Like many people my age who were poor as children, shareware was a gaming Godsend, and Doom was one of the best examples of inexpensive entertainment out there. I played the hell out of "Knee Deep in the Dead," and Doom II was one of my first gaming addictions. Today is a day for FPS fans to get nostalgic, as id's famous sci-fi demon blaster turns fifteen today!

Shooters today owe a lot to Doom. Although not the first FPS on the market, it was definitely the most popular, succeeding Wolfenstein 3D and becoming so well known that subsequent FPSes would be known as "Doom clones" for some time. Today the first-person shooter is one of gaming's most popular genres, and a huge part of that is thanks to John Romero and id Software.

I still play Doom when I'm bored. It's certainly aged, but it remains immeasurably satisfying to explode barrels and do just enough damage to "gib" an enemy, reducing them to a pile of sticky red goo. 

Please join me in wishing happy birthday to a pioneer of the FPS genre. I'll certainly be giving the XBLA version a celebratory spin around the block tonight, f*cking the sh*t out of some flying skulls.