Princeton author David Kushner’s new book analyzes the events leading up to and after the release of the popular and violent video game Doom.
By: Jim Boyle
You’re all alone. Trapped in a strange world, the feeling of terror washes over you. Slowly, you creep along the dark hallways and rooms. You turn the corner, and out pops a horrible monster. Thinking fast, you whip out your double-barreled shotgun and blow its brains out.
Welcome to Doom.
Released in the early ’90s, the first-person computer game became one of the pioneering programs of the gaming industry. More than 10 years later, David Kushner’s new book, Masters of Doom ($24.95), recounts how John Romero and John Carmack made their bloody mark on the American landscape.
"This whole culture of online gaming existed in a larval form until these guys came around," says Mr. Kushner from his Princeton home. "They really helped pioneer the online community we take for granted today. This was a new kind of entertainment back then. Instead of watching Letterman, college students were on the computer fragging each other."
Mr. Kushner will sign copies of his book at Barnes & Noble Booksellers in West Windsor June 5. He began toying with the idea of Masters of Doom after interviewing John Romero for Salon.com in 1996. The longtime video game fan, who received a master’s in creative writing from City University of New York, wanted to create a non-fiction story in the fashion of Hunter S. Thompson and Thomas Wolfe.
Avoiding a lot of the techno-babble that can turn off casual readers, Mr. Kushner put together a compelling story of how two men with extremely different personalities developed a new kind of video game the first-person shooter with the maturation of the video game culture as the backbone.
"I felt like there was this multibillion-dollar industry getting misunderstood," he says. "People think it’s just for kids and geeks. To a certain degree it’s true, but the average player is more than middle-aged. The most popular computer game in the country is Solitaire."
Mr. Kushner actually came into the story after Mr. Carmack and Mr. Romero had parted ways as business partners. Mr. Carmack stayed in charge of id Software, the company the partners had formed in Texas, while Mr. Romero wanted to try his own luck.
"I officially started working on the book a few years ago," says Mr. Kushner. "At that point, ‘Daikatana,’ Romero’s new game, was about to come out, while id’s ‘Quake III Arena’ was also just released. I didn’t know how it was going to end, but these guys decided to make a ‘Doom III’ game. It was serendipity for me that they came out with the first new ‘Doom’ game in 10 years."
Since he came in late in the game, Mr. Kushner relied primarily on interviews. In order to get close to the key people, Mr. Kushner moved to Texas.
"Game developers are famously nocturnal," he says. "I moved down to Dallas so that I could show up at midnight and conduct these interviews. They were pretty open with it because they knew I wanted to re-create a decade in game history as accurately as possible and bring their story to life. I think they appreciated and understood what I was trying to do. I wasn’t out to get them."
Mr. Kushner conducted hundreds of interviews to paint as complete a picture as possible parents, employees, fans. He even got to sit down with Dave Datta, the person responsible for uploading Doom onto the Internet, making it possible for people across the country to access the first chapter of the game for free.
"I wanted to get his perspective on one of the biggest nights in the annals of game history," says Mr. Kushner.
But the key conversations would be between the creators themselves, Mr. Carmack and Mr. Romero. Immediately upon meeting them, Mr. Kushner could sense the obvious differences.
"Romero is just this gregarious guy," he says. "He’s the life of the party, funny, friendly, outgoing. Carmack is just the polar opposite. He’s not the most social guy. On his honeymoon he brought his laptop and worked on codes. Also, to his credit, he’s incredibly generous. People who don’t know them may think it’s arcane, but they are revered in a rock-star way."
The book recounts both programmers’ childhoods and details how they met and formed id Software. It talks about the struggles they encountered in programming Wolfenstein 3D, a precursor to Doom that had the player running around a castle killing Nazis. Some of the criticisms they received indicated how much of an impact Doom would have on the political world.
"People were upset about being able to kill dogs," says Mr. Kushner. "There were more complaints about shooting dogs than shooting Nazis."
With the unleashing of Doom and the bloodier Doom II, id Software rode the wave of success. As quickly as the fan base grew, so did the negative reactions from parent groups and lawmakers.
"Every May, guys like Joe Lieberman would come out and say these games aren’t appropriate for kids," says Mr. Kushner. "The thing is, no one wants kids exposed to inappropriate things. Everyone understands implicitly that there are movies for adults and movies for kids. They can’t grasp that concept when it comes to games. They think all games should be appropriate for 12-year-olds. ‘Grand Theft Auto 3’ is not for kids.
"When I was working on this book, I had to play a lot of video games. One day I was playing ‘Doom’ when my mother-in-law came in. She saw what I was playing and said, ‘That’s what everybody’s making such a big fuss about?’ I don’t think the game is as menacing as it’s made out to be."
David Kushner will sign copies of Masters of Doom at Barnes & Noble Booksellers, MarketFair, 3535 Route 1, West Windsor, June 5, 7 p.m. For information, call (609) 897-9250. On the Web: www.davidkushner.com

