Masters of Doom cover art

Masters of Doom

How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture

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Masters of Doom

By: David Kushner
Narrated by: Wil Wheaton
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About this listen

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
Business Business & Careers Video Game Inspiring Thought-Provoking
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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)

What listeners say about Masters of Doom

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Brilliant book

Finishes off just before the launch of Doom 3, this book covers the rise and fall of Id software and ionstorm. Really engaging and focuses on the people behind the projects. Prepare to google Carmacks reverse.

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brilliant!!

will Wheaton does brilliantly as narrator ( even though I'm not a fan) and brings the book to life, this is a must read for gamers and people wanting to understand a massively important step in cultural history

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A Blast from the past

I like how the narator really brought out IDs rockstar attitude whenever he quoted John Ramero

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Not just read, performed

This is a compelling story - particularly the early chapters leading up to the release of Doom. As narrator, Wil Wheaton is clearly invested in the subject matter and dramatises the book, rather than just reading it. I found it hard to stop listening once I'd started.

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Wonderful Wil Wheaton

Average writing nothing stylistically special but it's not supposed to be. It's a good story, well informed and presented. Wil Wheaton, however, is a wet dream for the ears.

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Behind the scenes

After Elite, Doom was my favourite game. To find out the backstory to its creation was like this was brilliant. The atmosphere, passiin and optimism of working in startup organisations always attracts me. It is all recreated here, along with the darker elements.

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Surprise

As a gamer of this generation I found this interesting listen and a good bit of nostalgia... Wil Wheaton does a great job of narration too

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If you grew up with Doom you'll like this.

This is an interesting listen, if you grew up playing Wolfenstein and Doom covering everything from the first Commander Keen game to Quake. If you are not into computer games then this is probably not for you.
The narration is a little cutesy sometimes, and I didn't really like the impressions of the iD guys. However it was interesting enough to keep me listening.

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A Great Human and Technological Saga

"Masters of Doom" is yet another tale of 2 buddies starting an IT company that shook the world (Bill Gates/Steve Allen, Steve Jobs/Steve Wozniak, Larry Page/Sergey Brin, ...).

Having read biographies of all the pairs mentioned above, why did I bother to read yet another biography ? Because, each of these is a different story, and when well written (and read) these are engrossing human sagas that also place our modern technological world in context.

"Masters of Doom" has it all.

The pair of characters that it follows are anything but boring, and the text does a great job of bringing their character and idisyncracies to life (and Wil Wheaton's reading is excellent). If you have any interest in technology (not necessarily computer games, which I do not play) then this is a sure winner.

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Very insightful

As game dev this is a must read! More to the fact that ppl in this book are still alive and part of the industry even today.

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