It has been over 20 years since John Romero, John Carmack, and others created an iconic game known as Doom. While each has gone on to do different things, there will always be a soft spot in most gamers" hearts for the title. In a bit of an interesting moment, Romero opened up about the origin of the game"s cover.
It turns out that Romero is actually the model that posed for the artist to create the iconic imagery you see at the top of the article. According to Romero, Don Punchatz, the illustrator who created the Doom logo and the box art, headed over to the studio to take photographs of a model that had been hired to pose as the marine and strike various poses.
After trying different poses, Romero got frustrated and took the matter into his own hands, which you can read in fine detail below.
"Frustrated, I threw my shirt off and told him to give me the gun and get on the floor – grab my arm as one of the demons! Defeated, he deferred. I aimed the gun in a slightly different direction and told Don, "This is what I"m talking about!" Don took several pictures. I moved the gun some, the demon grabbed my leg, other arm, etc. At the end of it we all decided the arm-grabbing pose was going to be the best."
While this is a funny little anecdote, his actions ultimately would amount to the creation of an amazing and instantly recognizable cover. If feeling nostalgic, you can always revisit Romero"s Doom, for which he released an original new level last year, or play the Bethesda-made Doom that recently received a major update.
Source: John Romero via Polygon