Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture Reviews

From humble beginnings then the big times with id Software, you are taken through it all. You are amazed these guys and yet at the same time are disturbed by them. Nobody ever said that the world of game development would be a pretty one and this book gives vivid detail about it. Grueling 18 hour days staring at a computer screen are just the start of it.

Sadly, much to my surprise there are just as much egos as the movie or music industry. Maybe I should not be that surprised about it. I mean who would not want to have millions of admirers across the world groveling at your feet and marveling at your genius. I mean come on these guys even coined there phrase “Death Match”.

John Carmack and John Romero have forever changed the world of video gaming. To the way business is done and to the way games are even played. Licensing [Carmack’s] game engines was almost unheard of at the time, but id Software broke the standard format was just one the many things that id Software did still are applied today. There is an old saying that mentions something about “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery”. Well id Software had plenty of admirers and also plenty of imposter as well riding the wave created by Doom and Quake. (One of the more popular franchises to come out of this was Epic’s Unreal Tournament.)

A real nice addition to this book is the fact that it is kept R-A-W. Romero is one of the most foul mouthed personalities your will possibly ever read about. It is quite enjoyable I should add that he makes games with passion and shows how hard developing games are. Not like the picture perfect vision that Nintendo paints pertaining to their development of games. (Not knocking Nintendo at all by the way.) Simply put this is not a book if you are easily offended.

Masters of Doom is some of just the type of material that provided me with all the subjects that I enjoy: Computer programming, inside info of the video gaming industry, spending obscene amounts of money, huge egos, and of course Doom(Didn’t see that one coming?). If you are interested about the inner workings of the video game industry, or the creators of one of the most beloved video games even somewhat, you definitely owe it to yourself to give Masters of Doom a read. SUCK IT DOWN! (You’ll get it after you read the book.)