Masters of Doom 484
| Masters of Doom | |
| author | David Kushner |
| pages | 352 |
| publisher | Random House |
| rating | Excellent! |
| reviewer | Kevin Bentley |
| ISBN | 0375505245 |
| summary | How two guys created an empire and transformed pop culture. |
Virtual reality was the craze of the time, and Doom offered a glimpse into what it was all about. But this innovative game did not come from any of the "big" video game developers of the time, and it was not the built by a large team with huge resources. Although it was the product of many people's efforts, it was primarily the creative genius of two people, both named John.
John Carmack and John Romero are names that every self-respecting Slashdot reader knows. Carmack even posts here occasionally (hi John!). Until I read this book, I knew very little about the personal life of Carmack, and I thought I probably knew too much about Romero. Like many, I have been intrigued by their successes (and failures), and was interested in learning more about what makes them tick.
Masters of Doom starts off with a chapter for each John, telling stories from their childhood that made me realize they were just typical American kids, with the same kind of problems that many of us probably had. These are important chapters, and the author repeatedly references these stories throughout the book. Although the book chronologically covers the entire lives of the two Johns, most of the book details their working years, from their time at Softdisk until now.
This is where the book was most interesting to me. The details of the camaraderie that existed among the team made me feel like I was there. The author got a lot of his information from personal interviews with people, and it really shows in his writing style. First-person accounts are woven together so you get to know what each person was thinking while the story plays out. For instance when the id team met with Sierra On-Line in 1992, you get first-person impressions from both sides of the meeting, giving the reader a lot of insight that you would ordinarily never get.
For me, the book's climax was during the initial releases of Doom, when huge checks were pouring in. Things were going really well for the team at this point, and the book describes things like John C. and John R. dropping off a check for five million dollars at the bank's drive-through, while riding in one of their Ferraris. Although things were looking great for the team at this time, the future really held turmoil and disappointment.
The only negative comment I have about this book is not really a criticism of the book itself, or even the author. I believe the story was accurate, and while it didn't have any shocking new information, it left me feeling sad to see such a powerful combination of talent break apart because of personality conflict, and sad at the thought that Carmack seemed to be losing interest in id Software. The book does mention Carmack's current interests in rocketry (which are even more exciting to me than his games), and Romero seems to have settled into a life he is enjoying, but the mood of the book seemed very depressing to me in the end.
Anyone who is a gamer or a self-taught programmer like Carmack and Romero would enjoy this book. The book does not require the reader to know much about games or computer programming, but I suspect it might be uninteresting to people who aren't either gamers or interested in computers. To the average Slashdot reader though, I would definitely recommend this book.
You can purchase Masters of Doom from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
I remember that... (Score:5, Interesting)
One of the things I find annoying... (Score:5, Interesting)
I suppose "doom" is easier to say, but it doesn't give credit to the real first, the one that opened the floodgates.
Changed My World (Score:5, Interesting)
pretty good read (Score:5, Interesting)
Interesting seeing how badly PCs lagged consoles in terms of gaming...the sidescrolling of Commander Keen was considered a technical breakthru, even though it started as a demo level of Mario Bros 3 as a proof-of-concept, and was basically the same thing the NES had been doing since the mid-early 80s...in fact, it was a while until PCs could play games that the C=64 and Apple II could, never mind the Amiga and Atari ST.
DOOM and, possibly to a lesser extent, Wing Commander really put the PC ahead of the consoles (at least for many genres) for a long while. I think the tide has turned now. (though YMMV depending on what genres you like--I'm just very glad not to have to worry about 3D cards and compatability and what not.)
Commander Keen cutting edge? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:One of the things I find annoying... (Score:1, Interesting)
How about an interview? (Score:3, Interesting)
Strangely enough,
Re:One of the things I find annoying... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:if you are into this .... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:I remember that... (Score:3, Interesting)
I still have original copies of Doom, Wolf3D, and a handful of Commander Keen, 'cept I always have troubling running the games on my Win2k and WinXP computers. Sometimes the games won't run period, or there will be missing sound (for example).
My friend's got it worse on Win98 - He can play the games for a good 1/2 before he bluescreens.
I know this may be off-topic to the story, but does anyone have quick tips on how to play these DOS-age games on modern day OS's and hardware?
Re:One of the things I find annoying... (Score:5, Interesting)
The first, of course, would be Ultima Underworld from Looking Glass Studios which made it out the door just before wolf3d. That game still kicks some major booty even today.
Personally, I always preferred... (Score:3, Interesting)
Even more entertaining was the one expansion they made to ROTT where El Oscuro was not dead and you had to go at him again, only this time it was a LOT harder than the first time, which was no cake walk.
Having things like ludicrous gibs and the funny things the characters would say when they got gibs was neat too. Not to mention, the first game that let you pick a character that you wanted to play, and each character had it's unique starting stats like hitpoints, accuracy, etc.
All in all, my favorite FPS games rank like this:
1.) ROTT
2.) Blake Stone
3.) Wolfenstein 3D
4.) Doom/Heretic
ROTT gave the very first totally friendly map maker, not to mention one that would randomly generate maps you could compete with. The CD was loaded with all kinds of goodies..
Fun to look back and reflect on the time spent playing the true classics...
Re:"self-respective" (Score:1, Interesting)
Then you respect me.
I don't give a damn about doom now or then and even less about the people who created it. I have been too busy living a real life to live in a fantasy world. I didn't know about doom ten years ago and now know only that its some kind of stupid computer game. The only thing good that came out of the computer game industry is the motivation for the development of super fast 3d graphics hardware.
I was "into" computers (professional software developer) almost 40 years ago. Long before most slashdotters were even a twinkle in their parents eyes. Likely even before some of their parents were born. Before even UNIX or its little sister, Linux was created.
Yes, there was a before Linux. The universe did not pop into existence just a few short years ago. There was even a before computers. I know, I was there.
These were great games. Some Questions? (Score:2, Interesting)
Yeah, who didn't play... (Score:3, Interesting)
Wolf3D? That was just about the most groundbreaking game I've ever seen. I remember walking into a computer store one day, and seeing this game that blew my freaking mind. Felt like a friggin' acid trip.
So are there a bunch of yougin's around here who have never played wolf? I think anyone who calls themselves a geek and never played Wolf is a poser, but that's just me. It's like required reading.
doom stories (Score:5, Interesting)
id provided an excellent knowledge base, and we were able to solve 90% of the problems people called in with. I felt really good enabling thousands of people to play this game - back then, everybody wanted to play it due to it's explosion of popularity and controversy, and people knew little about computers, just like today, with the difference that they were dealing with DOS and Win31, which was even harder for them.
I'll never forget the many times I heard kids scream "hooray!" in the background after I spent an hour on the phone with a very tired mother or father trying to make it work.
I believe that I received the first phone call ever of someone reporting motion sickness as a result of playing a video game due to the realism of 3D movement, since DOOM was the first game that had "bobbing". id thankfully had the insight to provide a switch to turn that off.
Another interesting call I recieved was from a guy who claimed to have produced (or maybe directed?) My Cousin Vinny, and said he wanted to make a movie out of DOOM. I put him in touch with id, and I'm glad nothing ever came from it. It would have made a crappy movie - the plot was a razor thin excuse to provide a setting for thousands of monsters to attack you relentlessly.
I also simultaneously operated on the 900 Hint Line. People would call up and ask the location of a particular key on a particular map. If you recall, the location of secrets was different between single player and multiplayer. We were encouraged to play the game while we worked (research! bwhaha!) and we always played multiplayer of course.
People thought it was amazing that me and my colleagues could rattle off the location of a secret on a map in single player mode while simultaneously playing multiplayer on a totally different map, all without checking the book.
Ahh, good times.
Carmack and the Origins of DirectX (Score:2, Interesting)
The Microsoft agenda was to make an impressive display of the new API's strengths, and the solution was to port DOS-bound Doom to Windows. John Carmack said he'd allow it (but not do the porting).
This seems to place Carmack, long an outspoken proponent of OpenGL as the superior API (for a number of reasons), as one of the reasons for DirectX's acceptence.
Is this the real deal, I wonder, or is there a palpable spin being had here?
Of course, Carmack is right to favor the open, robust and carefully oversighted OpenGL over the proprietary and hasty DirectX, but did his actions play a part in the success of DirectX?
njord
Re:Pffft .... Commander Keen (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Cheaper at Amazon!! (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:One of the things I find annoying... (Score:5, Interesting)
First Person shooters after Doom were called "Doom like" because "Wolfenstein 3D like" wouldn't have done them justice. It simply wasn't in the same technological arena.
Jeremy
Re:doom stories (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Hi Kevin (Score:5, Interesting)
Now, if you will kindly provide your true identity, I'd be glad to refund your full purchase price you paid for this review.
If you have any constructive criticism however, I'd love to hear it.
Re:Oldies checklist (Score:2, Interesting)
I still have the 2 inch thick stack of printouts, complete with the occasional "who are you?" from an Agnet admin
Re:One of the things I find annoying... (Score:3, Interesting)
Ultima Underworld was probably the first game with a textured, first person 3D view. However, it was not a "first person shooter." I would call it a real time, first person, hack 'n slash adventure game, since it combined features from several game genres.