Suite 666 — Office research register¶
Research into the id Software office where The Ultimate Doom was made: Suite
666, Town East Tower ("the Black Cube"), 18601 LBJ Freeway, Mesquite, TX
75150, a 7-storey, roughly 90,000 sq ft black-glass office building across LBJ
Freeway from Town East Mall. This register records source evidence and retrieval
history through 2026-08-13. Evidence for a room, object, or label does not mean
it is implemented as a historical reconstruction: the structural shell and the
separate abstract fictional simulation stage are documented in floorplan.md.
Sources by category¶
A. Floor plan¶
| # | Source | What it gives | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| A0 | Game Engine Black Book: Doom (Fabien Sanglard) — https://github.com/fabiensanglard/gebbdoom (src/drawings/id-software-office-mesquite.svg) |
The office plan: labelled rooms (Jay, Conference Room, American & Shawn, Carmack, Romero, Donna, Kitchen, Storage, Game Room, Dave, Tom/Sandy, Kevin, Adrian), pool table, shelves, and door marks. Sanglard traced it from the Nov 1993 video; the caption notes "Romero's office is missing its door :)". | ✓ USED AS EVIDENCE — informed the authored reconstruction; current tour/floorplan.json contains structural shell data, lights, and switches, not room or furniture records |
| A0c | OpenStreetMap — Town East Tower (way 482942943) + area extract | Building footprint (35.3 m square, ~7.8° CCW rotation), and the surroundings: I-635/LBJ freeway corridor, frontage roads, the Towne Centre Drive overpass, mall + retail + houses → tour/world.json (see scripts/osm_to_world.py). Attribution: docs/tour/attributions.md |
✓ USED — fetched 2026-08-13, committed under scripts/data/ |
| A0b | GEBB Wolfenstein 3D (Fabien Sanglard) — GitHub fabiensanglard/gebbwolf3 (src/imgs/drawings/map/id-software-office-madison_{bottom,top}_floor.eps) |
The Madison, WI office plan (Nov 1991, Wolfenstein 3D era): a two-storey house — bottom floor (front door, stairs) + top floor (bathroom, bedroom, washer/dryer). The book text places the SNES (F-Zero sessions) and the D&D area (Masters of Doom) upstairs and notes Carmack's apartment directly above the studio. Earlier office than Suite 666 — context only. | ✓ checked — labels extracted; plan not needed for the tour |
| A1 | Doomworld topic 122140 — "id software office plan 92-93" (2021): https://www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/122140-id-software-office-plan-92-92/ | The labeled office plan. The OP says Romero shared it, and that it comes from a book (book title stated in the thread). Page 2: solved — the plan image was posted in the thread. | BLOCKED (Cloudflare) — needs a browser session. Save both pages + the plan image + any measurements. |
| A2 | The book the plan came from (title in thread A1) | Original publication with labels + possibly dimensions | Depends on A1 |
| A3 | Town East Tower leasing site — https://www.towneasttower.com/available-space | Suite inventory with sizes: STE 440 ≈ 1,934 RSF, STE 660 ≈ 1,157 RSF, STE 400 ≈ 752 RSF, STE 330 ≈ 1,310 RSF, STE 220 ≈ 1,025 RSF, STE 460 ≈ 673 RSF, STE 325 ≈ 382 RSF | ✓ fetched (2026-08-10) |
| A4 | LoopNet listing 40093103 — 18601 LBJ Fwy | Building specs (year built, floor plates, photos) | BLOCKED (403) — screenshot or copy text |
B. Interior footage (primary visual evidence)¶
| # | Source | What it gives | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| B1 | "A Visit to id Software" — Vimeo 4022128 (31:52, recorded Nov 1993 by Dan Linton; uploaded by John Romero 2009; blog post: https://web.archive.org/web/20120502150657/http://rome.ro/2009/04/visit-to-id-software-1993.html) | ~11 min office tour then Doom demo at the office machines. Shows: retail game-box shelf wall, "Carmack's CDs" shelf, doorway transitions, Bobby Prince's DOOM audio room (Ensoniq EPS, dark walls), main workstation room, team members (Jay Wilbur, Shawn Green, Romero, Dave Taylor, Sandy Petersen, Adrian Carmack, Bobby Prince), Apple IIe in Romero's area, IBM Model M keyboard | ✓ downloaded (archive.org mirror vimeo-4022128, 199 MB mp4, 854×480) → docs/tour/assets/visit1993.mp4; 110 stills → docs/tour/assets/stills/ |
| B2 | Archive.org item a-visit-to-id-software-november-1993 |
Alternate copy | metadata invalid on fetch — retry; not needed if B1 suffices |
| B3 | "Original id software Suite 666 'The Black Cube', Mesquite TX -August 2017-" — YouTube JjvI5cSG0Rw (beavermatic) | 2017 walkthrough of the building / Suite 666 shell — windows, column grid, shell layout | BLOCKED (YouTube bot-check) — screen-record or download in browser |
| B4 | "Live Broadcast of the 'Black Cube'" — YouTube VJFdTdVwBfY (beavermatic, Aug 2017) | Same visit, longer / live | BLOCKED — as B3 |
| B5 | "A Visit to the Doom Office (ID's 'Black Cube')" — YouTube MjKKyaOH2l8 (Now Scream, short) | Exterior/building clip | BLOCKED — as B3 |
| B6 | "Original id software Suite 666 'The Black Cube'" — YouTube JjvI5cSG0Rw description/comments | Any layout notes from the uploader | via B3 |
C. Building / address documentation¶
| # | Source | What it gives | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| C1 | Wikimapia 87911 — Town East Tower: https://wikimapia.org/87911/Town-East-Tower | Building marker + history snippet (former id home) | fetch partially blocked — screenshot |
| C2 | Facebook "Memories of Mesquite" post (id at Town East Tower, Suite 666): https://www.facebook.com/groups/Memoriesofmesquite/posts/240978145933472/ | Local history; possible building photos in comments | BLOCKED (login) |
| C3 | Facebook Doomfans post — "In 1995 I was employed in the same building…" : https://www.facebook.com/groups/doomfans/posts/2972464822900505/ | First-hand building anecdotes (elevator sightings) | BLOCKED (login) |
| C4 | Reddit r/90s — "Id software (Creators of Doom) in 1993" (v56pxx) | Photos; commenter worked in the building; CompUSA anecdotes | BLOCKED (403) |
| C5 | Reddit r/Doom — "I visited id Software Studios" (1cejsj7) | Modern studio visit (not Suite 666) — context only | BLOCKED (403) |
| C6 | Reddit r/Doom — "This is how I imagine id Software office looks…" (4jgpcv) | Fan imagining (2016) — prior-art for reconstruction approach | BLOCKED (403) |
| C7 | Google Maps / Street View at 18601 LBJ Fwy, Mesquite TX | Building exterior, orientation, parking, mall across the freeway | screenshot |
| C8 | towneasttower.com About page | "90,000 sq ft, 7-story black-glass office building… immediately west of the Town East Mall" | ✓ fetched |
| C9 | Apple Maps place I472D808C6F61FB20 — Town East Tower | Photos/address | screenshot |
D. Narrative / context¶
| # | Source | What it gives | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| D1 | Masters of Doom (David Kushner, 2003) — archive.org lending copy mastersofdoomhow0000kush |
Office life narrative: shared work room, offices, kitchen gatherings, the demo rooms | full-text download blocked (lending); quote selectively from a copy you own |
| D2 | Doom Wiki "A Visit to id Software": https://doomwiki.org/wiki/A_visit_to_id_Software | Video provenance + pre-release detail | ✓ fetched |
| D3 | Doom Wiki "id Software": https://doomwiki.org/wiki/Id_Software | Company history, employee list | ✓ fetched |
| D4 | American McGee quote (yrbmag interview): "…techno wizards working to open the digital gates to hell from within Suite 666 of a nondescript office building in Mesquite" | Color/context | ✓ fetched |
Source findings¶
These findings describe the historical evidence, not the current runtime inventory.
| Fact | Confidence | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| The GEBB drawing labels the office areas listed in A0 | high for labels; scale unverified | A0 |
| Romero's office had no door drawn | high | A0 caption |
| Pool table in the great room; CD shelf near Romero; library shelves | high | A0 marks |
| Suite 666 at Town East Tower, 18601 LBJ Fwy, Mesquite TX | high | A3, C2, C3, C4, D4 |
| Building: 7 stories, black glass, ~90,000 sq ft, c. 1984 | high | C8 |
| Suite on the 6th floor; comparable suite ≈ 1,157 RSF | medium | A3 (suite numbering STE 660) |
| Suite 666 roughly 1,100–1,300 sq ft | medium | A3 extrapolation |
| Main work room with shared workstations existed | high | B1 |
| A wall of retail game boxes / software shelves existed | high | B1 (frames 001-015) |
| Carmack kept CDs/shelves in his area; NeXT in "the other room" | medium | B1; Romero blog comments |
| Bobby Prince had a dedicated audio room (Ensoniq EPS) | high | B1 ("Bobby Prince's room for DOOM audio") |
| Romero's area had an Apple IIe | medium | B1; Romero blog comments |
| Kitchen / break area | medium | D1 |
Files¶
docs/tour/assets/visit1993.mp4 the 1993 video (199 MB — git-ignored, local only;
re-fetch from archive.org item vimeo-4022128 if needed)
docs/tour/assets/stills/*.jpg 110 frames, t=0:30–11:30 @ 6 s, 640 px
docs/tour/assets/sheet_*.jpg contact sheets (surveyed 2026-08-10)
docs/tour/floorplan.md synthesized plan + assumptions
tour/floorplan.json structural plan loaded by the root tour