John Carmack
John D. Carmack II (born August 20 1970) is a widely recognized figure in the video game industry. A prolific American programmer, Carmack co-founded id Software, a computer game development company, in 1991. Carmack was the lead programmer of the legendary id computer games Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Quake, and subsequent sequels to Doom and Quake. His revolutionary programming techniques, combined with the unique game designs of John Romero, led to a mass-popularization of the first person shooter, or FPS, in the early to late 1990s.
Youth
Carmack grew up in Shawnee Mission, Kansas, part of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, and became interested in computers at an early age. He graduated from Shawnee Mission East High School. He then attended the University of Missouri - Kansas City for two semesters before dropping out to work as a freelance programmer.
Game programming
Softdisk in Shreveport, Louisiana hired Carmack to work on Softdisk G-S (an Apple IIGS publication), uniting him with John Romero and other future key members of id Software such as Adrian Carmack (not related). Later, this team would be placed by Softdisk in charge of a new, but short-lived, game subscription product called Gamer's Edge for the IBM PC (MS-DOS) platform. In 1990, while still at Softdisk, Carmack, Romero, and others created the first of the Commander Keen games, a series which was published by Apogee Software, under the shareware distribution model, from 1991 onwards. Afterwards, Carmack left Softdisk to co-found id Software, where he remains.
He has pioneered the use of many techniques in computer graphics, including binary space partitioning which Doom became the first game to use, surface caching which he invented for Quake, Carmack's Reverse which he devised for Doom 3, and MegaTexture, used in Enemy Territory: Quake Wars. While Carmack's Reverse was not originally invented by him, he discovered it independently.
Carmack's engines have also been licensed for use in other influential first person action shooter games such as Half-Life and Medal of Honor.
Free software
Carmack is a well-known advocate of open source software, and has repeatedly voiced his opposition to software patents, which he likens to "mugging someone"[1]. He has also contributed to open source projects, such as starting the initial port of the X Window System to Mac OS X Server and working to improve the OpenGL drivers for Linux through the Utah GLX project.
Carmack released the source code for Wolfenstein 3D in 1995 and the Doom source code in 1997. When the source code to Quake was leaked and circulated among the Quake community underground in 1996, a programmer unaffiliated with id Software used it to port Quake to Linux, and subsequently sent the patches to Carmack. Instead of pursuing legal action, id Software, at Carmack's behest, used the patches as the foundation for a company-sanctioned Linux port. id Software has since publicly released the source code to Quake as well as that to Quake 2 and most recently Quake 3, all under the GNU General Public License (GPL). The Doom source code was also re-released under the GPL in 1999.
Carmack is also noted for his generous contributions to charities and gaming communities. Some of the recipients of Carmack's charitable contributions include his former high school, promoters of open source software, opponents of software patents, and game enthusiasts. In 1997 he gave away one of his Ferraris (a 308 model) as a prize to the winner of the Quake "Red Annihilation" tournament, Dennis Fong.
Other activities
Though Carmack is best known for his innovations in 3D graphics, he is also a rocketry enthusiast and the founder of Armadillo Aerospace.
Carmack met Katherine Anna Kang after she visited him at the id offices with a friend during QuakeCon '96. They married around January 2000 and their son, Christopher Ryan, was born on August 13 2004.
Carmack has a weblog (previously a .plan) which is (ironically, given his advocacy of open source software and his attitude against software patents) created with Microsoft Word. He also occasionally posts comments to Slashdot.
Recognition
In 1999, Carmack appeared as number 10 in TIME's list of the 50 most influential people in technology.
On March 22, 2001, Carmack became the fourth person to be inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences' Hall of Fame, an honor bestowed upon those who have made revolutionary and innovative achievements in the video and computer game industry. In 2003, Carmack was one of the subjects of the book Masters of Doom, a chronicle of id Software and its founders.
In 2005, the film Doom featured a character named Dr. Carmack, in recognition of Carmack who co-created the original game.
In March of 2006, Carmack was added to the Walk of Game, an event that recognizes the developers and games with the most impact on the industry.
References
- Kushner, David (2003). Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture, New York: Random House. ISBN 0375505245.
- id Software
- Walk of Game
External links
- John Carmack's Blog
- John Carmack's Blogged Dev Diaries
- Doom and Quake creator's dev diaries are blogged
- id Software's website
- Armadillo Aerospace site
- User Account on Slashdot
Articles
- "TIME Digital 50" snippet on Carmack
- "The Age Of Doom", TIME article (2004)
- "The Egos at id", a Wired magazine feature article (1996)
- Slashdot interview
- "MegaTexture" technology