4 ms·

The post title is misleading. 'Masters of Doom' is not a book on John Carmack's adolescent years alone, but a book focusing on the lives of both Carmack and Joh

The post title is misleading. 'Masters of Doom' is not a book on John Carmack's adolescent years alone, but a book focusing on the lives of both Carmack and John Romero, with a few other 'minor' characters, who were the main people behind idSoftware. It is a fascinating read.

danso 12y ago
The link doesn't go directly to the page with, "If life felt unstructured and unyielding when Carmack lived with his mother", for you?
- zephod 12y ago
  Nope, just shows me the landing page with the book cover.
  - danso 12y ago
    I apologize...I should've checked in another browser (works in Chrome, w/o cookies) and/or mobile...not being sarcastic here, I've never been quite sure how stable Google Books's permalinks are outside of Chrome. But yes, the submission is meant to point to a specific chapter about Carmack growing up and acquiring an Apple ][
    - soylentcola 12y ago
      For what it's worth, it took me to the appropriate page in Firefox as well.
    - MLR 12y ago
      I think it might be based on location (UK here), it doesn't link directly to a page in any browser I tried.
    - pmelendez 12y ago
      It worked fine on IE11 too.
archagon 12y ago
I wish there were more books about the PC game industry at that time. I grew up with Apogee games and I'd love to read more about the company's history and the creation of Duke Nukem 3D! It's too bad that interest in early console gaming overshadows early PC gaming, especially since there were a lot more "hacker"-types working in PC games in the 90s. There's a nice collection of interviews[1] that Apogee did with many of the original developers a few years ago, but it's hardly enough! The poster that Interceptor Entertainment made for the 3D Realms Anthology[2] is like a nostalgia bomb for me. :) [1]: http://legacy.3drealms.com/legacy.html http://legacy.3drealms.com/legacy.html [2]: https://3drealms.com/catalog/3d-realms-anthology_50/ https://3drealms.com/catalog/3d-realms-anthology_50/
- Trellmor 12y ago
  There is also a book [1] about Blizzard that I really enjoyed. [1] http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00G8UL474 http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00G8UL474
  - douche 12y ago
    Yeah, I wish there had been a similar book about the Warcraft side of the company, since Warcraft was one of the first non-shareware games I played on my first PC. Patrick Wyatt's blog[1] has some pieces on it, but more would be lovely. [1] http://www.codeofhonor.com/blog/archives http://www.codeofhonor.com/blog/archives
- jozzas 12y ago
  Masters of Doom actually mentions Apogee a few times, and discusses a bit of detail about the Build engine and Ken Silverman (particularly pointed at its influence on the guys at iD, and how it influenced the development of Quake). The author does a good job of describing the landscape for developers and publishers at the time in general as well.
  - archagon 12y ago
    Yeah, it's why I brought this up. I loved the Apogee/3DRealms talk in Masters of Doom! Brought me back to being a budding gamer in the 90's. Just wish there was more; a "Masters of Doom" for Epic, Apogee, Blizzard, and all the other big names at the time.

danso 12y ago

The link doesn't go directly to the page with, "If life felt unstructured and unyielding when Carmack lived with his mother", for you?

zephod 12y ago
Nope, just shows me the landing page with the book cover.
- danso 12y ago
  I apologize...I should've checked in another browser (works in Chrome, w/o cookies) and/or mobile...not being sarcastic here, I've never been quite sure how stable Google Books's permalinks are outside of Chrome. But yes, the submission is meant to point to a specific chapter about Carmack growing up and acquiring an Apple ][
  - soylentcola 12y ago
    For what it's worth, it took me to the appropriate page in Firefox as well.
  - MLR 12y ago
    I think it might be based on location (UK here), it doesn't link directly to a page in any browser I tried.
  - pmelendez 12y ago
    It worked fine on IE11 too.

archagon 12y ago

I wish there were more books about the PC game industry at that time. I grew up with Apogee games and I'd love to read more about the company's history and the creation of Duke Nukem 3D! It's too bad that interest in early console gaming overshadows early PC gaming, especially since there were a lot more "hacker"-types working in PC games in the 90s. There's a nice collection of interviews[1] that Apogee did with many of the original developers a few years ago, but it's hardly enough! The poster that Interceptor Entertainment made for the 3D Realms Anthology[2] is like a nostalgia bomb for me. :) [1]: http://legacy.3drealms.com/legacy.html http://legacy.3drealms.com/legacy.html [2]: https://3drealms.com/catalog/3d-realms-anthology_50/ https://3drealms.com/catalog/3d-realms-anthology_50/

Trellmor 12y ago
There is also a book [1] about Blizzard that I really enjoyed. [1] http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00G8UL474 http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00G8UL474
- douche 12y ago
  Yeah, I wish there had been a similar book about the Warcraft side of the company, since Warcraft was one of the first non-shareware games I played on my first PC. Patrick Wyatt's blog[1] has some pieces on it, but more would be lovely. [1] http://www.codeofhonor.com/blog/archives http://www.codeofhonor.com/blog/archives
jozzas 12y ago
Masters of Doom actually mentions Apogee a few times, and discusses a bit of detail about the Build engine and Ken Silverman (particularly pointed at its influence on the guys at iD, and how it influenced the development of Quake). The author does a good job of describing the landscape for developers and publishers at the time in general as well.
- archagon 12y ago
  Yeah, it's why I brought this up. I loved the Apogee/3DRealms talk in Masters of Doom! Brought me back to being a budding gamer in the 90's. Just wish there was more; a "Masters of Doom" for Epic, Apogee, Blizzard, and all the other big names at the time.