Legendary game designer John Romero sits down with his wife and business partner, Brenda Romero, to talk about growing up writing code in his copybooks as one of the pioneers of game design.
Having been one of the leading figures behind Wolfenstein 3D and Doom – two games instrumental in the first-person shooter design we know today – John Romero can consider himself royalty within the game design community.
At Inspirefest 2016, Romero discussed with his partner how he managed to get to such heights despite growing up in a tech-free, poor Mexican household in the 1960s and 1970s.
By 14, John was programming in assembly language, making him something of a child coding prodigy.
“We were talking about this and [John] said that plenty of kids are doing it at 14,” Brenda Romero said, laughing.
“Now they are, but they’re not coding in assembly language!”
Words by Colm Gorey
