D. Zeng / Edge Reporter
Alfonso John Romero is an American director, designer, programmer, and developer in the video game industry. He was a co-founder of id Software and designed and developed many of the earliest popular games such as Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Doom II, Hexen, and Quake.
Romero was born on October 28, 1967, in Colorado Springs. Romero has said that he has Yaqui and Cherokee grandparents which are Indigenous peoples of Mexico and south eastern America. Some of the first inspirations to Romero are classics like space invaders and especially Pac-man because it was the thing that got him thinking about game design.
Romero first started making games in 1980 on the Apple II platform. He made many games that weren’t published, but his first published game was called Scout Search. This game got featured in the June 1984 issue of inCider magazine a popular Apple II magazine during the 1980s. Romeros first company was called Capitol Ideas Software, Where Romero published many of his first games. Romero’s games captured the December cover of the Apple II magazine Nibble for three years in a row starting in 1987.
Romero’s first professional job in a industry was working for Origin Systems in 1987 where he contributed to many projects that were scrapped due to the apple II software’s slow sales. Romero then moved onto working a game with a man named Paul Neurath. During the time of development Paul asked Romero if he was interested in his soon to start company. Instead of joining Paul’s company he went to co-found another company called inside out software where he ported games to other software’s.
In March 1989 Romero moved to Shreveport Louisiana to join a company called Softdisk as a programmer where he helped for several months with programming and porting. Romero also invited several friends to work with him in the company. Later in February 1991 Romero and his friends left Softdisk to form id software.
Romero worked in id software from 1991 to 1996. He was involved with the creation of many of the largest games at the time such as Commander Keen, Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Doom II: Hell on Earth and Quake. He also wrote many of the tools and gadgets that id software used to make these popular games. Romero is also credited with being one of the people who made the “Deathmatch” phrase/genre.
During the development of quake Romero argued with John D, Carmack the founder of id software over the direction and future of the company. This eventually ended up with Romero being forced to resign from the company. Although he has stated that he left at a good time which was right after they released quake and is still on good terms with the id software people as they were friends for years.
After leaving id software he joined multiple different game companies such as Origins Systems and Ironworks where he contributed to some games that were scrapped later. In 2001 he founded his own company called MonkeyStone games with one of his good friends where they made games for mobile devices. They released at least 15 games during the 3-year lifespan of the company.
Outside of game development, Romero’s has done many good things such as supporting Ukraine during the Russian invasion. He did this by going back to what he was known for and created a new level for Doom II which was the first new level in nearly 30 years. He put this level on his store where he stated all proceeds will go to help the Ukrainians.
Romero is also known to have very long hair which has been a source of admiration for his fans but in 2002 Romero cut his hair very short and donated it to Locks of Love which is a charity that provides custom hair prosthetics for young people who have lost their hair. Many people had discussions about his hair, but it grew back to its original length a year later. More about his hair Romero said via twitter “I wear my hair long as a proud Yaqui and Cherokee man, and will continue to do so until the day I die.”
Romero’s impact on the game development community and the gaming world in general has been massive. He is a person that many people admire, and I think that will persist as making some of the biggest classic games such as doom is just a remarkable feat. Romero’s contributions to the world of gaming has influenced many people and has helped shape the evolution of the gaming world.
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Featured Image
Picture Of Romero
Apple II photo
id software logo
Doom level picture
