John Romero

Lore & Background

John Romero was born on October 28, 1967, in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He began programming games on an Apple II in 1980, and his first published game, Scout Search, appeared as a type-in program in the June 1984 issue of inCider magazine. He co-founded id Software in 1991 and was involved in creating milestone games including Commander Keen, Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Doom II, and Quake. Romero designed most of the first episode of Doom, a quarter of the levels in Quake, and half the levels in Commander Keen and Wolfenstein 3D: Spear of Destiny. He also wrote many development tools such as DoomEd and QuakeEd, and is credited with coining the multiplayer term 'deathmatch'.

Reader's Guide

Romero's significance lies in his role at id Software, where his designs and tools, combined with John Carmack's programming, established the first-person shooter genre. After disputes with Carmack, Romero was fired from id in 1996. He co-founded Ion Storm and directed Daikatana, which was a critical and commercial failure. He later co-founded Monkeystone Games, worked at Midway Games on Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows, and founded Gazillion Entertainment. In 2016, he announced a new FPS, Blackroom, but it was cancelled. His legacy includes both groundbreaking successes and notable failures, reflecting the volatile nature of game development.

Did You Know?

• Romero's head appears as the final boss in Doom II's 'Icon of Sin' level, and a reversed audio clip says 'To win the game, you must kill me, John Romero!'
• He coined the multiplayer term 'deathmatch'.
• Romero created 28 games in 5.5 years with a team of fewer than 10 developers at id Software.