“I grew up during the emergence of both personal computers and videogames,” Carmack recalls. “I was fascinated by both of them, so I naturally fell into writing games on computers. By the time I was 20, I was focused on the joy of engineering and trying to do new things that people hadn’t seen before.”
Carmack’s early years were spent at Softdisk, where he worked with future id Software co-founders John Romero, Tom Hall, and Adrian Carmack (no relation). The group developed a few games before they founded id Software and created the first Commander Keen title, publishing it and most of the subsequent entries in the series through Apogee Software. The games were notable for their use of some innovative programming tricks developed by Carmack.
While 1994’s Doom is considered a watershed moment in gaming, it actually built on the first-person gameplay found in Catacomb 3-D (1991), Wolfenstein 3D (1992), and Spear of Destiny (1992). It’s inarguable, however, that Doom’s success paved the way for not only the Doom sequels and Quake series but also a slew of other publishers’ first-person shooters, many of which used graphics engines developed by Carmack and licensed out by id Software. Doom also introduced multiplayer online gaming, which led to the popularization of the terms “deathmatch” and “frag.”
“Personally, I’ve always been of the sleek and minimalist design school: make sure the core play is consistent and strong, then let that idea play out against different environments and challenges,” Carmack explains. “This tends toward focusing on bio-mechanical twitch responses, audio-visual awe, and leaning more toward general strategy and tactics development over specific puzzle solving.”
For his achievements, Carmack in 2001 was honored as the fourth inductee into the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences’ Hall of Fame.
Carmack is also a strong proponent of open source software, having released the source code to many of id’s most popular games. (Apple believes in a similar philosophy.) “Sharing the code just seems like The Right Thing to Do,” he says. “It costs us rather little, but it benefits a lot of people in sometimes very significant ways. There are many university research projects, proof of concept publisher demos, and new platform test beds that have leveraged the code. Free software that people value adds wealth to the world.”
Carmack’s early years were spent at Softdisk, where he worked with future id Software co-founders John Romero, Tom Hall, and Adrian Carmack (no relation). The group developed a few games before they founded id Software and created the first Commander Keen title, publishing it and most of the subsequent entries in the series through Apogee Software. The games were notable for their use of some innovative programming tricks developed by Carmack.
While 1994’s Doom is considered a watershed moment in gaming, it actually built on the first-person gameplay found in Catacomb 3-D (1991), Wolfenstein 3D (1992), and Spear of Destiny (1992). It’s inarguable, however, that Doom’s success paved the way for not only the Doom sequels and Quake series but also a slew of other publishers’ first-person shooters, many of which used graphics engines developed by Carmack and licensed out by id Software. Doom also introduced multiplayer online gaming, which led to the popularization of the terms “deathmatch” and “frag.”
“Personally, I’ve always been of the sleek and minimalist design school: make sure the core play is consistent and strong, then let that idea play out against different environments and challenges,” Carmack explains. “This tends toward focusing on bio-mechanical twitch responses, audio-visual awe, and leaning more toward general strategy and tactics development over specific puzzle solving.”
For his achievements, Carmack in 2001 was honored as the fourth inductee into the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences’ Hall of Fame.
Carmack is also a strong proponent of open source software, having released the source code to many of id’s most popular games. (Apple believes in a similar philosophy.) “Sharing the code just seems like The Right Thing to Do,” he says. “It costs us rather little, but it benefits a lot of people in sometimes very significant ways. There are many university research projects, proof of concept publisher demos, and new platform test beds that have leveraged the code. Free software that people value adds wealth to the world.”
;)
cmon, read between lines a little, you completely missed his point mate, rly
But he hasn't done anything for wolfenstein 2 has he? So doom5 will be the next good game :o ?
sounds nice :) and imho hes right..