Masters of Doom by David Kushner is a double-bill biography of John Romero and John Carmack, founders of ID Software, gaming legends best known for fathering Doom, Quake, and thus the whole FPS genre.

While I personally really enjoy Doom and Quake, I am not much of an ID software fan, but the book still gripped me hard. You might have heard lore, legends and trivia regarding the pair and their games, but there's even more to be found in here, thanks to the countless interviews with first hand witnesses the author based his work upon.

Masters of Doom was released in 2003 which unfortunately means it's fairly up to date on what the two Johns have been up to this decade. The 200X's weren't very eventful or notable for either of them.

A movie is apparently in development.




Strangely titled Game Over by David Sheff is based upon the same template as Masters of Doom: hundreds of interviews worked into a non-fiction book that reads like a novel. Take the best moments of those "Iwata asks" interviews you can find on Nintendo's website and you'll have a tiny sample of how good this book is.

You might think, having read many articles about Miyamoto and his games, you know all there is to know... and you would be wrong. Mario's creator is but one of the many characters in this book, and just as interesting to read about are Hiroshi Yamauchi, Minoru Arakawa, Howard Lincoln, etc...

Sheff goes deep into his subject matter; a must-read for fans and non fans alike.

Game Over was first published in 1993.

Things these days are all screwed up. The tallest player in the NBA is Chinese, and the most successful console is also the least powerful.

In the 90's, it was all about who had the most bits or megas, and to wave them right in competition's face.

Looking back, it's amusing to realise that Nintendo was probably the most eager company to brag about their hardware's power. Going so far as to name a console (the Nintendo 64) after a number of bits.

Here are a few examples in advertising:



Plain, simple, awesome. 1992.
Moving on to this Super Metroid ad from 1994:


"With his 24 megs, it's hard to get a picture where he's not moving."

Ok, I'm not sure how it makes sense that the cartridge's capacity would allow the game's character to move faster, but what's really scary is that in 1994, Nintendo France still didn't know that Samus was a girl.

And last but not least, this 1997 ad for the Nintendo 64:


...


"No loading times"

It also burns your carpet.

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