John Carmack

By: Ian MacFadyen

COMP 1631 Winter 2011

John Carmack

• He was born August 20, 1970

• He lived his early life

• He then went on to become one of the most influential videogame programmers ever

• A Co-founder of id software

• He also founded an aerospace company called Armadillo Aerospace

id Software

• Founded by John Carmack, Adrian Carmack, John Romero, and Tom Hall

• id was unofficially founded September 1990

• In that month it co-founders made their first game

id’s First Game

• Commander Keen was the first game id made

• The game was a side scrolling platformer Think early Mario

•In the game you are a boy genius fighting aliens.

•Nuff said

More on id

• The company officially began on February 1, 1991

• John was the lead programmer of the company

• But the thing that got Carmack his first fame was the first Wolfenstein

Wolfenstein• The big thing about Wolfenstein was the

fact that it was the first 3D… well sort of

• Carmack was the lead programmer of this game so he is credited with the “3D”

more like 2.5D

• This was the original FPS (first person shooter)

• Released

May 5, 1992

Even More on id

• id went on to produce two other FPS series Doom and Quake

• Both met success

Doom

• The basic premise of Doom is that people were making teleportation technology

• They create a link to Hell

• They study Hell • ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE! LITERALY!

• You are a security officer from the facility, and you are fighting for your life

Quake

• Again with the teleporting

• But in Quake some unidentified enemy uses their teleportation tech to attack the humans

• You are the only

surviving person to

fight

• Also id’s first true 3D

game

Fun Fact• One fan of Quake had got a hold of it’s

code

• He made modifications so that the game could run on Linux

• He then sent the mod

to id

• The didn’t arrest the person, instead they used it to make an official Linux release

Armadillo Aerospace

• Founded in 2000 by John

• They are a leading developer of reusable rocket powered vehicles

References

• Armadillo Aerospace - Home, Armadillo Aerospace, 2010. Web. 31 January, 2011

• IGN: id Software, IGN, 2005. Web. 31 January, 2011

• John Carmack Biography, Biography Base, 2004. Web. 31 January 2011