Co-founder of id Software and one of the minds behind the seminal FPS Doom, John Romero, has honoured a legendary Square programmer on social media, calling him an "inspiration".
Sharing his thoughts in the wake of Japanese broadcaster NHK's interview with Nasir Gebelli, who lead programmer on the Final Fantasy games on NES and SNES action RPG Secret of Mana, Romero says "Without Nasir, there is no DOOM." High, high praise indeed.
This makes sense, because, without Gebelli, there may well have been no Final Fantasy, one of the biggest video game franchises in the world. And NHK's interview, which was broadcast back in October 2024 and got an extended rerelease on 30th December (thanks, Time Extension!), is pretty significant because Gebelli essentially disappeared from the industry shortly after Mana's 1993 release.
"Without Nasir, there is no DOOM. His work was the inspiration for so many game developers. #programmedbynasir"
Gebelli worked at Sirius Software and Gebelli Software (his own company), creating games for Apple II, before joining Square in 1986. Masafumi Miyamoto, founder of Square, and Hironobu Sakaguchi, the "father of Final Fantasy", were fans of Gebelli's work, and decided to hire the programmer to work on games for the Famicom 3D and, eventually, Final Fantasy.
Romero actually first met Gebelli at an Apple II Reunion event in Dallas, Texas. Romero was already a huge fan at the time and has gone on record before citing Gebelli as an inspiration. So, Romero interviewed Gebelli about his work.
This was the last known interview with Gebelli, who retired from game development to travel the world, until NHK's recent interview. Genki_JPN has shared a clip of it over on X — where many people tagged Romero.
The extended version of the interview is only available in Japan, you can at least watch the original October '24 version on NHK World's website.
Are you a fan of Gebelli's work? Let us know if you've managed to watch the interview in the comments.
[source x.com, via timeextension.com]
Comments 12
Secret of Mana has long been one of my favourites for its real-time combat, soundtrack and the scope of the world.
It easily stands out amongst others of the time.
I remember seeing “Nasir” in the opening credits of Final Fantasy but never actually realized it was this person! So cool to finally know of him and his work. Definitely had a big impact on my childhood as I spent many hours obsessed with Final Fantasy and Secret of Mana.
Great interview, many thanks to both Gebelli and Romero for their work!
I hadn't heard of this interview before today. Good to see such a legend getting a little more spotlight
But does he know his game is playable in a PDF file?
Doom Fantasy.
The man knows good code. It's wild how people lately try to say Secret of Mana is actually a bad game when they just are lousy at understanding the mechanics. The game is a brilliant melding of real time movement with turn-based combat and it's astounding how he got it all to work and with 3-player multiplayer to boot. Nasir is up there with Kawazu as one of the original mad geniuses who were multiple cuts above the standard meat.
A legendary series
His book Doom Guy is a great read, and his YouTube channel is a treat. He live-vlogged developing SIGIL maps. He did a My House wad playthrough. It's a cozy place.
When did we start stylizing "Doom" as "DOOM"?
Also, when did we stop stylizing "Final Fantasy" as "FINAL FANTASY"?
I've seen both series names written both ways in many professional publications over the years, and I just don't know which ways are right anymore
Thanks to this guy, DOOM PDF exist-- Imagine a world without it...
He left the gaming scene way too early, should had continue to do greatness maybe until the GameCube era. I would had love his take on games like Secret of Evermore and Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles (the successor to Secret of Mana).
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