Masters of Doom

From hundreds of interviews, David Kushner reconstructed the history of id Software and two of its co-founders, John Romero and John Carmack. The account runs from their childhoods and first meeting at Softdisk in 1989 through Commander Keen, Wolfenstein 3D, Doom and Quake. Kushner's main interest is the working culture behind the games: Romero as the creative showman, Carmack as the introverted programmer whose engines powered the company. He also covers Romero's firing and the later collapse of his studio Ion Storm. Modeled on Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff, the narrative takes its dialogue from interviews. Two screen adaptations have been attempted, for Showtime and for USA Network.

Elon Musk included it in a set of audiobook recommendations he posted on X, and GoRails founder Chris Oliver called it inspiring for any software developer.