John Romero. Photo: Natalie Greer The original first-person shooter—a videogame that presents the action from the gun-toting player’s perspective—was called “Maze War,” a green wireframe demo cooked up by three high-school students during a NASA study trip in 1973. But the genre didn’t become a commercial juggernaut until the 1992 release of “Wolfenstein 3D,” a Nazi-themed splatterfest that was banned in Germany. One year later came the Mars-demon-themed splatterfest “Doom” (not banned on Mars) and its follow-up, “Quake,” in 1996. “Wolfenstein,” “Doom” and “Quake” were all produced by the legendary developers at id Software, and helped set the template for...