Themselves, as, squinting and light-headed, they attempt to re-enter the world. After finishing the book, readers may come away feeling like they've just played a round of Doom

But if the narration is sometimes dry, the story rarely is readers can almost feel Carmack and Romero's thrill as they create, particularly when they're working on their magnum opus, Doom. The author gives his subjects much leeway on the violence question, and his thoroughness results in some superfluous details. Masters of Doomis the first book to chronicle this industry’s greatest story, written by one of the medium’s leading observers. There are the high-tech improvements-e.g., 'diminished lighting' and 'texture-mapping'-and pop cultural challenges, as when the two create an update of the Nazi-themed shooter Castle Wolfenstein. Fortunately, journalist Kushner glosses over Carmack and Romero's fame, preferring to describe the particulars of video game creation. All-nighters filled with pizza, slavish work and scatological humor eventually add up to a cultural sea change, where the games obsess the players almost as much as they obsess their creators. They and their company, id, innovate both technologically and financially, finding ways to give a PC game 'side-scrolling,' which allows players to feel like action is happening beyond the screen, and deciding to release games as shareware, giving some levels away gratis and enticing gamers to pay for the rest. Masters of Doom is the book you didn’t know about but will recommend to everyone after reading it.

Carmack is the obsessive and antisocial genius with the programming chops Romero the goofy and idea-inspired gamer. The two post-adolescents meet at a small Louisiana tech company in the mid-1980s and begin honing their gaming skills.

Swept the video gaming world, whiz kids John Romero and John Carmack were shaking things up with their influential-and sometimes controversial-video game creations.

Masters of Doom by David Kushner