Recent
Images
News
Videos
Community
Guides
Alfonso John Romero was born in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on October 28, 1967. He entered the game industry in the 1980s, working for the Apple II programming magazine inCider. There he worked on his first game, Scout Search, which was released in 1984 for the Apple II. He then worked for Capital Ideas Software where the company published at least 12 of his games. In 1987 he went to work for Origin Systems, where he worked for eight years as a programmer. He worked on the Commodore 64 port of 2400 A.D. and Space Rogue. He was later offered a position at Blue Sky Production, but instead decided to co-found Inside Out Software, where he worked on Might & Magic II and Tower Toppler. He then co-founded Ideas from the Deep, and worked on Zork Zero, Arthur, Shogun and Journey, all for theApple II.This company still exists today, but is now know as IFD.
After leaving id, Romero then went on to co-found Ion Storm along with Tom Hall. One of the company's first projects was the much-hyped cinematic shooter Daikatana. The game was positioned as Romero's brainchild and advertised as much. Epectations were understandably high as the game was billed as the product of the creator of Doom and Quake. Sadly, development and publicity problems soon arose. The game's marketing was peppered with questionable statements such as "John Romero's about to make you his bitch" and "Suck It Down," which angered many gamers. Rumors emerged of Romero living a rock star lifestyle leaked out of the development house. With Ion Storm's multi-million-dollar office situated in the penthouse level of a Dallas skyscraper, several extravagant purchases such as a Ferrari, and Romero's then-girlfriend and onetime Playboy model Stevie Case being hired as a level designer. Many members of the team quit in frustration and formed a rival company, leading to numerous delays. Daikatana was finally released using the Quake II engine when games like Quake III Arena and Unreal Tournament were using more advanced technology. The many pre-release problems and major flaws in the game's design led to Daikatana being labeled as one of the worst games ever. On February 9, 2005, Eidos confirmed that they would close all Ion Storm offices.
Later Years
John Romero is one of the designers behind the seminal first-person shooters Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, and Quake.
Early Years
The head of John Romero in Doom II
Alfonso John Romero was born in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on October 28, 1967. He entered the game industry in the 1980s, working for the Apple II programming magazine inCider. There he worked on his first game, Scout Search, which was released in 1984 for the Apple II. He then worked for Capital Ideas Software where the company published at least 12 of his games. In 1987 he went to work for Origin Systems, where he worked for eight years as a programmer. He worked on the Commodore 64 port of 2400 A.D. and Space Rogue. He was later offered a position at Blue Sky Production, but instead decided to co-found Inside Out Software, where he worked on Might & Magic II and Tower Toppler. He then co-founded Ideas from the Deep, and worked on Zork Zero, Arthur, Shogun and Journey, all for theApple II.This company still exists today, but is now know as IFD.
id Software
In March 1989, Romero joined Softdisk as a programmer. He left there with other Softdiskemployees, John Carmack, Adrian Carmack (no relation), and Tom Hall to found id Software. His time at id would be what propelled him to fame. id first gained notoriety with 1990's Commander Keen, a side-scrolling action game reminiscent of Super Mario Bros. and other console-only platformers.
It wasn't until the 1992 release of the revolutionary first-person shooter Wolfenstein 3D, that id became a household name among PC gamers. Romero went on to provide key design and programming for the runaway hit shooter Doom and its sequel, Doom II: Hell on Earth. Romero's last game with id was Quake, which was the first PC action game to offer large-scale multiplayer over the Internet. id almost single handedly popularized the first-person shooter with these games, and Romero is credited with coining the term "deathmatch" during his time with the company.
It wasn't until the 1992 release of the revolutionary first-person shooter Wolfenstein 3D, that id became a household name among PC gamers. Romero went on to provide key design and programming for the runaway hit shooter Doom and its sequel, Doom II: Hell on Earth. Romero's last game with id was Quake, which was the first PC action game to offer large-scale multiplayer over the Internet. id almost single handedly popularized the first-person shooter with these games, and Romero is credited with coining the term "deathmatch" during his time with the company.
Ion Storm
The infamous Daikatana ad
Later Years
After Ion Storm, Romero formed Monkeystone Games to focus on smaller games for mobile devices. The company lasted for three and and a half years. He then went to work at Midway on Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows with Tom Hall, but left before the game was completed. Soon after he founded Slipgate Ironworks, currently working on an unnamed MMOG and a new FPS for the Cyberathlete Professional League.
Quotes
- "To win the game you must kill me, John Romero!"
- "I completely love playing and designing games and always will. I am so into games that I listen to game music all day. That may sound strange, but you can guarantee I'm a hardcore gamer and would never let you down by designing a crappy title."
- "I think Doom had just the right mix of elements that keep people coming back to it: great monsters, excellent weapons with great balance, a spooky environment and extreme speed."
- "If you walk into CompUSA or Babbage's and see the vast array of game titles on the shelf, chances are that 95% of those titles are not worth playing."
- "In marketing I've seen only one strategy that can't miss - and that is to market to your best customers first, your best prospects second and the rest of the world last."
- "Daikatanawill be the greatest game of all time"
- "Doom 2 is just such a bigger, badder, better version of Doom"
- "It has to be well timed. It needs to have the right components that maybe contain emerging technologies or something like, say, when Doom came out -- the Network play -- there weren't many games like that. There was a really great 3D world that a lot of people hadn't seen. It was light-years ahead of Wolfenstein. It was shareware, so it had Internet distribution. We used the Internet to get it all over the place. So it used a lot of stuff that was just becoming popular at that time. id just capitalized on it." [Responding to the question of what makes a classic game]
John Romero games
Edit
| Name | Platforms | Developer | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
PAIN released on Nov. 29, 2007 |
PSN, PS3 | Idol Minds L.L.C. |
|
|
Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows released on Dec. 12, 2005 |
XBLM, PS2, XBOX | Midway Games |
|
|
Area-51 released on April 25, 2005 |
XBOX, PC, PS2 | Midway Studios Austin |
|
|
Cartoon Network Block Party |
GBA | Monkeystone Games |
|
|
Congo Cube released on June 22, 2003 |
PC | Monkeystone Games |
|
|
Hyperspace Delivery Boy! released on Dec. 23, 2001 |
GBA, MAC, PC | Monkeystone Games |
|
|
Ultimate Quake released on Sept. 27, 2001 |
PC | id Software |
|
|
Anachronox released on June 27, 2001 |
PC | Ion Storm Inc. |
|
|
Deus Ex released on June 22, 2000 |
PC, MAC, PS2 | Westlake Interactive, Ion Storm Inc. |
|
|
John Romero's Daikatana released on April 14, 2000 |
PC, N64 | Ion Storm Inc., Kemco |
| Full Name: | John Romero |
| Gender: | Male |
| Birthday: | Oct. 28, 1967 |
| Death: | n/a |
| Credited In: | 87 games |
| 1st Game Credit: | Crazy Climber |
| Currently Working For: | |
| Hometown: | Rocklin, California |
| Country: | United States |
| Website: | http://rome.ro/ |
| Email Address: | john@rome.ro |
| Aliases: |
John Romero
