For Doom’s 30th anniversary, the two Johns reflect on its development

Upon its release, Doom established itself as a blueprint for the then-new first-person shooter genre. Going on to become one of the most iconic PC games in all existence, id Software’s FPS retains its legacy as it turns 30 years old.

To celebrate the occasion, John Carmack and John Romero – both of whom played a pivotal role in the game’s development – reflect on their time spent working on Doom. As you can imagine, it holds a lot of fond memories for the pair, who some have described as gaming’s equivalent of Lennon and McCartney.

During one section of the Twitch video (which was moderated by writer David L Craddock), Carmack acknowledged that the original Doom was pretty influential in getting people in the ’90s interested in PC networking. Encouraging fans to understand about upgrading hardware, some have even gone on to become professionals in network engineering, the pair say.

How times have changed

Having just released SIGIL II – a free WAD file for Doom – Romero is aware of how the game is changing all the time, thanks to a dedicated community. A few months back, he played through the MyHouse WAD, a custom story built by a fan that generated a lot of attention due to its House of Leaves-style narrative.

Of course, both Johns have seen how the industry has changed over the last three decades. While advances in AI are making it possible to have smarter enemies in games, Carmack doesn’t believe it’s always for the best. He said he much preferred to have the player be the focus, and intelligent enemies that have independence would not have worked in Doom.

He also laments the loss of game manuals. With how deep some releases are in terms of their lore and mechanics, it’s surprising that manuals aren’t still a thing. Romero even mentions Ultima 5, which has more than one.

A lot may have changed, but the legacy of Doom is unwavering. The series is still going pretty strong, but the OG releases from the ’90s will always be praised due to their influence. Here’s to another 30 years of demon slaying!