
Masters of Doom
How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture
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Narrated by:
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Wil Wheaton
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By:
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David Kushner
About this listen
Masters of Doom is the amazing true story of the Lennon and McCartney of video games: John Carmack and John Romero. Together, they ruled big business. They transformed popular culture. And they provoked a national controversy. More than anything, they lived a unique and rollicking American Dream, escaping the broken homes of their youth to produce the most notoriously successful game franchises in history - Doom and Quake - until the games they made tore them apart. This is a story of friendship and betrayal, commerce and artistry - a powerful and compassionate account of what it's like to be young, driven, and wildly creative.
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Once upon Atari
- How I Made History by Killing an Industry
- By: Howard Scott Warshaw
- Narrated by: Howard Scott Warshaw
- Length: 11 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Once upon Atari is an intimate view into the dramatic rise and fall of the early video game industry, and how it shaped the life of one of its key players. This book offers eye-opening details and insights delivered in a creative style that mirrors the industry it reveals. An innovative work from one of the industry’s original innovators.
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Awesome
- By Aaron Valdes on 07-22-23
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The Ultimate History of Video Games, Volume 1
- From Pong to Pokemon and Beyond . . . The Story Behind the Craze That Touched Our Lives and Changed the World
- By: Steven L. Kent
- Narrated by: Dan Woren
- Length: 23 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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With all the whiz, bang, pop, and shimmer of a glowing arcade, volume 1 of The Ultimate History of Video Games reveals everything you ever wanted to know and more about the unforgettable games that changed the world, the visionaries who made them, and the fanatics who played them. Starting in arcades then moving to televisions and handheld devices, the video game invasion has entranced kids and the young at heart for nearly fifty years. And gaming historian Steven L. Kent has been there to record the craze from the very beginning.
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Misleading title for an otherwise excellent book
- By CJ on 09-26-23
By: Steven L. Kent
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American Caesar
- Douglas MacArthur 1880-1964
- By: William Manchester
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 31 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Virtually all Americans above a certain age hold strong opinions about Douglas MacArthur. They either worship him or despise him. Now, in this superb book, one of our most outstanding writers, after a meticulous three-year examination of the record, presents his startling insights about the man. The narrative is gripping, because the general's life was fascinating. It is moving, because he was a man of vision. It ends, finally, in tragedy, because his character, though majestic, was tragically flawed.
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A Great American
- By Charlotte A. Hu on 05-19-13
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Where Wizards Stay Up Late
- The Origins of the Internet
- By: Katie Hafner, Matthew Lyon
- Narrated by: Mark Douglas Nelson
- Length: 10 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Twenty-five years ago, it didn't exist. Today, 20 million people worldwide are surfing the Net. Where Wizards Stay Up Late is the exciting story of the pioneers responsible for creating the most talked about, most influential, and most far-reaching communications breakthrough since the invention of the telephone. In the 1960s, when computers where regarded as mere giant calculators, J.C.R. Licklider at MIT saw them as the ultimate communications devices.
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Absolutely fascinating and we'll researched
- By Elsa Braun on 10-01-16
By: Katie Hafner, and others
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Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution
- 25th Anniversary Edition
- By: Steven Levy
- Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain
- Length: 20 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Steven Levy's classic book traces the exploits of the computer revolution's original hackers - those brilliant and eccentric nerds from the late 1950s through the early '80s who took risks, bent the rules, and pushed the world in a radical new direction. With updated material from noteworthy hackers such as Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Richard Stallman, and Steve Wozniak, Hackers is a fascinating story that begins in early computer research labs and leads to the first home computers.
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Remember Why You Got Into Computing
- By Dan Collins on 07-01-16
By: Steven Levy
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Super Mario
- How Nintendo Conquered America
- By: Jeff Ryan
- Narrated by: Ray Porter
- Length: 8 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Nintendo has continually set the standard for video game innovation in America, starting in 1981 with a plucky hero who jumped over barrels to save a girl from an ape. The saga of Mario, the portly plumber who became the most successful franchise in the history of gaming, has plot twists worthy of a video game. Jeff Ryan shares the story of how this quintessentially Japanese company found success in the American market.
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Not Exciting
- By TM on 08-18-14
By: Jeff Ryan
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Press Reset
- Ruin and Recovery in the Video Game Industry
- By: Jason Schreier
- Narrated by: Ray Chase
- Length: 8 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Jason Schreier's groundbreaking reporting has earned him a place among the preeminent investigative journalists covering the world of video games. In his eagerly anticipated, deeply researched new book, Schreier trains his investigative eye on the volatility of the video game industry and the resilience of the people who work in it.
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Audio Quality is Inconsistent
- By Amazon Customer on 09-14-21
By: Jason Schreier
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The Storm of Steel
- By: Ernst Jünger
- Narrated by: Charlton Griffin
- Length: 9 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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This classic war memoir, first published in 1920, is based on the author's extensive diaries describing hard combat experienced on the Western Front during World War I. It has been greatly admired by people as diverse as Bertolt Brecht and Andre Gide, and from every part of the political spectrum. Hypnotic, thrilling, and magnificent, The Storm of Steel is perhaps the most fascinating description of modern warfare ever written.
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Horror and randomness of war
- By 9S on 12-26-14
By: Ernst Jünger
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Disrupting the Game
- From the Bronx to the Top of Nintendo
- By: Reggie Fils-Aimé
- Narrated by: Reggie Fils-Aimé
- Length: 8 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Reggie Fils-Aimé, retired President and Chief Operating Officer of Nintendo of America Inc., shares leadership lessons and inspiring stories from his unlikely rise to the top. Learn from Reggie how to leverage disruptive thinking to pinpoint the life choices that will make you truly happy, conquer negative perceptions from those who underestimate or outright dismiss you, and master the grit, perseverance, and resilience it takes to dominate in the business world and to reach your professional dreams.
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Engaging Autobiography
- By Ryan on 12-07-22
By: Reggie Fils-Aimé
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Alexander X
- Battle for Forever, Book 1
- By: Edward Savio
- Narrated by: Wil Wheaton
- Length: 10 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Alexander Grant is a little too good at a few too many things. Two dozen martial arts. Twice that many languages. Chess, the piano, sports, forging excused absences, you name it. He graduated high school top of his class 17 times. Of course, no one knows any of this. Not that he wants to go unnoticed. It’s just safer that way.
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More for Young Readers
- By Kerr on 09-23-19
By: Edward Savio
What listeners say about Masters of Doom
Highly rated for:
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- Fjolnir
- 01-14-13
Loved the games and loved the book
This was a surprisingly suspensful story, everybody who is familiar with Doom and Quake should be interested in the story behind the games. I was one of those who were waiting (and waiting and waiting) for John Romero's Daikatana and I finally gave up waiting, now I know what happened!!! The reader gives such a great performance that the book is elevated to a new level. I really liked this one.
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- Robert Patterson
- 08-09-13
Truly interesting stuff!
This book was exceptional. The story was unexpectedly compelling; it seamed to have just the right mix of technology and society. Narration was bang on!
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1 person found this helpful
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- SAMA
- 06-22-15
The Doom
This is the story of a gaming landmark from the golden age of video games up to the current day. It is fascinating to see what goes into game design, and the tensions and ups and downs of game development, including that of having a do-no-wrong image in the industry.
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1 person found this helpful
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- David Burke Grenfell
- 04-03-19
Kushner and Wheaton are a good combo
This book kept me constantly involved. From the realities of these individual’s lives to the information about the birth of pc gaming. I played some of there games and taught myself to program around the same time. I felt the story and it was fascinating to see these guys play at being rock stars in the pc universe. Wheaton is a perfect choice for narration. His work is good, or very good, for fiction, but it is great for non fiction.
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- SES
- 08-06-18
Loved it but the end was anti-climatic
Having spent many of my earlier years glued to the PC playing the games by the Johns (okay, I still do), I loved listening to the early days of both how they got started and the how the industry formed around them. I found myself more and more engaged in the story until maturity set in. Then the story more or less plodded along until it ended. Since that's probably how it was in real life, I didn't ding the overall or story ratings much. The first two-thirds were so fun and so nostalgic, it was still very much worth spending the credit. Wil Wheaton, by the way, is always the best narrator for these types of books (techno-geeky).
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- leon kirkbeck
- 06-01-18
A great story well told
captures those heady early days of video games well, at the same time as telling a great yarn about two young visionaries struggling with well deserved, yet misplaced fame and fortune.
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- K. Rosman
- 01-04-19
Interesting
While I have no definitive proof things would be different but being on the other side of the Eidos dollars at Looking Glass to hear more of the details that were rumors it is just infuriating the waste by Romero
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- Cliente Amazon
- 04-17-19
Computer Game History told in an entertaining way
The narrator does an excellent job to bring to life the story of how interactive, 3D computer games were born. This could be taught in schools.
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- Tyler
- 03-24-20
The birth of PC gaming.
When it says how two guys crated an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture its not giving them enough credit. This book will take you through how PC gaming was created, popularized and how it changed the world forever. The way the story is being told giving you great detail at every turn really puts you into story. This is by far one of the best books I've listen to in my entire life and I highly recommend it to anyone remotely interested into the subjects of PC gaming, gaming in general, pop culture, game development, and or the 90s.
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- Jim
- 05-24-20
DEGREELESSNESS MODE: ON
Captivating story starting off in the eighties and dwelling in the nineties where the height of this story really is. Interesting story about hard working people.
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