John Romero Released His First Doom Level in 21 Years Today

For the first time in more than two decades, Doom co-creator John Romero has released a level for the game that you can download and play right now.

Romero sent out a tweet this morning sharing the level. It's his version of E1M8, Phobos Anomaly, the final (non-secret) level of the original Doom's first episode. An accompanying readme file describes it as "my boss level replacement for e1m8...22 years later." It also says it was built in two weeks during his spare time.

It can be played solo, cooperatively, or in deathmatch. When played with Ian Dunbar, a programmer at his company, Romero won by 18 kills.

Romero released the level used Doom WAD, the modding tools that Id Software released alongside Doom in the early '90s. You can download his level through this Dropbox link, and then use something like ZDoom to play it. Note that you will need to own a copy of Doom in order to do so. You can get further instructions here.

The new Doom (which Romero is not involved with) is expected out later this year for PS4, Xbox One, and PC.