John Romero
John Romero | |
|---|---|
| Occupation | Video game designer |
| Spouse | Raluca Alexandra Pleşca |
Alfonso John Romero (born October 28 1967 in Colorado Springs, Colorado) is a well-known game designer, programmer, and developer in the video game industry. He is best known as a co-founder of id Software and lead designer of their groundbreaking personal computer games Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, and Quake. His unique game designs and development tools, along with the revolutionary programming techniques created and implemented by id Software's lead programmer John Carmack, led to a mass-popularization of the first person shooter, or FPS, in the 1990s. He is also credited with coining the term "deathmatch."
Biography
Apple II
John Romero's first game, Scout Search, was published in 1984 by inCider magazine, a popular Apple II magazine during the 1980s. Romero's first company, Capitol Ideas Software, was listed as the developer for at least 12 of his earliest published games. Romero captured the December cover of the Apple II magazine Nibble for three years in a row starting in 1987. He also won a programming contest in A+ magazine during its first year of publishing with his game Cavern Crusader.
Romero's first industry job was at Origin Systems in 1987 after programming games for 8 years. He worked on the Apple II to Commodore 64 port of 2400 A.D. which was eventually scrapped due to slow sales of the Apple II version. John then moved onto Space Rogue, a game by Paul Neurath. During this time, Romero was asked if he would be interested in joining Paul's soon-to-start company Blue Sky Productions, eventually renamed Looking Glass Technologies. Instead, Romero left Origin Systems to co-found a game company named Inside Out Software, where he ported Might & Magic II from the Apple II to the Commodore 64. He had almost finished the Commodore 64 to Apple II port of Tower Toppler, but Epyx unexpectedly cancelled all its ports industrywide due to their tremendous investment in the first round of games for the upcoming Atari Lynx.
During this short time, Romero did the artwork for the Apple IIGS version of Dark Castle, a port from the Macintosh. Also during this time, John and his friend Lane Roathe co-founded a company named Ideas From The Deep and wrote versions of a game named Zappa Roids for the Apple II, PC and Apple IIGS. Their last collaboration together was an Apple II disk operating system for Infocom's games Zork Zero, Arthur, Shogun and Journey. Ideas From The Deep still exists to this day at IFD.
id Software
Romero moved to Shreveport, Louisiana in March 1989 and joined Softdisk as a programmer in its Special Projects division. After several months of helping the PC monthly disk magazine Big Blue Disk, he officially moved into the department until he started a PC gaming division in July 1990 named Gamer's Edge (originally titled PCRcade). Romero hired John Carmack into the department from his freelancing in Kansas City, moved Adrian Carmack into the division from Softdisk's art department, and convinced Tom Hall to come in at night and help with game design. Romero and the others then left Softdisk to form id Software [1].
Romero worked at id Software from its incorporation in 1991 until 1996. He was involved in the creation of several milestone games, including Commander Keen, Wolfenstein 3D, Quake, and Doom and Doom II.[1] He also served as Executive Producer (and Game Designer) on Heretic and HeXen.
Ion Storm
Romero later co-founded Ion Storm Inc. in Dallas, Texas with id co-worker Tom Hall [1], where he designed and produced Daikatana. This ambitious shooter was announced in 1997 with a release date for the Christmas shopping season of that year. However, this release date slipped repeatedly in the coming months, and the game began to accrue negative press.
In particular, a 1997 advertisement simply stated, "John Romero's About To Make You His Bitch," which insulted many gamers. The massive pre-hype for the game and the subsequent delays (it was not released until April 2000) led reviewers to lash out at the game much harder than had it been released on time.[2] Upon release, Daikatana was critically panned and appeared on numerous "top 10 worst games" listings. However, it sold over 200,000 copies worldwide in its first year of sales. Romero has since claimed that the game generated enough sales to recoup its extensive production costs.
Romero departed with Tom Hall immediately after the release of Hall's Anachronox game and the subsequent closing of the Dallas Ion office.
Monkeystone Games
In July 2001, Romero and Hall founded Monkeystone Games in order to develop and publish games for mobile devices, and Monkeystone released 15 games (approximately) during its short lifespan of three and a half years. Some highlights of their developments included Hyperspace Delivery Boy (Pocket PC, PC, Mac, Linux, GBA), Congo Cube (Pocket PC, PC, BREW, J2ME), and Red Faction for the Nokia N-Gage.
Midway Games
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. John 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.
Slipgate Ironworks
On August 31, 2005, Romero confirmed [3] that he has been working on a yet-to-be-announced MMOG at his newly opened development studio, Slipgate Ironworks. [3] It has been reported that the name is 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 also said that he would not reveal anything about the company or the game until 2007.
On July 22, 2006, John Romero and former co-worker Tom Hall guest hosted episode 53 of the podcast The Widget[4]
Cyberathlete Professional League
On December 20, 2006, John Romero announced a new FPS project for the Cyberathlete Professional League titled Severity for both consoles and PC. [5] Tom Mustaine, (ex-Studio Director at Ritual Entertainment) will act as Director of Game Development at CPL's new studio.
It is stated that Severity will be a multiplayer first person shooter. The game will be built on technology licensed from id Software.
Personal Life
Between 1999 and 2003,[6] Romero was involved with Stevie Case, a prominent female gaming industry figure who achieved early notoriety for beating him in a Quake deathmatch. Until their breakup in early 2003, Case was the COO of Monkeystone Games.[6] In January 2004, Romero married Raluca Alexandra Pleşca, originally from Bucharest, Romania . He has two children with his ex-wife Kelly, Michael and Steven Patrick Romero and one daughter with his ex-wife Elizabeth, Lillia Antoinette.
Trivia
- In 2002, Romero put his heavily modified Ferrari up for auction on eBay.[7] Some of the modifications included a parallel port from the engine compartment into the cockpit next to the passenger's seat which one could plug a laptop into, and tune the engine while the car was running.
- Romero's favorite electronic game (computer, console, handheld, et al.) of all time is Chrono Trigger.[8]
- Wrote a comic book in high school with "10 Different Ways to Torture Someone"; featured entries such as "Poke a needle all over the victim's body and in a few days . . . watch him turn into a giant scab" and "burn the victim's feet while victim is strapped in a chair." [9]
- The webcomic Penny Arcade (webcomic) has a running joke that John Romero is actually a woman, often commenting on how hot 'she' is [10]
Doom II
In the Doom II final level "Icon of Sin", the boss is a giant goat's skull with a fragment missing from its forehead. It says, "To win the game, you must kill me, John Romero!", distorted and in reverse to sound like a demonic chant. One can use the "idclip" cheat to enter the boss and see Romero's severed head which is skewered to a post. The player defeats the boss (without the idclip cheat) by shooting rockets into its exposed brain after activating a lift and riding it; this kills the boss because Romero's head functions as its health meter; when he "dies", the boss is killed and the game is finished. Using the idclip cheat allows the player to walk through the wall blocking the head. The player can then kill it.
References
- ^ a b c The Escapist - John Romero: The Escapist Interview. The Escapist.
- ^ "Romero Threatens to Make You His Bitch". Top 25 Dumbest Moments in Gaming History. June 2003. GameSpy.
- ^ News - John Romero's new studio. September 21, 2005. Eurogamer.
- ^ .The Widget - Games, Tech, Whatever >> Ep. 53 - Just Hanging Out
- ^ Romero Announces New CPL Specific FPS
- ^ a b "Interview with the Goddess: Stevie Case and John Romero. March 2002. GameWEEK.
- ^ Brutal Luxury. Rome.ro. Retrieved Auygust 14, 2006.
- ^ Verbosity -- John Romero interview.
- ^ Masters of Doom by David Kushner. Quoted in The Weekly Standard, Vol. 012, Issue 23. [[1]]
- ^ [2]
- Kushner, David (2003). Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture, Random House. ISBN 0-375-50524-5.
External links
Interviews & articles
- Adrenaline Vault interview with John Romero from April 2007
- GameSpot Designer Threads interview, a streaming audio show, with host Greg Kasavin and guest John Romero, discussing the past, present, and the future outlook into game development, including Romeros newly founded design studio, Slipgate Ironworks.
- The Guardian interview, with John Romero in July 2006 about MMOs and multiplayer games.
- Quake Expo Interview, an interview with John during the 10th year celebration of Quake
- Games.net Video Interview, an exclusive interview with John Romero in June 2006.
- The Gadget Show, a phone-in interview with John Romero with a wide range of topics covered.
- Apogee Legacy Interview, with John Romero about his experiences working with Apogee Software during its early days.
- "A Hardcore Elegy For Ion Storm", Salon article on Ion Storm
- Gamers.com interview, with John Romero during his time at Midway Games in 2005.
- Creating DOOM: Romero Remembers, an interview with Romero about the creation of Doom
- Secrets of the wireless elite: Romero's N-Gage tips, an interview with John Romero during his days developing games for the Nokia N-Gage in 2003.
- Doupe.cz Interview, with John Romero during his Monkeystone days in 2002.
- Cerebral Cortex 314, an interview with John Romero in 1996 discussing the development of Commander Keen.
- TIME's CyberElite, Romero is #36 on the list
- Hangin' Out With John Romero, an in-depth and unique interview with John
- Verbosity Interview with Romero, taken during Daikatana development
- Interesting and humorous information on everything2.com
- "Romero Threatens to Make You His Bitch", GameSpy piece in the "25 Dumbest Gaming Moments" article
- Methos Quake interview, with John Romero in 1996 just after the formation of Ion Storm.
Articles on the rise and fall of Daikatana
- "Stormy Weather" article at the Dallas Observer
- "From 'Doom' to Gloom: The Story of a Video Game Flop", NPR Morning Edition story on Romero, part of a series of other famous debacles
- Knee Deep in a Dream: The Story of Daikatana, a GameSpot series of behind-the-scenes articles on Romero and his work on Daikatana