John Romero Plays DOOM

[DELETE-THIS-ACCOUNT]

http://www.bluesnews.com/s/158375/john-romero-plays-doom-spills-beans

[Blastfrog]

This looks like it'll be a fun series to watch. Never heard Chocolate Doom described as "the hipster 1-speed bike of Doom" before. :P

I'm looking forward to hearing Romero's insights on the level design.

[Linguica]

Chocolate Doom can't be a fixie, it doesn't fix any bugs! *rimshot*

[Doomkid]

Great share, very interesting! I like this guy, good person to talk with Romero.

[Dragonsbrethren]

Awesome, watched the first part so far.

[Lila Feuer]

I really enjoyed this, very interesting stuff.

[Ed]

It's really weird hearing Romero talking about Doom Builder and modern ports.

[hex11]

This is fucking retarded. There's nothing hipster about playing Doom in the original way anymore than playing Pac-Man or Joust arcade machine (probably in MAME unless you're rich or lucky to have arcade nearby) or NES Zelda instead of modern remake of those games. These guys have overused that word so much that it's meaningless. Anyway these are solid games that have stood the test of time, because their gameplay transcends stupid ass graphics and effects and crap that the industry loves to emphasize in order to sell their shitty modern games. Maybe these guys also like to buy new version of chess, go, Risk, or D&D every year, because their old version is just totally decades or centuries, so it can't be any good, and anyone who plays it is just doing that because they want to be different. I guess they just can't imagine someone could possibly be satisfied to come back to the same, familiar comfortable game they always played instead of changing it completely every year. This is pure consumerist based mentality, devoid of any reason or logic.

[Blastfrog]

Um, his comment wasn't meant to be taken so seriously.

[Avoozl]

Usually hipster-ism applies to something before it was cool rather than after.

[FireFish]

watched the first part, had some internal fun at that 'hipster one speed bike joke'. Now only to watch the other parts.

[Lila Feuer]

Doomsday must have come some more ways since I last used it, I don't remember the bloom effects.

[Linguica]

"I recently gave the source to DoomEd to somebody to put on OSX. So that may happen."

[BlueFeena]

I couldn't take it any longer when Seth Rogan that guy who desperately needs to shave described Romero as the lead level designer. Peterson and Hall weep.

[FireFish]

BlueFeena said:

I couldn't take it any longer when Seth Rogan that guy who desperately needs to shave described Romero as the lead level designer. Peterson and Hall weep.

looks like a absolutely normal male beard to me... ah the personal preferences and choice of the individual and their styles. ;)

How could you get so worked up about the romero flattering in a rater informal looking video ?

[Dragonsbrethren]

hex11 said:

This is fucking retarded. There's nothing hipster about playing Doom in the original way anymore than playing Pac-Man or Joust arcade machine (probably in MAME unless you're rich or lucky to have arcade nearby) or NES Zelda instead of modern remake of those games. These guys have overused that word so much that it's meaningless. Anyway these are solid games that have stood the test of time, because their gameplay transcends stupid ass graphics and effects and crap that the industry loves to emphasize in order to sell their shitty modern games. Maybe these guys also like to buy new version of chess, go, Risk, or D&D every year, because their old version is just totally decades or centuries, so it can't be any good, and anyone who plays it is just doing that because they want to be different. I guess they just can't imagine someone could possibly be satisfied to come back to the same, familiar comfortable game they always played instead of changing it completely every year. This is pure consumerist based mentality, devoid of any reason or logic.

BlueFeena said:

I couldn't take it any longer when Seth Rogan that guy who desperately needs to shave described Romero as the lead level designer. Peterson and Hall weep.

So much great commentary, and this is your criticism? Pathetic, really.

-edit-

Heh, I've always gone through the wrong door in E1M2 first.

[glenzinho]

Well this has certainly made my day, and thanks to Ling for putting the links up in a convenient manner in the news thread.

[hex11]

Hipster is the new nigger. Marines got killed on bad side of Downtown for much less.

[durian]

Very cool video. Some interesting insights into various aspects of development and design. Romero is a fun guy. His occasional moments of surprise at how well JPL knows the game were amusing. I love the framed screenshot(?) above the mantle with the plushies at the end. I might have to copy that...

[ETTiNGRiNDER]

TIL: Blue's News is still a thing that exists, and John Romero's hair is going grey.

As for the video, I look forward to more of this, I do quite love these sorts of behind-the-scenes looks at the game's development.

[40oz]

BlueFeena said:

I couldn't take it any longer when Seth Rogan that guy who desperately needs to shave described Romero as the lead level designer. Peterson and Hall weep.

What? John Romero was the guy who decided that this is what doom needed to look like. The videos are all knee deep in the dead, which Romero designed all the levels for, except e1m8 and most of e1m4. But he was the one with the artistic vision. Just because he didn't make all or even the most maps doesn't mean he wasn't the lead.

And sometimes when you have a microphone in front of you, you say things you don't always mean because you don't want to freeze up on camera. Especially when you're playing the game at the same time. So I highly doubt the "chocolate doom is for hipsters" being uttered out and not elaborated on really had any weight behind it.

The only thing i didn't like about the videos is that I think its giving clarity that I've pretty much exhausted everything there is to know about doom.

[dew]

BlueFeena said:

I couldn't take it any longer when Seth Rogan that guy who desperately needs to shave described Romero as the lead level designer. Peterson and Hall weep.

Petersen was a hired muscle brought in lateish in order to mass produce as many maps as fast as possible. Hall was kicked out for standing behind his impractical concept and level design ideas. Romero is without a doubt the lead level designer of Doom.

[BaronOfStuff]

Always entertaining to watch/listen to Romero playing Doom. His laughing at so many via-barrel gibbing moments had me grinning like an idiot.

[BlueFeena]

Relax guys, my goal wasn't to start an argument or step on anyone's toes. Let's try this again and have me articulate my point better. Posting at two in the morning when my brain was running sub-optimally probably wasn't a wise idea. :)

My point was simply this: it sometimes seems as though the contributions of Hall and Peterson are brushed aside, especially considering their work makes up the bulk of the original episodes. To say that Romero was the level design lead strikes me as factually incorrect; Peterson, and previously Hall, even had the design credit on the ENDDOOM screen. None of this is trying to say that Romero's level aren't a huge and iconic part of the game.

Apart from that, it looks like a perfectly fun video series that I need to watch through some time. Hearing tidbits from the id guys is always fun.







Also, that guy really does have an utterly hideous beard. :P

[glenzinho]

Dude, we've heard it from the horse's mouth so it doesn't matter what you think to be frank.

[Blastfrog]

Job titles don't always reflect someone's true role, especially in small teams. Tom was titled as the lead design before he left, but he was the only one that took his own design seriously, the rest of the team only used it as a rough outline and did their own thing.

Romero's early E1M2 convinced the rest of the team to take a different direction as far as level design is concerned, and that was with Tom on board. As Dew noted, Petersen was only there to create last-minute filler, he only got the lead design title as he was there to replace the gap that Tom once occupied.

So yeah. Romero heavily influenced the direction of the game even when Tom was there. Romero had several months to influence further without a formal lead design in place. Then the new so-called lead design (mere weeks before the game shipped) was more of a map-monkey as far as his role in Doom 1 is concerned. I'm sure Petersen had more influence during Doom 2 to Quake 2, but I doubt he had much when first hired.

I'd say it's safe to call Romero the true lead design of at least Doom 1, regardless of titles.

[Doomkid]

The lead guitarist in a band isn't necessarily the one who plays the most guitar, they just bring a lot of the 'magic' to the table. Romero obviously loved the other ID maps too, so it's really just a title.

I enjoyed watching these videos a lot, but like 40oz said, it's made me realize I know way too much about Doom.

I would love to hear some more of Romero's favorite pwads, both deathmatch and co-op. I recall him saying somewhere that Dwango6 Map01 was his favorite, and what an excellent choice. If he actually made some new maps, just 2 or 3, that would be swell, but apparently the worry is that they'll be behind modern standards and will get picked apart from top to bottom. Even so, screw the haters, more Romero maps!!

[Linguica]

It's weird that he brings up Deathtag several times in the videos. I can't even remember the last time I had heard about that.

[darkreaver]

Damn that JP guy is such an asskisser.

"Yeah!" "Awesome, yeah you're right!" "Totally agree oooh yeeeah!" "I wanna suck your dick, yeah!" "Give it to me you stud yeah!"

[Blastfrog]

darkreaver said:

Damn that JP guy is such an asskisser.

That wasn't asskissing. Romero didn't say anything particularly disagreeable. Asskissing would be if he were excessively complementing while putting the focus on himself, kinda like "look at me, Romero is talking to ME!". He wasn't doing that, he was making verbal nods to demonstrate attentiveness and to fill the silence. Romero remained the central focus. The IGN guy, however, was more of the "look at me I'm special" behavior.

I never understood why mere respectfulness and agreeability comes across as asskissing to some people.