MASTERS OF DOOM: HOW TWO GUYS CREATED AN EMPIRE AND TRANSFORMED POP CULTURE PDF, EPUB, EBOOK David Kushner | 352 pages | 27 May 2004 | Little, Brown Book Group | 9780749924898 | English | London, United Kingdom Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture PDF Book More Fun Than Real Life. More than anything, they lived a unique and rollicking American Dream, escaping the broken homes of their youth to produce the most notoriously succ Masters of Doom is the amazing true story of the Lennon and McCartney of video games: John Carmack and John Romero. Romero apparently had a hard time committing to any one game for any length of time, preferring to chat to the press and wallow in the benefits of riches. Doom franchise. See 2 questions about Masters of Doom…. It also shows the ravages of arrogance on business and how letting ego come into play can destroy friendships and companies. Full Review Doom along with a few other games defined my childhood and shaped my future in a way than the Nintendo games I played before them never quite did. Other books like this one? This one for me was a real sentimental travel to the 90's and a story of people who developed the game of my youth - Quake. It's kind of stunning that even someone as sympathetic and breathlessly ready to take the Johns at their words in every situation as Kushner can't even begin to make John Romero and John Carmack appear remotely likeable. All they wanted was to create great games that they wish existed plus eating pizza and someday driving Ferrari's. Pizza Money. The team dynamics and issues with the development cycle, the conflicts between business and development, they are all real. Most of them I got as shareware, through those shareware distribution discs that were everywhere in the mids, and apparently that's another innovation that I can trace back to that cluster of companies. I get the impression that Romero and others were lucky in that they got to use Carmack's engines which were the real driving force behind the games' success. As someone who used to play a ton of video games and who got into programming making or hacking them, this was an enjoyable, nostalgic experience. In a world where people worry about patents and intellectual property, it is liberating to hear about two guys who only cared about creating cool things. The book tries to be diplomatic and say Romero's experimentation and finding out what was possible with the engines was also very important, but, I mean, what else is the book going to say? The story describes how two misfit geeks were able to follow their passion of games and through hard work were able to make impressive advances in game technology and get rich at it as well. Retrieved November 6, Soon, however, success starts to go to their head, and their once- strong partnership begins to fray at the seams. Retrieved November 4, Had distribution chat attempts Fantastic long form journalism to share the behind the scenes story of how 2D platform gaming become 3D first person shooters dominant Wolf3D, Doom, Quake Fast, energetic, full of attitude; yet the speed, energy, and 'tude are wholly those of the subjects at hand, John Romero and John Cormack, as they go from nobodies to the biggest rock stars of the PC Dewey Decimal. I do seem to be in the minority opinion on this one, though, so maybe other people read the portrayal of the Two Johns differently than I do or have less of a problem with unlikeable protagonists. He's a perfect fit for this book. Palmer Luckey , the founder of the technology company Oculus VR , first became interested in virtual reality after reading Masters of Doom. Spear of Destiny. Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture Writer It leaves you waiting for more, and I wish to hear more of this story. But Carmack kept working. March 15, The Bookseller. The story of the two Johns is just an interesting as the story of the two Steves Jobs and Wozniak. The series, if it should continue, is expected to be an anthology series. There is no shortage of reviews of the above. Soon, however, success starts to go to their head, and their once-strong partnership begins to fray at the seams. So it's all a matter of perspective at this point. Not the author's fault, it's extremely well written with great details. See e. Read more Oct 21, Nemo rated it it was amazing Shelves: non-fiction. Retrieved November 7, Spoiler alert: They did plenty of all three. Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved October 30, This book is very interesting. Want to Read saving…. This isn't just a book about John Carmack and John Romero. Books by David Kushner. Side note: it seems to me that Carmack may have Asperger Syndrome - with his dedication to idea and work, laser-like focus, contempt to norms, concentration on efficiency, literal-mindedness and lack of understanding of certain social situations - all it seems very consistent. Hot Book! To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. The fact that that the games were written by so few people is impressive. He's a geek's geek. The story has all the elements of a great Greek tragedy: the unlikely rise to success of two heroes, and the tragic flaw in each of them that ruins it. May 28, Mark Sanchez rated it it was ok. The whole thing seems way too pat for me to do more than glance at it suspiciously, and coupled with the distaste I felt for both Carmack and Romero's behavior during the book, I spent most of it just shaking my head and hoping for the next scene of a technical challenge that needed to be overcome. Maybe it's because these are the games I grew up with. View all 6 comments. Carmack had the idea. The story uses an extended metaphor for the company with a dungeons and dragons campaign that the main characters were playing. May 20, Andrew rated it really liked it Shelves: business. Did you know Doom was one of the main instruments for the resurrection of the PC gaming industry? Washington Monthly. David Kushner. Return to Book Page. Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. PC games made me fall in love with the computer. Romero is on the opposite end of the spectrum; his Ion Storm is intended to be a very fun place to work, where "[game] design is law" Ion Storm's slogan was "Design is Law" and that technology must be created to realize the designer's vision, instead of the other way around. The book describes the "Two Johns'" respective childhoods, their first meeting at Softdisk in and the eventual founding of their own company, id Software. Hardcore Gaming Not to mention abandoning multiple marriages before turning David Kushner is an award-winning journalist and author. This book is essientially 'The Social Network' of video game books with characters that are larger then life and alot of events that could easily be fiction but are real. I love this book. Help Learn to edit Community portal Recent changes Upload file. Retrieved November 4, Nov 08, Uli Kunkel added it. Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture Reviews The rise and I do think books like this do real harm, and not only because they pay bills for people like Kushner. Overall I though this book was quite excellent, but it won't be for everyone. John Carmack was one of my heroes. Although Kushner adopts a novel-like narrative, Masters of Doom is a work of journalism. 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. Increasing tension drives them apart, and it's soon clear that neither one alone is even half as good as the two of them were together. Hardcore Gaming The series, if it should continue, is expected to be an anthology series. Everything was balanced, they had a committed engineer that are addicted to create new things and pursue really hard challenges. I think Mr. The two Johns created an empire by using the engineering capabilities of Carmack with the enthusiasm and ideas of Romero. Error rating book. Definitely give it a read if you want to know the story behind one of the most influential games of all time. Full Review Doom along with a few other games defined my childhood and shaped my future in a way than the Nintendo games I played before them never quite did. About David Kushner. Namespaces Article Talk. We waded across rivers. Retrieved November 4, The book tries to be diplomatic and say Romero's experimentation and finding out what was possible with the engines was also very important, but, I mean, what else is the book going to say? Computer Gaming World. Nov 08, Uli Kunkel added it. Even though it focuses mainly on the two Johns, this book is not a biography. Sometimes we have an awesome engineer that can't spread the awesome tools he is creating. There is no shortage of reviews of the above. The magazine also criticized the narration to be dry in parts of the book. It was neat that Deus Ex a game I like a lot was created by the functional branch of a very dysfunctional company Romero's Ion Storm, which he founded after leaving Id and which was a typical tech bubble company.