Doom Creator Corrects Misinformation About the Game’s History

Summary

John Romero disputes Sandy Petersen’s claim of writing Doom’s original backstory, attributing the credit to Tom Hall instead.
Romero explained that Kevin Cloud wrote the Doom manual using Tom Hall’s backstory.
The development history of Doom remains a disputed topic between Romero and Petersen on social media.

Doom creator John Romero has responded to fellow id Software veteran Sandy Petersen on social media, correcting his claim that he wrote the original game’s backstory. For the past few years, Romero has pushed back against some of Petersen’s statements about Doom’s development, aiming to shed light on the legendary game’s history.

Doom is one of those titles that hardly needs an introduction. This revolutionary FPS, released in the ’90s, didn’t just change how the world saw video games—it reshaped how the industry approached the genre moving forward. Many factors cemented its place in history, but one of the most significant was its frenetic, fast-paced shooting gameplay, which still holds up more than 30 years later and essentially set the standard for future titles. Behind Doom’s commercial success is the story of John Carmack and John Romero, two of the key figures responsible for Doom’s existence. Now, Romero is pushing back against what he considers misinformation about the game’s history.

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Taking to Twitter, Doom creator John Romero disputed details about the game’s development history shared by former id Software member Sandy Petersen. Petersen had responded to a meme criticizing the classic Doom lore, calling it simplistic in comparison to Doom’s modern backstory. Petersen stepped up to defend the game, while claiming he was also responsible for writing the original Doom backstory. In a rather passive-aggressive response, Romero refuted his claim, stating that id Software co-founder Tom Hall wrote the backstory.

Romero Disputes Petersen’s Claim of Writing Doom’s Original Backstory

Romero further explained that Kevin Cloud wrote the Doom manual on NeXTSTEP, summarizing the game’s backstory on the first page of the manual. Responding to a Twitter user, Petersen argued that he had no access to the Doom Bible while writing the manual, and therefore, the two-sentence backstory in the manual was originally written by him—though Romero denies this version of events.

This isn’t the first time Romero has corrected misinformation about Doom. As he explained in a follow-up tweet, he believes that video game history is “critically important,” especially when it comes to such an influential title. He even described Petersen’s claims as a way of “retconning into someone else’s credits.”

While the details of the game’s history remain in dispute, players continue to revisit and enjoy it. The classic Doom recently received an update on multiple platforms, adding multiplayer and mod support. Whether Romero and Petersen will ever come to an agreement on Doom’s history remains to be seen.