This is a OPEN AI summary of the Tim Ferriss Podcast #681- visit www.TinyTim.blog for more AI summaries, or www.Tim.blog for the official Tim Ferriss Podcasts.

John Romero is a game developer who overcame a difficult childhood to become one of the most influential figures in the gaming industry. He was born in 1967 in Tucson, Arizona, and grew up on the Yaqui Reservation. His father was an alcoholic, and his family was very poor. In fourth grade, his family moved to Northern California, where he began his career in the gaming industry. He has since gone on to create some of the most iconic video games of all time, including "Doom" and "Quake." He is also credited with inspiring the creation of Oculus VR.

John Romero talks about his early experiences with computers and how he got his start in programming. He describes how his mother put him and his brother in the middle of the desert and how he followed the truck home. He talks about how he started school and how he was able to take computer programming. He talks about how he got a job with the Aggressor Squadron and how he was able to program their mini computer.

John Romero talks about his experience learning to code on a mainframe computer in a college computer lab in 1979. He was 11 years old at the time, and he was immediately interested in creating games. He taught himself how to code and went on to create some of the most iconic video games of all time.

John Romero talks about his experience with programming and how it led him to become a game developer. He explains how the iterative nature of programming is conducive to learning, and how solving problems is a key part of the job. He discusses how his work in developing 3D games has been significant in the history of gaming.

id Software, a company founded in 1991 by John Romero, John Carmack, Tom Hall, and Adrian Carmack, was responsible for creating a breakthrough in early 3D computer graphics. By focusing on speed and using elegant code, they were able to create a 3D scene that could be drawn quickly and rotated smoothly, something that had not been seen before.

id Software was founded in 1991 by John Carmack, Tom Hall, John Romero, and Adrian Carmack. The company quickly became known for its prolific output, releasing 13 games in its first year. id Software's success was due in part to the experience of its founders, who had a combined total of 40 years in the game industry. One of the company's first breakthroughs was John Carmack's discovery of how to create smooth, pixel-level scrolling on a PC, which had previously been thought impossible. This allowed id Software to create games that looked and played like those on consoles, which were far ahead of anything else on the PC at that time.

John Romero and his team were able to make games quickly and efficiently by scope and by knowing what to cut when necessary. They had a lot of experience and were able to focus well, which helped them get their work done quickly.

The original design for Wolfenstein 3D included features from an earlier game, Castle Wolfenstein, but these features were later removed because they did not match the feel of the new game.

John Romero talks about the pressure of making a game when he didn't have one, and how that cajoled the cells in his body to do the impossible and will one into existence. He explains how the focus on speed in their next game, after the success of Wolfenstein 3D and Spear of Destiny, led them to remove anything that would slow the player down.

id Software was confident that they could make a new, better game than anything else that was out there. They made a list of features that the new game should have, including non-orthogonal walls, multiplayer capabilities, and modding support. They released the first part of the game for free as shareware.

John Romero and his team were working on a new game called DOOM. They decided to put out a press release before they even started writing the game, claiming that it would be the best game anyone had ever played on a PC. This caused them to have to fulfill that promise. As a result, they worked extremely hard and fast to make sure the game lived up to the hype. However, this intense focus may have led to some negative consequences, such as Romero forgetting his wife's birthday.

Hyperthymesia is a condition characterized by an extremely good recall of significant events and things that happened in your life that most people would forget over time. With hyperthymesia, you never forget those things. They just dont go away. The extreme end of hyperthymesia is where you remember every second of your life since you got hyperthymesia, and it could be born with, but sometimes it is an induced memory disorder. So people have been hit in the head with a baseball and boom, they have hyperthymesia and they record every second of their life, which gets to be kind of insane because everything that youve ever done is always present in your brain. And having all of these thoughts, all of these memories constantly, its a big hindrance, I guess, in just normal operation like just living. John Romero has hyperthymesia and he recalls basically everything that has happened to him, mostly all the significant stuff and things that are connected to it. So like music and movies and programming and games and that kind of stuff, he would remember basically all of that stuff through all the years. And things that he cared about, he would remember those things. Hyperthymesia can be a superpower on so many levels but also a challenge because negative experiences, arguments, lets just say slight moral injuries, all of these things are also as ever present for him and its very challenging.

John Romero discusses the importance of having two games in development at the same time, as it allows for more creativity and prevents creative block. He also talks about how this helped the team to be more in sync and to come up with new ideas more easily.

In 1993, John Romero and his team were developing DOOM, and they realized that it was going to be a monster of a game. They focused on making the game experience as fun and scary as possible, and when they finally got to play the game themselves, they knew they had something special.

In 1996, John Carmack figured out how to add multiplayer functionality to the game DOOM, which had previously been lacking. This change allowed players to fight each other in real time, and was a major breakthrough for the game. Carmack was excited about the change, as it opened up new possibilities for gameplay. However, he never expected that DOOM would still be popular 30 years later, with people still creating new content for the game on a daily basis.

John Romero describes the development of the game Quake, which was a 3D action adventure game set in a medieval world. The team working on the game was small, and they had to overcome various challenges in order to ship the game.

The engine is the core technology that makes a game run. It takes input and produces gameplay. In 1995, Quake was created with a new engine that was more advanced than anything that had been created before. The team was burnt out from the massive effort it took to create the new engine, and they suggested making a shooter because it would be easier. However, the designer wanted to make something new and innovative that went beyond a shooter. In the end, they compromised and made a shooter with the new engine, but it was released as fast as possible.

John Romero talks about his experience leaving id Software and starting his own company, Ion Storm. He discusses the challenges and excitement of starting something new, and the reasons behind writing his memoir, "DOOM Guy: Life in First Person."

John Romero talks about his new book, DOOM Guy, which chronicles his career in the video game industry. He discusses the origins of the DOOM franchise, and how he has seen the industry change over the years. He also talks about his work on the Blackroom game, and why he has been tight-lipped about it in the past.

https://tim.blog/2023/07/12/john-romero/