Hidden at the heart of Doom II’s final boss is one of the most bizarre and personal easter eggs in gaming history — the severed head of co-creator John Romero, impaled on a spike.
The Icon of Sin
The final level of Doom II (MAP30) pits the player against a massive demon wall called the Icon of Sin. To defeat it, you must fire rockets into a hole in its head. What most players never knew is what’s actually inside that hole: a tiny room, completely inaccessible through normal gameplay, containing Romero’s own head on a stick.
The Hidden Message
The monster’s death sound — stored in the game’s WAD file as DSBOSSIT — when played in reverse, reveals a voice saying:
“To win the game, you must kill me, John Romero”
The voice is John Romero himself.
How to See It
- Load MAP30: Icon of Sin in Doom II.
- Type the cheat code IDCLIP to enable no-clip mode.
- Walk directly through the wall behind the Icon of Sin’s face.
- You’ll find a small room with Romero’s head mounted on a pole — the true final boss of Doom II.
The Story Behind It
According to Romero, the original placeholder for the target sprite was just a yellow circle. One night, while testing the sound effect and no-clipping behind the boss to check it, he spontaneously replaced the yellow circle with a photo of his own head. The reversed audio message came shortly after.
It remained undiscovered by most players for years — until the internet made secrets impossible to keep.
Romero’s head has 250 HP — less than a Revenant — but each rocket only deals partial damage, so it takes at least 3 rockets to destroy it.
The reversed audio message is what gets me every time. Romero recorded his own voice, reversed it, and embedded it in the final boss. The man was trolling an entire generation of players and we had no idea.
250 HP and it still takes 3 rockets because of the damage calculation. Classic id Software hiding a secret inside a secret inside a mechanic. Absolute legends.
Played Doom II for years before I found out about this. The noclip through the boss wall is one of those gaming moments that feels genuinely forbidden, like you’re seeing something you weren’t supposed to see.