In an alternate timeline, Doom co-creator John Romero made System Shock
By Tuin
Aug 15, 2025
Gaming history is littered with sliding-door moments. Tiny twists of fate could have sent the industry in a completely different direction. One of the biggest is the day John Romero almost helped make Thief instead of Doom.
Flashback to 1989. Romero was working at Origin Systems, fresh off a failed port of 2400 AD from the Apple II to the Commodore 64. The project was canned before release due to poor sales of the original. His next gig put him alongside Paul Neurath to help finish Space Rogue, a sci-fi flight sim with a dash of RPG.
With Space Rogue nearly ready to ship, Neurath made his pitch. “Hey John, let’s start our own studio.” The plan was for Blue Sky Productions, which would later be renamed Looking Glass Studios. That was the same outfit that would bring the world System Shock and Thief.
It sounded like a dream offer, but Romero had already committed to another project. Just days earlier he had agreed to start a different company with his manager. “Paul had asked me before I left [Origin Systems] if I would start a company with him,” Romero recalled on Nightdive Studios’ Deep Dive podcast. “And I told him I’d already promised the week before to found a company with my manager there.”
That decision took him to Inside Out Software and eventually to the other future id Software founders at Softdisk. The result was Wolfenstein 3D and Doom, two games that redefined the first-person shooter. Without them, rocket jumps, speedruns and modern FPS design might look completely different today.
It is tempting to imagine the alternate timeline. Maybe Romero and Neurath would have built something entirely stealth-focused. Maybe Doom still would have been made, but with players hiding in shadows and knifing demons instead of blasting them with a shotgun. Sneak and stab instead of rip and tear.
We will never know. But the next time you find yourself blasting through Doom or sneaking through Thief, remember that history almost took another path.
Flashback to 1989. Romero was working at Origin Systems, fresh off a failed port of 2400 AD from the Apple II to the Commodore 64. The project was canned before release due to poor sales of the original. His next gig put him alongside Paul Neurath to help finish Space Rogue, a sci-fi flight sim with a dash of RPG.
With Space Rogue nearly ready to ship, Neurath made his pitch. “Hey John, let’s start our own studio.” The plan was for Blue Sky Productions, which would later be renamed Looking Glass Studios. That was the same outfit that would bring the world System Shock and Thief.
It sounded like a dream offer, but Romero had already committed to another project. Just days earlier he had agreed to start a different company with his manager. “Paul had asked me before I left [Origin Systems] if I would start a company with him,” Romero recalled on Nightdive Studios’ Deep Dive podcast. “And I told him I’d already promised the week before to found a company with my manager there.”
That decision took him to Inside Out Software and eventually to the other future id Software founders at Softdisk. The result was Wolfenstein 3D and Doom, two games that redefined the first-person shooter. Without them, rocket jumps, speedruns and modern FPS design might look completely different today.
It is tempting to imagine the alternate timeline. Maybe Romero and Neurath would have built something entirely stealth-focused. Maybe Doom still would have been made, but with players hiding in shadows and knifing demons instead of blasting them with a shotgun. Sneak and stab instead of rip and tear.
We will never know. But the next time you find yourself blasting through Doom or sneaking through Thief, remember that history almost took another path.