Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture

by David Kushner

As the lights fell, a video screen lowered above the stage. It was time for the main event. The crowd cheered as footage of Doom’s familiar corridors began to roll. But it was not the Doom soldier chasing the demons, it was . . . Bill Gates. Microsoft’s fearless leader was superimposed running inside the game in a long black trench coat and brandishing a shotgun. Gates stopped running and addressed the crowd about the wonders of Windows 95 as a gaming platform, a platform that could deliver cutting-edge multimedia experiences like Doom. But no sooner had he begun than an imp monster from the game jumped out and, through a voice-over, asked Gates for an autograph. Gates responded by raising his shotgun and blowing the beast into gory chunks. “Don’t interrupt me while I’m speaking,” he said, then finished his speech. At the end, the screen went black with blood, only to be replaced by the familiar Microsoft logo and the phrase “Who Do You Want to Execute Today?”

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