Doom Guy

Life in First Person

By: John Romero

Narrated by: John Romero

The inspiring autobiography of video game designer and DOOM cocreator John Romero

Doom Guy: Life in First Person is the long-awaited autobiography of 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 Ltd.

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.

©2023 Alfonso Romero. Published in 2023 by Abrams Press, an imprint of ABRAMS, New York. All rights reserved. (P)2023 Blackstone Publishing

Must read

Even if you read Masters of Doom, this book is 100% worth it. It follows life of John Romero, glimpsing into some of its dark childhood and career after closure of Ion Storm - things that developed him as a person and designed. And its narrated by icon of sin himself ;)

A Must Read for any 90's PC games Fan

Very Good Book. Great Nostalgic and Interesting stories about some of our favorite 90's PC games, like Commander Keen, Doom and Quake. It was Great to hear so many Behind the Scenes stories about the creation of these games. This book is not only for Gamers, there are actually many Business advices and lessons here as well. I think this book could have been edited better and be 25% shorter. There Are many lengthy "personal life" parts, especially at the beginning and the end of the book, which are too long. But you can fast forward a little bit each time you feel that the personal stories drift you from the main narrative. The Narration is very good and personal.

Read by Romero!

So great to hear Romero reading his own work. He's one of my biggest heroes. Truly inspiring!

Story about the development of the games from my childhood.

Very good book, and a peek behind the curtain of what it took to build the games from my childhood. Recommend.

We're not worthy

For me, this is the best version of this book I could have imagined. It tells the whole story, including important hard-hitting parts that I didn't know about even as a fan. It's an honest and daring look back at the early games industry by the ideal person: someone with an unusually good memory who was right in the middle of the action. Any book read by the author is always a huge plus to me, regardless of performance, but Romero is actually good at that, too.