John Carmack

• • Name: John Carmack

  • Notable creations and work: Quake Series, Wolfenstein Series, Doom Series and Commander Keen Series

  • Born: August 20, 1970

Biographical Summary

John Carmack is most well known for the series of Quake, Doom, Commander Keen and Wolfenstein 3D alongside with John Romero. They founded Softdisk, which originally made PC game.

During 1990, Carmack figured out how to recreate Nintendo's smooth side scrolling platformer on PC, he took apart super mario 3 and reverse engineered it, he tried promoting it to Nintendo but was rejected. He then took the mechanics and engine to produce Commander Keen which was a huge success.

Carmack and Romero started id Software together, they used 3D technology and made Catacombs 3D (1991) and Hovertank 3D (1991), afterward, by using concepts from Catacombs 3D and Hovertank 3D, they came up with Wolfenstein 3D (1992)

Even though Wolfenstein wasn't the first First Person Shooter, it established the genre. Each doing what they do best, Carmack as the programmer and Romero as the designer/artist, they then made Doom, one of the first multiple player FPS. It created a huge impact and heavily influenced the majority of today's online FPS games, such as counter-strike and team fortress

In 1996, they made Quake (1996), using true 3D technology (with polygons)

John Carmack and John Romero is considered the most successful game designers of all times, however, things went wrong and they went separate ways, Carmack stayed at id Software and continued to work on the Quake Series, progressively with better graphics and technology behind shooters (engines). His engines are incredible and have been licensed for used in many other influential and famous FPS games such as Half-Life, Call of Duty and Medal of Honor. But his work is still incomparable to his work together with Romero.

Work

John Carmack and John Romero, often called "The Two Johns" were basically the dream team, Carmack is the programmer and Romero is the one with the vision and ideas, together they have made revolutionary and influential games such as Wolfenstein 3D, Quake and Doom.

Project

Wolfenstein 3D -

Carmack programmed it himself

established the genre of First Person Shooters

one of the first FPS games and with a multiple player system

2D graphics that conveyed 3D space

multiple choice of weapons, various monsters/enemies

Quake -

Programming: John Carmack, Michael Abrash and John Cash.

Level Design: American McGee, Sandy Petersen, John Romero and Tim Willits.

Graphics: Adrian Carmack, Kevin Cloud.

Music/Sound: Trent Reznor

Used true 3D technology, polygons

References

• • http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y300/ThePerfectTrip/bbelief1_lit.jpg

  • http://binarybonsai.com/images/wolf3d.gif