For many, id Software co-founders John Carmack and John Romero were the Lennon and McCartney of the video game world: their friendship was made awkward by creative friction, but the work they created together literally changed the world. But while some diehard fans may have dreamed that the passage of time would bring the two back together to work on a new masterpiece, Carmack recently said on Twitter that this was unlikely.

The Johns' dreams about their new partnership were given new life in an AMA Romero conducted last week in honor of the release of his autobiography, Doom Guy: Life in First Person). Naturally, questions were asked about their divorce and current relationship, but Romero indicated that their disagreements are not irreconcilable. In fact, they are still in touch.

"If we had done things differently at the start of 'Quake,' we could have continued to work together," Romero said. John and I talked about it recently, and the options we came up with are in the books."

And on the possibility of working with Carmack on a completely new Doom game: "John and I would not be working on a DOOM game. But he's not really interested in game development anymore."

Incidentally, Romero is working "with a major publisher" on a completely new FPS. Interesting!

The fellowship festivities continued earlier this week when Romero revealed that the first back-up quote was from Carmack's.

"John Romero's amazing memory evoked names and events I hadn't thought about in a long time, reminding me of the stress and joy of throwing myself full force into a project that truly broke new ground and touched millions of people," Carmack wrote.

"For years I thought I was born too late to participate in the heroic age of computing. It was only much later that I realized that Romero and I were at the nexus of a new era of 3D game hackers.

So the acrimonious feelings between the two of us were obviously shelved, at least not publicly. But alas, that's as far as it went.

"@romero's autobiography has been published and has a lot of old stuff in it," Carmack tweeted. 'For the record, I wish him all the best!

"To preempt the inevitable question, no, we are not going to make a new game together.

I don't think anyone expected Carmack and Romero to reunite the band once more for glory, but id Software's return is a fun fantasy. But honestly, just the fact that the Johns are back together again is enough for me.