AUTHOR’S NOTE: The writer of this review was given early access to the book from Abrams Press.

If, on a daily basis, you hop into a game like Call of Duty to virtually assassinate opponents all over the world in fast-paced, online multiplayer deathmatches, you owe thanks to John Romero. Romero, along with John and Adrian Carmack, Tom Hall and many talented creators helped birth the concept of esports and network play through the use of the internet with the release of DOOM, a game which absolutely needs no introduction as it’s easily one of the greatest pieces of software ever coded.

But the creation of DOOM is just a part of John Romero’s legendary run in video games. Romero was crafting hits years before players ripped and tore their ways through the demons of hell, and as we approach the 30th anniversary of the title that popularized the genre we now know as first-person shooters, Romero is still helping to shape the industry decades later. His latest endeavor, Doom Guy: Life in First Person, sees Romero shifting from using a keyboard to code to writing a book about his extraordinary life. For those who were there during the apex of his career in the mid-90s or came to recognize his name years later, Doom Guy is a not to be missed personal tale that deeply humanizes who many refer to as one of the first rock stars of video games.

The opening of Doom Guy has Romero describing an event that he was scheduled to speak at but instructed to flip the script on the crowd and talk about himself over his games. Romero describes the audible gasps and shocks in the crowd when opening up about his families trouble with the law and his tough childhood. This is something that both the crowd, and the reader, would not have expected from the person who accomplished more by the start of their 30s than many of us – myself among them – have in their entire lives.

This context adds so much more flavor to an individual who has spent much of their life in the public eye and makes what Romero created before, during, and after his time at id Software that much more incredible. For anyone who grew up seeing John Romero on programs like The Electric Playground or reading interviews with them in magazines and online, one would incorrectly assume that he must have had a typical upbringing but that was far from the case.

Romero doesn’t gloss over or shrug off childhood struggles, but you can tell from the passages in Doom Guy that he lets the bright moments far outweigh the dark ones. There was an element of natural talent that set Romero on the path to become an iconic game designer no doubt, but it was also a journey fraught with hardships and challenges that presented themselves at every turn along the way. It’s this openness that makes Doom Guy absolutely necessary reading for anyone with even a passing interest in the history of the video game medium.

Much of Doom Guy further helps the reader both know and relate better with John Romero as you learn just how humble of a person they really are. It’s mind-blowing to see at a time when DOOM was pulling in money hand over fist that there was seemingly more money put away for a rainy day then spent on fast cars. Much of what Romero earned was also spent helping his family, even those who he was somewhat estranged from, which you just love to read and it makes you think that if you had a meteoric rise to fame like he did, would you act the same way. Personally I think I would but also I don’t know, especially thinking back to the person I was at the age when Romero was when id launched DOOM onto the world.

For those coming to Doom Guy to read about a first hand account about the creation of Commander Keen, Wolfenstein 3-D, DOOM, and Quake, many pages are devoted to those beloved classics and it’s as page turning as you would expect. Even knowing parts of the story from books like Masters of Doom by David Kushner and how history unfolded, you’ll still somehow find yourself thinking “I hope they can get DOOM out the door” or really wanting to see Romero’s original vision for what would become Quake come to fruition.

Romero at his core is someone who wants to make things, but with the meteoric rise of id Software, he had to adapt to the business world quickly as you’ll read in Doom Guy. Without his diversion into this section of the industry, there’s a chance many of us wouldn’t have got other iconic PC titles from studios like Raven Software, who readers here will know from the likes of X-Men Origins: Wolverine Uncaged Edition. The passages where Romero describes juggling the day-to-day side of id at times can almost be as engaging as the creative side of what into making id’s breakout hits.

More so than the era that gave rise to the first-person shooter genre, what I wanted to read in Doom Guy was John Romero’s time developing Daikatana and what he did after that which I was happy to get. You even got first hand accounts of what lead to the infamous Daikatana “John Romero’s about to make you his bitch” ad which he was not as happy about as you would think. It feels like when the world at large talks about John Romero, it largely stops at the turn of the millennium and only picks up with recent endeavors like his return to building maps for DOOM II. You never hear a lot about how they were among one of the earliest game makers to throw their hats into the mobile arena which Romero saw the potential of before the rise of smartphones and the app store, or his brief stint at Midway working on Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows. I hope that those going into Doom Guy find this time in his life just as fascinating as the DOOM/Quake era as I did.

The 300+ pages that make up Doom Guy clip by at a fast and breezy pace, even as your brain struggles to comprehend detailed descriptions of coding languages and programming techniques. It’s at these points where casual readers, or those with a limited knowledge of what goes into making games, may start getting lost, but luckily helpful footnotes are there to help simplify things somewhat. If you really want to continue your education, Romero also provides articles and books for aspiring game makers or those already in the field of development too.

Chances are if you love video games you’re at least passingly familiar with John Romero. Even if you think you know all there is to know about the iconic game maker, Doom Guy: Life in First Person‘s here to remind you that there’s still plenty of story to tell. Not only do you get to expand your knowledge about the genesis of some of the most well-known video games all time, you also get a personal deep dive into a man publicly shaped into a rock star but at their core is someone who just has a deep passion for making things, regardless of the scale. As you read about many auteur developers who have retired from the industry, by the conclusion of Doom Guy it feels as if John Romero is only just getting started.

Doom Guy: Life in First Person by John Romero is available this week from Abrams Press.

You can read an interview I conduced with John Romero about Doom Guy: Life in First Person HERE.