Photo: Jason Scott / CC BY 2.0 (source: Wikimedia Commons)
My Take
John Romero is basically gaming royalty to anyone who grew up near a PC. Co-founding id Software and helping build Wolfenstein 3D, Doom and Quake means he didn't just make games, he helped invent the first-person shooter as we know it. I find the pairing with John Carmack fascinating: Romero the flamboyant designer, Carmack the engine wizard. His early Dangerous Dave work is a nice reminder of how scrappy those beginnings were. He carries a rockstar-developer aura that the industry rarely produces anymore. Whether you love or critique his later career, the influence on modern gaming is undeniable to me.
Overview
Alfonso John Romero (born October 28, 1967) is an American and Irish video game developer. He co-founded id Software and designed their early games, including Wolfenstein 3D (1992), Doom (1993), Doom II (1994), Hexen (1995) and Quake (1996). His designs and development tools, along with programming techniques developed by the id programmer John Carmack, popularized the first-person shooter (FPS) genre.
Summary adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- John Romero
- Name (Japanese)
- ジョン・ロメロ
- Reading
- じょん・ろめろ
- Born
- October 28, 1967 (age 58)
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Scorpio / Goat
- Origin
- Colorado Springs, Colorado, United States
- Blood type
- Private
- Height
- Private
- Agency
- Private
- Occupation
- engineer / programmer / game programmer / computer scientist / businessperson
2. Background
- Elementary school
- Private
- Junior high
- Private
- High school
- Private
- University
- Private
3. Relationships
- Spouse
- Private
- Children
- Private
- Parents
- Private
- Siblings
- Private
4. Personality
Motto
Private
5. Works & records
| Category | Title | Role | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Notable work | Dangerous Dave | — |
6. Links
- Official sitehttps://rome.ro
- Xhttps://x.com/romero
- Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%B8%E3%83%A7%E3%83%B3%E3%83%BB%E3%83%AD%E3%83%A1%E3%83%AD
Engineer — see all → · Programmer — see all → · More people from United States →
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-02
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public items are marked "Private / Unknown". English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.