it was very interesting to hear this story told from his own perspective.
I have also never really known any history of the makers of Doom, and how apparently rocky it became right before their breakup, but I can say that Romero is very nice about it in this book. There's no blaming or bashing or anything like that. Of course, it's years in the past for him, so it's easier to put things in perspective, but you know. It's nice to read a constructive account on something like that.
All in all, there IS a lot of talk about how this or that level was built, how long the engine took to make, and all sorts of technical topics like that. It might be a bit much for some people, but I don't know, it worked for me, and like I said - it just shows how much it is part of Romero's life, so I enjoyed reading it all the same.
I thank the publisher and libro.fm for giving me a free copy of the audiobook in exchange to my honest review. This has not affected my opinion.
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I really loved this book. Romero himself is narrating it, which made it so much more personal to me (plus, he just has such a nice friendly voice, I tripped time and again over my mental math trying to figure out how he can sound so young, lol).
I have never played Doom myself, but Quake III was the first FPS I ever had a chance to try (although from what I understand, he wasn't a part of that specific one anymore), and of course I played the demo levels of Wolfenstein, who hasn't? (Okay, so I guess Quake III wasn't the first!)
Anyway, I'm not much of a gamer, but I've always been very interested in gaming history, I watch way more YouTube essays about it than I should, considering I'm not a gamer myself. This hit the spot, it was so interesting to read about how Doom, the game that they'll put on anything these days, was made (I think I saw a video where A RING runs Doom??! Like a ring that you put on your finger!)
John Romero's childhood is also no joke, and was very interesting to read about. I had my own opinions about how little his family and interpersonal relationships show up in his radar in his adult life, but also, you can just tell, Romero is just so deeply concentrated on his craft that his craft IS his life (or maybe he didn't want to talk too much about his personal life in this book.) Truly a one of a kind person, and it was very interesting to hear this story told from his own perspective.
I have also never really known any history of the makers of Doom, and how apparently rocky it became right before their breakup, but I can say that Romero is very nice about it in this book. There's no blaming or bashing or anything like that. Of course, it's years in the past for him, so it's easier to put things in perspective, but you know. It's nice to read a constructive account on something like that.
All in all, there IS a lot of talk about how this or that level was built, how long the engine took to make, and all sorts of technical topics like that. It might be a bit much for some people, but I don't know, it worked for me, and like I said - it just shows how much it is part of Romero's life, so I enjoyed reading it all the same.
I thank the publisher and libro.fm for giving me a free copy of the audiobook in exchange to my honest review. This has not affected my opinion.
Book Blog | Bookstagram | Bookish Twitter
September 15, 2023
I’m definitely done with reading about Doom and id. Case closed
October 12, 2023
это очень хорошо
September 3, 2023
Incredible. I cried many times, some of which were very warranted. Others were just my stupid tired brain throwing out chemicals with reckless abandon.
Listened to this narrated by Romero himself. While I have tremendous respect for the arts of voice acting and narration, and it was abundantly clear that Romero was not of that profession, the vibe created by his occasional slight verbal stumbles or off-kilter cadence made this feel like an intimate conversation rather than a piece of media. I think that added a lot of value to the audiobook, and I no doubt enjoyed it more as a result.
Listened to this narrated by Romero himself. While I have tremendous respect for the arts of voice acting and narration, and it was abundantly clear that Romero was not of that profession, the vibe created by his occasional slight verbal stumbles or off-kilter cadence made this feel like an intimate conversation rather than a piece of media. I think that added a lot of value to the audiobook, and I no doubt enjoyed it more as a result.
September 12, 2023
Is most interesting when it's focused on what Romero actually thinks and feels but there's very little of that once it gets out of his childhood. At that point it becomes a book about id software's history and design. Some stuff blatantly feels like it's in there to "set the record straight" where it doesn't feel natural. The guy's a programmer and designer, not a writer, and I felt like he could have used some help to flesh this out more. Also spotted a few typos.
August 26, 2024
Dense, at times quite dark, but fascinating throughout. Not knowing a lot about DOOM, its creators or 80s/90s video games going into this read, I didn’t know to expect such a rollercoaster.
A bit hard to read at times, due to the content (the first part features a lot of alcoholism and domestic abuse; the last part a lot of search for meaning and chasing of the good ole’ days) as well as the poor editing (the already dense prose has a lot of reposition, typos, etc).
A bit hard to read at times, due to the content (the first part features a lot of alcoholism and domestic abuse; the last part a lot of search for meaning and chasing of the good ole’ days) as well as the poor editing (the already dense prose has a lot of reposition, typos, etc).
July 27, 2023
I've gained even more respect for Romero. It was also refreshing to get an objective view on him leaving ID and the aftermath, instead a story told by proxy.
May 20, 2024
Fuck Todd.
August 3, 2024
Legends relayed by a legend.
Doom Guy was the autobiography I expected and then some. I did the Audible version, so hearing the man himself tell his life story gave it an extra touch, I think. I will sight read it for a re-read at some point.
The history of id software and all the beloved franchises Romero worked on was fantastic, as well as the tale of Ion Storm. The number of callouts to beloved developers and games made reading this book feel like reliving a huge part of my childhood over again, similarly to the recent FPS documentary, which is likewise fantastic for those interested in such things.
There was depth here I was not expecting, and plenty of surprising things. It's a treasure trove for those with an interest.
An absolute must read for fans of first-person shooters, id software, Doom, Quake, etc.
Doom Guy was the autobiography I expected and then some. I did the Audible version, so hearing the man himself tell his life story gave it an extra touch, I think. I will sight read it for a re-read at some point.
The history of id software and all the beloved franchises Romero worked on was fantastic, as well as the tale of Ion Storm. The number of callouts to beloved developers and games made reading this book feel like reliving a huge part of my childhood over again, similarly to the recent FPS documentary, which is likewise fantastic for those interested in such things.
There was depth here I was not expecting, and plenty of surprising things. It's a treasure trove for those with an interest.
An absolute must read for fans of first-person shooters, id software, Doom, Quake, etc.
April 10, 2024
Doom Guy : Life in First Person (2023) by John Romero is Romero’s autobiography. Romero was one of the founders of id Software and one of the co-creators of Doom, Quake and thus the genre of first person shooters.
Romero grew up poor with a alcoholic and violent father and then step fathers. He overcame a lot and became fascinated with computers and managed to gain access to them and worked incredibly hard to learn how to program them. He really, really wanted to create games and managed to do so.
After getting jobs in the games industry and making a go of it he teamed up with John Carmack and they formed id Games, which would drastically change the computer gaming world. Pushing the limits of what was possible with a PC first with Commander Keen and then with the huge breakthrough of Doom.
The books section on id as they created Doom are really good. It’s a fine portrait of a small team of incredibly hard working and skilled people creating a cultural touch point. Doom Guy provides an excellent view into this and adds to what was in the also excellent book Masters of Doom.
The creation of Quake and the spit between Romero and Carmack is well described with a remarkable lack of anger by Romero. The chapters on Ion Storm are also really interesting.
Romero has led an incredible life and helped to create something that had a huge impact. Doom Guy is well worth a read for anyone interested in computer games.
Romero grew up poor with a alcoholic and violent father and then step fathers. He overcame a lot and became fascinated with computers and managed to gain access to them and worked incredibly hard to learn how to program them. He really, really wanted to create games and managed to do so.
After getting jobs in the games industry and making a go of it he teamed up with John Carmack and they formed id Games, which would drastically change the computer gaming world. Pushing the limits of what was possible with a PC first with Commander Keen and then with the huge breakthrough of Doom.
The books section on id as they created Doom are really good. It’s a fine portrait of a small team of incredibly hard working and skilled people creating a cultural touch point. Doom Guy provides an excellent view into this and adds to what was in the also excellent book Masters of Doom.
The creation of Quake and the spit between Romero and Carmack is well described with a remarkable lack of anger by Romero. The chapters on Ion Storm are also really interesting.
Romero has led an incredible life and helped to create something that had a huge impact. Doom Guy is well worth a read for anyone interested in computer games.
July 9, 2023
I ordered this book a year and a half ago and asked for a dedication to a family member and a signature and John Romero actually fulfilled my request! Doing that for all his fans is definitely NOT an easy thing I wanted to recognize that. This book is great John is a gaming and technology legend if you're interested in either of those things read this book!
September 9, 2024
When I run, I usually listen to something. For the long time it was audio books, then I gradually switched over to podcasts. Recently, I got slightly tired of listening to other people having conversations, so I decided to get back into books.
Biographies work well because it doesn't matter If I miss a sentence here and there if the jogging is especially strenuous or my mind just wander.
So I decided on this book. As a fellow game developer, listening to the life of an industry legend who helped shape games to what they are today was very interesting. Lot of the stories I had heard before, some of them were very technical, and some of them I had never heard before.
Towards the end of the book, I started zoning out more and more while listening. Something about it made it feel a bit... repetitious? Can't really put my finger on it.
Anyway, I would recommend it if you are either a gamedev or interested in the industry itself. Lots of interesting nuggets of wisdom in there.
I gave it just a three in a score. But I would like to give it a 3.5/5
Biographies work well because it doesn't matter If I miss a sentence here and there if the jogging is especially strenuous or my mind just wander.
So I decided on this book. As a fellow game developer, listening to the life of an industry legend who helped shape games to what they are today was very interesting. Lot of the stories I had heard before, some of them were very technical, and some of them I had never heard before.
Towards the end of the book, I started zoning out more and more while listening. Something about it made it feel a bit... repetitious? Can't really put my finger on it.
Anyway, I would recommend it if you are either a gamedev or interested in the industry itself. Lots of interesting nuggets of wisdom in there.
I gave it just a three in a score. But I would like to give it a 3.5/5
January 6, 2024
This book is exactly what I expected it to be - and I love that. Romero gives a very brief outline of his childhood, providing good setting and context. The rest of the book takes you step-by-step through his 30 years in game development, obviously with strong focus on Doom, Quake, Id Software…it is really interesting seeing his best games and pivotal game dev moments through his eyes. For anyone with no interest in games/computer programming then this won’t be for you, but as someone who has a basic knowledge and passing interest in coding and LOVES Romeros games this was a great read. You don’t need to be a serious computer nerd to appreciate. I watched some playthroughs of the various games on YouTube alongside reading this, which I recommend if you don’t know all of his games, but also just for feeling. So glad I read this!
May 15, 2024
John Romero has always been one of my game development heroes and was behind some of my favorite games. When I was fifteen, I devoured the book “Masters of Doom” and was thrilled to finally get a peek behind the curtain of game development of my favorite game at the time: Doom. This book mentions Masters of Doom several times, mostly to correct the record. Romero’s story is inspiring, uplifting, and hopeful. Despite his rough childhood, the rapid rise to fame, and his fall from gaming grace; he still has a tremendous optimism that shines through all of the pages of this book. His reflections on his career are invaluable to read and can be applied to anyone that pursues a creative space. His humility is striking. I listened to the Audible version of this book because it only felt right to hear his story told with his voice.
Now it’s time to make some Doom 1&2 maps…
Now it’s time to make some Doom 1&2 maps…
June 30, 2024
John Romero's life, highs and lows, as now told by John Romero.
Id Software's classic designer tells the story of his life in detail, from growing up in the desert, a magnetic relationship to videogames that couldn't be quelled, and building up his game development skills until he and a group of friends would go on to change history. He mentions his hyperthymesia as a boon to remember details with vivid sharpness and it comes across in the book (though this is still from the perspective of Romero) and creates a tactile journey that's easy to follow but also palpable in details.
Even if you've read other books like Masters of Doom, or other articles and write-ups on old Id Software and its founders, Doom Guy is a must read, with new insights, some rebuttals, and further humanising a talented team of people and how they got along, straight from someone who was there and remembers it all.
Id Software's classic designer tells the story of his life in detail, from growing up in the desert, a magnetic relationship to videogames that couldn't be quelled, and building up his game development skills until he and a group of friends would go on to change history. He mentions his hyperthymesia as a boon to remember details with vivid sharpness and it comes across in the book (though this is still from the perspective of Romero) and creates a tactile journey that's easy to follow but also palpable in details.
Even if you've read other books like Masters of Doom, or other articles and write-ups on old Id Software and its founders, Doom Guy is a must read, with new insights, some rebuttals, and further humanising a talented team of people and how they got along, straight from someone who was there and remembers it all.
March 1, 2024
By this account, Romero is an exceptionally hard-working and humble person. Reading through his life experiences, the ups and the downs, has been inspiring. I wish there was a little more coverage on the technical details for why Daikatana ended up the way it was at launch, but otherwise I'm satisfied with reading up on Romero's and his teams' significant impacts to the game industry.
June 3, 2024
This pretty much what you'd expect out of the book. It succeeds in being an autobiography with some extra juicy information, which actually isn't all that exciting. That's not a bad thing though. It was especially interesting to read how Romero grew up and his earlier years before Commander Keen and Doom as well has the years following Doom and Daikatana.
December 29, 2023
I was skeptical about it after Masters of Doom, but it was definitely worth it. The book is very positive, highlighting key issues that contributed to fallout of ID and highlighting Romero’s journey after Ion Storm. As a designer and person who grew up playing Doom and Quake - this book rocks!
August 3, 2024
Honestly this book was crazy inspiring and I’ve now started another new hobby of game development because why not.
Really appreciated Romero’s stories and humility in telling the highs and the lows.
Really appreciated Romero’s stories and humility in telling the highs and the lows.
January 11, 2024
A must read if you played DOOM back in the day and have any interest in development or gaming. A little bit rambley, and Romero doesn't want to spill all the goods on what happened at id, but I can respect that.
January 15, 2024
The perfect complement to Masters of Doom. Where that book gives a lot of the initial context, this book clarifies and expands on it so much. They really do go together as a set.
September 14, 2024
PERFECT!!! Now one of my top 3 books! Well done Romero 😎
August 30, 2023
I would strongly recommend this book to fans of ID and John Romero. The story of John’s life is told in a superbly reflective way - yes, there were ups and downs, but John has clearly taken the time to study the downs and has shown how to improve upon his (and his teams!) successes in light of them.
For those who love Doom, and further for those who do a little bit of mapping themselves, you’ll find within the book some really valuable golden rules of map design. But that’s not all. Romero’s insight has a much wider application to those who either work in the video game industry, or aspire to.
Thanks for releasing this book.
For those who love Doom, and further for those who do a little bit of mapping themselves, you’ll find within the book some really valuable golden rules of map design. But that’s not all. Romero’s insight has a much wider application to those who either work in the video game industry, or aspire to.
Thanks for releasing this book.
December 24, 2023
Enjoyed for the business adventure as much as the story behind the games and technology. For my friends that love Halt and Catch Fire, read this for Mutiny.
February 1, 2024
• Design Rule 1: The start of the level should present interesting choices or look impressive.
• Design Rule 2: The start of the level should fit its purpose. Do I want to teach the player or make them feel scared? If the former, there are no enemies. If the later, watch out.
• Design Rule 3: Reuse areas in the level as much as possible, as it reinforces the understanding of the space every time the player goes through an area again. For example, if players come back to a central hub before going out to a spoke, they will remember the hub the most.
• Design Rule 4: Provide contrast in every element of the design: light, sound, and action. This keeps a level fun and interesting and prevents it from falling into a monotonous loop of gameplay. We want the player to feel like they are on an exciting roller-coaster ride.
• Design Rule 5: Changes in wall or floor texture should be accompanied by a height change or border texture.
• Design Rule 6: Include at least four secrets in your level.
• Design Rule 7: When the player solves a piece of a puzzle, they should already know where to go next. An example would be that you have already tried to open the red door before you found the red keycard. A bad design would be to flip a switch, then see and hear nothing that shows you what you just did.
• Design Rule 8: If an area in your level looks like it could be made in an earlier tech, you have failed. Make the area more interesting and use more of the engine’s features to ensure that.
Rating: 5/5
“I told the audience all these things—how growing up in this family made me take nothing for granted, how my mom ended up finding happiness, how that happiness led to my first computer, and how that first computer led to the games everyone knew: Wolfenstein 3-D, DOOM, and Quake.
When the talk was done, I thanked everyone and stepped off the stage. The crowd of game developers applauded, and the chorus of “That wasn’t what I expected” commenced.”
“By the time I got to the slides about my family’s involvement in the drug trade, I could tell by the looks on people’s faces that this was not the story they expected to hear. Two first cousins were murdered. Two uncles ran drugs for a well-known cartel. My father and one uncle died from their addictions to everything from cocaine to alcohol. The rest of that generation managed to sober up before their addictions could claim them (my amazing Aunt Yoly miraculously escaped all of it).”
“I remember my dad walked in the front door one morning, hungry and looking for food. He’d been out all night at the bars. He stormed into the bedroom where my mother was still sleeping, grabbed her by the hair, and dragged her out of bed and down the hallway, her feet trailing behind her. She yelled his name, begging for him to stop. I sat paralyzed in front of the TV where I was watching Saturday-morning cartoons, unsure what to do. I can’t remember what happened, but it still pains me to this day to think of it. My father was incredibly strong. He didn’t just make his living fighting rock—he beat it. He battered the earth down in the mines and won.”
“When there are no toys, you make your own fun,” I told them.”
“I don’t remember my dad ever being violent with us at social events. It was always at home. He drank from the moment he got home from work: beer, beer, and more beer. When he got older, he drank from the moment he got up. At one point, I thought beer was the only thing adults drank.”
“I was and still am incredibly close to my mother. She kept us alive, kept us sane and safe, and got us through some difficult times, especially when she was having such difficulty herself.”
“No doubt part of his joy came from thinking He’s taking after me. I even remember him saying stuff like that, comparing my early drawings to his paintings. He clearly thought I was talented and was the first person to express a sense of pride at my skills.”
“The biggest event that occurred during third grade was also a kind of horror story, but it began as a mundane-sounding venture, almost like the beginning of a country song: My dad told my mom he was going to the store for cigarettes.
He got in the car and drove away.
He never came home.”
“The act of creating something from nothing is incredibly empowering. I think most kids discover this on some level. Drawing provides instant gratification—especially if you do it well.”
“Of course, TV was as compelling as Peanuts. I grew up with Sesame Street, New Zoo Revue, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, and The Electric Company. Like most of my generation, I also imbibed a steady diet of Saturday-morning cartoons—with Scooby-Doo, Tarzan, and live-action characters like Electra Woman and Dyna Girl. I also soaked up animation reruns after school—the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series featuring Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd, and so many others. These shorts exploded with gags, crazy voices, absurd plots, and soaring music. It was joyful, anarchic entertainment to me. Little did I realize how these elements would shape my creative future.”
“One of the games, Hunt the Wumpus, involved going into caves to look for a monster. A question appeared on the screen, and the player chose the direction of their search. It wasn’t a graphical game. Everything was left to the player’s imagination.”
“I think it is likely that my thirst to absorb everything about BASIC propelled the onset of my hyperthymesia, or made me and others aware of it. I was obsessed with retaining everything I learned, and so I compulsively repeated the things in my mind. There was no internet to look things up. There were precious few books, and I didn’t have the money to buy them anyway. So, necessity was the mother of retention. I took notes, I read whatever handouts and books people had in the lab, and I tried diligently to remember everything I encountered. Absolutely everything.”
“I put the first quarter in the slot and began what I can only describe as a joyous, spontaneous mind-meld between me and the game as I entered the blinking, blipping digital maze. If you’ve played Pac-Man, you know this feeling, particularly if you encountered it in the 1980s. It was the thing everyone was talking about. Pac-Man is a game of virtual tag where you get three lives as a chomping yellow icon that races around a maze lined with “Pac-Dots,” chomping the dots and other goodies (fruits, a bell and a key), while ghosts chase you. Any contact with the ghosts—Blinky (red), Pinky (pink), Inky (blue), and Clyde (orange)—and you lost one of your lives. It was exhilarating. Everything about the Pac-Man experience was different and just flat-out better than other arcade games. Its innovation was a revelation to me. Musicians sometimes describe a piece of music that changed them. This was the game that changed me.”
“My stepfather and I had a difficult relationship, as readers have no doubt gathered. However, he also had a significant positive influence on my life. He took us in, took care of us, gave me lectures that I hated but that also somehow sunk in, and ultimately recognized and enabled a talent he knew I had. There are tens of thousands of kids out there whose parents ignore their desire to code or to make games or insist they pursue fields that are more traditional. Getting that Apple II+ changed my life.”
“Games were still not part of the equation for him, but they were the endgame for me. Every day after school, I was programming games one after another. I remember thinking, “I want to do this every day for the rest of my life.” I was finished going outside.”
“With Christmas 1982 approaching, I asked my parents for two books. Assembly Lines: The Book by Roger Wagner was a how-to bible. The other book, Apple Graphics and Arcade Game Design by Jeffrey Stanton, was about making arcade games in Assembly. My parents still didn’t “get it,” but they had become less damning about my passion and were still hopeful that I’d move on to developing “useful” software. On December 25, the books were under the tree. I was elated.”
“I finished my version of Crazy Climber, but I was such a novice that I accidentally deleted it—my first Apple II+ game in history vanished into the ether!”
“That visit was inspiring, not least because it showed my parents were warming even more to my zest for computers. A year later, I devised a program that claimed to take your pulse when you touched the space bar. It was a prank program, obviously, written in two lines for Uncle Louie’s Perpetual Two-Liner Contest. I mailed the game from England as an entry to the contest, and Bert included it on a 1983 release called Silicon Salad. It was my first published program.”
“I started to make game after game after game. With each completed project, I put the code and a disk in a letter and submitted my work to programming magazines like the Apple-only Nibble and inCider. The first few months, I was rewarded with nothing but rejections, but I was determined, and eventually inCider bought my maze game Scout Search for $100. In it, players take the role of a Scoutmaster charged with gathering their lost scouts before a rampaging grizzly bear finds them. I was incredibly proud, and it fed my confidence. I was a professional programmer and game designer. Nobody could take that away from me.”
“Being surrounded by scientists day in and day out changed his perspective and educated him. Even though he didn’t have a day of college in him, he was a naturally curious man who liked to learn and absorbed whatever was happening around him.”
“Steve Meuse went first. “So, you’re here to do porting between the Apple II and the Commodore 64. Can you tell us about the similarities between the two computers?”
Where to even start? I didn’t want to risk leaving anything out, so I started at the beginning.
“They are 8-bit computers that have 64K of RAM and a ROM bank that controls all the functions of the computer. There are special memory locations that control hardware specific to both computers. The Commodore has a 6510 CPU and the Apple II has a 6502 CPU, which means they both have the same instruction set, but the Commodore has an 8-bit bidirectional I/O port on the back.”
No one stopped me, and so I kept going.”
“The next day, I went out and bought a book called Mapping the Commodore 64. I consumed the book. In two days, I felt I understood the entire machine—the operating system, its memory capability, the architecture, everything.”
“Over the course of my life, I have bonded with programmers, including some of the most legendary figures in games and computer design, from Steve Wozniak to Bill Budge to Nasir Gebelli and others. However, on that first meeting, Carmack and I instantly connected on multiple levels because we shared a deep knowledge base and passion that creates instant bonds; we understood each other and the significance of our respective work, and we admired each other’s abilities. We spoke a language that, while rooted in normal, everyday English, was unique. We saw a world of possibility in games, and we knew we had the knowledge and drive to master it. We saw that in each other. It’s hard to describe how it felt. Imagine caring deeply about something, so deeply that you feel compelled to master it. Imagine no one around you gets it—not your family, not your partner, not your friends. Not really. Imagine meeting someone else just like you for the first time. That’s what it felt like when we met each other.”
“We didn’t do this because we had to. We did this because we wanted to. If you’ve ever stayed up far too late because you were playing a game, bingeing a series, or reading a book, code had the exact same effect on us. Learning more was its own reward.”
“I knew right then that we were going to make groundbreaking games. We were going to be the team to follow. Like Wozniak. Like Nasir. Like Budge. Like my game dev heroes. We were going to build our own game company!”
“Change whatever is needed,” we told him, “but get levels done.”
By this point, my own level design style had become codified. What started as an experiment in April was now a philosophy, and one I shared with Sandy. I believed in these design rules: [see list at top]"
“Kevin was learning new technology to create the 3D models we would eventually get into the engine. He cut out the model-making middleman we used for DOOM, Gregor Punchatz, by creating models digitally on our new Silicon Graphics Indigo workstation and using its 3D modeling program, Alias Wavefront. Many people go to college for four years to grasp what Kevin was about to teach himself. His goal? To design 3D models in Wavefront, then use Deluxe Paint II to create the textures to cover his models. Putting textures on the 3D models was the new frontier. Because they would be attached to 3D objects, the textures needed to fit the models like a shirt fits a human.* This process is known as “skinning.”
“While I wish it had not been as rocky as it was, I am grateful to everyone who was there, however briefly, and to those who stuck with it as long as they did. I’m also grateful to the fans who send me emails, sometimes apologetically, like they’re admitting to a crime, “I actually liked Daikatana.” I am sure they also like it more now that fan-made patches fixed the AI and other issues. I’m grateful for the lessons I learned, including the hard ones. If I had to sum it all up as a business lesson, this is it:
Don’t let problems magnify; deal with issues as soon as they arise. Problems always magnify over time.
Don’t hype what you don’t have.
Never insult your fans, even in jest.
Trust your gut instinct. If you think something is wrong, there’s probably a reason, even if it’s not obvious. (Though in the case of the Bitch ad, it was obvious).
Make sure people are treated well; games do not make themselves.
Focus on the fun; games do not design themselves.
Surround yourself with good people and give them what they need to make something great.
Find a way to support someone, like a video game publisher, who wants to make something else great, even if that something else is without you.
Vet your founders because you will face highs, lows, and challenges together.
Fail gracefully. Failure is a part of games, a part of life, and a part of success. Accept your flaws, reload your save and try again.”
“The response was through the roof. Sales rolled in. Critics lauded the game. Here’s one I especially like from Computer Games Magazine:
Satan, your game has arrived. It spits up blood and pisses vinegar. It sprouts horns from its head like the proud minion of evil that it is. It shoots lightning bolts, for cripes’ sake. It’s a game of pure evil, and even purer entertainment. It’s also the best action game on the planet.”
“Together, we founded the company that was to become Gazillion Entertainment. While there were multiple opportunities in the space, what attracted me to Gazillion was its focus.”
“Gunman Taco Truck,” he said.
“Yes!” I laughed at the sound of it and the possibilities it brought to my imagination.
We spent an entire Saturday working on code, getting a taco truck up on the screen, getting the truck moving, and mounting a gun to its roof. That night, as Brenda and I were hanging out, Donovan came bounding into our room.
“Mommy, Mommy. I know what the game is about.”
Like a proud game-dev parent, Brenda grabbed her phone, told him to wait, and started recording.
“You’re this Mexican gunslinger who runs a taco truck,” he began. “You’re trying to get through the wasteland to kill all the mutant animals, and once you do that, you finally get to the resisting safe bases. Every time you get to a resisting safe base, you get more money for selling tacos!”
“So you go to the bases and you serve tacos with your truck?” I asked.
“Yes. Randomly generated. There’s just … infinity, so it’s an endless game.”
I wanted to make sure I had it right. The kid had a solid core loop.”
“Failure is a part of games: Innovation is not certain, and sometimes you are not going to hit the mark. Failing means you’re trying and taking chances. The biggest lessons I’ve learned come from having tried and failed. Some of those lessons you know about, and others were fixed before they ever saw the light of day. Irish writer Samuel Beckett got it: “Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.” Don’t be afraid of failure. It’s a risk that’s necessary to innovate.”
“Resilience: Saved games are there for a reason. Game developers expect you to take a shot now and again. In life and especially in game dev, it’s no different. Get up and do it again. That said, if whatever you’re doing is not going according to plan, if it feels like you’re taking one too many knocks on the chin, leave and find a better place or start another game.”
“Execution is everything: Success is not defined by an idea. It is determined by your ability to execute on that idea. Surround yourself with good people who know when to compliment you and when to give you a critique.”
“Give credit where it is due: Thank you for reading my book and thank you so much for playing my games.”
“I hope my games have brought you a little bit of the same joy that you have given me. Emag eht niw uoy.”
• Design Rule 2: The start of the level should fit its purpose. Do I want to teach the player or make them feel scared? If the former, there are no enemies. If the later, watch out.
• Design Rule 3: Reuse areas in the level as much as possible, as it reinforces the understanding of the space every time the player goes through an area again. For example, if players come back to a central hub before going out to a spoke, they will remember the hub the most.
• Design Rule 4: Provide contrast in every element of the design: light, sound, and action. This keeps a level fun and interesting and prevents it from falling into a monotonous loop of gameplay. We want the player to feel like they are on an exciting roller-coaster ride.
• Design Rule 5: Changes in wall or floor texture should be accompanied by a height change or border texture.
• Design Rule 6: Include at least four secrets in your level.
• Design Rule 7: When the player solves a piece of a puzzle, they should already know where to go next. An example would be that you have already tried to open the red door before you found the red keycard. A bad design would be to flip a switch, then see and hear nothing that shows you what you just did.
• Design Rule 8: If an area in your level looks like it could be made in an earlier tech, you have failed. Make the area more interesting and use more of the engine’s features to ensure that.
Rating: 5/5
“I told the audience all these things—how growing up in this family made me take nothing for granted, how my mom ended up finding happiness, how that happiness led to my first computer, and how that first computer led to the games everyone knew: Wolfenstein 3-D, DOOM, and Quake.
When the talk was done, I thanked everyone and stepped off the stage. The crowd of game developers applauded, and the chorus of “That wasn’t what I expected” commenced.”
“By the time I got to the slides about my family’s involvement in the drug trade, I could tell by the looks on people’s faces that this was not the story they expected to hear. Two first cousins were murdered. Two uncles ran drugs for a well-known cartel. My father and one uncle died from their addictions to everything from cocaine to alcohol. The rest of that generation managed to sober up before their addictions could claim them (my amazing Aunt Yoly miraculously escaped all of it).”
“I remember my dad walked in the front door one morning, hungry and looking for food. He’d been out all night at the bars. He stormed into the bedroom where my mother was still sleeping, grabbed her by the hair, and dragged her out of bed and down the hallway, her feet trailing behind her. She yelled his name, begging for him to stop. I sat paralyzed in front of the TV where I was watching Saturday-morning cartoons, unsure what to do. I can’t remember what happened, but it still pains me to this day to think of it. My father was incredibly strong. He didn’t just make his living fighting rock—he beat it. He battered the earth down in the mines and won.”
“When there are no toys, you make your own fun,” I told them.”
“I don’t remember my dad ever being violent with us at social events. It was always at home. He drank from the moment he got home from work: beer, beer, and more beer. When he got older, he drank from the moment he got up. At one point, I thought beer was the only thing adults drank.”
“I was and still am incredibly close to my mother. She kept us alive, kept us sane and safe, and got us through some difficult times, especially when she was having such difficulty herself.”
“No doubt part of his joy came from thinking He’s taking after me. I even remember him saying stuff like that, comparing my early drawings to his paintings. He clearly thought I was talented and was the first person to express a sense of pride at my skills.”
“The biggest event that occurred during third grade was also a kind of horror story, but it began as a mundane-sounding venture, almost like the beginning of a country song: My dad told my mom he was going to the store for cigarettes.
He got in the car and drove away.
He never came home.”
“The act of creating something from nothing is incredibly empowering. I think most kids discover this on some level. Drawing provides instant gratification—especially if you do it well.”
“Of course, TV was as compelling as Peanuts. I grew up with Sesame Street, New Zoo Revue, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, and The Electric Company. Like most of my generation, I also imbibed a steady diet of Saturday-morning cartoons—with Scooby-Doo, Tarzan, and live-action characters like Electra Woman and Dyna Girl. I also soaked up animation reruns after school—the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series featuring Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd, and so many others. These shorts exploded with gags, crazy voices, absurd plots, and soaring music. It was joyful, anarchic entertainment to me. Little did I realize how these elements would shape my creative future.”
“One of the games, Hunt the Wumpus, involved going into caves to look for a monster. A question appeared on the screen, and the player chose the direction of their search. It wasn’t a graphical game. Everything was left to the player’s imagination.”
“I think it is likely that my thirst to absorb everything about BASIC propelled the onset of my hyperthymesia, or made me and others aware of it. I was obsessed with retaining everything I learned, and so I compulsively repeated the things in my mind. There was no internet to look things up. There were precious few books, and I didn’t have the money to buy them anyway. So, necessity was the mother of retention. I took notes, I read whatever handouts and books people had in the lab, and I tried diligently to remember everything I encountered. Absolutely everything.”
“I put the first quarter in the slot and began what I can only describe as a joyous, spontaneous mind-meld between me and the game as I entered the blinking, blipping digital maze. If you’ve played Pac-Man, you know this feeling, particularly if you encountered it in the 1980s. It was the thing everyone was talking about. Pac-Man is a game of virtual tag where you get three lives as a chomping yellow icon that races around a maze lined with “Pac-Dots,” chomping the dots and other goodies (fruits, a bell and a key), while ghosts chase you. Any contact with the ghosts—Blinky (red), Pinky (pink), Inky (blue), and Clyde (orange)—and you lost one of your lives. It was exhilarating. Everything about the Pac-Man experience was different and just flat-out better than other arcade games. Its innovation was a revelation to me. Musicians sometimes describe a piece of music that changed them. This was the game that changed me.”
“My stepfather and I had a difficult relationship, as readers have no doubt gathered. However, he also had a significant positive influence on my life. He took us in, took care of us, gave me lectures that I hated but that also somehow sunk in, and ultimately recognized and enabled a talent he knew I had. There are tens of thousands of kids out there whose parents ignore their desire to code or to make games or insist they pursue fields that are more traditional. Getting that Apple II+ changed my life.”
“Games were still not part of the equation for him, but they were the endgame for me. Every day after school, I was programming games one after another. I remember thinking, “I want to do this every day for the rest of my life.” I was finished going outside.”
“With Christmas 1982 approaching, I asked my parents for two books. Assembly Lines: The Book by Roger Wagner was a how-to bible. The other book, Apple Graphics and Arcade Game Design by Jeffrey Stanton, was about making arcade games in Assembly. My parents still didn’t “get it,” but they had become less damning about my passion and were still hopeful that I’d move on to developing “useful” software. On December 25, the books were under the tree. I was elated.”
“I finished my version of Crazy Climber, but I was such a novice that I accidentally deleted it—my first Apple II+ game in history vanished into the ether!”
“That visit was inspiring, not least because it showed my parents were warming even more to my zest for computers. A year later, I devised a program that claimed to take your pulse when you touched the space bar. It was a prank program, obviously, written in two lines for Uncle Louie’s Perpetual Two-Liner Contest. I mailed the game from England as an entry to the contest, and Bert included it on a 1983 release called Silicon Salad. It was my first published program.”
“I started to make game after game after game. With each completed project, I put the code and a disk in a letter and submitted my work to programming magazines like the Apple-only Nibble and inCider. The first few months, I was rewarded with nothing but rejections, but I was determined, and eventually inCider bought my maze game Scout Search for $100. In it, players take the role of a Scoutmaster charged with gathering their lost scouts before a rampaging grizzly bear finds them. I was incredibly proud, and it fed my confidence. I was a professional programmer and game designer. Nobody could take that away from me.”
“Being surrounded by scientists day in and day out changed his perspective and educated him. Even though he didn’t have a day of college in him, he was a naturally curious man who liked to learn and absorbed whatever was happening around him.”
“Steve Meuse went first. “So, you’re here to do porting between the Apple II and the Commodore 64. Can you tell us about the similarities between the two computers?”
Where to even start? I didn’t want to risk leaving anything out, so I started at the beginning.
“They are 8-bit computers that have 64K of RAM and a ROM bank that controls all the functions of the computer. There are special memory locations that control hardware specific to both computers. The Commodore has a 6510 CPU and the Apple II has a 6502 CPU, which means they both have the same instruction set, but the Commodore has an 8-bit bidirectional I/O port on the back.”
No one stopped me, and so I kept going.”
“The next day, I went out and bought a book called Mapping the Commodore 64. I consumed the book. In two days, I felt I understood the entire machine—the operating system, its memory capability, the architecture, everything.”
“Over the course of my life, I have bonded with programmers, including some of the most legendary figures in games and computer design, from Steve Wozniak to Bill Budge to Nasir Gebelli and others. However, on that first meeting, Carmack and I instantly connected on multiple levels because we shared a deep knowledge base and passion that creates instant bonds; we understood each other and the significance of our respective work, and we admired each other’s abilities. We spoke a language that, while rooted in normal, everyday English, was unique. We saw a world of possibility in games, and we knew we had the knowledge and drive to master it. We saw that in each other. It’s hard to describe how it felt. Imagine caring deeply about something, so deeply that you feel compelled to master it. Imagine no one around you gets it—not your family, not your partner, not your friends. Not really. Imagine meeting someone else just like you for the first time. That’s what it felt like when we met each other.”
“We didn’t do this because we had to. We did this because we wanted to. If you’ve ever stayed up far too late because you were playing a game, bingeing a series, or reading a book, code had the exact same effect on us. Learning more was its own reward.”
“I knew right then that we were going to make groundbreaking games. We were going to be the team to follow. Like Wozniak. Like Nasir. Like Budge. Like my game dev heroes. We were going to build our own game company!”
“Change whatever is needed,” we told him, “but get levels done.”
By this point, my own level design style had become codified. What started as an experiment in April was now a philosophy, and one I shared with Sandy. I believed in these design rules: [see list at top]"
“Kevin was learning new technology to create the 3D models we would eventually get into the engine. He cut out the model-making middleman we used for DOOM, Gregor Punchatz, by creating models digitally on our new Silicon Graphics Indigo workstation and using its 3D modeling program, Alias Wavefront. Many people go to college for four years to grasp what Kevin was about to teach himself. His goal? To design 3D models in Wavefront, then use Deluxe Paint II to create the textures to cover his models. Putting textures on the 3D models was the new frontier. Because they would be attached to 3D objects, the textures needed to fit the models like a shirt fits a human.* This process is known as “skinning.”
“While I wish it had not been as rocky as it was, I am grateful to everyone who was there, however briefly, and to those who stuck with it as long as they did. I’m also grateful to the fans who send me emails, sometimes apologetically, like they’re admitting to a crime, “I actually liked Daikatana.” I am sure they also like it more now that fan-made patches fixed the AI and other issues. I’m grateful for the lessons I learned, including the hard ones. If I had to sum it all up as a business lesson, this is it:
Don’t let problems magnify; deal with issues as soon as they arise. Problems always magnify over time.
Don’t hype what you don’t have.
Never insult your fans, even in jest.
Trust your gut instinct. If you think something is wrong, there’s probably a reason, even if it’s not obvious. (Though in the case of the Bitch ad, it was obvious).
Make sure people are treated well; games do not make themselves.
Focus on the fun; games do not design themselves.
Surround yourself with good people and give them what they need to make something great.
Find a way to support someone, like a video game publisher, who wants to make something else great, even if that something else is without you.
Vet your founders because you will face highs, lows, and challenges together.
Fail gracefully. Failure is a part of games, a part of life, and a part of success. Accept your flaws, reload your save and try again.”
“The response was through the roof. Sales rolled in. Critics lauded the game. Here’s one I especially like from Computer Games Magazine:
Satan, your game has arrived. It spits up blood and pisses vinegar. It sprouts horns from its head like the proud minion of evil that it is. It shoots lightning bolts, for cripes’ sake. It’s a game of pure evil, and even purer entertainment. It’s also the best action game on the planet.”
“Together, we founded the company that was to become Gazillion Entertainment. While there were multiple opportunities in the space, what attracted me to Gazillion was its focus.”
“Gunman Taco Truck,” he said.
“Yes!” I laughed at the sound of it and the possibilities it brought to my imagination.
We spent an entire Saturday working on code, getting a taco truck up on the screen, getting the truck moving, and mounting a gun to its roof. That night, as Brenda and I were hanging out, Donovan came bounding into our room.
“Mommy, Mommy. I know what the game is about.”
Like a proud game-dev parent, Brenda grabbed her phone, told him to wait, and started recording.
“You’re this Mexican gunslinger who runs a taco truck,” he began. “You’re trying to get through the wasteland to kill all the mutant animals, and once you do that, you finally get to the resisting safe bases. Every time you get to a resisting safe base, you get more money for selling tacos!”
“So you go to the bases and you serve tacos with your truck?” I asked.
“Yes. Randomly generated. There’s just … infinity, so it’s an endless game.”
I wanted to make sure I had it right. The kid had a solid core loop.”
“Failure is a part of games: Innovation is not certain, and sometimes you are not going to hit the mark. Failing means you’re trying and taking chances. The biggest lessons I’ve learned come from having tried and failed. Some of those lessons you know about, and others were fixed before they ever saw the light of day. Irish writer Samuel Beckett got it: “Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.” Don’t be afraid of failure. It’s a risk that’s necessary to innovate.”
“Resilience: Saved games are there for a reason. Game developers expect you to take a shot now and again. In life and especially in game dev, it’s no different. Get up and do it again. That said, if whatever you’re doing is not going according to plan, if it feels like you’re taking one too many knocks on the chin, leave and find a better place or start another game.”
“Execution is everything: Success is not defined by an idea. It is determined by your ability to execute on that idea. Surround yourself with good people who know when to compliment you and when to give you a critique.”
“Give credit where it is due: Thank you for reading my book and thank you so much for playing my games.”
“I hope my games have brought you a little bit of the same joy that you have given me. Emag eht niw uoy.”
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August 21, 2024If you don't care about computer games, the 90s, FPS as a genre, id Software, or know what Daikatana is: you won't care about this book. If, however, you grew up in or have an interest in that era: this book is for you. There's some overlap between this and Masters of Doom, but this book has more personal details from Romero's POV. Some people might be disappointed that he doesn't dwell on negative interactions or events, but the book is better for it.
Romero is just living out his dream of making games that people happen to like. I do find it interesting that most of his focus, even today, is on a game that came out 30 years ago. It's easy to come up with a criticism of that... but if any of us are honest we'd also say that if we helped create the original Doom we'd still be proud of it decades after the fact.
Romero is just living out his dream of making games that people happen to like. I do find it interesting that most of his focus, even today, is on a game that came out 30 years ago. It's easy to come up with a criticism of that... but if any of us are honest we'd also say that if we helped create the original Doom we'd still be proud of it decades after the fact.
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