Masters Of Doom by David Kushner

Masters Of Doom

by David Kushner

Masters of Doom is the true inside story of the Lennon and McCartney of the video game industry: John Carmack and John Romero. Together they created an empire, ruled a multibillion-dollar industry, and provoked a national controversy. They lived a unique American dream, escaping their broken homes to co-create the most innovative and notoriously successful video games in history - Doom and Quake - until the games they made tore them apart.

David Kushner has been covering the video game industry for ten years and knows all the angles. Even those with no interest in video games will be fascinated by this vastly entertaining tale of friendship, betrayal and the genesis of a multibillion-dollar popular art form.

Reviewed by adamfortuna on

4 of 5 stars

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One of the first computer games I ever played was Wolfenstein 3D on my moms Packard Bell 386 computer. Eventually I also played Doom on it as well. At the time I didn't realize what was behind those games. Masters is more a biography of John Carmack and John Romero - the technical and design talent behind these games and id software.

It's crazy to me how this company got started -- "borrowing" computers from their day job to program on them at night and eventually release Wolfenstein. The small group of guys working in their house part time ended up impacting the world of video games as much as anyone else has, and this is the rise and fall of that empire.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 29 July, 2014: Finished reading
  • 29 July, 2014: Reviewed