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John Romero And Tom Hall Look Back On Doom

gdc2011
by Bryan Vore on March 03, 2011 at 07:25 PM
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Anyone who's read David Kusher's Masters of Doom already knows how fascinating the early days of id Software were. John Romero and Tom Hall have long ago left the company, but they reflected on the glory days of development and showed several early builds of one of the most influential games of all time.

The month by month breakdown covered a lot of the same ground as Masters: the team moved back and forth from Wisconsin, id had to stop the development of Doom for three weeks to make the SNES port of Wolfenstein 3D because the guy they hired flaked out, Hall left id before Doom was completed due to feelings of stifled creativity, and much more. Seriously, though, you should just read Masters of Doom for the full story.

What was really great was the live gameplay of several early versions of Doom at multiple points during development. Check out the evolution of the game below. Notice how much the textures improved and how overbearing the UI used to be.

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  • by Thursday, March 03, 2011 at 07:32 PM
    Love DOOM!!! give me doom 4 continuing doom 3 plot plz :) I still play doom 1 & 2 through skulltag online massive coop ftw
  •
    by Thursday, March 03, 2011 at 07:38 PM

    i loved this game!

  •
    by Thursday, March 03, 2011 at 07:40 PM

    Doom, one of my all time favorite games, this is just one of a few awesome games that ID has made.One of my first games ever besides Mario; I hope Id continues to make good games... looking forward to DooM 4!!!

  •
    by Thursday, March 03, 2011 at 07:46 PM

    No greater FPS than Doom.

  •
    by Thursday, March 03, 2011 at 07:51 PM
    IDKFA First cheat code i ever remembered.
  •
    by Thursday, March 03, 2011 at 08:08 PM

    Doom will always be the greatest(and most addicting) FPS I've ever played.

  •
    by Thursday, March 03, 2011 at 08:13 PM
    I actually remember the first time i played Doom with my brother in a dark room during summer. It was on one of our very first PCs that we got from Dell for putting 50 dollars of stock in their company. Doom does still have a special place in my heart even if the original guys are at the company anymore.
  •
    by Thursday, March 03, 2011 at 08:58 PM

    Wish there was a doom for ps3

  •
    by Thursday, March 03, 2011 at 09:29 PM

    That's a lot of HUD in the first to pics.

  •
    by Thursday, March 03, 2011 at 09:56 PM

    Ya know, someone really needs to give Romero a bunch of money and one more chance. I feel like he get the sharp end of the stick for just one mistake. He really needs a second shot at greatness. No more small games for him.

  • by Thursday, March 03, 2011 at 10:11 PM

    Yeah that UI was horrible.  Still, it would have been just as revolutionary.  Good thing for us they changed it though.

  •
    by Thursday, March 03, 2011 at 10:18 PM

    If I'm recalling correctly neither of them really "left" id. Tom Hall wanted to leave because he really wanted to make another Commander Keen, a feeling his coworkers didn't share. But before he did leave, he was forced to resign because id felt he was detached and couldn't contribute anymore.

    John Romero was about the same. He lazily worked on Quake, and was said to have not completed the levels he was supposed to, and his role as producer was very poor. He was also forced to resign. Carmack said that after Romero kept talking about "leaving" id and how design was law over at ion Storm.

    Of course, both of these men are responsible for some of the most influential games of all time, and though they have since fallen from their original glory, I have the upmost respect for both. As much as it seems that I have claimed all that info to be fact, I'm merely reiterating the words from Masters of Doom, which told that story exactly the same as I just did.

    Also, could you imagine how *** great that would be to have all 5 of the original id guys up there together? Awkward no less I'm sure since 3 of the 5 have claimed to have been ousted from the company, but no less amazing. If I'm correct, most still work in the industry (John Carmack at id, Tom Hall and Romero at Loot Drop, Jay Wilbur at Epic, no idea about Adrian Carmack).

  • Mod
    by Thursday, March 03, 2011 at 10:22 PM

    Well alright then.  I'm off to see if Half Priced Books has Masters of Doom.  I want to say I've seen it before and just assumed it was a strategy guide or something.

  •
    by Thursday, March 03, 2011 at 11:04 PM

    John Romero needs to return to the shooter Genre. Forget Daikatana, you know that the FPS level design of recently has been lackluster. he needs to get back into it.

  •
    by Thursday, March 03, 2011 at 11:23 PM

    Can't wait to show my DOOM spirit in Brink with the pre-order bonus.

  •
    by Friday, March 04, 2011 at 01:22 AM

    Wait a second, an article about Romero and no one cracking a Daikatana joke?

  •
    by Friday, March 04, 2011 at 07:46 AM

    Emh... hi mr. Romero. I'd like to apologize for severing your head in Doom II.

  •
    by Friday, March 04, 2011 at 02:35 PM

    I am going to have to pick up that book!

  •
    by Saturday, March 05, 2011 at 08:17 PM

    I have GOT to play this game...

  •
    by Thursday, March 08, 2012 at 01:08 PM

    My all-time favorite computer game!