John Romero

Alfonso John Romero (born October 28, 1967) is an American and Irish video game developer. He co-founded id Software and designed their early games, including Wolfenstein 3D, Doom (1993), Doom II (1994), Hexen (1995) and Quake (1996). His designs and development tools, along with programming techniques developed by the id programmer John Carmack, popularized the first-person shooter (FPS) genre. Romero is also credited with coining the multiplayer term "deathmatch".

Following disputes with Carmack, Romero was fired from id in 1996. He co-founded a new studio, Ion Storm, and directed the FPS Daikatana (2000), which was a critical and commercial failure. Romero departed Ion Storm in 2001. In July 2001, he and another former id employee, Tom Hall, founded Monkeystone Games to develop games for mobile devices.

In 2003, Romero joined Midway Games as the project lead on Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows (2005), and left shortly before its release. He founded another company, Gazillion Entertainment, in 2005. In 2016, Romero and another former id employee, Adrian Carmack, announced a new FPS, Blackroom, but it was cancelled after failing to find a publisher.

Early life Alfonso John Romero was born on October 28, 1967, six weeks premature, His mother, Ginny, met Alfonso Antonio Romero when they were teenagers in Tucson, Arizona. Alfonso, a first-generation Mexican American, was a maintenance man at an air force base, spending his days fixing air conditioners and heating systems. After Alfonso and Ginny married, they headed in a 1948 Chrysler with three hundred dollars to Colorado, hoping their interracial relationship would thrive in more tolerant surroundings.

Among Romero's early influences, the arcade video game Space Invaders (1978), with its "shoot the alien" gameplay, introduced him to video games. Namco's maze chase arcade game Pac-Man (1980) had the biggest influence on his career, as it was the first game that got him "thinking about game design." Other influences include programmer Bill Budge, and Virtua Fighter.

Career Early career

John Romero started programming games on an Apple II he got in 1980.

Romero's first industry job was at Origin Systems in 1987 after programming games for eight years. He worked on the Apple II to Commodore 64 port of 2400 A.D., Instead, Romero left Origin Systems to co-found a game company named Inside Out Software,

There it was, the familiar milieu of Super Mario Brothers 3: pale blue sky, the puffy white clouds, the bushy green shrubs, the animated tiles with little question marks rolling over their sides and, strangely, his character Dangerous Dave standing ready on the bottom of the screen. Romero tapped his arrow key, moved Dave along the floor, and watched him scroll smoothly across the screen. That’s when he lost it. Romero is also credited with coining the multiplayer term "deathmatch".

During the production of Quake, Romero clashed with John Carmack over the future direction of id. Romero wanted the game to follow his demanding vision without compromise, but Carmack insisted that the project had to make steady progress toward completion and accused Romero of not working as much as the other developers. Although Romero relented on his vision and joined a months-long crunch effort to finish the game, this did not resolve the tensions within the company, and Romero was forced to resign. In 2022, during a conversation with podcaster Lex Fridman, Carmack stated that, in hindsight, he regrets the way he dealt with the firing of Romero, citing immaturity and lack of understanding of corporate structure as the primary causal factors. Additionally, Carmack clarified that both he and Romero were currently on good terms.

1996–2000: Ion Storm and Daikatana Romero co-founded Ion Storm in Dallas, Texas with another id co-founder, Tom Hall, where he designed and produced the first-person shooter Daikatana. In the interview, Romero publicly apologized for the infamous Daikatana advertisement. In particular, a 1997 advertisement boasting "John Romero's About To Make You His Bitch....Suck it down" caused controversy in the press and public.

The massive pre-hype for the game and the subsequent delays (it was not released until April 2000) were compounded by the poor reviews the game received when it was finally complete. Daikatana was panned and appeared on numerous "top 10 worst games" listings. During this time, Romero was rumored to have been killed and a photograph of his corpse with a bullet wound was also spread through the Internet. The picture was taken for the magazine Texas Monthly. In 2001, Romero and Hall departed after the release of Hall's Anachronox game and the subsequent closing of the Dallas Ion office.

2000s

In July 2001, Romero and Hall founded Monkeystone Games to develop and publish games for mobile devices. Monkeystone released approximately 15 games during the three-and-a-half-year lifespan of the company. Some highlights of their developments included Hyperspace Delivery Boy! (Pocket PC, Windows, Linux), Congo Cube (Pocket PC, PC, BREW, Java ME), and a version of Red Faction for the Nokia N-Gage. He and his girlfriend, Stevie Case, broke up in 2003, and she left the company in May while Red Faction development continued until October. John then left Monkeystone Games' day-to-day operations to Lucas Davis while Romero and Hall left for Midway in San Diego.

In mid-October 2003, Romero joined Midway Games as project lead on Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows. While he continued to maintain his working relationship with Monkeystone, Lucas Davis took over running the office. The Monkeystone team moved to Austin, Texas to work on Midway's Area 51 title until its release. Monkeystone Games closed down in January 2005. Romero moved from project lead to creative director of internal studio during this time. At the end of June 2005, Romero left Midway Games mere months before the completion of Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows.

On August 31, 2005, Romero confirmed that he was working on a yet-to-be-announced MMOG at his newly opened development studio, Slipgate Ironworks. It was reported that the name was temporary. "For the record," Romero wrote, "I'm co-founder of a new game company in the Bay Area and am much better off in many ways than I was at Midway". He said that he would not reveal anything about the company or the game until 2007. On March 17, 2009, it was announced that Slipgate Ironworks was part of Gazillion Entertainment. Along with venture capitalist Rob Hutter and investor Bhavin Shah, Romero was a co-founder of Gazillion. On July 22, 2006, John Romero and former co-worker Tom Hall guest hosted episode 53 of the podcast The Widget. Romero departed Gazillion Entertainment in November 2010 to form a social game company called Loot Drop alongside Brenda Brathwaite. Hall joined the company on January 1, 2011.

Romero was the Chairman of the Board for the Cyberathlete Professional League (CPL) for ten years. On December 20, 2006, John Romero announced a new FPS project for the CPL titled Severity for both consoles and PC. It was announced that Tom Mustaine (ex-Studio Director at Ritual Entertainment) would act as Director of Game Development at CPL's new studio. It was stated that Severity would be a multiplayer first person shooter, and that the game would be built on technology licensed from id Software. In October 2009, Angel Munoz, founder of the CPL stated that Severity was no longer being produced because they were not able "to convince game publishers of its value".

2010–present

Romero guest-edited the March 2010 issue of the British magazine Retro Gamer. In August 2014, Romero said he planned to make a new FPS. In April 2016, he announced a partnership with the former id artist Adrian Carmack to create the FPS Blackroom, describing their vision as a visceral, varied and violent shooter that harkens back to classic FPS play with a mixture of exploration, speed, and intense combat. They hoped to raise $700,000 (~$ in ) via Kickstarter to see the project to completion and anticipated a launch in late 2018. The Kickstarter campaign was cancelled four days after its launch. In 2023, Romero confirmed in his autobiography, Doom Guy: Life in First Person, that while a demo had existed and was shown to publishers, no publishers expressed interest in funding the game after the Kickstarter cancellation, and the game was fully cancelled after that behind-closed-doors demo.

On 2017, Romero won the Bizkaia Award at the Fun & Serious Game Festival, which takes place in the Spanish city of Bilbao. Romero and his wife Brenda Romero established Romero Games on August 11, 2015. They published Gunman Taco Truck in 2017, SIGIL in 2019, and Empire of Sin in 2020. In March 2022, in response to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Romero created a new level of Doom II which was subsequently listed for sale through his personal website. Romero stated that all proceeds would be donated to the Ukrainian Red Cross and the UN Central Emergency Response Fund.

Personal life Romero (center) and other game developers at a BAFTA event in Los Angeles in 2011. From left: Rod Humble, Louis Castle, David Perry, Brenda Romero, John Romero, Will Wright, Tim Schafer, Chris Hecker.

In January 2004, Romero married Raluca Alexandra Pleșca, originally from Bucharest, Romania. They divorced in 2011. Romero and game developer Brenda Brathwaite became engaged on March 24, 2012, and married on October 27, 2012. Together, they worked on Ravenwood Fair, with Romero as Lead Designer and Brathwaite as Creative Director and Game Designer. They also founded social game development company Loot Drop in November 2010, and worked on Cloudforest Expedition and Ghost Recon Commander together. Romero cut his hair short in 2002 and donated it to Locks of Love.

Discussion boards such as Doomworld and BeyondUnreal had threads discussing his new look at the time, although he began to grow it back to its original length in 2003. On January 11, 2022, Romero gave a statement via Twitter on the subject of his hair, to coincide with the 120th anniversary of William Arthur Jones' "Indian haircut order" of 1902. In the statement, Romero said: "I wear my hair long as a proud Yaqui and Cherokee man, and will continue to do so until the day I die."

In 2000, during the development of Daikatana, Romero listed Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny, Super Mario Bros. 3, Age of Empires, Duke Nukem 3D and Chrono Trigger as his favorite games of all time, with Chrono Trigger topping the list. In 2017, Romero listed World of Warcraft and Minecraft as his favorite games of all time.

Romero's favorite programming language as of 2017 is Lua. Romero says he has hyperthymesia. Romero is an atheist. He also claimed that everyone involved at working on the original Doom was an atheist (although game designer Sandy Petersen is a Mormon). On December 19, 2023, Romero acquired Irish citizenship, after living there for about eight years.

Romero was referenced in the 2020 video game Doom Eternal as King Ormero.

Recognition Date Award Description Lifetime Achievement Award Awarded at GDC 2023 Bizkaia Award Awarded at the Fun & Serious Game Festival Cacoward Awarded at Doomworld.com for the new DOOM 1 level E1M8b Tech Hall of FameIncluded in list of technology creators. Apple II Forever AwardAwarded at KansasFest to members of the Apple II community who had made significant contributions to the Apple II. Most Influential Person in Facebook and Social Games#1 in Games.com's 2011 list. MIT Technology Review TR100Innovators Under 35. Time Magazine's Cyber Elite 50#36, The top 50 tech elite of the year. Top 20 Texans of the YearTexas Monthly's yearly list of the Top 20 Texans Time Magazine's Cyber Elite 50#40, The top 50 tech elite of the year. The Most Influential People in Computer Gaming of All Time#7, GameSpot's "The Most Influential People in Computer Gaming of All Time" list.

Games Name Year Publisher Role(s) Dodge 'Em 1982 Capitol Ideas Software Programmer, Designer, Art, Sound Scout Search 1984 inCider Magazine Programmer, Designer, Sound Cavern Crusader 1984 A+ Magazine Programmer, Designer, Sound, Art Bongo's Bash 1985 A+ Magazine Programmer, Designer, Sound Zippy Zombi 1987 Uptime Disk Monthly Programmer, Designer, Sound Wacky Wizard 1987 Uptime Disk Monthly Programmer, Designer, Sound Subnodule 1987 Keypunch Software, Inc. Programmer, Designer, Sound Pyramids of Egypt 1987 Uptime Disk Monthly Programmer, Designer, Sound Neptune's Nasties 1987 Uptime Disk Monthly Programmer, Designer, Sound Major Mayhem 1987 Nibble Magazine Programmer, Designer, Sound Lethal Labyrinth 1987 Uptime Disk Monthly Programmer, Designer, Sound Krazy Kobra 1987 Uptime Disk Monthly Programmer, Designer, Sound Jumpster 1987 Uptime Disk Monthly Programmer, Designer, Sound Evil Eye 1987 Uptime Disk Monthly Programmer, Designer, Sound James Clavell's Shōgun 1988 Infocom Programmer Dangerous Dave in the Deserted Pirate's Hideout 1988 Uptime Disk Monthly Programmer, Designer, Sound, Art City Centurian 1988 Nibble Magazine Programmer, Designer, Sound, Art Zork Zero: The Revenge of Megaboz 1989 Infocom Programmer Zappa Roidz 1989 Softdisk Publishing Programmer, Designer Twilight Treasures 1989 Softdisk Publishing Associate Editor Space Rogue 1989 Origin Systems Programmer Might and Magic II: Gates to Another World 1989 New World Computing Lead programmer Magic Boxes 1989 Softdisk Publishing Lead programmer Journey: The Quest Begins 1989 Infocom Programmer How to Weigh an Elephant 1989 Softdisk Publishing Programmer Big Blue Disk #32 1989 Softdisk Publishing Programmer Big Blue Disk #35 1989 Softdisk Publishing Contributor The Catacomb Abyss 1989 Softdisk Programmer Arthur: The Quest for Excalibur 1989 Infocom Programmer Sub Stalker 1990 Softdisk Publishing Programmer, Designer, Sound, Art Pixel Puzzler 1990 Softdisk Publishing Pixel Puzzle Maker Dinosorcerer 1990 Softdisk Publishing Programmer Dark Designs II: Closing the Gate 1990 Softdisk Publishing Level Designer Commander Keen 1: Marooned on Mars 1990 Apogee Software Programmer, Level Designer Commander Keen 2: The Earth Explodes 1990 Apogee Software Programmer, Level Designer Commander Keen 3: Keen Must Die! 1990 Apogee Software Programmer, Level Designer Catacomb 1990 Softdisk Publishing Programmer Big Blue Disk #40 1990 Softdisk Publishing Associate Editor Big Blue Disk #41 1990 Softdisk Publishing Associate Editor Big Blue Disk #44 1990 Softdisk Publishing Associate Editor Alfredo's Stupendous Surprise 1990 Softdisk Programmer Xenopods 1991 Softdisk Publishing Engine Tools Slordax: The Unknown Enemy 1991 Softdisk Engine Tools Rescue Rover 1991 Softdisk Programmer Rescue Rover 2 1991 Expert Software, Froggman, Softdisk Programmer Shadow Knights 1991 Softdisk Publishing Programmer, Level Designer Paragon 1991 Softdisk Engine Tools Paganitzu 1991 Apogee Software Special Thanks Hovertank 3D 1991 Softdisk Programmers Dangerous Dave in the Haunted Mansion 1991 Softdisk Programmer Commander Keen: Keen Dreams 1991 Softdisk Programmer Commander Keen 4: Secret of the Oracle 1991 Apogee Software Programmer, Level Designer Commander Keen 5: The Armageddon Machine 1991 Apogee Software Programmer, Level Designer Commander Keen 6: Aliens Ate My Baby Sitter! 1991 FormGen Programmer, Level Designer The Catacomb (Catacomb II) 1991 Softdisk Programmer Catacomb 3-D 1991 Softdisk Programming Wolfenstein 3D 1992 Apogee Software Programmer, Designer, Sound Spear of Destiny 1992 FormGen Level Designer Cyberchess 1992 Softdisk Engine Tools Terror of the Catacombs 1993 Froggman Engine Tools Street Ball 1993 Froggman Engine Tools Shadowcaster 1993 Origin Systems Engine Tools ScubaVenture: The Search for Pirate's Treasure 1993 Softdisk Engine Tools Dangerous Dave's Risky Rescue 1993 Softdisk Engine Tools Curse of the Catacombs 1993 Froggman Engine Tools Bio Menace 1993 Apogee Software Engine Tools Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold 1993 Apogee Software Programmer Doom 1993 id Software Programmer, Designer Corridor 7: Alien Invasion 1994 Capstone Software Engine Tools Super 3D Noah's Ark 1994 Wisdom Tree Programmer Doom II: Hell on Earth 1994 GT Interactive Programmer, Designer Blake Stone: Planet Strike 1994 FormGen Programmer Heretic 1994 id Software Executive Producer The Ultimate Doom 1995 GT Interactive Programmer, Designer Hexen: Beyond Heretic 1995 id Software Executive Producer Heretic: Shadow of the Serpent Riders 1996 id Software Executive Producer Final Doom 1996 id Software; Atari, Inc. Programmer, Designer Quake 1996 id Software Programmer, Designer Chex Quest 1996 Digital Café Engine Programmer Doom 64 1997 Midway Games Engine Tools, Designer Dominion: Storm Over Gift 3 1998 Eidos Interactive Music Director Daikatana 2000 Eidos Interactive Designer Red Faction (mobile version) 2001 THQ Wireless Programmer Anachronox 2001 Eidos Interactive Level Designer Hyperspace Delivery Boy! 2002 Monkeystone Games Lead Programmer Jewels and Jim 2003 THQ Wireless Level Designer Dig It! 2003 THQ Wireless Level Designer Congo Cube 2003 THQ Wireless, RealArcade Programmer Cartoon Network: Block Party 2004 Majesco Programmer Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows 2005 Midway Games Special Thanks Area 51 2005 Midway Austin Additional Designer Ravenwood Fair 2010 Lolapps Programmer, Designer, Sound Marvel Super Hero Squad Online 2011 Gazillion Entertainment Inc. Special Thanks Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Commander 2012 Ubisoft, Inc. Designer Pettington Park 2012 Zynga Game Network, Inc. CEO, Additional Design Dodger Down 2013 Howljerk Games Testing and Feedback Play Gig-it 2013 Gig-it Corp Special Thanks Techno Dash 2014 Hammerwing Studios, Inc. Special Thanks Dangerous Dave in the Deserted Pirate's Hideout 2015 John Romero Programmer, Designer, Sound, Art Grom Skate 2015 Grom Social Inc. Designer, Sound Warpcop III 2017 indie published Designer, Sound July 4, 1976 2017 Playbarf Programmer, Sound, Designer, Writer Gunman Taco Truck 2017 Romero Games Ltd. Programmer, Sound, Designer, Writer SIGIL 2019 Romero Games Ltd. Programmer, Designer Empire of Sin 2020 Romero Games Ltd. Programmer SIGIL II 2023 Romero Games Ltd. Programmer, Designer