john-carmack posts

Not only is today the first anniversary of the launch of Quake Live, id Software is also celebrating the 14th anniversary of the launch of QTest. It was the first public taste of the goodness that was to come later in 1996 with the full release of id's debut 3D shooter Quake.

A lot has happened in 14 years, not the least of which has been Bethesda Softworks' parent company ZeniMax Media purchasing id Software. The Bethblog site celebrates the release of QTest today with some quotes from id Software and Bethesda team members including id's co-founder John Carmack who as usual gives a highly technical look back at QTest's launch.

If you want to try out QTest for yourself, it's only 4MB and can be downloaded here.

Download QTest (4 MB)

The man who helped to create the first person shooter genre is now being honored for his many accomplishments by his peers. id Software co-founder John Carmack will be given the annual Lifetime Achievement Award during the 2010 Game Developers Choice Awards. The award will be given out in San Fransisco during the Game Developers Conference on March 11.

Carmack co-founded id Software back in 1991 and his graphics engine technology was the basis behind the launch of the first person shooter genre with id's games like Wolfenstein 3D, Doom and Quake. He's also been a highly influential person in the development of PC graphics technology, particularly the hardware 3D acceleration trend that began in the late 1990s. Carmack is working on id's latest graphics engine, id tech 5, that will be used in id's two upcoming games; Rage and the next Doom game.

In related news, it was announced that the Game Developers Choice Awards ceremony will see Junction Point Studios founder Warren Spector as its host.

Id Software's annual keynote by its co-founder John Carmack at QuakeCon 2009 ran well over two hours with Carmack seemingly not taking a breath as he unloaded on id's plans for the future, his own feelings on next-gen games technology, his rocket company and even his new electric car. Here are just some of the highlights:

• Carmack doesn't see id Software's recent acquisition by ZeniMax Media as a sell out. Indeed he finds it liberating because, "I don't have to attend any more board meetings" which means he can concentrate on doing programming work at the office. id Software has been an acquisition target for a long time; Carmack said that just after Wolfenstein 3D was released, id was almost bought by Sierra Online.
• Speaking about their upcoming game Rage, Carmack referred to it as a "people game". Unlike previous id games which were mostly about monsters trying to kill you, there are real characters that you interact with in the game.
• Carmack is a big believer in the iPhone for games. Indeed he said its likely that all of id's mobile game products will be exclusively made for the iPhone. Carmack sees id making three kinds of mobile games; the classic id game ports, the variant RPG games like Doom RPG and Wolfenstein RPG, and all new original products. Carmack said in that latter category you can expect a Rage tie-in game. Carmack predicted that id will release a new mobile game every other month for the next year or so.

Check out more tibits after the jump:

If you were wondering if there was going to be any news about id's next major Doom game (also known as Doom IV) you are going to have to wait at least one more year. During id Software's QuakeCon press conference today, id's head man Todd Hollenshead stated that the developer is still not ready to chat about the game yet . . . but hinted strongly that they will finally reveal some info at QuakeCon 2010 next year.

During the keynote speech by id's master programmer John Carmack following the press conference, Carmack gave the smallest of hints about the game, saying the next Doom title is the first game they have worked on since Doom II that they didn't have to create new technology. The game will share the same id Tech 5 graphics engne with id's next game Rage.

id Software's annual LAN fest-convention QuakeCon is now in full swing here at the Gaylord Texan hotel in Grapevine, Texas. The free gathering of gamers to play on a massive 3,000 player LAN network combined with a mini-E3 exhibit hall area and lots of activities is one of the more unique game events in the US. Some gamers who didn't register in advanced have been waiting since 9:30 pm Wednesday night for a chance to be admitted to the event's BYOC area

Big Download will be here for the entire event where id Software will show off, for the first time in public, actual gameplay from their next major title Rage. Their master programmer John Carmack will also be making his annual QuakeCon keynote address later today (expect things to get highly technical) and lots of other stuff are planned as well from now until Saturday night. You can check out some quick pictures from the event in our new gallery.

Oh and while this isn't PC gaming related it's still pretty cool. Today at QuakeCon they were showing a playable version of the previously unannounced Doom II for Xbox Live Arcade. The neat bit? In addition to porting the entire PC game, the development team at Nerve Software are also making an ALL NEW EPISODE that's exclusive to the Xbox Live Arcade version.

QuakeCon, id Software's annual free LAN fest-games event, is getting some interesting content for this year's installment. Part of the reason is due to id's recent acquistion by Bethesda Softworks who will be bringing their own content to the show. Case in point; the first public demo of Brink, the recently announced sci-fi shooter from Bethesd and developer Splash Damage, will happen during QuakeCon next week.

While id has shown trailers and given live engine demos of their next game Rage at two previous QuakeCons, this year's show will finally have actual live gameplay demos from the game for the first time in publich. Also, Bethesda Softworks' Todd Howard will be making a presentation at the event and as always id Software's master programmer John Carmack will make his annual QuakeCon keynote and Q&A with the audience.

Once again, QuakeCon is totally free to attend and is being held this year at the Gaylord Texan hotel in Grapevine, Texas from August 13-16.

The fallout (pun intended) from Wednesday's news of id Software being acquired by ZeniMax Media is still being felt and today our sister site Joystiq and other media outlets got to speak with id co-founder John Carmack and the other principles involved. Here's a quickie summary of the important bits:

• Joystiq asked about the possibility of the id Tech 5 graphics engine being used in other games that are being developed by ZeniMax Media. It's CEO Robert Altman said, "We'll certainly take advantage of the expertise and brain of John Carmack throughout the organization. Specifically, what we will do with the technology, the id tech engine, and the proprietary technology that's been developed here, is to be discussed. We haven't determined how we are going to handle that proprietary technology, going forward. So, it's just one of the agenda items for us as we integrate these organizations."

Yep, that headlne is correct. Bethesda Softworks's parent company ZeniMax Media had announced that it has acquired Dallas-based developer id Software, creators of some of the biggest PC game franchises of all time (Doom, Quake and Wolfenstein). Financial terms were not disclosed but the press release states that id will continue to operate under its founder John Carmack with the press release stating, "All the principals at id Software have signed long-term employment contracts."

Bethesda Softworks will now be the publisher for all of id Software's upcoming games with the exception of titles that already have publishing agreements. That means Rage will continue to be published by EA but Doom IV will now be a Bethesda Softworks title. We hope to have more info on this unexpected business deal later today.

Update: Kotaku has a little more info on the deal, revealing that id had actually approached ZeniMax Media about being bought out and that acquistion talks had started months ago. With the deal now complete id will be able to add teams to their game projects. It also quotes id founder John Camack as saying, "We're really getting kind of tired competing with our own publishers in terms of how our titles will be featured." The new deal with ZeniMax will solve that problem with Carmack saying, "They are triple A, top-of-the-line in what they do in the RPGs. And they have no overlap with all the things we do in the FPSes."

While id Software is obviously concentrating on the launch this week on Quake Live they still have a number of projects they are also working on, including iPhone projects, the upcoming Wolfenstein title with Raven Software and Activision and two internal games that will use their new idTech 5 graphics engine. One of the games is Rage (to be published by EA) and the other is id's fourth Doom game (which won't actually be called Doom IV).

Even though id signed with EA for Rage, our sister site Joystiq reports that they are still looking for a publisher for the next Doom title. id co-founder John Carmack states that they have some time, as the developer will "be able to get a better sense of how we think they're (EA) doing, holding up their side of the bargain." EA has certainly signed quite a few high profile third party developers to release their games via their company, including Valve, Epic, Crytek and others. Still id might decided to go with an entire new publisher for the next Doom game. That announcement is expected sometime in 2009.

Today is the 15th anniversary of the release of Doom, the sci-fi first person shooter from id Software. On Dec. 10, 1993, the original shareware version was uploaded to a single FTP server. That's all it took for the game, about one space marine fighting an invasion from Hell on the moons of Mars, to spread across the world like wildfire on tens of millions of PC hard drives.

While the game wasn't the first FPS ever made, the release of Doom arguably launched the genre into the mainstream of gaming. The PC shareware version of the title became a massive hit with some people saying the DOS version of the shareware were installed on more PCs at one point than Microsoft's then current version of Windows.

Click on the logo above to continue reading Happy 15th Birthday Doom!

Download the Doom Shareware here at Big Download
Download the Doom III Classic mod (a remake of the original Doom in Doom III) here at Big Download