So I recently came across John Romero’s autobiographical book called Doom Guy: Life In First Person. The book delves into the obvious talking points; Romero’s early career, the formation of id Software and the subsequent creation of the many landmark games produced, his later career, and other things. There’s also the personal side of things that make the autobiographical stuff worthwhile; his upbringing, his view on things today, stuff like that. That stuff… well, your mileage is going to vary on that stuff, but the insights into the gaming stuff is what sold me on this book.
This is a better book than I was expecting. Part of it has to due with Romero possessing such keen insight and recollection of past events that very few people have. Oftentimes, whenever someone is pressed on past events, they’ll either provide a fuzzy recollection or they claim that they simply don’t recall. Romero doesn’t have that problem. Everything is written and retold with such detail that it’s almost as though he’s been writing this book his entire life. The only other book I could think that comes across as similar is the Bret Hart bio from ages ago.
Is there a possibility of some things being embellished or perhaps told from a certain point of view? Always, but that’s always the case with these things. I’ve read bios that were completely full of shit from page 1. I didn’t get that case here. I got Romero’s side of the story, it felt genuine, it felt like it came from the heart. And for what it’s worth, I’m on my fourth reading of the book. I don’t say that often for something I’ve read fairly recently.
All in all, Doom Guy gets a thumbs up from me. Tremendous read. Well worth checking out.
dtm666 