While Doom can sometimes feel like an overnight smash success, the seminal first-person shooter was far from the first game created by id co-founders John Carmack and John Romero. Now, in a rare joint interview that was livestreamed during last weekend's 30th-anniversary celebration , the pair waxed philosophical about how Doom struck a perfect balance between technology and simplicity that they hadn't been able to capture previously and have struggled to recapture since.

Carmack said that Doom -precursor Wolfenstein 3D , for instance, "was done under these extreme, extraordinary design constraints" because of the technology available at the time. "There just wasn't that much we could do."

Wolfenstein 3D 's grid-based mapping led to a lot of boring rectangular rooms connected by long corridors. (credit: Steam )

One of the biggest constraints in Wolfenstein 3D was a grid-based mapping system that forced walls to be at 90-degree angles, leading to a lot of large, rectangular rooms connected by long corridors. "Making the levels for the original Wolfenstein had to be the most boring level design job ever because it was so simple," Romero said. "Even [2D platformer Commander Keen ] was more rewarding to make levels for."

Enlarge / John Carmack (left) and John Romero (second from right) pose with their id Software colleagues in the early '90s. (credit: John Romero )

For gamers of a certain age, the '90s break up of Doom co-creators John Carmack and John Romero is a cultural moment on par with the breakup of The Beatles. Now, as the 30th anniversary of Doom 's original release approaches next month, the pair has announced plans to come together for a moderated livestreamed discussion of their most famous creation.

The Twitch-streamed event, announced on social media late last week by Romero, will take place on Doom 's anniversary of December 10. Carmack and Romero will discuss the game and its legacy with moderator and Rocket Jump author David L. Craddock, whom Ars readers might remember from the Long Live Mortal Kombat excerpt that ran on the site last year.

Carmack and Romero reuniting might feel like a historic burying of the hatchet to those who have followed the pair's story over the decades. But "the two Johns" say that reports of their falling out have been exaggerated over the years, to say the least.

Enlarge / Doom II RPG isn't exactly like Doom , but you can't accuse it of lacking chainsaws. (credit: id Software)

"Mobile games" were something else entirely in 2005, a time in which Windows Mobile was a viable platform, the only Apple phone was a Motorola ROKR , and none of them had a shot at running Doom , let alone its sequel. That's why id Software made Doom RPG , the weirdest official Doom game that is also still a bit fun. A group of fans known as GEC.Inc ported that game to modern PCs, and they've finally gotten around to its sequel.

Doom II RPG , the iOS version from 2009, is playable the same way Doom RPG was: with an understanding that you, a person in 2023, will somehow have access to the original, potentially still copyrighted assets of the game. The instructions lead you through setting up OpenAL , then loading in an .ipa iOS file (the Internet Archive has a copy). You can use a touchscreen, most modern game controllers, or just your keyboard and mouse. You'll then get to play a Doom II that's not quite like what you're thinking of when you think of Doom II.

• 

  Playing Doom without the Doom Guy? The 2000s were a wild time.

How does it play? A bit awkwardly, unless you're used to the turn-based, grid-moving, RNG-dominated RPGs of earlier eras. With each turn, you can move in one of four directions, attack with a weapon, or perform some other action, like ripping a toilet fixture off the wall for later throwing (if you're strong enough). If you end up face to face with an imp, there's not much else to do except trade blows, hoping the random hit/miss mechanics are in your favor or that you have enough health packs or snacks to hold out.

Enlarge / This week, the classic RPG-FPS series Heretic and Hexen series are back in a curious way.

While we at Ars Technica don't necessarily cheer the moments when giant gaming conglomerates swallow up other giant gaming conglomerates, we also have a faction that champions efforts to preserve and re-release classic video games . These two philosophies collided this week, leaving us feeling a bit dizzy.

The bottom-line good news: Four underappreciated classics from the id Software universe are closer to a broader re-release and are currently free to download. This appears to be related to Microsoft's planned $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard's vast catalog of game publishing and development properties.

A Thursday announcement from Microsoft's Xbox division confirmed that five "Bethesda" video games were now available on modern Windows PCs via the Microsoft Store, albeit through an unusual path. These games, including the two earliest Elder Scrolls adventures and three fantasy-tinged shooters from the combined Heretic and Hexen series, would need to be accessed through the Xbox Insider Hub on Windows 10 and Windows 11 PCs, as they were "previews" meant to solicit "feedback." Joining the Xbox Insider Hub on Windows PCs is free and does not require a Game Pass subscription, which means these games are now free to download for participating members (at least until MS revokes their availability on the Insider Hub).

Enlarge / A seemingly lost turn-based version of Doom RPG is now fully playable on modern Windows PCs, thanks to efforts from the Doom reverse-engineering community. (credit: id Software)

The creators of the Doom series have presented plenty of official and unofficial historical retrospectives, but these often leave out the weirdest official Doom game ever made: Doom RPG .

Even id Software's official "Year of Doom" museum at E3 2019 left this 2005 game unchronicled. That's a shame, because it was a phenomenal example of id once again proving itself a master of technically impressive gaming on a power-limited platform. And platforms don't get more limited on a power or compatibility basis than the pre-iPhone wave of candy bar handsets, which Doom RPG has been locked to since its original mid-'00s launch. You may think that "turn-based Doom " sounds weird, but Doom RPG stood out as a clever and fun series twist to the first-person shooter formula.

Its abandonment to ancient phones changes today thanks to the reverse-engineering efforts of GEC.inc , a Costa Rica-based collective of at least three developers. On Wednesday, the group released a Windows port of the game based on their work on the original game's BREW version (a Qualcomm-developed API meant for its wave of mobile phones from 2001 and beyond).