John Romero’s about to make you… listen to his life story.
One of gaming’s most flamboyant personalities emerged in the early 1990s as one of the first “rock star” game developers after co-creating Doom with John Carmack and id Software. He’ll explore those early adventures in a new autobiography, which will be published in 2023 by Abrams Books.
Doom Guy: Life in First Person will trace the course of Romero’s entire life, starting with his childhood in Colorado through his partnership with Carmark to his days after id Software:
Doom Guy: Life in First Person is the long-awaited autobiography of John Romero, 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.
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.
John Romero has always had a way with words, so it’ll be interesting to see how his autobiography expands upon David Kushner’s excellent Masters of Doom
Doom Guy: Life in First Person will be available on January 10, 2023.
UPDATE (7/20/23): After a short delay, Doom Guy: A Life in First Person is now available on stores shelves. John Romero has marked the occasion by sharing an excerpt of his book with The Verge, all about the first time he played John Carmack and Tom Hall’s unauthorized PC conversion of Super Mario Bros. 3.