Today we talk about a video game legend paying tribute to one of his peers.
John Romero is a man who needs no introduction, at least for gamers. As co-founder of id software, he worked on design and programming for the studio’s legendary early games, including Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, and Quake.
John helped set the conventions of the FPS genre, and himself came up with the term deathmatch to describe a particular multiplayer video game mode.
John maintains an affable online presence nowadays. He shared this surprising statement on Twitter the other day:
“Without Nasir, there is no DOOM. His work was the inspiration for so many game developers. #programmedbynasir”
Now we know there are far less people who would know this Nasir. Who is this mysterious person that John is suddenly laying his praises too, and what does he have to do with Doom?
Nasir Gebelli is an Iranian-American programmer, famous for his work in the video game industry. While he started out making games on the Apple ][, his claim to fame is his work at Square, which dates many years before their merger with Enix. Gebelli programmed the first three Final Fantasy games for the Family Computer. Each of these games demonstrated Gebelli’s genius in expanding what could be proven to be possible on Nintendo’s hardware.
Gebelli’s former co-worker at Square, Ken Narita, was effusive in his praise towards his programming abilities. In an interview translated by Automaton West, he said this:
“Before the NES, he had been programming on a weaker machine, the Apple II, so he was very inventive. He was casually doing things that we would never have even thought of. That’s why he was the perfect programmer for the NES.”
Gebelli was so admired for his programming abilities back in his Apple ][ days that when Square’s CEO Masafumi Miyamoto met him at a party, he was hired on the spot. Aside from Romero, Richard Garriott and Jordan Mechner also praised the programmer, and cited him as an influence in their games, including the likes of Prince of Persia and Ultima.
Romero happened to be reacting to a clip from an NHK feature, as Gebelli had fallen out of contact from the game industry. After making his final game for Square, Gebelli retired from the industry early and lived off of just that money from Square. NHK traced him, interviewed him, and even got him in contact with his former Final Fantasy co-creator, Hironobu Sakaguchi. You can watch a clip below of Gebelli’s wonder at learning that Sakaguchi had become a grandfather.
It’s incredible for Romero to reintroduce the world to his idol. But of course, he’s doing it precisely because Gebelli was the developer who inspired him. Gebelli also reentered the public sphere in an interesting time, as his games have also been reintroduced to modern audiences in the Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster series. While Doom has never left circulation, Romero’s work also received a modern remake that it deserves with Nightdive’s DOOM + DOOOM II. We’re not being paid to hock these games, (hence no links) but if this little story inspired you we highly recommend you check these games out and learn about two of the industry’s great living legends.
