John Carmack is a legendary figure in the gaming industry. He came up with revolutionary programming techniques to make games more realistic. With his participation, such masterpieces as Wolfenstein 3D, Quake, Doom and many others were created.
John Carmack: biography
Carmack was born on August 20, 1970 in a suburb of Kansas City (USA). As a child, John was fond of chemical experiments, simulated rockets, read science fiction. But most of all he liked fantasy role-playing games, for example, Dungeons and Dragons.
With the advent of the computer age, Carmack's life has changed. He became obsessed with electronic gadgets, but his parents could not buy an expensive toy. When the future genius was fourteen, he and a group of friends tried to steal Apple II computers from school. They were caught, and John Carmack spent the next year in a juvenile detention facility.
After his release, Carmack became quiet and started programming. He independently learned to write codes. Parents saw that his son had an unusual potential, and found the means to buy the first computer.
Carier start
After a failed study at the University of Missouri, John Carmack became a freelancer. For some time he worked as an independent contractor for Apple, but earned very little money. In the end, the young man got a job as a programmer in the Softdisk office. One of his first developments was the two-dimensional arcade Invasion of the Vorticons.
Carmack's colleagues were two computer-obsessed fans: John Romero (1967) and Adrian Carmack (1969). During the day, they developed games for Softdisk, and at night experimented with coding. Soon, a friendly company created its own video game called Commander Keen.
Own business
Inspired by the success of the game, the trio left Softdisk to form ID Software in 1991. Later, John Carmack and John Romero will become trendsetters in the gaming industry for decades.
As young people, Carmack and Romero enjoyed playing computer games. Especially they were fascinated by the Castle Wolfenstein project. Soon they released their own version - Wolfenstein 3D. There was no three-dimensional image in the modern sense, but Carmack came up with technical tricks that created the illusion of volume. The hero explored the labyrinths of the Nazis, fought with enemies and collected treasures. The project overnight became incredibly successful. Due to the fact that the game was played in the first person, the players for the first time were able to feel like participants in realistic adventures. The gamer saw the world through the sight of a weapon and could direct it toward the target.
Wealth and hard work
Wolfenstein was so popular that each of its creators earned $ 120,000 per month. John Carmack, whose photo began to appear on the covers of publications, became a wealthy man at the age of 21.
However, the money didn’t worry John much. He worked over 8 hours daily to tweak and improve coding. In a balanced ID world, the compiled Carmack was the king of coding, bringing the ideas of three-dimensional reality to life. Romero was assigned the role of screenwriter, mastermind, responsible for the atmosphere of games, game design of the landscape and characters.
Age of Doom
In 1993, the team released Doom's revolutionary hit. They created a three-dimensional virtual world so powerful, compelling and exciting that it changed the gaming industry. The plot of the game fit in a line and a half: the hero in a research center on Mars is fighting with attacking demons. However, the graphic performance was truly unique, complex and very realistic for its time.
Prior to Doom, most video games were pretty flat and unrealistic. Carmack's programming techniques allowed the fantasy world to become more natural, detailed. In 1994, the project brought $ 7 million in profit, despite the fact that copies were sorely lacking. The game has become one of the best-selling in history. John Carmack and Romero became legends.
Quake
In 1996, the duo introduced the game Quake. Gamers were offered an even higher level of realism. The multi-player project has become the legislator of the arena genre, when real players battle over the network with each other.
Quake has become both a bestseller and a cult phenomenon. Quake II was released later - in 1996. Quake III Arena was released in 2000 and is an online game that allows a large number of participants to fight at the same time.
Best games
John Carmack is involved in the development of 44 games. The most famous are:
- Series Commander Keen (1990, 1991);
- Hovertank 3D (1991);
- Wolfenstein 3D (05/05/1992);
- Spear of Destiny (09/18/1992);
- Doom (12/10/1993);
- Doom II (10/10/1994);
- Heretic (12/23/1994);
- Quake (06/22/1996);
- Quake II (12/9/1997);
- Quake III Arena (2.12.1999);
- Doom III (08/03/2004);
- Quake IV (10/18/2005);
- Wolfenstein (08/18/2009);
- Quake Champions (2017 announcement).
Present
Now Carmack oversees the Oculus Rift glasses project. He believes that the future lies in virtual reality. He was incredibly captivated by this idea - so much so that John left ID Software, to which he gave the 22 best years of his life. Even earlier, ways went with John Romero. Two creative personalities had too different views on the future of the gaming industry.
Carmack is a proponent of open source software. He made ID Tech 1, 2, and 3 available for download and stated that in the end, ID Tech 4 and ID Tech 5 would be open source. He also opposes the concept of patents in software.
John is married and has two children. His wife was Katherine Kang, who served as director of business development at ID Software.