Multiple Doom-related stories landed on the nerd newswire on Wednesday, and they focused on decidedly different eras of the decades-old series. Bethesda announced a significant freebie for the game's 2016 version, while original Doom fans received a pretty random trivia reveal from none other than John Romero himself.

The shooting series' co-creator and level designer took to his official blog on Wednesday as a response to an informal Twitter poll he'd posted days earlier. Romero had asked fans which of his old game series they'd like to hear "a piece of trivia" about, and 40 percent of roughly 2,000 votes were cast for Doom. He responded by unearthing a previously unrevealed story about the game's cover art, which he can personally vouch for.

More precisely, Romero revealed that he was the model for the helmeted, devil-blasting "Doomguy" on its iconic box cover.

Original cover artist Don Punchatz came to id Software's Dallas-area offices in 1993 with a male model in tow, Romero writes, along with a professional camera. id staffers were on hand to direct the photo shoot, and it was meant to frame the lead portion of the cover that Punchatz would eventually draw. The male model grabbed a "plasma gun toy" and started posing (shirtless, for some reason).

"Don asked us for suggestions, so I started telling him that the Marine was going to be attacked by an infinite amount of demons," Romero writes. "It would be cool if he was on a hill and firing down into them. The model was holding the gun in various positions, and none of them were interesting to me."

After 10 minutes of unsatisfying model poses, Romero says that he decided to rip his shirt off (again, no explanation why), take the gun, and pose as Doom's cover marine. The hired model played along by faking as one of the cover's demons and grabbing either his arms or legs for a range of attack-like shots.

"I aimed the gun in a slightly different direction and told Don, 'This is what I'm talking about!'" Romero writes. The winning shot resembled the arm-grab image seen in the above illustration, though, sadly, Romero failed to prove his story with a photo. We have reached out to the Romero family in hopes of changing that.

A pass on the season pass

Romero's story followed an earlier Bethesda announcement for all Doom (2016) game owners: they just got a free copy of the game's multiplayer-only season pass. This collection of online-mode maps and weapons previously cost as much as $39.99 and rarely received markdowns during Steam's holiday sales, but, starting today, it's a free add-on.

Joining that freebie in patch 6.66 (of course) is a reworking of Doom's unlock system. Instead of random-unlock prize boxes, the game's add-ons are now unlocked in sequential, earned order, though Doom multiplayer fans who have already accumulated items do not have to kiss any of their items goodbye. Additionally, the game's perks and bonuses no longer expire and simply turn on by default. Rounding those changes out are tweaks to the game's UI, HUD, and menus.

Bethesda did not announce any bonuses, perks, or freebies for those who already paid for Doom's season pass. Existing players will receive "badges" based on how well they had already played before the updates.

While Doom's single-player portion launched to rave reviews (in spite of its lack of pre-release review period), its multiplayer modes never received similar acclaim. Steam reviews for the online portion complain about its loadout and perk choices, and this week's update may very well have softened those issues. To mark the sweeping changes, Bethesda is offering a "free weekend" starting this Thursday on Steam and Xbox One and next Thursday on PlayStation 4. During that free trial, non-owners can pay $15 to permanently snap up the full package, complete with single- and multiplayer content.