John Romero

Lore & Background

Alfonso John Romero was born on October 28, 1967, six weeks premature, in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He has said that he has Mexican, Yaqui, and Cherokee grandparents. His mother, Ginny, met Alfonso Antonio Romero when they were teenagers in Tucson, Arizona. Alfonso, a first-generation Mexican American, was a maintenance man at an air force base. After Alfonso and Ginny married, they headed in a 1948 Chrysler with three hundred dollars to Colorado, hoping their interracial relationship would thrive in more tolerant surroundings. Among Romero's early influences, the arcade video game Space Invaders (1978) introduced him to video games, and Namco's Pac-Man (1980) had the biggest influence on his career, as it was the first game that got him 'thinking about game design.' Nasir Gebelli was his favorite programmer and a major inspiration, with Gebelli's fast 3D programming work for Apple II games influencing Romero's later work at id Software.

Romero started programming games on an Apple II he got in 1980. His first published game, Scout Search, appeared as a type-in program in the June 1984 issue of Apple II magazine inCider. His first industry job was at Origin Systems in 1987. He moved to Shreveport, Louisiana, in March 1989 and joined Softdisk as a programmer. He hired John Carmack, moved Adrian Carmack into the division, and persuaded Tom Hall to help with game design. Romero and the others left Softdisk in February 1991 to form id Software. He worked at id Software from its inception in 1991 until 1996, involved in the creation of Commander Keen, Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Doom II: Hell on Earth, and Quake. He 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 wrote many tools used at id Software, including DoomEd, QuakeEd, DM, DWANGO client, TED5, IGRAB, installers, and the SETUP program. During production of Quake, Romero clashed with John Carmack over the future direction of id. Romero wanted the game to follow his demanding vision without compromise, but Carmack insisted the project had to make steady progress and accused Romero of not working as much as the other developers. Romero relented and joined a months-long crunch effort to finish the game, but tensions remained, and Romero was forced to resign.

Romero co-founded Ion Storm in Dallas, Texas with Tom Hall, where he designed and produced the first-person shooter Daikatana. It was announced in 1997 with a release date for the Christmas shopping season of that year, but this release date slipped repeatedly, and the game began to accrue negative press. Daikatana (2000) was a critical and commercial failure. Romero departed Ion Storm in 2001. In July 2001, he and Tom Hall founded Monkeystone Games to develop games for mobile devices. In 2003, Romero joined Midway Games as the project lead on Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows (2005), and left shortly before its release. He founded Gazillion Entertainment in 2005. In 2016, Romero and Adrian Carmack announced a new FPS, Blackroom, but it was cancelled after failing to find a publisher.

Reader's Guide

John Romero's significance lies in his foundational role in defining the first-person shooter genre. As a co-founder of id Software, his design work on Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, and Quake established core conventions—fast-paced combat, immersive 3D environments, and networked multiplayer—that shaped the FPS for decades. His creation of development tools like DoomEd and QuakeEd enabled efficient level design, while coining the term 'deathmatch' formalized a multiplayer mode that became a staple of the genre. The commercial failure of Daikatana, following his departure from id, is often cited as a cautionary tale about ambition and project management in game development. Despite this, his early work at id remains influential, and his later ventures—including Monkeystone Games, Midway Games, and Gazillion Entertainment—reflect continued involvement in the industry. The cancellation of Blackroom in 2016 underscores the challenges of returning to the FPS space. Romero's legacy is that of a designer who helped launch a genre and whose tools and terminology remain embedded in gaming culture.

Did You Know?

• In Doom II, the final boss features Romero's severed head as the hit detection point, and a reversed demonic chant says 'To win the game, you must kill me, John Romero!'
• Romero has said he has Mexican, Yaqui, and Cherokee grandparents.