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Id Software

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id Software (IPA: /ɪd 'sɔft.wɛɻ/ officially, though commonly mispronounced /aɪ di: 'sɔft.wɛɻ/) is an American computer game developer based in Mesquite, Texas, a suburb of Dallas. The company was founded by four members of the computer company Softdisk: programmers John Carmack and John Romero, game designer Tom Hall, and artist Adrian Carmack (no relation to John Carmack). id Software is now considered the most influential of the many game development companies in the Dallas area, known as the Dallas Gaming Mafia.

Contents

History

The founders of id Software met in the offices of Softdisk developing multiple games for Softdisk's monthly publishing. These included Dangerous Dave and other titles. Once Apogee Software learned of the group and their exceptional talent, they recruited them, and developed the necessary titles for them to get out of their Softdisk contracts. Meanwhile, they worked on titles that would be developed under the ID Software moniker. The most successful of those outings would be Commander Keen.

Commander Keen

The Commander Keen series, a platform game introducing one of the first smooth side-scrolling game engines for the PC, brought id Software into the gaming mainstream. The game was very successful and spawned a whole series of titles. It was also the group of id Software that designer Tom Hall was most affiliated with.

The shareware distribution method was initially employed by id Software through Apogee Software to sell their products, such as the Commander Keen, Doom and Wolfenstein games. They would release the first part of their trilogy as shareware, then sell the other two installments by mail order. Only later (about the time of the release of Doom II) did id release their games via more traditional shrink-wrapped boxes in stores (through other game publishers). It is likely that id Software has been the most successful shareware publisher to date.

Wolfenstein 3D

The company's breakout product was Wolfenstein 3D, a first person shooter with smooth 3D graphics that were unprecedented in computer games, and with violent game play that many gamers found engaging. After essentially founding an entire genre with this game, id created Doom, Doom II, Quake, Quake II, Quake III Arena, Doom 3, and Quake 4. Each of these first person shooters featured progressively higher levels of graphical technology (and progressively higher minimum system requirements).

Quake

The release of Quake marked the second milestone in id history. Quake combined a cutting edge fully 3D engine with an excellent art style to create what was at the time regarded as a feast for the eyes. Audio was not neglected either, having recruited Trent Reznor to facilitate unique sound-effects and ambient music for the game. Furthermore, Quake's main innovation—the capability to play a deathmatch (competitive gameplay between living opponents instead of against computer-run characters) over the Internet (especially through the add-on QuakeWorld) seared the title into the minds of gamers as another smash hit.

The source code to the Quake III engine was previously supposed to have been released around the end of 2004, which would be consistent with an apparent policy of releasing all the 3d engines under the GPL when they are over 5 years old. However, John Carmack announced that the GPL release had been put on hold in order to maintain a grace period, since the Quake III engine was still being licensed to commercial customers who would otherwise become upset over the sudden loss in value of their recent investment. The Quake III source code was released under the GPL on August 19, 2005.

Name

Note the lowercase id, the correct pronunciation of which is a much-argued subject. The current official pronunciation is id as in "did" or "kid", which refers to the id as a psychological concept developed by Sigmund Freud. Evidence of this can be found as early as Wolfenstein 3D with the statement "that's Id, as in the id, ego, and superego in the psyche" appearing in the game's documentation. Even today, [id's History page] makes a direct reference to Freud.

Originally however, both letters were capitalised as an acronym for "Ideas from the Deep", and because of this many argue that it should still be pronounced "eye-dee". The I was later made lowercase in the release of the second Commander Keen series, eventually followed by the D. Since Wolfenstein 3D used the "id" pronunciation together with the mixed-case "iD", many argue that the capitalisation is irrelevant and purely a stylistic choice.

Key figures

In 2003, the book Masters of Doom chronicled the development of id Software, concentrating on the personalities and interaction of John Carmack and John Romero. Below are the key people involved with id's success.

John Carmack

Main article: John Carmack
The lead programmer for id Software is John Carmack, whose skill at 3D programming is widely recognized in the software industry. He is the last of the original founders still employed by the company.

John Romero

Main article: John Romero
John Romero, who was fired after the release of Quake, later formed the ill-fated company Ion Storm. There he became infamous through the development of Daikatana which was received very poorly by reviewers and gamers alike. Romero now heads the Cyberathlete Professional League Board of Directors and is currently developing a MMOG for his new, yet-unnamed development company.

Both Hall and Romero have reputations as designers and idea men who have helped shape some of the key PC gaming titles of the 1990s.

Tom Hall

Main article: Tom Hall
Tom Hall left id Software during the early days of Doom development (but not before he had some impact: he was responsible, for example, for the inclusion of teleporters in the game). He was let go before the shareware release of Doom and then went to work for Apogee, developing Rise of the Triad with the "Developers of Incredible Power". When he finished work on that game, he found he was not compatible with the Prey development team at Apogee, and therefore left to join his ex-id compadre John Romero at Ion Storm. Hall has frequently commented that if id Software ever sold him the rights to Commander Keen he would immediately develop another Keen title.

American McGee

Main article: American McGee
American McGee was one of the premier level designers and members of the programing staff on many of id's games such as Doom II and Quake. He later moved to EA Games where he gained industry notoriety with the development of his own game American McGee's Alice. He has since left EA and is currently president of his own company The Mauretania Import Export Company which is in production of his next game Bad Day L.A.

Games by id Software

Developer

Publisher / Producer

Additional reading

External links

 

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