Meet John Romero: One of the Godfathers of the First-Person Shooter

Motherboard meets John Romero, one of the creators behind Wolfenstein 3D, DOOM, and Quake, breakthrough games that all but created the first-person shooter genre.

Follow MOTHERBOARD

[habbekratzz]

Wolfenstein, Doom & Quake. That is an epic track record.

[williammclaughlin]

Without quake, half life would not be, without half life, valve would not be, without valve, no steam. This man is the father of modern gaming.

[jdtug]

"My stepdad made a game called Doom...."
John Romero: That's cute.
Rest of the world: :O

[Jayden-tqto]

"MY DAD MADE A GAME CALLED DOOM"

OKAY CHILD

[MrLolzieboy]

He could easily be a Dragon Force member.

[masonnix]

That's a true legend he made no money from Quake  but he finished it anyway before leaving rather the leaving half finished then selling it, that showed wanst just in it for the money and he actually cared about games.
He gave us the First person shooter.

Alot of modern developers can learn alot from this man.

[AdamCeladin]

Thank you for making my childhood Cool John !!!

[OhRaez]

John Romero is the prime example of living life doing what you love and not solely for the money.
If he can make games without getting paid, and just be completely happy finishing his art and seeing the reaction to it, then godspeed for him. People should respect this and follow suit in life

[Cinemarkerz]

He lives a rather simple life considering the huge legacy he helped build. Respect to this man. Infinite respect.

[BhushanVaidya]

Nothing but respect for Romero, Carmack and the entire ID team. I got into gaming in late 90's due to these guys. Still play their titles. Thank you for giving us DOOM/Quake... <3

[nicolasriveros]

my respects for this man are longer than his Hair

[oscarsunkiss]

There's no greed in this guys voice...I want to be him.

[Tripfromfacade]

"Especially with modding and being open and letting people modify your game." Honestly the most respectable thing a dev could ever say. The modding community owes so much to doom and the mods are what makes it the greatest game ever made.

[Waynside]

“I just want to make games I’m not here to make all the money” somewhere in a office an EA CEOs head just exploded

[Vitaliuz]

At first I wanted to write a cheesy comment, but after watching the entire video, I thought that I'd better just leave a like, and close the video tab with deep respect in my heart for that great man.

[ThePlamzJoker]

John Romero is a legend, as are the others who formed Id Software with him. Doom is still one of the greatest things ever and always will be, and it's always fascinating to hear the story, struggles and history behind making the game that shaped first-person shooters. <3

[alerey]

mid 90s programmers: using tons of paper books, manuals, bibles = Respect.

[Chubzdoomer]

One of the coolest, most talented developers ever.

[lordfrazao]

1:30

As an aspiring game dev this part of the video is the most inspiring for me, John Romero started learning programming in 1982 and only reaped results (launching commercially successful games) in 1992.

It took him at least 8 years to reach this result between hits and misses (probably a lot more misses than hits). I daily feel like shit for not being able to understand or do something in C# and I think that comes from our way of life today, everything accelerated. We have to quickly learn new technologies, we consume instant content from social networks, the job market is demanding, and consequently we end up putting too much pressure on ourselves (at least I do).

So be patient, everything takes time. Just don't stop and know how to enjoy the journey.

[sodi]

I played Doom as a kid its scared the shit outta me but I loved it all I could play was Doom 1 Demo disk. Now I've played all the dooms and I'm 29