Doom co-creator John Romero reveals id Software turned to Taiwanese pirates to help distribute the game to more people

John Romero has a piracy story that most game developers would never tell publicly, and it says a lot about how id Software thought about getting Doom into as many hands as possible. Speaking at a QuakeCon 2026 panel, the id Software co-founder explained how the studio not only tolerated pirates distributing Doom in Taiwan, it actively reached out to them and cut a deal.

Doom was released in 1993 using a shareware model. The entire first episode was free to copy and share, while the remaining two episodes required ordering the full game directly from id Software. The model was designed to spread the game as widely as possible, and it worked, but it also meant unofficial sellers began packaging the free shareware episode and selling it as their own product.

"You would go to the store and you would see 10 different boxes that all had the same shareware Doom in it," Romero said. "It was awesome. We were totally happy with that." Taiwan was a particularly active market for this kind of distribution, and rather than trying to shut it down, id Software saw an opportunity.

3

"We knew in Taiwan that they were copying it, 100 percent. That was the market back then. So we contacted the biggest pirates there and went, 'Can you buy boxes from us? Really cheap. Really, really cheap.' So they bought tons of boxes off of us so it would be legitimate."

Id Software made its money when people ordered the full game after playing the shareware episode, not from the shareware itself. Getting the game in front of as many people as possible in a region before widespread internet access was the entire point. "For us it was: distribution is king."

The same thinking shaped id Software's approach to copy protection, which was essentially nothing. "There's always been a war that's never been won with copy protection, and we didn't want to waste our time with that," Romero said. "If people want to copy it, they're going to copy it. We only needed enough to make the next game."

3

It is a refreshingly pragmatic take from an era when the industry treated piracy as an existential threat. Doom lives on as one of the most influential video games ever made, and the spirit of getting it into as many hands as possible lives on in a strange way. People still find new ways to run it on everything from DNS text records to earbuds, carrying out id Software's mission of putting the game everywhere.

Frequently Asked Questions

TweakBot answers common questions about this news using TweakTown's own coverage from this page and related content from our archive. All answers are generated from TweakTown content and not outside sources. Tap a question to reveal the answer, or type your own below related to this content.

Question #1

Why did John Romero say id Software chose to work with Taiwanese pirates instead of pursuing legal action?

Click to reveal answer

Question #2

What deal did id Software make with the biggest pirates in Taiwan to distribute Doom?

Click to reveal answer

Question #3

How did id Software monetize Doom if the shareware episode was freely copied and sold by third parties?

Click to reveal answer

Question #4

What examples of modern projects running Doom everywhere does the article reference from TweakTown?

Click to reveal answer

Have a question about this content not listed here? Ask below and TweakBot will answer it.

Your questionAsk

Answering your question×

TweakBot is analyzing your question…

Could not get an answer

TweakBot is generating an answer

Read More

Was TweakBot helpful?Thanks for the feedback!

Romero left id Software in 1996, the year Quake launched, and today runs his own studio in Ireland alongside his wife Brenda Romero. Speaking of Quake, the series turns 30 this year, and Bethesda marked the occasion with a surprise new expansion called Dawn of the Machine, which dropped overnight.