What Happened to Everyone Who Worked on Doom?

[@Tinlion09]

Fun fact: “American” is, in fact, McGee's first name given at birth. His mom was a huge hippie.

[@0neDoomedSpaceMarine]

American's mom was a very strange person.

[@manny7289]

@@0neDoomedSpaceMarine didnt she abandon him for a trans woman?

[@0neDoomedSpaceMarine]

@@manny7289 Pretty much that. His mom was a very eccentric woman, she started dating a trans person, which would one day eventually lead to her selling all of her possessions and her house to finance their surgery, abandoning American, leaving him with just his bed and computer (I think selling a lot of his possessions as well), leaving him to fend for himself in a house had to very soon vacate.

[@juanchol21]

@@0neDoomedSpaceMarine WTF

[@P7777-u7r]

Strange name for a hippie to give their kid. You’d think it would be a hardcore star spangled patriot who’d name their kid American

[@THEGRUMPTRUCK]

John Romero, and the benevolent hyper-intelligent architect of the post-singularity simulation we all live in, John Carmack.

[@janbosch5951]

F**king RAW! I can't help myself dude.

[@tylernilson7021]

poor civvie, still in maximum security

[@eagleeyeliz3417]

I see you too are a man of culture

[@igloo8159]

also our only hope in stopping a alien invasion

[@KayDizzelVids]

@@igloo8159 Or the one who in an alternate universe will kill us all

[@ebookjapan8054]

The DoomWiki states Dr. Sleep passed away last year from Pneumonia, someone on Doom World claimed to be their niece and brought it up.

[@Mr-Mania]

Fun fact: Donna would bring the Id team coffee for when they would work late into the night. This is where the name "Donna to the rescue" came for one of the songs

[@SillyhAsH]

They work now for UAC.

[@bannisray3683]

😂

[@apocalypticpioneers2116]

"the only person I can confirm is deceased" John "Dr. Sleep" Anderson died in April of the year this video was uploaded from pneumonia

[@0neDoomedSpaceMarine]

Wasn't really known by anyone until like 7 months later though. Secretive man.

[@thedoomslayer7512]

Oo *COUGH COUGH* f

[@kidpresentable]

Romero got him

[@johnk7302]

@Droo Bastard every generation experiences this effect where we think the younger g eneration is a-moral etc... if you look at history you'll see it.

[@johnk7302]

@Droo Bastard Oh okay. I catch myself feeling that sometimes.

[@Servbot42]

You know you love doom when you dont care for the timestamps.

[@OmegaEnvych]

what is even timestamp? Only watch in one go, only on Nightmare!

[@0neDoomedSpaceMarine]

On Doom's music, there's this idea that it was sampled within some legal limits, but fact is that there aren't any hard rules on sampling, and Bobby Prince will tell you as such. In fact, John Romero basically just handed him a stack of rock, grunge, and heavy metal CDs, and told him "Make us some music that sounds just like this." along with probably a couple of other ideas and instructions. Bobby then went to work composing music, imitating riffs and even large parts of songs, recutting stuff here and there, and did a couple of more original pieces as well. He gave Id Software the music under the condition that if there were any legal troubles brought on by the music, Id Software would take full responsibility. As he tells it, he fully expected this to become a gigantic legal clusterfuck, and that they were going to be sued into oblivion by various record labels, but to his surprise, this just never happened. He recovered from the cancer as far as I know. For Duke Nukem 3D he did a dozen tracks, but most of them were by Lee Jackson, who also composed the majority of Rise Of The Triad's kickass soundtrack (Bobby only did a few tracks on that game).

[@DinnerForkTongue]

Aye, Prince made cool music but he was no Lee Jackson.

[@SmaMan]

Bobby Prince has a history of making sound-alike songs. Blake Stone (which came out the week before Doom) has quite a few, including one that’s almost a note-for-note MIDI remake of Led Zepplin’s “Immigrant Song.”

[@willaroberts134]

That's the thing the rules are different when a sample isn't directly taken from the source recording but recreated even if it's note for note by the same instruments. It's a whole different license called a mechanical bc then it's technically a cover (in the United States anyway) and honestly I'm not sure how they handle cover music in video games at all?

[@fuzzydunlop1753]

@@willaroberts134 afaik if you release a cover commercially you'd still have to pay royalties to the original writers, can't imagine games being exempt from that.

[@noop9k]

In music there isn’t much originality and stuff like chord progressions is “borrowed” from other composer’s works all the time. Bobby Prince is still a great composer!

[@frydemwingz]

damn. Doom Mom needs to retire, she deserves it by now.

[@explosiveaddict6939]

*id Mom And I think she likes staying. If she wanted to retire, she probably would.

[@VioletGiraffe]

Retire to do what, sit at home? I assume that since she stayed with Id for so long, she probably loves what she does. I very much doubt she's being held in slavery.

[@私はクソな中国人です]

VioletGiraffe i think she's kept in chains in the office basement

[@frydemwingz]

@@VioletGiraffe lots of people sadly feel like this, I personally think it's a little sad. Their job becomes a part of them and they dont want to leave. My boss was like this when he retired after 38 years at the company, he was sad to leave and still visits us sometimes, but life is more than 2 choices of working a 9-5 OR sitting at home, you know. There is so much more to life.

[@Mansini77]

Thumbs up for the Harvester icon.

[@luiscipher4855]

Great video and good research. Only correction is that Dave Taylor was passing out on the office floor of the office because he suffers from 3D induced motion sickness, that some people experience while playing FPS games, The quickest way to overcome the sickness is to "ground" yourself and stabilize on the floor. This fact is clearly stated in the Masters of Doom book, which I whole heartedly recommend to any doom fan :)

[@UtterSpartan]

Luis Cipher really now? That's crazy. I think it's about time I read that book. Thanks.

[@luiscipher4855]

It is hands down one of the best books I've ever read and later on listened to it as an audio book which is brilliant. A great source of facts about DOOM for any Doom fan :) + so much cool little details that fill in the blanks about these guys and the whole creative process of making Wolfenstein , DOOM, Quake etc... I loved it.

[@rameynoodles152]

@@UtterSpartan I second Luis's opinion. It's a GREAT book.

[@DIYGamer1981able]

"The quickest way to overcome the sickness is to "ground" yourself and stabilize on the floor." 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@XinKotetsu]

​@@UtterSpartanIm shocked you could make this video without reading Masters of Doom first !

[@AlexanderWilithinIII]

id Software really had an all-star team back in the day. A lot of these people have done some huge things for the game industry, it's nuts. And I too would really like to know more about Shawn Green's Tibetan monk excursion.

[@wisemankugelmemicus1701]

I looked it up, and it was a mix up with a baseball player by the same name. I believe...

[@jokesterthemighty227]

They were nobodies at the time that's why they made such a legendary product, having doom on your portfolio will open any door in the industry so that helped a ton. Except Carmack, Carmack is a fucking universe by himself

[@steveneiselen7993]

Correction: The Paul Radek shown at 18:00 is a different Paul Radek who works with campus IT at the University of Arizona.

[@ShaneOzouf]

Carmack wasn't lucky, he was correct.

[@Tinlion09]

John Carmack's work ethic is kind of like drawing circles in MS Paint using the line tool. It takes way too much time and precision, but you'll get there eventually, and it will be a good circle if you know how to do it properly. _And John Carmack knows how to make good circles out of lines._

[@marscaleb]

Correct or not, it comes down to how the courts see it. And unfortunately, that doesn't always come down to what is correct.

[@Bat-Georgi]

@@marscaleb I think he was very much correct. If it's his work, he can do whatever the hell he wants with it. And very few People can even touch Carmack's work.

[@torchmusic27]

@@Bat-Georgi Unfortunately that's not how contracts work. You severely underestimate how incredibly morally corrupt Zenimax is as a company. They are fucking scum. They hold on to id's tattered legacy with a vice grip and they will never let go. If they have a sliver of a chance to milk Carmack for lawsuit money, they will absolutely do it. For example, it's because of them that Commander Keen will never have its story officially finished. They refused to let Tom Hall have the IP which they own as part of id, he was interested in making a sequel in the last decade but wasn't able to. Instead the modding community came up with some incredibly convoluted workarounds to "patch" the original games to make entirely new games of questionable legal status running on top of the original game executables, including an amazing trilogy of mods which complete the story in the way the canon was supposed to go.

[@miguelpereira9859]

@@torchmusic27 Zenimax got 500 million dollars from their Oculus lawsuit. That's fucking nuts, that is money they did not deserve

[@fazhound]

Correction on Bobby Prince: His time as a lawyer didn't actually give him any ideas on how he could get around copyright laws. The tracks based on existing songs were labeled UN for "Use not" and he actually expected Id Software to get sued soon after Doom released because they used them anyway. Source: kzbin.info/www/bejne/p2LZf4qKbquVq9k&t=13m7s

[@sunfl0wer_988]

aw that's a cute goat boy you have as your pfp

[@fazhound]

@@sunfl0wer_988 Thank you. If you're interested, the artist behind it can be found on Twitter under the name Taffybuns

[@concept5631]

​@@fazhoundInstead of doing that I will subscribe to you instead.

[@Mordi]

It's interesting to see how many developers are connected to Doom. This could be a series, where you follow developers who worked on popular games and walk through their careers. Seems like a relatively small community with a lot of connection to each other.

[@DeadPixel1105]

Yeah, a friend of mine loved American McGee games and was pleasantly surprised when I told him that his career started with id Software and Doom.

[@concept5631]

You tend to make a lot of connections when, in Civvie's words, you make the video game equivalent to Thriller.

[@arkan5000]

amazing video. many interesting characters, John Carmack is a real legend

[@UtterSpartan]

Thank you, your highness.

[@catzor4795]

@Gyaku Yeah, that's Icarus, the AI made by Bob Page.

[@ireneparkin3360]

There's a fun story about door what John Romero is poking through. After DooM was released, John Romero locked himself in his office for hours at the time. John Carmack (sorry about the spelling) took a axe to Romero's door to get him out.

[@KingLich451]

hahaha man these guys are awesome

[@sorrenblitz805]

@@KingLich451 when they were making Quake, the Interdimensional Omnipotent Energy being inhabiting John Carmack posted his desk in the hallway to make sure people were working, created a program to log how many hours John Romero spent Death matching and later actually had the walls smashed down so he could be certain everyone was working on Quake.

[@MondySpartan]

“HERE’S JOHNNY CARMACK!”

[@ireneparkin3360]

@@MondySpartan pretty much. There's even a photo of the damaged door online somewhere.

[@shyguy85]

​@@sorrenblitz805dudes a fucking maniac wtf

[@joeilya]

I like how you use Donna to the Rescue when talking about Donna Jackson.

[@DJL3G3ND]

yeah and I think Sandys City when he was talking about Sandy

[@goopah]

I read "Masters Of Doom" years ago, but still learned much more from this video. Good research. Kudos.

[@Selzor]

Dave Taylor passing out in the office on the floor and the guys buying him a couch to crash on is possibly the funniest thing I’ve heard in a while.

[@lugyd1xdone195]

8:52 - 10:16, the last game at id which he had directed was Rage 2, after which he left the studio. Just to update this information, obviously you could not know that given the fact that this video was released back in 2018.

[@eulerian9693]

What a fun video this was, lol. Awesome work

[@Lattamonsteri]

2:38 this will probably be stated later in the video but I suspect this is the same door that Carmack smashed with an axe when Romero got trapped inside his office one night :P

[@cinna9552]

Yep, it was.

[@daniel-vs6co]

Well, he didn't really get trapped.. He trapped himself, lol.

[@novaseer]

Certainly quite the interesting video as a massive Doom fan that's relatively new to the community. Excellent work.

[@professionalbronze4235]

Thanks for your obvious efforts that went into making this. Honestly I didn't know I gave a crap but I couldn't stop watching. Very well put together. I also have a crushing need to play Doom now.

[@Nightmaroid]

Same here brother. Kind of a late reply but if you need to experience Doom as it was intended back in '93 again I suggest you get the Smooth Doom mod with the awesome IDKFA music wad, both work on GZDoom which is a port that work great with mods and allow for great visual and sound improvements without drifting away from the original game's feel. And of course play it in Ultra-Violence, the gentleman's way.

[@lancebaylis3169]

As regards Sandy and Doom, he's spoken a LOT about it on his KZbin channel, going through a few of his old levels and even doing a playthrough/commentary of Doom Eternal. I recommend watching the videos where he sits with his granddaughter while she plays his Doom 2 levels, as they are of course hilarious and adorable.

[@andinuruljihad2912]

This video makes the games industry seem so small. These guys are responsible for almost all of my fondest memories from youth.

[@RadioactiveGoose]

It's weird to me that people go uncredited if they left the studio before release. Our studio credits everyone that contributed to the product.

[@holyravioli5795]

For all the effort put into this video you'd think it would have more views.

[@oyveynotanothershoah]

Can't believe I just stumbled upon this video. I love quake 3 and doom. Crazy how time has flown and now everyone who contributed to this game 25 years ago have all spread out.

[@thehunterator520]

I have actually met Sandy Petersen, and he is a really nice person.

[@K16711]

This is a video I didn't know I wanted, great research work here and the timestamps are a huge plus.

[@2025fahaddenseje]

Can't believe that Kevin cloud is the only OG who still works at id software and is still around.... Yes, even when doom eternal was released, he’s still got some balls...

[@zerotheero]

RIP John Anderson.

[@warrenelite8862]

It's only now I realise the huge splash these some of people had on other media.

[@dosito86]

Your research is impeccable. Loved the vid

[@AlexanderWilithinIII]

This seriously needs more views vtw. Great info and plenty of info I didn't know, even as a pretty big DOOM fan.

[@mr_beezlebub3985]

This is a very good video. Would you do something like this for other legendary games? I'd love to see something like this for games like the early Fallout titles or Mortal Kombat

[@UtterSpartan]

This video took a very long time to make because honestly more people than I thought worked on Doom. But for something else with a small team I might do it someday.

[@Superschokokeks]

@@UtterSpartan Do it for Pong and Tetris. This should be quick :D

[@fuzzydunlop1753]

@@UtterSpartan do it for duke nukem forever 😂

[@MilanVoorhees]

Oh man, Fallout is definitely a great recommendation for a video of this format. It would also give everyone another opportunity to crap on Bethesda/Zenimax.

[@officialromanhours]

TeamTNT. Everyone. Ever.

[@paulbraddick2085]

Great work man, thank you for the video.

[@MyHeaven]

amazing video. This is exactly what I was looking for. Thank you again

[@krwawyzenon5747]

JUST AWESOME!

[@chriskulig]

Fantastic. Excellent work on this.

[@kozmo7]

Awesome watch, thank you for all your work!

[@John.Diaper]

Bobby Prince in an interview on KZbin said that he told Romero and Carmack that he thought they were going to be sued. Implying that they told him to put the music in it anyway.

[@CarrytheLabelGuy]

Correction: It's pronounced like "Shreeveport" and not "Sheverport" as was said in the video. Just felt like pointing that out.

[@soupernes]

From Shreveport and I spit out my water when I heard it.

[@nerdiloo9863]

Whatreeve..

[@fuzzydunlop1753]

@@nerdiloo9863 😂

[@Fuzy2K]

Shrivpårt :P

[@ps4shotsgaming528]

The wooden door the team smashed up was a test before they put in automatic metal doors in game, wayyy to easy to get through.

[@ivarx1]

Great video bro

[@mitchellrafalzik4921]

Just to let u guys know that a relative of Dr. Sleep on doomworld and said he was diseased. I believe it was of pneumonia. Originally mods thought it was fake but after research it was either an actual relative or it was a troll that did EXTENSIVE research to make a strange joke. Take it as you will.

[@mr_beezlebub3985]

I checked the wiki for Blood (a game he also worked on) and it also says that he died of pneumonia. No exact date, just April of 2018.

[@stproducciones9140]

Bobby Prince is the true All-american Boomer

[@almighty1984]

Tim Willits is nuts lol

[@Vynzent]

Kevin Cloud is one of those badassses that doesn't bother trying to get his name out there, he just knows he's boss and doesn't need the attention.

[@Arkham_UK]

Fantastic work dude. Loved it

[@snowwhite7677]

He's eccentric because he bought an Acura NSX?!

[@Ruggig]

Really interesting video, great reasearch. Thumbs up man :)

[@eng3d]

Only 5,845 views? It's unfair.

[@sonofriggnarok9320]

25,674 now, not nearly enough.

[@mr.eggawott8372]

The ironic part about Mike Wilson is that they just announced Doom costumes are coming to Fall Guys (Which is a game that Devolver Digital published) so basically everything’s come full circle

[@nemtudom5074]

Also, i just realised how the guys behind doom had affected my life. While i never played doom, because my mother wouldn't let me, i played a lot of other games, hocus pocus, wizard101, ravenwood fair, several games ex-id staff had worked on. For that, i am grateful.

[@0neDoomedSpaceMarine]

You should give it a try, it's a fun game.

[@nemtudom5074]

I did go back and played it, it sure is fun

[@ubza1234]

That was Flippin awesome man! Thank you so so much!

[@HauntedAbysss]

Really good deep dive.. Loved all the attention and Odd stuff I never knew.. VERY COOL! Sandy Recently Talked a ton about Doom and How Tim Was a Snake in the grass. Great stuff to find on youtube aswell!

[@rikuruohomaki3230]

They were all Doomed. Every single one of them has either died or is going to die, eventually.

[@thegibsonserver]

Excellent video. Very well thought through!

[@thatguyknownaswill8180]

Nintendo: let’s take down long awaited fan games like Another Metroid 2 Remake, and other things like rom sites and KZbin channels that upload our music which we have been insufficient in providing to our customers, and lets still not provide it. John Carmack: Hey guys, you know that game that we’ve been working on for a really long time? Yeah the source got leaked and they made a Linux Port. Instead of pursuing legal action, let’s just make our own Linux port that will be 100 times better. This is capitalism baby! Also, I’m gonna release the source code for some of the most influential and addictive games the world has ever seen online for anyone to download for free and do with as they please. This will in turn, make me one of the most respected and loved men in all of gaming. Wtf Nintendo? Be more like Carmack.

[@PantsuMann]

No timestamps needed. This was excellent!

[@Thenamelessnomad]

It's strange, I live right next to the Heritage here in Killenard yet I never knew Adrian Carmack owned it until my brother mentioned that he had sold it a few years back. While its not like he lived in the hotel, it is strange to think a man who had an influence on one of my favourite game franchises owned the building I used to visit all the time as a kid.

[@QD_Plays]

Great video! I loved it!

[@TheNinjaNoodle]

That was cool as hell and I wish it was longer. I've watched it twice with different people so far.

[@silferno]

Great narration and fascinating subject. I'm tempted to re-read Masters of Doom now!

[@izaac9817]

Binary space partitioning is a data structure that existed well before doom. It also isn't a rendering method, just an extremely fast way of knowing what the player can see based on sector data in the doom map.

[@matt4193]

Amazing work. Well done, sir.

[@BarpenterCroot]

i love how you put the song "donna to the rescue" while talking about donna

[@dullboykrieg]

finally another upload keep up the good work

[@thunderboydavid]

Great Video!!! Loved learning all the information about DOOM. Makes the game even more fun. Brutal Doom v21!!!!! Keep Doing Videos like this. More Info!!!! Thanks!!!

[@Joe-xp6un]

Christ, mate, you've done it again, another great video, iunno when you're gonna break through and make it to the top, but I sure hope its soon, this deserves way more views.

[@PJBearstein]

Rise of the Triad started out in production as a Wolfenstein 3D expansion.

[@sorrenblitz805]

It was actually supposed to be a sequel to Wolfenstein but Apogee didn't have the rights to use the Wolfenstein license just the source code. They also put some stuff from the Doom Bible in RotT and according to John Romero, Hexen 1 2 and Heretic 1 and 2 are prequels to Rise of the Triad.

[@jopdancing7320]

great video! keep up the great work.

[@IgorAntarov]

Awesome summary. It was like reading a good book. Thank you! :)

[@humanharddrive1]

thanks, i needed to know who made the doom 2 cover art

[@davidhuggins4806]

John Anderson I was his roomate in york pa 4 years ago. He is alive and currently living in Pittsburgh pa

[@davidhuggins4806]

If I knew how I could upload a photo I would.

[@davidhuggins4806]

Quickly found out he died in 2018

[@davidhuggins4806]

RIP Dr. Sleep

[@Toasty667]

Excellent video. Just got back into Doom due to Brutal Doom and this was really interesting, especially being a Sabbath fan myself.

[@davidpike766]

that was great, thanks and well done

[@sideoutside]

Awesome vid!

[@lsb2623]

In different ways and at different times, they all went to hell. To get out they had to kill John Romero.

[@homebody0089]

IDK if youll see this but I have a question, Is it possible the Doomguy's Mug was inspired by Raymond Burr's face? If you pull up a pic of him from Perry Mason. I see it with the brow and the mouth and nose.

[@ShadowsofYesterday]

He's basically just a less square-jawed and slightly shorter-haired version of the Wolfenstein protagonist. Now who inspired the appearance of the Wolfenstein protagonist is another question.

[@adammclaughlin845]

Holy shit. Yeah, I can actually see that.

[@johnjohnjohnh]

such a doom video, the transitions are so cool

[@ButcherGrindslam]

American McGee is a sadist - E4M1 is the reason.

[@majamystic256]

E4M2 is harder imo

[@0neDoomedSpaceMarine]

E4M1 is one of my favorite maps because of how intense it gets as soon as you leave the starting alcove. Cramped and violent, especially on UV.

[@DoomRulz]

Loved it, thank you.

[@Druman19]

My favorite audio book right now is "Masters of Doom" I'm guessing you've read/listened to it. It has a lot of the information about this kinda stuff. I've seriously listened to it 10 times or so. Great video, my dude.

[@leesouder1851]

great work!!

[@TylerP223]

No love for the Doom 95 port? I mean sure it wasn't technically developed at iD but considering how Microsoft went explicitly out of their way to code it for iD Software and more importantly WHO they got to lead the team to develop the port, it deserves more than a little recognition. After all it's not just any old game that got freaking Gabe Newell to quit his cushy Microsoft job to start a little company called Valve Software after all....

[@UtterSpartan]

This is a very interesting topic and I will be covering it in the future.

[@Anomaly188]

Half the features Microsoft tried to include, like mouse aiming, don't work.

[@jari2018]

@@Anomaly188 Must support dos i guess anyway any serial mouse work I guess

[@0neDoomedSpaceMarine]

Doom 95 was a pretty sloppy port, but it shipped with Final Doom, so that was still pretty cool.

[@smashingstargamer]

I'd totally watch a documentary of John Romero

[@NinjaRunningWild]

m.kzbin.info/www/bejne/mXW0Y6enrtVrgac

[@1337Shockwav3]

Post Quake Romero is such a mixed bag to me. On one had it's amazing he still cares about "his" game over 20 years later (take notes you bankrupt scumbags at 3DRealms), on the other hand Daikatana and Raluca.

[@Hubert_Cumberdale_]

Never played Daikatana so I have nothing but love for Romero.

[@0x0michael]

@@Hubert_Cumberdale_ Daikatana proves that he was wrong about stories being the most important thing in game design, stories are second to gameplay

[@A31Chris]

Fun fact, Dave Taylor also did the sound engine for the Atari Jaguar console version of doom. Years later panning the system in an interview and blaming the conversions problems (link up failures no music during game play) as problems with the hardware. A few years after that interview it was discovered that those problems on that version of Doom were actually coding errors or in efficiencies on his part. Rather than own up to it he had blamed the console which helped tarnish it's reputation for years. to come. I'm sure he's a great PC coder where there were plenty of establish tools and such he just didn't seem ready for the hackers wild west of coding the next generation consoles that came out in the 1990's. He quite a personality. Cusses like a sailor. You should see the notes he left in the JagDoom source code.

[@jaysonl]

Awesome video.

[@Lyricaldeamin]

Rumor is. I heard Bobby actual put those midis in a folder do not use . Cause of fear of copy right. But Romero put em in anyway

[@hellrossa2137]

Great video, thanks :)

[@SEGAClownboss]

That was wild, dude.

[@BlueLightningSky]

Damn Tim Willits just adding to the reasons to be hated, as if the Quake community didn't hate him enough

[@DinnerForkTongue]

And recently he left id, too. Good riddance.

[@TheRealFaceyNeck]

1:06 - "Don Ivan Poon-Chatz..." BEST NAME TO EVER EXIST

[@alexthorpe2522]

Great video. Very interesting. Deserves more views. Sharing.

[@KalebSDay]

That was epic, thanks for making this! x2 speed is the way to go fellow viewers haha