Masters of Doom

How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture

By: David Kushner

Narrated by: Wil Wheaton

Length: 12 hrs and 43 mins

Publisher's summary

Masters of Doom is the amazing true story of the Lennon and McCartney of video games: John Carmack and John Romero. Together, they ruled big business. They transformed popular culture. And they provoked a national controversy. More than anything, they lived a unique and rollicking American Dream, escaping the broken homes of their youth to produce the most notoriously successful game franchises in history - Doom and Quake - until the games they made tore them apart. This is a story of friendship and betrayal, commerce and artistry - a powerful and compassionate account of what it's like to be young, driven, and wildly creative.

©2003 David Kushner (P)2012 Audiobooks.com

Critic reviews

"Compelling . . . Masters of Doom succeeds on several levels. It's just great storytelling, with perfect pacing, drama and characterization. It's also an excellent business book, a cautionary tale with the kind of insider detail that other writers working in the genre should envy." ( Houston Chronicle)

“Kushner’s mesmerizing tale of the Two Johns moves at a rapid clip . . . describing the twists and turns of fate that led them to team up in creating the most powerful video games of their generation. . . . An exciting combination of biography and technology.” ( USA Today)

“Meticulously researched . . . as a ticktock of the creative process and as insight into a powerful medium too often dismissed as kids’ stuff, Masters of Doom blasts its way to a high score.” ( Entertainment Weekly)

Love of Games and Startups

This is a fun listen especially if you like history of gaming, computing and startups.

Starts strong and ends painfully.

Last third of the book is almost exclusively about the drama surrounding the game studios and less about the games themselves, any effort to explain the technological challenges or innovations was absent

Simply amazing

This was an amazing story that many have never heard. I'm so glad that I could feel like I was a part of the two John's lives as I listened.

Josh

Enjoyable

It was a grwat title to see how great minds developed, came together, and evolved. You also gain a strong sense of the evolution of the gaming market. Will read again.

This is the perfect story telling style for Games

This book is fantastic. Where other video game books seem to focus primarily on the business and marketing side of game companies, this one goes balls deep into the Id lifestyle and design of their games. It is truly a book made for gamers and computer enthusiasts.

I really wish more of the game biography's out there had this much quality and compassion to them. Because to me, what I want to hear most about is how these games were made and put together. Not just stories of the CEO and his advertising team. The Programmers, Artists and writers. And Masters of Doom is the book of books.

It's like how Motley Crue's The Dirt is for metal and Errol Flynn's My Wicked, Wicked Ways is for Golden age film and high adventure. Grab Masters of Doom today, I'd be surprised if any game book will ever top this one. I now want the author and reader to make a sequel to show what the 2 John's have been up too since 2003 were it leaves off.

demonically good, devilishly entertaining

it was a great listen even if a bit vague in some places. definitely worth a listen if you care about gaming history, and Sheldon's mortal frienamie.

A great walkthru of video game history of Doom.

I loved this title. Wil Weaton was great. This era of video game history captures the pioneers, the two John's, at a time of 3D pioneering and evolving complexities of trying to manage independent video game companies.

Amazing Read

Wonderful content. Hope to read more from this author. Has to be one of the best books about video games.

Good book great performance

The story of the book is interesting and Will Wheaton’s performance is just right. All the intonations and impressions are just perfect for the book.

Ok

Overall pretty good but there were some transphobic comments I didn't like. It's from 2003 but still.