With video games came other explorations of fantasy, control, and rebellion. One time my friends and I chucked a smoke bomb into a creek, only to see a six-foot tongue of flames lick the sky. I never ran so fast in my life. We played Dungeons and Dragons. We launched lizards high above the suburbs in tiny model rockets. My first attempt at hacking occurred at Chuck E. Cheese—the pizza parlor arcade chain launched by Atari’s Nolan Bushnell. This was in the early 1980s, and “the Cheese” had just gotten in a few primordial computers. For a token, we could type in any kind of message and the computer would speak it back in its robotic voice. Of course we immediately tried to type profanities, but the machine was programmed not to accept them. So we typed “phuck the manager” instead, taping down the keys so the message looped.
I was in my twenties working at an online bulletin board service in New York City when I first heard about Doom. One night late after work, a friend of mine booted it up and I jumped in for a round. Several hours later, we stumbled out into the darkness. This was a game. A couple years later, in 1996, I managed to convince an editor to assign me an article about the subculture of Quake: the latest from id Software. The next thing I knew I was tripping over wires in a University of Kansas flophouse where the two top clans, Impulse 9 and the Ruthless Bastards, had convened for a marathon deathmatch. These people were sacrificing everything to inhabit, modify, and create alternate realities. This wasn’t just a game, this was a world—a relatively (and alluringly) undocumented world—filled with characters and stories and dreams and rivalries. That world led me to the Two Johns.
I spent the next six years exploring and chronicling the lives and industry of gamers. It was both amazing and frustrating to me that this multibillion-dollar business and culture remained such a mystery to so many people, and that mystery was breeding confusion and misperceptions everywhere I turned. To me, the story of John Carmack and John Romero was a classic American adventure that captured the birth of a new medium and the coming of age of two compelling and gifted young people. By telling it, I hoped to give gamers the respect and understanding they deserved. And I wanted the reader to have a good time.
NOTES
The greatest challenge of telling a story I didn’t experience firsthand was precisely that. With the exception of about a half dozen scenes I witnessed—such as the gaming conventions, the University of Kansas deathmatch, Carmack’s rocket launch—most of this book relies upon the memories of others.
To re-create the story of the Two Johns, I conducted hundreds of interviews over six years, often with each person on multiple occasions. After moving to Dallas in the fall of 2000 for research, I became known in offices, barbecue joints, and bars around town as “the guy writing the Book.” John Romero and John Carmack each spent dozens of hours in person answering my most picayune questions: how they were feeling, what they were thinking, what they were saying, hearing, seeing, playing. What they and others couldn’t recall, I unearthed from websites, newsgroups, e-mails, chat transcripts, and magazines (though I drew from some of these articles, I made a point of getting the gamers’ own versions of what happened as well). I also played a delirious amount of games: at home, online, and at a couple tournaments (yeah, I lost).
I spent six months transcribing all my taped interviews. From this material, I assembled a narrative of dialogue and description that re-creates the events as faithfully and accurately as possible. As often as appropriate, I told the story from each person’s point of view to give readers the different perspectives.
Among the people I interviewed are, in no particular order, John Carmack, John Romero, Tom Hall, Adrian Carmack, Al Vekovius, Alex St. Johns, American McGee, Angel Munoz, Barrett Alexander, Robert Kotick, Brandon James, Christian Ankow, David Grossman, David Datta, Gabe Newell, Graeme Devine, Inga Carmack, Stan Carmack, Jan Paul van Waveren, Jay Wilbur, Jerry O’Flaherty, Eric Smith, Jim Dose, Kenneth Scott, Kevin Cloud, Lane Roathe, Larry Goldberg, Larry Herring, Michael Abrash, Mike Breslin, Mike Wilson, Paul Steed, Robert Atkins, Rob Dyer, Robert Duffy, John Schuneman, Ginny Schuneman, Ron Chaimowitz, Sandy Petersen, Scott Miller, Sean Martin, Shawn Green, Brian Eiserloh, Steve “Blue” Heaslip, Stevie Case, Sverre Kvernmo, Dennis “Thresh” Fong, Trent Reznor, Tim Sweeney, Mark Rein, Tim Willits, Todd Hollenshead, Todd Porter, Tom Mustaine, Warren Spector, William Haskins, “DWANGO” Bob Huntley, Harry Miller, Audrey Mann, Lori Mezoff, Andrea Schneider, Cliff Bleszinski, Matt Firme, Rob Smith, Richard “Levelord” Gray, Katherine Anna Kang, Donna Jackson, Paul Jaquays, Will Wright, Sid Meier, Doug Lowenstein, Seneca Menard, Noel Stephens, Luke “Weasl” Whiteside, Bobby Pavlock, Doug Myres, Mark Dochtermann, Steve Maines, Brian Raffel, Steven Raffel, Joost Schuur, Will Loconto, Jeff Hartman, Stan Nuevo, Chad Barron, Kelly Hoerner, Robert Westmoreland, Pam Wolford, Dave Taylor, Drew Markham, Hank Leukart, Jim Perkins, Roman Ribaric, Arthur Pober, Bob Norwood, Chris Roberts, Rick Brenner, Gene Lipkin, Vince Desiderio, Max Schaefer, David Brevik, Gary Gygax, Clint “_fo0k” Richards, Tom “Entropy” Kizmey, Larry Muller, Frans P. de Vries, Dan Hammond, Alex Quintana, Billy Browning, Jay Franke . . . Sorry to anyone I neglected to list.
Portions of this book are drawn from articles of mine that originally appeared in publications including Spin, Salon, Rolling Stone, Wired News, Feed, Spectrum, POV, and Popular Science.
The notes here reflect the supplementary resources cited. Some of the articles are from magazines that no longer exist beyond some old photocopies in gamers’ archives; as a result, some page numbers and dates were unavailable as noted.
INTRODUCTION: THE TWO JOHNS
one afternoon in April 2000: I attended this conference and observed the events described, including the meeting of Carmack and Romero. Return to text.
more money . . . than on movie tickets: According to the Motion Picture Association of America, moviegoers spent $8.4 billion at U.S. box offices in 2001, while, according to the NPD Group, Americans spent $10.8 billion on video games. Return to text.
“Romero wants an empire”: E-mail interview with Chris Spencer on January 8, 1997, posted on onenet.quake newsgroup. Return to text.
ONE: THE ROCK STAR
James Dallas Egbert III disappeared: William Dear, Dungeon Master: The Disappearance of James Dallas Egbert III (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1984). Return to text.
$25 million in annual sales: Interview, Gary Gygax. Return to text.
the D&D rule book: Player Handbook: Advanced Dungeons and Dragons (Renton, Wash.: TSR, 1995). Return to text.
sales reaching over $7 billion: Martin Campbell-Kelly and William Aspray, Computer: A History of the Information Machine (New York: Basic Books, 1996), pp. 131–153. Return to text.
Three years later in 1961: Steven Levy, Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution (New York: Bantam Doubleday Dell, 1984), pp. 50–69. Return to text.
Ten years later . . . Will Crowther: Ibid., pp. 140–141. Return to text.
the language of the priests: Ibid., p. 19. Return to text.
arcade games bringing in $5 billion a year: “Games That People Play,” Time, January 18, 1982, p. 51. Return to text.
In one, a dog named Chewy: John Romero’s personal archives. Return to text.
a homemade comic book called Weird: Ibid. Return to text.
Apple had become the darling: Paul Freiberger and Michael Swaine, Fire in the Valley: The Making of the Personal Computer (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2000), p. 118. Return to text.
the Two Steves: Ibid., pp. 253–263. Return to text.
hacked Spacewar: Steven L. Kent, The First Quarter (Bothell, Wash.: BWD Press, 2000), pp. 25–28. Return to text.
Woz was equal parts: Freiberger and Swaine, Fire in the Valley, pp. 261–262. Return to text.
But the Apple II . . . was mass market: Ibid., p. 267. Return to text.
Ken and Roberta Williams: Levy, Hackers, pp. 280–302. Return to text.
Silas Warner: Personal homepage, http://pwp.value.net/penomee/silas.htm. Return to text.
“Mac
hine of the Year”: “Machine of the Year: The Computer Moves In,” Time, January 3, 1982. Return to text.
$536 million in losses: Kent, First Quarter, p. 198. Return to text.
$1 billion in sales: Ibid., p. 214. Return to text.
comics he called “Melvin”: John Romero’s personal archives. Return to text.
the good news came: Ibid. Return to text.
“When I win”: Ibid. Return to text.
“I’ve been learning computers”: Ibid. Return to text.
TWO: THE ROCKET SCIENTIST
In second grade, only seven years old: School report letter in Inga Carmack’s personal archives. Return to text.
his top five problems: Inga Carmack’s archives. Return to text.
when he refused to do extracredit homework: Ibid. Return to text.
The game was so compelling: Herman, Phoenix, p. 51. Return to text.
a letter to his teacher: Inga Carmack’s archives. Return to text.
WarGames: Ibid. Return to text.
“Though some in the field”: Levy, Hackers, pp. 6–7. Return to text.
Bulletin board systems came about: Freiberger and Swaine, Fire in the Valley, p. 142. Return to text.
The WELL: The WELL, www.thewell.com; Howard Rheingold, The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier (New York: HarperCollins, 1993), pp. 17–37. Return to text.
new television series, Star Trek: The Next Generation: “Encounter at Farpoint,” airdate: September 28, 1987. Return to text.
“Why can’t you realise”: Inga Carmack archives. Return to text.
Wraith: Nite Owl Productions, 1990. Return to text.
THREE: DANGEROUS DAVE IN COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT
In 1864, Confederate soldiers: John Andrew Prime, Shreveport’s Civil War Defenses, http://www.shreve.net/~japrime/lagenweb/defenses.htm. Return to text.
its burgeoning clones: Freiberger and Swaine, Fire in the Valley, p. 349. Return to text.
Softdisk occupied two buildings: I saw the buildings during a visit in November 2000. Return to text.
By refusing to incorporate: Freiberger and Swaine, Fire in the Valley, pp. 357–365. Return to text.
Defender: Kent, First Quarter, p. 118. Return to text.
Nintendo was on the way: David Sheff, Game Over: Press Start to Continue (Wilton, Conn.: GamePress, 1999), p. 3. Return to text.
FOUR: PIZZA MONEY
“Dear John . . . Loved your game”: John Romero archives. Return to text.
“Dear John . . . loved your game”: Ibid. Return to text.
a brief article: “Into the Depths,” PC Games Magazine, 1990 [photocopy from Romero’s archives; month and page number missing]. Return to text.
“Scott: You, sir, have serious psychological problems”: Romero’s archives. Return to text.
“Dear Mr. Miller”: Ibid. Return to text.
Andrew Fluegelman: “Try It, You’ll Like It,” Forbes, November 28, 1988, p. 227. Return to text.
Warren Robinett: Herman, Phoenix, p. 44. Return to text.
“The Fight for Justice”: Text from “Previews!” screen of Commander Keen: Marooned on Mars, Apogee Software Productions, 1990. Return to text.
“Superlative alert!”: Unidentified shareware catalog, 1991 [photocopy from Scott Miller’s archives; month and page number missing]. Return to text.
“sets a new standard for shareware games”: “Games That Are More Than Keen,” BBS Caller’s Digest, 1991 [photocopy from Scott Miller’s archives; month and page number missing]. Return to text.
“For stimulating”: “Commander Keen: Invasion of the Vorticons,” PC Magazine, December 1991, p. 69. Return to text.
FIVE: MORE FUN THAN REAL LIFE
Violent fantasy . . . had an ancient history: Many such examples appear in Gerard Jones, Killing Monsters: Why Children Need Fantasy, Super Heroes, and Make-Believe Violence (New York: Basic Books, 2002). Return to text.
first video game to be banned: Kent, First Quarter, pp. 73–74. Return to text.
primal desire: Randall Packer and Ken Jordan, Multimedia: From Wagner to Virtual Reality (New York: W. W. Norton, 2001), p. xx. Return to text.
cave paintings in Lascaux: Ibid. Return to text.
“dazzling and incomparably more solid”: Aldous Huxley, Brave New World (New York: Harper and Row, 1946), p. 113. Return to text.
Morton Heilig: Morton Heilig, “El Cin del Futuro,” Espacios (Mexico), no. 23–24, January–June 1955, as cited by Packer and Jordan, Multimedia, p. 227. Return to text.
“The environments . . . suggest a new art medium”: Myron Krueger, “Responsive Environments,” American Federation of Information Processing Systems 46, June 13–16, 1977, pp. 423–433, as cited by Packer and Jordan, Multimedia, p. 115. Return to text.
Scott Fisher: Scott Fisher, Virtual Interface Environments: The Art of Human-Computer Interface Design, edited by Brenda Laurel (Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, 1989), as cited by Packer and Jordan, Multimedia, pp. 237–251. Return to text.
“kind of electronic persona”: Ibid., p. 246. Return to text.
SIX: GREEN AND PISSED
Someone siphoned gasoline . . . Adrian was particularly miserable: Id anthology, id Software, 1996. Return to text.
“WANTED: CLERIC and/or THIEF!”: Tom Hall’s archives. Return to text.
On a cold winter day: Id anthology. Return to text.
a NeXT computer: Freiberger and Swaine, Fire in the Valley, p. 372. Return to text.
SEVEN: SPEAR OF DESTINY
They wanted the games banned: “Games That People Play,” p. 52. Return to text.
“Id software is brought to you”: Audiotape from Romero’s archives. Return to text.
“There’s no surprise”: Ron Dippold, “Wolfenstein 3-D Reviewed,” Game Bytes [photocopy from Romero’s archives; date and page number missing]. Return to text.
“how popular Wolf 3-D is”: Romero’s archives. Return to text.
“more like an interactive movie”: Wolfenstein Review, Shareware Update [photocopy from Romero’s archives; date and page number missing]. Return to text.
“single-handedly justifying the existence of shareware”: “Wolfenstein 3-D,” Video Games and Computer Entertainment, September 1992, p. 113. Return to text.
Even Computer Gaming World: “The Third Reich in the Third Dimension,” Computer Gaming World, 1992, pp. 50, 52. Return to text.
A Kentucky entrepreneur hooked up a version: “Reality Rocket Enables You to Really Get into Video Game,” Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY), September 19, 1992, p. 2S. Return to text.
Some players thought: Wolfenstein 3-D Frequently Asked Questions, ftp://ftp.gamers.org/pub/games/wolf3d/docs/Wolfenstein-3D.faq . Return to text.
“This game certainly goes heavy”: “Revived Game Is Heavy on the Gore,” Toronto Star, November 21, 1992, p. J4. Return to text.
“Wolfenstein 3-D may have no socially redeeming value”: PC Computing, December 1992, p. 176. Return to text.
“Nazis in Cyberspace”: BBS Callers Digest, August 1992, pp. 30–34. Return to text.
Tom documented: Romero’s archives. Return to text.
EIGHT: SUMMON THE DEMONS
one of “the most remarkable . . . success stories”: “Apogee: The Height of Shareware,” Electronic Games, 1992, p. 45 [photocopy from Scott Miller’s archives; date missing]. Return to text.
Fuzzy Pumper Palette Shop: John Mendoza, The Official Doom Survivor’s Strategies and Secrets (Alameda, Calif.: SYBEX, 1994), p. 257. Return to text.
“The overall effect is distorted”: Ibid. Return to text.
“We don’t know what nasty sludge”: “They’re Going to Hell for This One,” Computer Gaming World, June 1993, p. 102. Return to text.
NINE: THE COOLEST GAME
selling more than 4 million copies: PC Data, 2000. Return to text.
“Its brilliantly designed and rendered 3-D images”: “Surrealistic Puzzle Paradise,” Wired, January 1994; www.wired.com/
wired/archive/2.01/streetered.htm?pg = 3. Return to text.
A community television program did a piece: Nightly Business Report, November 2, 1992. Return to text.
“You started posting hype”: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action, August 19, 1993. Return to text.
“I was firing the shotgun”: Ibid., November 2, 1993. Return to text.
“The Night Before Doom”: Hank Leukart, comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action, December 9, 1993. Return to text.
“A Parent’s Nightmare”: Douglas Adler, Computer Paper, December 1993, as cited in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action. Return to text.
TEN: THE DOOM GENERATION
Like a lot of parents: Kent, First Quarter, p. 373. Return to text.
By choosing to release the blood-and-guts version: Sheff, Game Over, p. 460. Return to text.
Senator Lieberman was also joined: Cited in J. C. Herz, Joystick Nation: How Video Games Ate Our Quarters, Won Our Hearts, and Rewired Our Minds (New York: Little, Brown, 1995), p. 189. Return to text.
“Satan’s efficient agents”; media-effects research: Jones, Killing Monsters, pp. 134–137. Return to text.
New York City mayor Fiorello La Guardia: Kent, First Quarter, p. 4. Return to text.
a $6 billion industry: “Games People Play,” p. 51. Return to text.
“The PTA is concerned”: “Video Games: Help or Hazard to Children’s Health?” UPI, November 16, 1982. Return to text.
“Children are putting their book fees”: “Video Games—Fun or Serious Threat?” U.S. News & World Report, February 22, 1982, p. 7. Return to text.
shut down arcades: “Video Games Assailed in Asia,” Facts on File World News Digest, December 31, 1982. Return to text.
“Video Games—Fun or Serious Threat?”: U.S. News & World Report, February 22, 1982, p. 7. Return to text.
“Video Game Fever—Peril or Payoff for the Computer Generation,” Children’s Health, September 1983, pp. 24–25. Return to text.
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