Carmack forgot Doom's keycard spots but still calls the game great after all these years

id Software co-founder John Carmack has returned to the original Doom after decades and declared the game still holds up. The programmer shared his experience at QuakeCon, where veteran studio members gathered this year for a retrospective panel.

Carmack said he decided to try the Doom port for the Evercade handheld and unexpectedly reached the fourth level. "I sat down to try the Evercade Doom port, and before I knew it, I was on level four, and realizing that I had forgotten where all the keycards were," he wrote on X. It took him 15 minutes each to clear levels four and five, despite their par times of 1:30 and 2:45 respectively.

Interestingly, Carmack's fellow id veteran John Romero remains deeply engaged with Doom's legacy: he keeps creating Sigil expansions and even tried the one-of-a-kind MyHouse.wad map on a livestream.

In this context, the author recalls an admission from Larian Studios head Swen Vincke, who said he has never revisited Ultima 7 — one of his favorite games and primary inspirations — because he fears it won't live up to his memories from the 1990s. Vincke also noted he spends so much time immersed in testing Larian's games during development that he barely touches them after release.

Unlike Vincke, Carmack apparently has no fear of revisiting old classics. His reaction confirms that the original Doom has truly withstood the test of time and still brings enjoyment to its own creator.