Two Johns. One was a quiet, obsessive programmer from a broken home who cared about nothing except writing faster code. The other was a loud, flamboyant designer with a rock-star temperament who wanted to be famous. Together, John Carmack and John Romero created Commander Keen, Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, and Quake, and in doing so invented the modern first-person shooter and reshaped the video game industry.
David Kushner’s book follows them from their separate childhoods through their partnership at id Software in Mesquite, Texas, to the point where their differences became irreconcilable. Carmack was the engine. He wrote the rendering technology that made 3D gaming possible on personal computers, breakthroughs that the rest of the industry copied for the next decade. Romero was the experience. He designed the levels, the gameplay feel, the culture of the company, and the community of players that grew up around their games.
The early chapters have the energy of a garage startup story. Id Software operated out of a lake house. They ate pizza, drank Diet Coke, worked around the clock, and shipped games that changed what people thought computers could do. Doom, released in 1993, was downloaded by an estimated ten million people. The company made millions from shareware distribution, a model where the first episode was free and subsequent episodes cost money. They were making more money than they knew what to do with before most tech companies had figured out the internet.
The breakup is the second half of the book. As id Software grew, Carmack and Romero pulled in opposite directions. Carmack wanted to focus on technology. Romero wanted to build a bigger company and a bigger brand. Romero left to start Ion Storm, a flashy new studio that produced Daikatana, one of the most notorious failures in gaming history. Carmack stayed at id, kept writing engines, and eventually sold the company to Bethesda.
Kushner writes with the pacing of a thriller. The technical material, which could easily become impenetrable, stays accessible because it is always grounded in the personalities driving it. Carmack’s obsession with rendering speed is inseparable from his personality. Romero’s need for spectacle is inseparable from his.
The book has become required reading among game developers and has a loyal following in the broader tech world. The Carmack-Romero dynamic, the builder versus the showman, echoes in partnerships everywhere. Most companies need both. Few survive the collision.
