Doom Creator Reveals A Surprising Truth After 29 Years
"Doom" creator John Romero has been busy these days. Earlier this month, he created and released the first official new level for "Doom 2" in almost 30 years which helped raise over $27,000 for humanitarian aid in Ukraine. He was also recently honored with a shout-out from the "Dying Light" devs for his work. Romero's so loved by fans that some were even willing to pay hundreds of dollars for his broken keyboard less than a year ago.
Even though "Doom" has been out for nearly 30 years, it's still enduringly popular with fans to this day. In addition to his work on "Doom," Romero has also made his way into fans' hearts with games like "SIGIL," "Quake," and many more successful titles. Though he's also been part of less legacy-worthy games like the disastrously advertised flop "Daikatana," the influence "Doom" has had on the FPS genre is still something celebrated by fans.
Of course, every game has its secrets. Hardcore "Doom" fans may already know about a few, like the hidden head of Romero in "Doom 2" or the secret "Doom 2" level that took players upwards of 20 years to find. Recently, a rumor resurfaced about the time in which "Doom" is set. Fans may be surprised to learn that Romero has addressed the rumor head-on, forever clarifying when the game takes place — or, in actuality, leaving more room for ambiguity.
Is Doom secretly set in 2022?
On March 15, 2022, a "Doom" fan account known as @no_context_doom tweeted a clip from a PCGamesN article that theorizes that "supposedly, the original Doom's storyline takes place in March 2022." Apparently, this idea has been circulating based on "the manual for the SNES version of the game, which clearly shows March 15, 2022, on the cover." Though the full article went on to debunk the rumor with intel from Romero that neither he nor his team wrote the SNES manual, @no_context_doom lived up to their name and non-contextual meme mission.
The tweet performed quite well, likely because it was shared on the specific date in question with the caption "this is the only day you can retweet this." Given the buzz, Romero himself responded to the tweet to put the rumors to bed once and for all. He wrote, "DOOM does not take place in March 2022. DOOM is timeless." He also explained that the March 15, 2022 date "did not come from anyone at id."
Though "Doom" fans now know that the game transcends the concept of time, it's interesting to see that it is still relevant at a date that was once thought to be far in the future.