Doom co-creator John Romero releases his first new map in 21 years

John Romero, the co-creator of seminal 1993 video game Doom, has created a brand-new map for the game, two decades after his last one was released.

Romero was instrumental in creating Doom, a title which has gone down in history as one of the most influential games ever made.

By fusing gory violence, dark humour, and breakthrough 3D first-person gameplay, the game has become iconic and is still played widely today, despite being over two decades old.

Romero created most of the game, but despite its success, he never made any new levels after 1995.

However, his new map, named 'Tech Gone Bad', was finally released on 15 January, and reimagines the final stage of the very first game.

There's been plenty of custom Doom maps made in the past by hobbyists and bedroom game designers, but Romero's is naturally a cut above the rest.

It speaks to how important Doom really is that the release of a new map by the original designer has created such a buzz, 23 years since its initial release.

To play the new level, which Romero has kindly released for free, you'll need a PC copy of Doom and a familiarity with running third-party maps - a useful explanation of how to run the new map is available on Mashable.

Alternatively, it's possible to play the game in your browser through the Archive.org emulator. You'll need a fairly powerful PC to run it at a playable rate, although it works fairly well in Firefox.

Romero described the new level as a "warm-up", suggesting there could be more in the future.

He's also responded on Twitter to the great reception that the level has got, saying that since the original game was released before the invention of the internet, this is the first time he's ever heard direct feedback on his levels.