I'll be honest, the book is probably not crunchy as I would have liked it. More insight into Carmack and company's technical feats would have been ideal. But the nostalgia factor--I was one of the nerds downloading shareware releases of Wolfenstein 3D and Doom--and Wil Wheaton's excellent narration of the audiobook made this such a compelling book.

As an aside, I can't help but shake the notion that Kushner was extremely kind to both John's. It's not really a case of who's the better person as it seems success destroyed any chance either had for being
satisfied. ( )

The book felt like a non-fiction title written for young teenagers by an obsessed fan. It was awkward and crammed with tons of completely random facts and stories in what I can only guess was an attempt to fill space. ( )

Great read about the early lives of the Two Johns. Perfect for any fans of startups and startup culture or (classic) PC gaming. ( )

Now that I am in my forties, I have suddenly taken a strong interest in video games, more than ever before. This may or may not constitute a midlife crisis. I thought that this interest would quickly flame out as it has on a few other isolated instances where I became infatuated with playing video games but found that the idea of playing them was more enjoyable than actually doing it. But now i love them.

It has cut into my reading time. And the books I do read, I am interested in ones that have to do with video games. There aren't really all that many legit books about video games. This one is pretty well done. It's about the guys who created Doom and basically invented the now-ubiquitous first person shooter genre of games.

The tale almost feels like a Shakespearean tragedy. Or now that I think of it, the story really very closely follows the arc of the Beatles' story. The guys are young and broke and united. They create this thing that unexpectedly becomes a global phenomenon. The money comes rolling in. They buy Ferraris. One of the guys starts referring to himself as God and buys a $9,000 medieval chair for his McMansion. Creative and personal differences bubble to the surface as egos get bigger. They break up and struggle to match the success of Doom with subsequent solo games.

I'm not sure how close to the facts this book hews, it is narrative history with dialogue and everything. It was pretty entertaining though. And I played Doom for the very first time ever the other day. Kick ass game! Also, it must be noted that Wil Wheaton narrates and does a tremendous job. ( )

One of the first computer games I ever played was Wolfenstein 3D on my moms Packard Bell 386 computer. Eventually I also played Doom on it as well. At the time I didn't realize what was behind those games. Masters is more a biography of John Carmack and John Romero - the technical and design talent behind these games and id software.

It's crazy to me how this company got started -- "borrowing" computers from their day job to program on them at night and eventually release Wolfenstein. The small group of guys working in their house part time ended up impacting the world of video games as much as anyone else has, and this is the rise and fall of that empire. ( )