John Romero
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Alfonso John Romero (born October 28, 1967) is a famous figure in the computer gaming industry. He co-founded and worked at id Software from its incorporation in 1991 until 1996 and was involved in the creation of several milestone games including Commander Keen, Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Doom II (in which Romero also appeared as the end game boss) and Quake, as well as serving as an executive producer on Heretic and HeXen.
Romero later co-founded Ion Storm Inc. in Dallas, Texas with id co-worker Tom Hall, where he designed and produced Daikatana. The game's critical panning damaged Romero's reputation, who received popular blame for questionable development decisions worsened by his name being hyped in the game's early marketing. In particular, an infamous 1997 ad (by Ion's then-CEO and Marketing Exec Mike Wilson) with the slogan "John Romero's About To Make You His Bitch" upset many people. Romero left with Tom Hall immediately after the release of Hall's Anachronox game and the subsequent closing of the Dallas Ion office. They then co-founded Monkeystone Games in July of 2001.
Romero is as much known for his temperament as for his games. The constant delays and subsequent critical panning of Daikatana were reportedly due to constant internal disputes in which Romero became noticeably enraged with co-workers. Another incident of Romero's temper was reported by co-worker American McGee when in response to the doorknob on his office door constantly jamming, he took a chainsaw to the offending door and removed it completely.
Between 1999 and 2003, Romero was involved with Stevie Case, a prominent female gaming industry figure who beat him in a Quake deathmatch. Until their breakup in early 2003, Case was the COO of Monkeystone Games. In mid October of 2003, Romero joined Midway Games as Project Lead on the next game in the Gauntlet series. While he continued to maintain his working relationship with Monkeystone, Lucas Davis took over running the office. The Monkeystone team moved to Austin, Texas to work on Midway's Area 51 title until its release. Monkeystone Games closed in January 2005.
In 2002 he put his Ferrari up for auction on eBay. Heavily modified, one could plug a laptop into the parallel port in the back of the passenger's seat, and tune the engine while running.
In January 2004 he married Raluca Alexandra Plesca in her home country of Romania and hometown of Bucharest.
Romero currently works for Midway out of their San Diego, California office, working on Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows for PlayStation 2, Xbox and Windows.
External links
- Planet Romero (http://rome.ro/)
- MobyGames' rap sheet on Romero (http://www.mobygames.com/developer/sheet/view/developerId=817/)
- "Romero Threatens to Make You His Bitch" (http://archive.gamespy.com/articles/june03/dumbestmoments/index20.shtml), GameSpy article in the "25 Dumbest Gaming Moments" about Romero's ad with the infamous wordingde:John Romero