John Romero

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John Romero
Romero at the Game Developers Conference in 2022
Born	Alfonso John Romero (1967-10-28) October 28, 1967 (age 56) Colorado Springs, Colorado, U.S.
Occupation(s)	Video game designer, programmer
Known for	id Software, Ion Storm, Romero Games
Notable work	Commander Keen series Wolfenstein 3D Doom series Quake Daikatana
Spouses	Kelly Mitchell ​ ​ (m. 1987; div. 1989)​ Elizabeth Ann McCall ​ ​ (m. 1990; div. 1998)​ Raluca Alexandra Pleșca ​ ​ (m. 2004; div. 2011)​ Brenda Romero ​ (m. 2012)​
Partner	Stevie Case (1998–2003)
Children	3 Romero's speaking voice On joining Id Software
Website	rome.ro

Alfonso John Romero (born October 28, 1967)^[1] is an American director, designer, programmer and developer in the video game industry. He is a co-founder of 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 id Software's lead programmer, John Carmack, popularized the first-person shooter (FPS) genre. Romero is also credited with coining the multiplayer term "deathmatch".

Following disputes with Carmack, Romero was fired from id in 1996. He co-founded a new studio, Ion Storm, and directed the FPS Daikatana (2000), which was a critical and commercial failure. Romero departed Ion Storm in 2001. In July 2001, Romero and another former id employee, Tom Hall, founded Monkeystone Games to develop games for mobile devices.

In 2003, Romero joined Midway Games as the project lead on Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows (2005), and left shortly before its release. He founded another company, Gazillion Entertainment, in 2005. In 2016, Romero and another former id employee, Adrian Carmack, announced a new FPS, Blackroom, but it was canceled after it failed to gain funding.