Masters of Doom

I'll be honest, the book is probably not crunchy as I would have liked it. More insight into Carmack and company's technical feats would have been ideal. But the nostalgia factor–I was one of the nerds downloading shareware releases of Wolfenstein 3D and Doom–and Wil Wheaton's excellent narration of the audiobook made this such a compelling book.

As an aside, I can't help but shake the notion that Kushner was extremely kind to both John's. It's not really a case of who's the better person as it seems success destroyed any chance either had for being
satisfied.

One of the first computer games I ever played was Wolfenstein 3D on my moms Packard Bell 386 computer. Eventually I also played Doom on it as well. At the time I didn't realize what was behind those games. Masters is more a biography of John Carmack and John Romero - the technical and design talent behind these games and id software.

It's crazy to me how this company got started – “borrowing” computers from their day job to program on them at night and eventually release Wolfenstein. The small group of guys working in their house part time ended up impacting the world of video games as much as anyone else has, and this is the rise and fall of that empire.

Loved this. Didn't want it to end. As a hardcore player of Doom and every Quake game, this was right up my nostalgia alley.

I enjoyed the perspective the book gave on founder/team dynamics and the company politics that were going on behind the scenes for each of the games. A ton of drama, and a surprisingly poignant progression as (mild spoiler here...) the team continually reached for and failed to find that euphoric state of team dynamic and flow that they had during Doom development.

Not quite 5 stars, as it could have gone deeper, especially with Carmack. Carmack's work is just so damn impressive—could read about it all day. What an absolute force.

This book has me longing for more similar stories from competitors like Valve and Epic, preferably interweaved into this story. Those were my gaming years, and after half-life, I never really got into gaming anymore as much as I did back then.

Growing up with all their games, but not caring about the creators at that time, this story was an entertaining read. It was even a little relatable, being a programmer myself, where my passion became my job.

It was hard to keep up with the names at times wherein one sentence he would use their first name and in another their last name.

Executive Summary: This book is what I wish [b:Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle that Defined a Generation 18505802 Console Wars Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle that Defined a Generation Blake J. Harris https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1391419511s/18505802.jpg 26198818] would have been. As a huge fan of id games growing up, and a software developer this book really worked for me, but will probably be too slow for many people.Audio book: I was doubly excited to do this book when I saw that [a:Wil Wheaton 37075 Wil Wheaton https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1356706649p2/37075.jpg] was the narrator. He's a perfect fit for this book. He also does more accents and voices than I'm used to. Overall an excellent job.Full ReviewDoom along with a few other games defined my childhood and shaped my future in a way than the Nintendo games I played before them never quite did. PC games made me fall in love with the computer. It made me look at them as more than just game machines. I wanted to know how they work. I wanted to master them. John Carmack was one of my heroes. I wanted to make PC games for a living.As with most childhood dreams, they rarely work out as planned. I did go on to be a software developer, just not for games. I am one of those Application developers the two Johns both loathed to be relegated to. I decided I'd rather play games than spend long hours making them. I'm grateful that they never gave up on the idea however.I loved that this book not only got into the guys who made some of my favorite and inspiration games, but also quite a bit about the software process itself. No he didn't get super technical and talk about algorithms (much), but he did give insight to time, and skills and some of the big leaps John Carmack made along the way to cement his and Romero's names in history.I will say that the software process stuff that I loved may have a negative effect on the casual gamer or even the more hardcore Doom/id fans that don't always have an interest in “how the sausage is made”. I think Mr. Kusher does an excellent job of balancing facts and dialogue in a way that you feel you're along for the ride without feeling like he's just making up conversations to fill pages which was my main issue with [b:Console Wars 18505802 Console Wars Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle that Defined a Generation Blake J. Harris https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1391419511s/18505802.jpg 26198818].Overall I though this book was quite excellent, but it won't be for everyone.

One of the first computer games I ever played was Wolfenstein 3D on my moms Packard Bell 386 computer. Eventually I also played Doom on it as well. At the time I didn't realize what was behind those games. Masters is more a biography of John Carmack and John Romero - the technical and design talent behind these games and id software.

It's crazy to me how this company got started – “borrowing” computers from their day job to program on them at night and eventually release Wolfenstein. The small group of guys working in their house part time ended up impacting the world of video games as much as anyone else has, and this is the rise and fall of that empire.

“Pizza” is mentioned 39 times. “Render” and “polygon” combined for 19. Would you read a book about Beethoven that only mentions how great were his symphonies and how everyone loved them without ever talking about what exactly made them great (and probably not even discussing Fidelio's plot)? So what exactly were Carmack's innovations in game engines? Oh, he was very smart and worked a lot; now let's talk instead about his Ferrari (have I already mentioned that his office was full of pizza boxes?).