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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 Professionals & Academics Video Game Game Inspiring Thought-Provoking

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)
All stars
Most relevant
For anyone of a certain age that saw the rise of PC gaming this is an incredible listen. It bought back all the memories of the era and I was back in front of the PC eating pizza and destroying demons within days of listening. Perfect amount of story, background, tech talk and humour. Extremely well narrated to. I’d love to see an updated version now that online gaming is so dominant in the gaming world, and it all started in this story.

Back on Quake within hours on listening.

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I never knew what to expect from this book. But it’s really well written. Will Wheaton perfectly narrates this, you can sense his interest in the books subject too - you know he’s a big fan. I was so disappointed when I got to the end knowing I wasn’t going to get my hour a day masters of doom fix.

A great journey!

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Really enjoyed this epic nostalgia trip.

The balance is just right between the details on the games and the more important focus on the human relationships - you don't need to be into programming to enjoy it, the few technical bits are explained very well.

The author really did his homework on this, the book weaves in the cultural background of the 90's brilliantly and charts the longer term history and patterns of the nature of gaming across history - it's all tied into a coherent bit of writing.

Narration is perfect - Highly recommended.

Fraggin Awesome

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really good story telling the details lives of the men who worked at iD. Fantastic

excellent book for the avid gamer

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Doom isn't just a classic video game, it's every bit as rebellious as the subculture it spawned.
It was everything you weren't supposed to like or do, and its creators were no different.
Really enjoyed this.

More than just history.

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