John Romero Releases First Doom Level in 21 Years

John Romero is an icon of the video game industry and co-founded id Software alongside John Carmack. The studio produced a huge array of influential titles including Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Hexen and Quake which popularized the first-person-shooter genre. Modern behemoths like Call of Duty owe a lot to id Software and their approach to level design. Sadly, tensions between Romero and Carmack reached breaking point during a bitter dispute about the company’s future direction. Eventually, Romero resigned and created a new game entitled, Daikatana, through his brand new studio, Ion Storm. However, this wasn’t a smooth release, and encountered numerous delays beyond the planned Christmas 1997 schedule.

Recently, Romero returned to his glory days and unveiled a brand new Doom level, the first he has made public in 21 years! This is incredibly exciting and I cannot wait to try E1M8 which uses DOOM1.WAD. If you’re interested in trying out this level, please navigate to the link below:

It's been 21 years since I made a DOOM level. Here's my version of E1M8 using DOOM1.WAD. https://t.co/ueKM7gBbXd pic.twitter.com/NlmA9aIALN

— John Romero (@romero) January 15, 2016

The reception so far has been extremely promising and Romero decided to thank fans for the overwhelmingly positive feedback. Perhaps this will encourage him to create more custom levels in the near future. Doom is certainly an iconic game which holds up remarkably well and has a thriving modding community. This ranges from custom levels to the superb Brutal Doom mod.

Thanks so much for the feedback, everyone! It's the first time I've heard direct feedback for my levels. Originals released before Internet!

— John Romero (@romero) January 16, 2016

What is your favourite first-person-shooter of all-time?