Its strange to think that one of the most iconic characters in the first-person shooter genre is so enigmatic. The Marine from the DOOM franchise has always been a mystery in terms of his identity. Simply referred to as “Doom guy” by fans, there has never been any information regarding his identity, or at least the origins of what inspired the iconic pose of him fighting off the demons of Hell on the original DOOM box.
Until now, it appears. According to an entry on his personal blog, DOOM co-creator John Romero reveals that he himself is the Marine on the front of the box. The story goes that the team behind the game, including Romero, were trying to get a model to strike the perfect pose to don the cover, until Romero got frustrated and decided to take the reins and do it himself.
An excerpt of the blog reads: “He did this for about 10 minutes and we just didn’t see anything that we thought would look cool on the cover. I kept telling the model what to do but he couldn’t see the scene in his mind. 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!”
So there’s your answer. The iconic front cover star of DOOM is none other than John Romero, who also makes an appearance in DOOM II.
