Doom Legend John Romero The Path to Prolific Innovation and Making 130+ Games | Tim Ferriss Show

Brought to you by LinkedIn Jobs recruitment platform with 900M users , Helix Sleep premium mattresses , and AG1 all-in-one nutritional supplement Computer and video game legend John Romero (@romero) has designed and published more than 130 games since his first sale at the age of 16. A teenage programming prodigy, his major achievements include co-inventing a series of revolutionary computer games—DOOM, Quake, Wolfenstein 3-D, and Commander Keen—that launched the industry’s most popular genre, the first-person shooter. The memoir DOOM GUY: Life in First Person is his first book. Please enjoy! 00:00 Intro 01:24 Childhood 05:32 Aggressor Squadron 09:23 John’s first exposure to computers and coding 16:40 Early innovations in 3D gaming 21:25 The id Software team 23:28 Side-scrolling games 26:23 Developing 13 games in one year. How? 33:06 Designing with movable and removable parts in mind 37:38 Warning the world of its inevitable DOOM 48:49 Hyperthymesia 56:17 Working on two games at once 59:14 When John realized DOOM would be a hit 1:07:45 Why John moved on from id Software 1:18:29 Starting a new company 1:20:01 What prompted John to write DOOM Guy: Life in First Person? 1:22:30 The origin of DOOM’s name 1:23:18 Parting thoughts Tim Ferriss is one of Fast Company’s “Most Innovative Business People” and an early-stage tech investor/advisor in Uber, Facebook, Twitter, Shopify, Duolingo, Alibaba, and 50 other companies. He is also the author of five #1 New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestsellers: The 4-Hour Workweek, The 4-Hour Body, The 4-Hour Chef, Tools of Titans and Tribe of Mentors. The Observer and other media have named him “the Oprah of audio” due to the influence of his podcast, The Tim Ferriss Show, which has exceeded 900 million downloads and been selected for “Best of Apple Podcasts” three years running. Sign up for “5-Bullet Friday“ (Tim's free weekly email newsletter): Follow the Tim Ferriss Podcast: Visit the Tim Ferriss Blog: Follow Tim Ferriss on Twitter: Follow Tim Ferriss on Instagram: Like Tim Ferriss on Facebook: