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Doom, the video game in which you navigate a dungeon in the first person and messily lay waste to everything that crosses your path, represented a milestone in many areas. It was a technical landmark, in that its graphics engine delivered brilliant performance on ordinary PC hardware. It was a social phenomenon, with individuals and companies hooking up networks specifically for Doom tournaments and staying up for days to blast away on them (well before the Internet went big-time). The game's publisher, id Software, used an unusual shareware marketing strategy (give away the first levels, charge for the more advanced ones) that worked very well. On top of it all, the gore-filled game raised serious questions about decency in products meant for use by school-age kids. Masters of Doom explores the Doom phenomenon, as well as the lives and personalities of the two men behind it: John Carmack and John Romero. This book manages, for the most part, to keep clear of the breathless techno-hagiography style that characterizes many books with similar subjects. He tells the story of Carmack, Romero, and id--which includes far more than Doom and its successors--in novel style, and he's done a good job of keeping the action flowing and the characters' motivations clear. Some of the quoted passages of dialog sound like idealized reconstructions that probably never came from the lips of real people, but this is an entertaining and informative book, of interest to anyone who's let rip with a nail gun. --David Wall Topics covered: The biographies of John Carmack and John Romero, and of their company, id Software. The development and marketing of all major id games (including Wolfenstein, Doom, Doom II, and Quake) get lavish attention.
Product Description
“To my taste, the greatest American myth of cosmogenesis features the maladjusted, antisocial, genius teenage boy who, in the insular laboratory of his own bedroom, invents the universe from scratch. Masters of Doom is a particularly inspired rendition. Dave Kushner chronicles the saga of video game virtuosi Carmack and Romero with terrific brio. This is a page-turning, mythopoeic cyber-soap opera about two glamorous geek geniuses—and it should be read while scarfing down pepperoni pizza and swilling Diet Coke, with Queens of the Stone Age cranked up all the way.” —Mark Leyner, author of I Smell Esther Williams
Masters of Doom is the amazing true story of the Lennon and McCartney of video games: John Carmack and John Romero. Together, they ruled big business. They transformed popular culture. And they provoked a national controversy. More than anything, they lived a unique and rollicking American Dream, escaping the broken homes of their youth to co-create the most notoriously successful game franchises in history—Doom and Quake—until the games they made tore them apart.
Americans spend more money on video games than on movie tickets. Masters of Doom is the first book to chronicle this industry’s greatest story, written by one of the medium’s leading observers. David Kushner takes readers inside the rags-to-riches adventure of two rebellious entrepreneurs who came of age to shape a generation. The vivid portrait reveals why their games are so violent and why their immersion in their brilliantly designed fantasy worlds offered them solace. And it shows how they channeled their fury and imagination into products that are a formative influence on our culture, from MTV to the Internet to Columbine. This is a story of friendship and betrayal, commerce and artistry—a powerful and compassionate account of what it’s like to be young, driven, and wildly creative.
From the Hardcover edition.
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Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture
- Kindle Edition: 368 pages (2003-04-24)
- Publisher: Random House; 2003-04-24
- Label: Random House
- Format: Kindle Book
- Studio: Random House
- Average Customer Review:
 based on 67 reviews
- Sales Rank in Books: #5017
Avg. Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Great Read 2008-08-07
Comment: While I didn't purchase the book for me, my boyfriend (who never reads anything) loves this book. He can't put it down and told me it's one of the best books he's ever read. Coming from someone who never reads, you think that doesn't mean a lot, but the fact that he's finished it speaks volumes!
He loves this book. He says the realism puts you right there with them and that even the littlest details gives you a great story. He likes the depth of detail within the book.
So if you can't get your man to read- buy this book. Besides, Game Informer put this book among the best video game books ever. So my boyfriend isn't the only one who likes it!
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating:
Summary: Get this book!! 2008-07-11
Comment: If you ever played DOOM in its heyday, you need to pick up this book. This is a captivating account of the story of ID Software from John Romero and John Carmack's childhood, through their programming for another company, and the story behind each game that they made up to Doom 3. Honestly, of all the hundreds of books that I've read in my time, this has to be the best one -- I simply could not put it down until I had finished it, and when I did, I wanted to start it all over again. This is how histories should be told, and if I ever write a book, I want it to be like this one.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Good history, boring execution 2008-06-13
Comment: Is it worth reading? Yes. Could it have been a lot better? Certainly.
Masters of Doom tells the tale of John Romero and John Carmack, the primary forces behind the creation of id Software, the primary force behind the creation of the First-Person-Shooter (FPS) gaming phenomenon. With some biography and a lot of first-person accounts (pun intended) you'll follow these guys from their earliest jobs to their ultimately diverging paths.
The first half of the book is far more entertaining than the second, which while appropriate does gloss over some of the more telling aspects of their personalities in light of a very different atmosphere. The side characters get short bios but are referenced far too often without telling us more about them through the changes or some of the deeper information that was surely behind their constant inclusion in the first place.
If you come into the book with some knowledge of the characters and situations as I did some of the tale will seem lacking in the detail you were hoping for. Without spoiling it for those less familiar the denouement of one of the pair could have been more detailed while remaining dispassionate.
*** SPOILER SUMMARY ***
Romero was (is) a joke yet the author doesn't brutalize him as much as he should have through the collapse of ION Storm. This is fine as a journalistic approach, but telling this as a chronokogy for the most part is boring. Carmack's descent and idiocy is revealed but without a more biographical approach you don't get the flavor of the ripples he splashed into waves. The related tales of the rise of 3D Realms and Epic are equally missing despite their relevance to the world of Quake and Carmack's refusal to humanize his games.
*** END SPOILER ***
As a droning historical account the book works, but as an exciting tales of the heady days of id and the acts of its primary creators it was quite boring and lacking in the area of commentary by the side characters the author obviously had access to.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating:
Summary: Entertaining and Inspiring 2008-03-20
Comment: As an amateur game developer I found the story very compelling, and the way it's told (with the hilarious anecdotes packed in) helps to digest a lot of information. This is a must-read for anyone who has ever wanted to make a game and thought that one or two people wasn't enough.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating:
Summary: I actually read the whole thing! 2008-02-08
Comment: This will be a short review and I must start off by saying that I DONT READ BOOKS.
But... I got this book because of a class and when I started this book, I couldnt put it down. Its very informative and it actually inspired me quit a bit to be a game developer.
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Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture
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