Rating: 
Summary: A story that will forever be etched in my mind!
Review: First off, 1000 words is hardly enough for me to express my feelings towards this book and what it has meant to me. After spending 3 days of non stop reading, I can honestly say that this book was the most interesting and influental read I have ever had. The story of the incarnation of id and the relationship and struggles between Carmack and Romero is both gripping and motivational. To see the progress of our generations history, and I say that as I am 23, through the video game timeline, knowing it started with them. Regardless of what politicians and critics claim...the video game culture IS the world's greatest cultural phenomenon, and these 2 men paved the way for what we look at now as the future of gaming!
Kushner did an extraordinary job by merging both the facts of the industry and a compelling story together to make a book that I recommend ANY and ALL gamers read. You won't put it down!
Rating:
Summary: You don't have to play Doom to love this book
Review: Great book, great writing. No superfluous "filler" chapters. I finished this book in a 24-hour period. Tells the story of John Romero and John Carmack from beginning to end. I found the book very entertaining, and I actually started reading it again on a plane flight last week. I didn't like the foul language, but they were quotes, so what can you do?
Rating: 
Summary: fun to read, goes by quickly
Review: Great read, interesting stuff, and well researched, though at times you can tell author just googled a topic and wrote down the top few entries. There are a few subjects you'd like to have followed up on but don't hear about again after they're raised. Mostly these are quibbles; it is a fun book.... gave me much more of an appreciation of Carmack as a programmer and lowered in my mind Romero's contribution to gaming.
Rating:
Summary: You don't have to play Doom to love this book
Review: I am not a gamer and have only played Doom once when I was dating an engineer, but as an entrepreneur and start-up person I loved this book. Masters of Doom paints a very vivid portrait of a successful start-up company from development through to marketing and distribution. It is a story that reads like a great movie with rich characters passionately building something they love. I couldn't put it down and couldn't stop thinking about it for days.
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely stunning
Review: I cannot give this book any higher praise than I will now attempt to bestow.This is a fascinating account of perhaps the most intriguing story in the world of computer gaming: the story of id Software's rise to prominence through the development of Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, and Quake, as well as the highly publicized split between the two men most responsible for these blockbusters, the two Johns: John Carmack and John Romero. The book is not only an entertaining blow-by-blow account of the events that transpired in this story, but is also a cunningly crafted and penetrating look inside the psyche and personality of two fascinating human beings, and the wild initial success of colloboration followed by the bitter conflict bred by the polar forces that drove them. As such, its appeal transcends that of the video gaming community; it is a marvelous case study in sociology as well as a chronicle of the creation of computer games. Masters of Doom is ultimately a "rise and fall" tale, in a sense. id Software, John Carmack, and John Romero will likely never reach the heights they achieved in the glory days following the release of Doom, but it is arguable that no single company or individual developer will ever do so again either. The book is uncompromising in its account of the conflicts, and assesses blame only through the eyes of the people involved, without sounding preachy. Kushner assumes a neutral role and presents a remarkably balanced portrayal of the events, siding with neither Romero nor Carmack on the critical issues, leaving the reader with the accurate perception that both were right in their own way. As a budding game programmer, I found the accounts of Carmack's technological breakthroughs (complete with rudimentary technical explanations as to how they were achieved) fascinating and inspiring. As a game enthusiast who largely cut his teeth on games like Wolfenstein and Doom, I found the story behind the creation of these masterpieces enthralling. And as a human being, I found Kushner's penetrating account of two personalities and the fruits and poisons of their collaboration positively enlightening. David Kushner, you have done the gaming world an enormous service writing this book, and I strongly urge you to write others of its ilk.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best books I've read...
Review: I don't often pick up a book and read it straight through. This is one of few books that has really hooked me. If you know anything about these two, the beginning of PC gaming, or just love gaming in general, this book will grab you in by the first chapter. I've always wanted to make games when I graduate from college but this book made me realize just how much I want to do it. Kushner does an awesome job portraying the hardships and happiness that these guys felt.
Rating:
Summary: Informative, Entertaining, Empty
Review: I grew up on games, much like the subjects of Dave Kushner's quasi-dual-biography, "Masters of Doom". Like many people in my generation (born from 1970-1977), I grew up just as computer games were hitting the mainstream. I remember the release of the first Ultima game. I remember my first years in college as playing "Wolfenstein 3D" became a worthwhile replacement for studying. I remember begging my parents to allow me to use their credit card just so I could order the retail version of "Doom". Playing in my first "Doom" LAN. Playing my first "Quake" deathmatch online. If any of this sounds familiar to you and stirs up fond memories, this is a book you should definately purchase. Anyone who has followed game development over the past decade will recognize the names of the principles - John Carmack, John Romero, Tom Hall, Adrian Carmark, Kevin Cloud, ID Software, Apogee, etc... David Kushner has created a literary time machine with his work, exhaustively researched (though factually inaccurate in several places), briskly paced, and extremely informative. Sadly, the aforementioned "brisk pace" almost undermines the book. Kushner spends very little time on the childhoods of Romero and Carmark - about 20 pages each, just enough to indicate how difficult their childhoods were, how misunderstood and deprived they felt. Kushner rips through their early years, their maligned stint at Softdisk crunching out shareware, recruiting programmers and forming ID Software in Texas, Romero's hyped departure and the creation of ION Storm. Its all here, but often feels glossed over. I felt the need to know more about the principles. Any regret for the sacrifices they made for their success? To get inside their skulls, what are they really thinking? Fact is, the book is probably a work of genius, considering its potentional audience. Its written by a guy with a short attention span for people with short attention spans. I enjoyed the heck out of it, but it left me with more questions than answers. Nuff said
Rating:
Summary: Informative, Entertaining, Empty
Review: I grew up on games, much like the subjects of Dave Kushner's quasi-dual-biography, "Masters of Doom". Like many people in my generation (born from 1970-1977), I grew up just as computer games were hitting the mainstream. I remember the release of the first Ultima game. I remember my first years in college as playing "Wolfenstein 3D" became a worthwhile replacement for studying. I remember begging my parents to allow me to use their credit card just so I could order the retail version of "Doom". Playing in my first "Doom" LAN. Playing my first "Quake" deathmatch online. If any of this sounds familiar to you and stirs up fond memories, this is a book you should definately purchase. Anyone who has followed game development over the past decade will recognize the names of the principles - John Carmack, John Romero, Tom Hall, Adrian Carmark, Kevin Cloud, ID Software, Apogee, etc... David Kushner has created a literary time machine with his work, exhaustively researched (though factually inaccurate in several places), briskly paced, and extremely informative. Sadly, the aforementioned "brisk pace" almost undermines the book. Kushner spends very little time on the childhoods of Romero and Carmark - about 20 pages each, just enough to indicate how difficult their childhoods were, how misunderstood and deprived they felt. Kushner rips through their early years, their maligned stint at Softdisk crunching out shareware, recruiting programmers and forming ID Software in Texas, Romero's hyped departure and the creation of ION Storm. Its all here, but often feels glossed over. I felt the need to know more about the principles. Any regret for the sacrifices they made for their success? To get inside their skulls, what are they really thinking? Fact is, the book is probably a work of genius, considering its potentional audience. Its written by a guy with a short attention span for people with short attention spans. I enjoyed the heck out of it, but it left me with more questions than answers. Nuff said
Rating:
Summary: Go to Holywood?
Review: I like a lot to read; but I struggle trying to finish a book quickly. This one is one of the few that I happen to finish in a record time (for me at least). I've read several reviews of people saying they read it in no more than a day. It actually took to me about 10 days. Reasons? My kids, my wife and my work. But, whenever none of these three "reasons" was asking me to stop reading, I was devoring the book. A standard book takes me several weeks and months to finish (I happen to read more than one book at a time too). Well, that's "about me". About the book, what can I say? The reason why I "devored" (in my own terms) the book is because I certainly found it way interesting and entertaining. And that tendency was kept from beginning to "almost" end (the last chapter was not as entertaining, for me). I am actually one of those guys that was part of the "doom" generation, with few months of delay (the game came to my country few months after it was released in U.S.A.); yet I was one of those that happened to keep until too late overnight playing doom (in many cases until the next morning, as the characters of the book). Also, I was quite identified with the two main characters: one because his ancestors roots are the same than mines (mexicans, I speak about Romero) and the other because his main concern in his life is the same than mine: computers programming (Carmack), despite the business, despite the money, despite the marketing, the strategy. Programming is his life, doors closed at his desk without interruptions (of course I don't program graphics, yet I program another type of computers systems and that's my main purpose in this life... besides my kids and wife). And both of them passion for DOOM, the game I have liked more than any other (even more than any Quake, way more than Unreal or Duke Nukem). And, to add to all those reasons, the way the writter describes all the happennings is very dynamnic in "almost" all the book. The way he describes the main characters gives you a seriously real idea of who they are. As some other reviewer critisized, non main characters weren't "well" described. But, so what? is it the story about the others? They're only "incidental" individuals that happened to be interacting with the "starring" guys: Carmack and Romero. At the very end, however, the "rithm" of happenings is kind of lost when the writter describes what has done recently Carmack besides his passion working at ID. I thought the writer could still make reference to Carmack's "other" hobby while at the same time making enough references to the current status (or the status at the end of writting the book) of DOOM III to keep the interest (that's why I give only 4 stars). I am more than "anxious" to see DOOM III released. Some times I'm afraid of creating many expectations and being quite dissappointed. But, what the hell! The story is, again, way interesting in itself as a biography and as a story of two young successful entreprenurs that could very well be made into a Holywood film (if we got "real life" films like Erick Brokovich, Radio, Pirats of Silicon Valley, and many others, why not the Carmack&Romero "story"?). Film Producers, don't lose a great opportunity!
Rating:
Summary: Great book! Needs pictures
Review: I read this book in a day. It was a great synopsis of the history of the guys behind id. I just wish it would have had some pictures to go with the great stories.
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