Just finished reading "MASTERS Of DOOM": the (relatively) new book about id Software.

The book focuses primarily on John Carmack and John Romero: it goes into detail about how and where they each grew up, how they got into programming and how they first met. It also goes into depth about how id was formed, how their early games came about and their quick rise to fame and fortune.

The book then talks about the fallout between Romero and Carmack, the founding of Ion Storm and it's subsequent crash and burn, and the (it seems) constant internal turmoil at id. The book finishes up at the current day, with Carmack working on Doom 3 and Romero at Monkey Stone.

For me, the most interesting parts where the events leading up to the two John's meeting, their time at Softdisk, the weeks just prior to, and just after, the release (or should I say UNLEASHING :)) of Doom, and the events leading up to Romero and id parting ways.

It did drag at times, but that was mainly because I was aware of the events being discussed; having grown up with id games and being into game development myself, I've read a lot about them over the years. It was the behind the scenes stuff, what the principles where thinking and feeling, that I found most stimulating.

Overall, it was an enjoyable book. I do not think it will appeal much to the casual reader or anyone with but a passing interest in games, but for "gamers", especially ones who grew up during id's early days, it should be a fun read.

David

Yeah I just ordered this from Amazon, they have a special deal running where you can get Master's of Doom and a nice coffee table book "Gamasutra Postmortems" for $38 (package deal with super saver shipping). I grew up on ID, Epic, and Apogee shareware games, so I imagine it will be a fun, nostalgic read.

As far as I know the bundles on amazon such as those don't actually give you a lower price, although buying both the items may bring you past the dollar amount necessary to qualify for the super saver shipping.

Master's of Doom: $17.47
Postmortems from Game Developer: $20.97
"Buy Together Today: $38.44"

In any case, looks like an interesting book.

The amazon.com marketing is genious. I never leave that place without getting super saver shipping. Plus I was eyeing "gamasutra postmortems" the last time I was in barnes and nobel, so it was a no brainer for me. I'm sure Dexterity has seen its orders increase when offering discounts on multi game purchases.

I thought most of the book was interesting, maybe the last part (from around quake 2 and till now) was a bit boring, mostly because a lot of it consisted of information from their .plan files.

The book was written with a nice form of enthusiasm and was a quick read.
After reading that book I had a sort of "geeks can win" feeling which was kind of rewarding. I recommend this book to anyone who has played doom =)

I also liked the book. It brought back alot of memories of my days programming in college. The walk down shareware memory lane alone was worth the price. I think another aspect I liked of the book was how it brought to light a few good points:

1. Be sure to have a good contract with your peers in the company you found, or you could find yourself on the street without anything for all your work. Besides the millions you made. :)

2. Money and power changes people, and turns friends into enemies.

3. Politics can kill a company.

I would hope they would turn this book into a PBS documentary like they did on the history of the modern computer. But I'm sure this idea would have a more limited viewer appeal than the other documentary.

Just picked it up thanks to this thread! Here's hoping it really is good reading :)

I read it and liked it. I too was most interested in Keen/Wolfenstein/Doom period. When Quake came out, I felt that Id had lost their creative spark-- and reading the book showed me to be right on.

One of the more interesting things to me was how much money they were making off Commander Keen-- TONS! $60,000/month in registrations-- in 1991, when you had to send off for your shareware via mail or phone. Yoiks. :)

Fascinating stuff. Hope to be there one-day, tho I'd be a little more low-key than the ID guys.

It’s 2:45am and i can't stop reading this stinking book! All I can say is Scott Miller is my hero! ;) Carmack and Romero scare me, but I can't help but respect their passion and enthusiasm.

Scare you? Why? They don't seem that frightening =) (Romero's hair seems a bit intimidating though)

Ya I haven't been able to put it down either. I'm more than 2/3 done the book already. I feel like I'm ripping myself off by not making it last longer but putting it down is not an option. I also agree that both Romero and Carmack get really frightening.


What really bugs me is how they trashed their offices regularly and how Carmack became paranoid enough to have the walls torn down. I can't help but say I told you so to all the people that thought Quake was godly. PC Gamer's original review of it was correct.


Anyway, back to the book!

What exactly is it that people find disturbing about Romero and Carmack? I think they're just enthusiastic about what they do.