1 00:00:04,160 --> 00:00:07,160 Speaker 1: Get in touch with technology with tech Stuff from how 2 00:00:07,240 --> 00:00:13,840 Speaker 1: stuff works dot com. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. 3 00:00:13,880 --> 00:00:17,680 Speaker 1: I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland's senior writer for how stuff 4 00:00:17,720 --> 00:00:20,919 Speaker 1: works dot com, and today's episode is part two of 5 00:00:21,000 --> 00:00:24,640 Speaker 1: the ID Software story. Remember this was a request from 6 00:00:24,760 --> 00:00:27,560 Speaker 1: Dave who wrote to me and asked for an episode 7 00:00:27,560 --> 00:00:30,040 Speaker 1: about ID Software. But as it turns out, there's too 8 00:00:30,160 --> 00:00:32,279 Speaker 1: much to talk about for one episode. So in our 9 00:00:32,360 --> 00:00:36,000 Speaker 1: last episode, Early talked about the people responsible for forming 10 00:00:36,080 --> 00:00:39,959 Speaker 1: ID Software and how they found early success with titles 11 00:00:39,960 --> 00:00:43,440 Speaker 1: like Commander Keene and Wolfenstein three D. Today we pick 12 00:00:43,520 --> 00:00:45,599 Speaker 1: up where I left off with the development of the 13 00:00:45,640 --> 00:00:51,320 Speaker 1: blockbuster title Doom. Now, the company was still just a 14 00:00:51,400 --> 00:00:54,920 Speaker 1: small team of developers and they had a problem. There 15 00:00:54,960 --> 00:00:58,600 Speaker 1: weren't enough people to work on a follow up to Wolfenstein, 16 00:00:59,280 --> 00:01:03,760 Speaker 1: and simuled peneously work on the new Doom project. What's more, 17 00:01:04,400 --> 00:01:07,360 Speaker 1: the people at in Software all wanted to work on Doom. 18 00:01:07,600 --> 00:01:10,080 Speaker 1: They wanted to work on something new rather than create 19 00:01:10,120 --> 00:01:13,399 Speaker 1: a sequel to an already existing game, but there was 20 00:01:13,400 --> 00:01:16,160 Speaker 1: a lot of pressure from Apage to create a sequel. 21 00:01:16,520 --> 00:01:20,280 Speaker 1: Wolfenstein had been the most successful title to debut on 22 00:01:20,360 --> 00:01:24,840 Speaker 1: apog in its history, so they decided to do the 23 00:01:24,920 --> 00:01:29,120 Speaker 1: reasonable thing. They outsourced Wolfenstein too. They licensed out the 24 00:01:29,120 --> 00:01:32,920 Speaker 1: work to APOG, which got started on the project, but 25 00:01:33,280 --> 00:01:37,119 Speaker 1: after some time in development in software didn't really see 26 00:01:37,160 --> 00:01:41,880 Speaker 1: it progressing very well. They didn't think it was making 27 00:01:41,880 --> 00:01:44,680 Speaker 1: any progress, so they pulled the plug on the project. 28 00:01:45,560 --> 00:01:49,480 Speaker 1: Appog ended up taking these lemons and making Lemonade later on, 29 00:01:49,640 --> 00:01:53,000 Speaker 1: converting the work they had already produced into a brand 30 00:01:53,000 --> 00:01:57,040 Speaker 1: new title called Rise of the Triad. Talk a little 31 00:01:57,040 --> 00:02:00,440 Speaker 1: bit more about that in a second. They also hired 32 00:02:00,560 --> 00:02:04,440 Speaker 1: a couple of folks in nineteen One of them ended 33 00:02:04,520 --> 00:02:06,880 Speaker 1: up making a big name for himself a little bit 34 00:02:07,000 --> 00:02:09,120 Speaker 1: later on in the video game world. That would be 35 00:02:09,160 --> 00:02:13,600 Speaker 1: American McGhee. He's perhaps most famous for his Dark Alice 36 00:02:13,680 --> 00:02:17,200 Speaker 1: in Wonderland inspired games, which he made with e A 37 00:02:17,200 --> 00:02:21,959 Speaker 1: after his tenure with ID Software ended in nine. McGhee 38 00:02:22,000 --> 00:02:26,400 Speaker 1: started at ID as a tech support worker and eventually 39 00:02:26,480 --> 00:02:29,640 Speaker 1: worked his way up to designer, but there was a 40 00:02:29,680 --> 00:02:33,600 Speaker 1: point where the company decided that McGee's work and the 41 00:02:33,600 --> 00:02:36,880 Speaker 1: company's direction were no longer a good fit, and so 42 00:02:37,520 --> 00:02:41,280 Speaker 1: he was let go. One thing that did make Doom 43 00:02:41,400 --> 00:02:45,240 Speaker 1: possible was the evolution of computer hardware. The team had 44 00:02:45,240 --> 00:02:48,200 Speaker 1: been bumping up against the upper limits of the previous 45 00:02:48,240 --> 00:02:53,000 Speaker 1: generation of PCs, but over time, the really expensive Intel 46 00:02:53,120 --> 00:02:56,720 Speaker 1: three eight six microprocessor cost had started to come down, 47 00:02:57,080 --> 00:03:02,239 Speaker 1: and now it was finding its way into consumer level PCs. 48 00:03:03,360 --> 00:03:06,000 Speaker 1: More people were able to afford a three eight six PC, 49 00:03:06,120 --> 00:03:08,920 Speaker 1: which was better equipped to handle the demands of a 50 00:03:09,000 --> 00:03:11,560 Speaker 1: beefy game engine, or at least beefy at the time. 51 00:03:13,000 --> 00:03:15,000 Speaker 1: Three six have been around for a while. It first 52 00:03:15,080 --> 00:03:20,919 Speaker 1: launched in this Intel microprocessor. It took about a year 53 00:03:21,000 --> 00:03:25,280 Speaker 1: for manufacturing to ramp up to prod the levels that 54 00:03:25,400 --> 00:03:29,480 Speaker 1: Intel wanted, but even when they did reach those levels, 55 00:03:29,480 --> 00:03:32,079 Speaker 1: they were still really expensive, so very few people were 56 00:03:32,080 --> 00:03:34,800 Speaker 1: actually able to afford them. By today's standards, a three 57 00:03:35,080 --> 00:03:39,320 Speaker 1: six microprocessor would probably seem pretty crude and clunky. It 58 00:03:39,400 --> 00:03:44,920 Speaker 1: had only two seventy five thousand transistors on it A 59 00:03:44,960 --> 00:03:50,520 Speaker 1: little microprocessor now, I say only because today's microprocessors have 60 00:03:50,720 --> 00:03:53,840 Speaker 1: more than a billion transistors on them, so two five 61 00:03:53,880 --> 00:03:59,080 Speaker 1: thousand is nothing compared to today's uh microprocessors. The clock rate, 62 00:03:59,360 --> 00:04:03,200 Speaker 1: as in how fast the three D six microprocessor could work, 63 00:04:03,720 --> 00:04:06,440 Speaker 1: was between twelve mega hurts up to forty mega hurts 64 00:04:06,440 --> 00:04:09,480 Speaker 1: if you're overclocking it on the extreme end. And again, 65 00:04:09,520 --> 00:04:13,080 Speaker 1: your basic smartphone today can outperform those specs. But at 66 00:04:13,080 --> 00:04:17,040 Speaker 1: the time it was a state of the art machine 67 00:04:17,920 --> 00:04:19,800 Speaker 1: and it was just what it needed to take the 68 00:04:19,839 --> 00:04:23,800 Speaker 1: next step in game development. John Carmack, at the ripe 69 00:04:23,839 --> 00:04:27,240 Speaker 1: old age of twenty one years old, began to experiment 70 00:04:27,320 --> 00:04:31,320 Speaker 1: with stuff that older game engines just couldn't handle. That 71 00:04:31,400 --> 00:04:36,120 Speaker 1: included creating irregular shapes in the environment like uh, irregular 72 00:04:36,160 --> 00:04:39,600 Speaker 1: walls or floors that sloped around. He also wanted dynamic 73 00:04:39,720 --> 00:04:43,200 Speaker 1: lighting and the option to move in or outdoors. These 74 00:04:43,200 --> 00:04:46,359 Speaker 1: were all elements that would have been really challenging back 75 00:04:46,560 --> 00:04:50,080 Speaker 1: in the older Wolfenstein days, that that game engine just 76 00:04:50,120 --> 00:04:53,400 Speaker 1: couldn't handle this kind of level of complexity. And then 77 00:04:53,560 --> 00:04:56,520 Speaker 1: he also had another goal. He wanted gameplay to be 78 00:04:56,600 --> 00:05:00,560 Speaker 1: immersive and fast. Fast was really importan and it had 79 00:05:00,600 --> 00:05:03,000 Speaker 1: to be a fast paced game and really get the 80 00:05:03,040 --> 00:05:08,320 Speaker 1: players blood pumping. So he wanted these abilities, this ability 81 00:05:08,400 --> 00:05:11,400 Speaker 1: to make more complex environments, but not at the expense 82 00:05:11,680 --> 00:05:15,320 Speaker 1: of the speed of the game. As Carmack worked on 83 00:05:15,400 --> 00:05:20,719 Speaker 1: the engine, uh Romero started programming the levels and designed 84 00:05:20,800 --> 00:05:25,000 Speaker 1: much of the look and sound of the game. For inspiration, 85 00:05:25,040 --> 00:05:28,559 Speaker 1: the team looked at the art of hr Geiger, and 86 00:05:28,680 --> 00:05:32,279 Speaker 1: that was Geiger's work that inspired the Alien film franchise, 87 00:05:32,600 --> 00:05:36,000 Speaker 1: so the team used that art to guide decisions in 88 00:05:36,160 --> 00:05:40,240 Speaker 1: level and monster design. The walls in Doom sometimes have 89 00:05:40,360 --> 00:05:44,080 Speaker 1: hideous faces incorporated into them, and many of the demons 90 00:05:44,120 --> 00:05:46,920 Speaker 1: look pretty monstrous as well. Romero points out that by 91 00:05:46,960 --> 00:05:49,960 Speaker 1: today's standards, uh they might seem a bit cartoony, but 92 00:05:50,000 --> 00:05:52,520 Speaker 1: at the time it was considered a really etchy approach 93 00:05:52,560 --> 00:05:55,840 Speaker 1: to game design. Tom Hall, who had put up some 94 00:05:55,920 --> 00:05:59,880 Speaker 1: resistance during the development of Wolfenstein three D, campaigned for 95 00:06:00,000 --> 00:06:03,359 Speaker 1: are a rich story for Doom. He had in mind 96 00:06:03,400 --> 00:06:05,640 Speaker 1: an opening scene that would set the rest of the 97 00:06:05,720 --> 00:06:08,160 Speaker 1: game in motion, and in that scene, the player would 98 00:06:08,160 --> 00:06:10,240 Speaker 1: be taking on the role of a soldier in the 99 00:06:10,240 --> 00:06:12,479 Speaker 1: middle of a card game with the rest of his squad, 100 00:06:12,839 --> 00:06:14,719 Speaker 1: and in the middle of the game, a demon would 101 00:06:14,720 --> 00:06:17,880 Speaker 1: burst in, killing everyone but the player, and then the 102 00:06:17,920 --> 00:06:21,720 Speaker 1: game would start, and his ideas helped shape design decisions, 103 00:06:21,760 --> 00:06:24,640 Speaker 1: but as he tells it all later on, the focus 104 00:06:24,720 --> 00:06:27,480 Speaker 1: was really more on the technical side of making the 105 00:06:27,520 --> 00:06:31,000 Speaker 1: game work and less on the narrative or story side. 106 00:06:31,640 --> 00:06:35,080 Speaker 1: He'd say it would be a few years before you 107 00:06:35,080 --> 00:06:39,039 Speaker 1: would see a first person shooter incorporate deep story elements, 108 00:06:39,400 --> 00:06:42,120 Speaker 1: and the game he sites is really nailing. It was 109 00:06:42,240 --> 00:06:45,279 Speaker 1: Half Life, which was a from a totally different company. 110 00:06:45,320 --> 00:06:48,080 Speaker 1: It's from Valve, That would be the first real example 111 00:06:48,240 --> 00:06:51,120 Speaker 1: of that sort of thing. But he wanted it to 112 00:06:51,160 --> 00:06:54,320 Speaker 1: be Doom, and he started to feel really discouraged that 113 00:06:54,360 --> 00:06:57,159 Speaker 1: a lot of his ideas were being rejected. He wanted 114 00:06:57,279 --> 00:07:00,120 Speaker 1: rooms to have a purpose in Doom, so that when 115 00:07:00,160 --> 00:07:03,520 Speaker 1: you walked into a room in the game, you understood 116 00:07:03,520 --> 00:07:06,839 Speaker 1: why the room was there. It had a reason for existing. 117 00:07:06,880 --> 00:07:09,800 Speaker 1: It wasn't just one in a series of rooms that 118 00:07:09,880 --> 00:07:13,960 Speaker 1: make up a level, or just a weird, interchangeable environment 119 00:07:14,040 --> 00:07:18,160 Speaker 1: with undefined spaces. In his Doom, you wouldn't wonder why 120 00:07:18,240 --> 00:07:21,520 Speaker 1: two rooms connected together, or what purpose a weird path 121 00:07:21,640 --> 00:07:24,120 Speaker 1: might serve. It would have a reason and you would 122 00:07:24,200 --> 00:07:28,480 Speaker 1: understand what it was. To him, level design needed to 123 00:07:28,520 --> 00:07:31,400 Speaker 1: make sense and serve the story, but the development of 124 00:07:31,400 --> 00:07:34,680 Speaker 1: the game didn't really allow for his designs, and so 125 00:07:34,720 --> 00:07:38,920 Speaker 1: the levels were less detailed, less logical. Hall himself designed 126 00:07:38,920 --> 00:07:42,400 Speaker 1: about seven levels, according to his own estimation. He said 127 00:07:42,480 --> 00:07:45,280 Speaker 1: Romero was responsible for some of the more iconic levels 128 00:07:45,280 --> 00:07:49,440 Speaker 1: in Doom, particularly the ones that used multiple vertical planes, 129 00:07:49,800 --> 00:07:53,720 Speaker 1: you know, multiple levels within a game level. So I'm 130 00:07:53,800 --> 00:07:57,360 Speaker 1: using level in two different ways here, game levels meaning 131 00:07:57,680 --> 00:08:00,440 Speaker 1: at a stage in a game, and love was within 132 00:08:00,480 --> 00:08:05,000 Speaker 1: the game or within that stage rather meaning different vertical platforms. 133 00:08:06,520 --> 00:08:09,320 Speaker 1: Hall's account of those days sound like they were pretty rough. 134 00:08:09,360 --> 00:08:11,960 Speaker 1: He said that the team was working every day, seven 135 00:08:12,040 --> 00:08:14,560 Speaker 1: days a week, for up to sixteen hours a day, 136 00:08:14,960 --> 00:08:18,320 Speaker 1: and he said he was feeling increasingly isolated at that time. 137 00:08:18,560 --> 00:08:21,400 Speaker 1: The rest of the team sensed this as well, and 138 00:08:21,520 --> 00:08:27,200 Speaker 1: eventually in Romero invited Hall over for dinner and then 139 00:08:27,240 --> 00:08:31,679 Speaker 1: told him they were letting him go. He was essentially fired, 140 00:08:31,960 --> 00:08:36,080 Speaker 1: but they had also secured another job for him over 141 00:08:36,120 --> 00:08:38,120 Speaker 1: at Apog, so he already had a place to go. 142 00:08:38,200 --> 00:08:40,640 Speaker 1: It wasn't like he was just cut loose, and in 143 00:08:40,640 --> 00:08:43,559 Speaker 1: two thousand and fourteen, Hall said that ultimately this came 144 00:08:43,640 --> 00:08:47,160 Speaker 1: as a huge relief. After the Shock War off, he 145 00:08:47,200 --> 00:08:49,760 Speaker 1: was the first of the four main founders of IT 146 00:08:50,240 --> 00:08:53,360 Speaker 1: to leave it's software. He would move on to Apog 147 00:08:53,480 --> 00:08:56,440 Speaker 1: and work on Rise of the Triad, which I mentioned earlier. 148 00:08:56,760 --> 00:09:00,800 Speaker 1: It was the game that Wolfenstein, too, would turn into 149 00:09:01,600 --> 00:09:04,080 Speaker 1: He'd work on other games too, before moving on to 150 00:09:04,160 --> 00:09:08,120 Speaker 1: co found another studio. The other studio he co founded 151 00:09:08,360 --> 00:09:13,240 Speaker 1: was one called ion Storm, rather infamous in video game circles, 152 00:09:13,400 --> 00:09:18,079 Speaker 1: and a fellow co founder was John Romero. But we'll 153 00:09:18,080 --> 00:09:19,680 Speaker 1: get to that part of the story a little later. 154 00:09:19,920 --> 00:09:22,840 Speaker 1: And ion Storm could be its own episode all by itself. 155 00:09:22,920 --> 00:09:25,520 Speaker 1: It was a heck of a story. I remember when 156 00:09:25,520 --> 00:09:32,240 Speaker 1: all of that was was unfolding. Meanwhile, in Adrian Carmack 157 00:09:32,520 --> 00:09:35,160 Speaker 1: relished the subject matter of Doom. It was kind of 158 00:09:35,160 --> 00:09:38,280 Speaker 1: like the opposite of Tom Hall's reaction. He thought it 159 00:09:38,320 --> 00:09:42,160 Speaker 1: was fantastic. He took great delight in designing and drawing 160 00:09:42,240 --> 00:09:46,520 Speaker 1: numerous demonic critters and nightmarish environments. He was happy to 161 00:09:46,600 --> 00:09:49,440 Speaker 1: move away from the more family friendly art style that 162 00:09:49,480 --> 00:09:53,800 Speaker 1: Tom Hall held dear. He and Kevin Cloud, his assistant, 163 00:09:54,080 --> 00:09:57,640 Speaker 1: designed tons of monsters and then they commissioned a sculptor 164 00:09:57,960 --> 00:10:00,400 Speaker 1: to come in and create three dimensional mob as of 165 00:10:00,440 --> 00:10:03,520 Speaker 1: the monsters out of clay. Then they would paint the 166 00:10:03,559 --> 00:10:07,360 Speaker 1: models and scan them in to create virtual models for 167 00:10:07,440 --> 00:10:11,439 Speaker 1: the game itself. And it gave Doom a really unique look. 168 00:10:12,120 --> 00:10:16,600 Speaker 1: And I realized that really unique is redundant. Someone who 169 00:10:16,679 --> 00:10:20,840 Speaker 1: joined in Software during the development of Doom was Sandy Peterson. 170 00:10:21,800 --> 00:10:24,880 Speaker 1: He was a programmer who had worked for Micropros before 171 00:10:24,960 --> 00:10:29,280 Speaker 1: joining ID Software. Micropros was another huge game that name 172 00:10:29,320 --> 00:10:32,440 Speaker 1: in the computer gaming industry in the nineteen eighties. In particular, 173 00:10:32,640 --> 00:10:35,199 Speaker 1: one of its founders is a real legend in games, 174 00:10:35,280 --> 00:10:40,480 Speaker 1: Sid Meyer. Peterson would end up designing nineteen levels for Doom, 175 00:10:40,559 --> 00:10:43,959 Speaker 1: even though he joined the project after it had already started. 176 00:10:44,720 --> 00:10:48,160 Speaker 1: As the game neared completion, they had a big decision 177 00:10:48,240 --> 00:10:51,400 Speaker 1: they had to make. They felt they had outgrown apages 178 00:10:51,480 --> 00:10:55,600 Speaker 1: business model, which involved that shareware approach to get gamers interested, 179 00:10:55,679 --> 00:10:59,160 Speaker 1: followed by sending a physical copy of the full game 180 00:10:59,240 --> 00:11:03,000 Speaker 1: once an order came in. Appage only had a couple 181 00:11:03,000 --> 00:11:07,840 Speaker 1: of employees handling incoming calls, and the folks over at 182 00:11:07,880 --> 00:11:11,440 Speaker 1: it we're getting frustrated because orders were coming in faster 183 00:11:11,520 --> 00:11:15,560 Speaker 1: than apag could respond to them. And they asked Scott 184 00:11:15,559 --> 00:11:19,439 Speaker 1: Miller if he would invest in that department and grow it, 185 00:11:19,520 --> 00:11:23,320 Speaker 1: and he seemed reluctant to do that. So it Software 186 00:11:23,360 --> 00:11:26,840 Speaker 1: decided they could do this for themselves and just do 187 00:11:26,960 --> 00:11:29,600 Speaker 1: what Appage had been doing for them, using the Internet 188 00:11:29,640 --> 00:11:33,200 Speaker 1: for distribution and keeping overhead costs low so that they 189 00:11:33,240 --> 00:11:36,280 Speaker 1: don't have to worry about producing physical copies and all 190 00:11:36,360 --> 00:11:38,560 Speaker 1: that kind of stuff. So they moved out to strike 191 00:11:38,600 --> 00:11:42,280 Speaker 1: out on their own. Now I got more to say 192 00:11:42,320 --> 00:11:46,320 Speaker 1: about this next phase and its software's evolution, but first 193 00:11:46,600 --> 00:11:56,880 Speaker 1: let's take a quick break to thank our sponsor. During 194 00:11:56,920 --> 00:12:02,160 Speaker 1: alpha testing of the Doom game, ID Software sent unfinished 195 00:12:02,200 --> 00:12:04,840 Speaker 1: copies to a few play testers to look for bugs 196 00:12:04,840 --> 00:12:07,640 Speaker 1: and get feedback on how the gameplay was coming together. 197 00:12:08,600 --> 00:12:11,959 Speaker 1: An early build of the game. That alpha build ended 198 00:12:12,040 --> 00:12:15,240 Speaker 1: up leaking onto the Internet, which got a ton of attention, 199 00:12:15,320 --> 00:12:18,520 Speaker 1: despite the fact that it wasn't a complete game and 200 00:12:18,880 --> 00:12:21,920 Speaker 1: ID Software was genuinely worried that it could end up 201 00:12:21,960 --> 00:12:25,240 Speaker 1: tanking the game. If people played something that wasn't finished, 202 00:12:25,240 --> 00:12:29,520 Speaker 1: they might have a a an incorrect assumption of how 203 00:12:29,559 --> 00:12:32,520 Speaker 1: the game's going to turn out. But actually it helped 204 00:12:32,600 --> 00:12:35,280 Speaker 1: drive excitement for the title. People were really eager to 205 00:12:35,320 --> 00:12:38,880 Speaker 1: get hold of the finished copy. The retail price for 206 00:12:38,880 --> 00:12:42,240 Speaker 1: the game, at least at one point was was suggested 207 00:12:42,720 --> 00:12:49,040 Speaker 1: at nine dollars. That's insane, right. The game launched on 208 00:12:49,120 --> 00:12:54,560 Speaker 1: a server on December tenth at the University of Wisconsin 209 00:12:55,400 --> 00:12:59,439 Speaker 1: and almost immediately the server crashed because so many people 210 00:12:59,480 --> 00:13:02,520 Speaker 1: were ailing in to try and get a copy of 211 00:13:02,559 --> 00:13:05,080 Speaker 1: this game, and since it was about midnight when the 212 00:13:05,120 --> 00:13:08,440 Speaker 1: game went live, it meant there was several hours before 213 00:13:08,440 --> 00:13:11,080 Speaker 1: someone could get everything back online, but that really only 214 00:13:11,120 --> 00:13:14,360 Speaker 1: helped drive the demand for the game further and soon 215 00:13:14,640 --> 00:13:18,920 Speaker 1: it became a best seller. Wolfenstein three D gave birth 216 00:13:19,080 --> 00:13:22,920 Speaker 1: to the first person shooter genre, but Doom defined it, 217 00:13:23,640 --> 00:13:26,680 Speaker 1: and it's software built in a feature that would become 218 00:13:26,840 --> 00:13:31,600 Speaker 1: standard in nearly every FPS to follow Doom, and that 219 00:13:31,760 --> 00:13:35,960 Speaker 1: was the death match. That was Romero's term for a 220 00:13:35,960 --> 00:13:40,640 Speaker 1: competitive match between two or more players using the game engine. 221 00:13:41,280 --> 00:13:44,040 Speaker 1: With Doom, up to four people could play against each 222 00:13:44,080 --> 00:13:48,120 Speaker 1: other on physically networked computers, a local area network or land, 223 00:13:48,800 --> 00:13:53,079 Speaker 1: or you could play against a single person over the internet. 224 00:13:53,440 --> 00:13:57,520 Speaker 1: It was the birth of competitive multiplayer for first person shooters, 225 00:13:57,760 --> 00:14:00,480 Speaker 1: and it's another reason why people site Dom as the 226 00:14:00,520 --> 00:14:05,800 Speaker 1: real father of the FPS genre. So while Wolfenstein three 227 00:14:05,880 --> 00:14:11,800 Speaker 1: D did it first, Doom really got the form factor down, 228 00:14:13,360 --> 00:14:16,000 Speaker 1: and before Doom, Wolfenstein was the biggest hit from it 229 00:14:16,320 --> 00:14:19,640 Speaker 1: software with more than two hundred thousand copies sold, but 230 00:14:19,680 --> 00:14:23,120 Speaker 1: within a couple of years of launched, Doom sales blew 231 00:14:23,160 --> 00:14:26,320 Speaker 1: that number on the water by. It was estimated that 232 00:14:26,440 --> 00:14:30,560 Speaker 1: ten million computers had a copy of Doom on them. 233 00:14:30,640 --> 00:14:33,840 Speaker 1: Whether or not all those copies were full paid copies 234 00:14:33,920 --> 00:14:36,800 Speaker 1: is another matter, because again the first few levels were 235 00:14:36,840 --> 00:14:41,880 Speaker 1: offered as a shareware download. The game received positive reviews. 236 00:14:42,000 --> 00:14:46,560 Speaker 1: Fans loved it. The multiplayer was huge, an enormous innovation 237 00:14:46,680 --> 00:14:50,480 Speaker 1: and in software was the darling of the computer games industry. 238 00:14:51,440 --> 00:14:54,560 Speaker 1: And it also had another big innovation built in with Doom. 239 00:14:54,560 --> 00:14:57,160 Speaker 1: And this was a choice that John Carmack had made. 240 00:14:57,840 --> 00:15:01,520 Speaker 1: It was incredibly accessible to the mob community. Now. A 241 00:15:01,600 --> 00:15:05,240 Speaker 1: mody is someone who modifies games. They tweak code to 242 00:15:05,320 --> 00:15:10,880 Speaker 1: create new types of enemies or environments, new levels, new items, 243 00:15:10,960 --> 00:15:14,800 Speaker 1: new weapons. A modern friendly game is one that can 244 00:15:14,840 --> 00:15:18,560 Speaker 1: transform in all sorts of ways with a minimum minimum 245 00:15:18,600 --> 00:15:20,560 Speaker 1: a fuss upon the part of the matters. They don't 246 00:15:20,560 --> 00:15:23,760 Speaker 1: have to end up breaking code in order to make 247 00:15:23,760 --> 00:15:26,560 Speaker 1: it happen. Now, there are a lot of titles out 248 00:15:26,560 --> 00:15:30,760 Speaker 1: there today that have a reputation for supporting creative mods, 249 00:15:30,760 --> 00:15:33,440 Speaker 1: such as sky Rim or A Grand Theft Auto five. 250 00:15:34,080 --> 00:15:37,680 Speaker 1: Doom was an early example of this. John Karmack designed 251 00:15:37,680 --> 00:15:39,640 Speaker 1: the code so that it wouldn't be too difficult for 252 00:15:39,720 --> 00:15:42,360 Speaker 1: the moderate community to tweak it, and in fact, this 253 00:15:42,400 --> 00:15:46,680 Speaker 1: would remain one of his principles throughout his career. The 254 00:15:46,760 --> 00:15:49,240 Speaker 1: result was that Doom was viewed as a must have 255 00:15:49,440 --> 00:15:53,560 Speaker 1: game because even if you grew tired of the original gameplay, 256 00:15:53,760 --> 00:15:57,200 Speaker 1: the moderate community was always adding new stuff, which meant 257 00:15:57,240 --> 00:16:01,720 Speaker 1: that you had a continuously refreshed ame you could just 258 00:16:01,920 --> 00:16:06,560 Speaker 1: download the mods and incorporated into your own copy. It 259 00:16:06,680 --> 00:16:10,680 Speaker 1: was so big that during the presentation for Windows, Bill 260 00:16:10,760 --> 00:16:13,520 Speaker 1: Gates had a segment in which he was keyed into 261 00:16:13,720 --> 00:16:17,520 Speaker 1: the frame of a Doom game. And yes, it's just 262 00:16:17,680 --> 00:16:20,840 Speaker 1: as embarrassing and awkward as you are imagining right now. 263 00:16:21,120 --> 00:16:27,200 Speaker 1: Bill Gates standing there wearing a kind of a costume, 264 00:16:27,960 --> 00:16:32,320 Speaker 1: holding a rifle in the middle of the rifle, his 265 00:16:32,360 --> 00:16:36,200 Speaker 1: hand nowhere near the stock or the trigger, talking about 266 00:16:36,240 --> 00:16:40,880 Speaker 1: how he's going to enter the next Doom tournament, and 267 00:16:40,920 --> 00:16:44,520 Speaker 1: then a Doom sprite appears to his left. He turns, 268 00:16:44,920 --> 00:16:47,400 Speaker 1: holds the rifle out still by the middle, by the 269 00:16:47,400 --> 00:16:52,280 Speaker 1: way finger nowhere near the trigger, and blasts the bad guy. 270 00:16:52,760 --> 00:16:56,520 Speaker 1: It's awful and you should watch it anyway. The fact 271 00:16:56,600 --> 00:16:59,640 Speaker 1: that even Microsoft was acknowledging this showed what a big 272 00:16:59,640 --> 00:17:01,800 Speaker 1: deal it was, and the fact that this was a 273 00:17:01,880 --> 00:17:07,520 Speaker 1: game that was going mainstream. Like the Wolfenstein engine before it, 274 00:17:07,640 --> 00:17:10,320 Speaker 1: A lot of other computer game companies wanted to license 275 00:17:10,359 --> 00:17:13,240 Speaker 1: the technology powering Doom. It was light years ahead of 276 00:17:13,240 --> 00:17:16,879 Speaker 1: anyone else, so In Software was happy to oblige for 277 00:17:16,920 --> 00:17:19,880 Speaker 1: a fee. Companies could use the underlying engine for their 278 00:17:19,880 --> 00:17:22,560 Speaker 1: own games, and that brought in another steady stream of 279 00:17:22,560 --> 00:17:26,080 Speaker 1: revenue into the company, boosting the already impressive cash flow 280 00:17:26,160 --> 00:17:30,680 Speaker 1: from game sales. The ID crew found themselves flush with moolah, 281 00:17:31,400 --> 00:17:35,520 Speaker 1: and not everyone handled success the same way, So here's 282 00:17:35,560 --> 00:17:39,240 Speaker 1: a way to contrast. People. Both John Carmack and Romero 283 00:17:39,720 --> 00:17:45,240 Speaker 1: bought expensive sports cars like Ferraris, but John Carmack limited 284 00:17:45,280 --> 00:17:48,160 Speaker 1: his lavish spending and much of his life didn't really 285 00:17:48,240 --> 00:17:51,359 Speaker 1: change that significantly compared to what it was before. Meanwhile, 286 00:17:51,800 --> 00:17:55,320 Speaker 1: John Romero jumped a little further into the deep end 287 00:17:55,440 --> 00:17:58,480 Speaker 1: of luxury. He bought a big house, he bought more 288 00:17:58,560 --> 00:18:03,119 Speaker 1: luxury cars, He started growing big elaborate parties, and people 289 00:18:03,160 --> 00:18:05,520 Speaker 1: began to get a little worried that perhaps he was 290 00:18:05,520 --> 00:18:09,760 Speaker 1: getting caught up in the lifestyle. After Doom went gold, 291 00:18:10,000 --> 00:18:12,719 Speaker 1: John Carmack went back to the drawing board to create 292 00:18:13,000 --> 00:18:19,040 Speaker 1: guess what, yep, the next generation game engine. Essentially, every 293 00:18:19,080 --> 00:18:21,760 Speaker 1: time they release a game, Carmack wanted to build a 294 00:18:21,800 --> 00:18:24,399 Speaker 1: better game engine for the next game. He never wanted 295 00:18:24,440 --> 00:18:26,680 Speaker 1: to just rest on what he had built and then 296 00:18:26,960 --> 00:18:30,240 Speaker 1: churn out sequels. He didn't find that satisfying. He wanted 297 00:18:30,280 --> 00:18:33,959 Speaker 1: to make something better than what he made before, and 298 00:18:34,040 --> 00:18:38,520 Speaker 1: he really wanted to crack the nut that was true 299 00:18:38,680 --> 00:18:41,960 Speaker 1: three dimensional figures within a game, not three D that 300 00:18:42,000 --> 00:18:45,200 Speaker 1: projects out, but figures within the game that have three 301 00:18:45,200 --> 00:18:49,480 Speaker 1: dimensions within that virtual environment. Doom was a big jump 302 00:18:49,720 --> 00:18:53,600 Speaker 1: from Wolfenstein. But you couldn't look up or down in Doom. 303 00:18:53,800 --> 00:18:56,760 Speaker 1: You always look straight ahead no matter where you were facing, 304 00:18:57,280 --> 00:18:59,679 Speaker 1: and the critters you ran into were represented by two 305 00:18:59,720 --> 00:19:03,680 Speaker 1: domandational sprites. They weren't three dimensional virtual figures. They were 306 00:19:03,720 --> 00:19:08,080 Speaker 1: kind of like flat cardboard cutout characters. Uh what version 307 00:19:08,119 --> 00:19:10,520 Speaker 1: of him you saw was dependent upon how you were 308 00:19:10,520 --> 00:19:14,000 Speaker 1: facing them, but it was always flat. Carmak wanted something 309 00:19:14,000 --> 00:19:18,240 Speaker 1: more sophisticated than that, and when he wanted something, essentially 310 00:19:18,240 --> 00:19:22,520 Speaker 1: would go out and build it. Meanwhile, its software received 311 00:19:22,520 --> 00:19:25,040 Speaker 1: a request from a game publisher to create a version 312 00:19:25,400 --> 00:19:30,320 Speaker 1: of Doom for store shelves, which became Doomed two. So 313 00:19:30,600 --> 00:19:32,720 Speaker 1: Doom two was the one that you could find in 314 00:19:32,760 --> 00:19:36,760 Speaker 1: a box in computer game stores in the mid nineties. 315 00:19:36,800 --> 00:19:40,639 Speaker 1: It was actually really similar to the first game, just 316 00:19:40,760 --> 00:19:43,920 Speaker 1: with some new levels and a couple of new designs, 317 00:19:43,960 --> 00:19:48,160 Speaker 1: but mainly it was Doom, just with slightly different layouts. 318 00:19:48,160 --> 00:19:50,520 Speaker 1: But it was another big commercial success because it was 319 00:19:50,560 --> 00:19:54,040 Speaker 1: more of what people loved. Now on the company side, 320 00:19:54,880 --> 00:19:56,760 Speaker 1: It's software had grown to the point that it could 321 00:19:56,840 --> 00:19:59,399 Speaker 1: hire a few new people, and Romero cut back his 322 00:19:59,440 --> 00:20:03,720 Speaker 1: workout wars. He had been working fourteen or sixteen hour days, 323 00:20:03,760 --> 00:20:05,920 Speaker 1: and so now he moved to a more normal eight 324 00:20:05,920 --> 00:20:10,520 Speaker 1: hour day, much of it spent playing Doom against in 325 00:20:10,720 --> 00:20:13,880 Speaker 1: Software fans. Uh. He also spent a lot more time 326 00:20:14,040 --> 00:20:17,120 Speaker 1: in engagement with fans in general, and again people at 327 00:20:17,280 --> 00:20:20,080 Speaker 1: in Software began to worry that perhaps Romero wasn't as 328 00:20:20,119 --> 00:20:23,840 Speaker 1: involved as he needed to be. When it came time 329 00:20:23,880 --> 00:20:26,680 Speaker 1: to look at what came next, the group agreed upon 330 00:20:26,760 --> 00:20:30,520 Speaker 1: another idea, inspired by their Dungeons and Dragon sessions. So 331 00:20:30,600 --> 00:20:33,840 Speaker 1: in their games they had a mighty warrior named Quake, 332 00:20:34,560 --> 00:20:37,960 Speaker 1: and he was a fierce melee fighter. He used melee 333 00:20:38,040 --> 00:20:42,200 Speaker 1: weapons like hammers to whack bad guys, and Carmack and 334 00:20:42,320 --> 00:20:45,159 Speaker 1: Romero both thought this would be really interesting to create 335 00:20:45,200 --> 00:20:49,280 Speaker 1: a three D game first person shooter, but instead of 336 00:20:49,320 --> 00:20:52,480 Speaker 1: being a shooter, it's a first person melee game. You 337 00:20:52,520 --> 00:20:56,000 Speaker 1: have to use a hand to hand weapon and attack enemies. 338 00:20:56,200 --> 00:20:59,480 Speaker 1: It would require a new approach to game design, new 339 00:20:59,560 --> 00:21:02,320 Speaker 1: enemy to design in order to make it fair but challenging. 340 00:21:02,960 --> 00:21:05,520 Speaker 1: It was something the team was really eager to take 341 00:21:05,560 --> 00:21:07,879 Speaker 1: on because it was different enough from what they had 342 00:21:07,920 --> 00:21:12,440 Speaker 1: done before to really be engaging. So they set out 343 00:21:12,440 --> 00:21:15,320 Speaker 1: to make a fantasy based hand to hand first person 344 00:21:15,440 --> 00:21:19,439 Speaker 1: combat game. There's only one little problem. They did not 345 00:21:19,680 --> 00:21:22,919 Speaker 1: have a game engine yet. They had nothing to build 346 00:21:23,000 --> 00:21:26,960 Speaker 1: upon because John Carmack was falling behind on delivery dates 347 00:21:26,960 --> 00:21:30,960 Speaker 1: for a working game engine as he encountered unanticipated problems 348 00:21:30,960 --> 00:21:34,520 Speaker 1: while building a three D engine. Meanwhile, other teams were 349 00:21:34,560 --> 00:21:37,560 Speaker 1: creating concept art and level designs, but they couldn't do 350 00:21:37,600 --> 00:21:40,720 Speaker 1: anything with them because there was no engine to build upon. 351 00:21:41,600 --> 00:21:44,760 Speaker 1: So they company had already announced that was working on 352 00:21:44,800 --> 00:21:48,240 Speaker 1: a game called Quake, and it was already starting to 353 00:21:48,480 --> 00:21:52,439 Speaker 1: miss some promised release dates and Without a working game engine, 354 00:21:53,200 --> 00:21:55,199 Speaker 1: it didn't make any sense to put anything out, and 355 00:21:55,200 --> 00:21:57,679 Speaker 1: they couldn't really predict when something would be done because 356 00:21:58,040 --> 00:22:00,800 Speaker 1: it could take ages after the game engine is done 357 00:22:00,840 --> 00:22:05,080 Speaker 1: to build a brand new type of game. Remember, they'd 358 00:22:05,080 --> 00:22:08,520 Speaker 1: have to design a first person melee game and then 359 00:22:08,560 --> 00:22:10,640 Speaker 1: test it to make sure it was working, and then 360 00:22:10,760 --> 00:22:14,720 Speaker 1: fix anything that wasn't working. This process could take another 361 00:22:14,840 --> 00:22:18,440 Speaker 1: year or longer, and that's in addition to however long 362 00:22:18,480 --> 00:22:20,640 Speaker 1: it was going to take Carmack to finish the three 363 00:22:20,760 --> 00:22:24,359 Speaker 1: D engine. This is where things first came to a 364 00:22:24,440 --> 00:22:28,800 Speaker 1: head in IT Software. Romero and Kevin Cloud both felt 365 00:22:28,920 --> 00:22:31,359 Speaker 1: that it was really important to be innovative and push 366 00:22:31,440 --> 00:22:35,080 Speaker 1: for new features with every new franchise, so they really 367 00:22:35,160 --> 00:22:38,800 Speaker 1: wanted to incorporate this melee approach in this new game. 368 00:22:39,040 --> 00:22:41,439 Speaker 1: It would mean that Romero's designs would be part of 369 00:22:41,440 --> 00:22:44,200 Speaker 1: the game. It would mean that they would have something 370 00:22:44,200 --> 00:22:47,119 Speaker 1: totally new to talk about. They didn't want to just 371 00:22:47,240 --> 00:22:50,960 Speaker 1: keep making games and older franchises, but the rest of 372 00:22:51,000 --> 00:22:54,879 Speaker 1: the team, including John Carmack himself, said that it was 373 00:22:54,920 --> 00:22:58,280 Speaker 1: more important that they release another game in a timely fashion, 374 00:22:58,960 --> 00:23:02,440 Speaker 1: using the Doom and chise or using the Doom engine, 375 00:23:02,520 --> 00:23:05,360 Speaker 1: even because it would get the game out much more quickly. 376 00:23:05,960 --> 00:23:08,800 Speaker 1: So it came down to Romero and Kevin Cloud versus 377 00:23:08,800 --> 00:23:15,240 Speaker 1: pretty much everybody else, and everybody else won that argument. Ultimately, 378 00:23:15,280 --> 00:23:19,399 Speaker 1: they decided to drop the melee combat aspect for Quake. Instead, 379 00:23:19,840 --> 00:23:23,240 Speaker 1: it would become another first person shooter, similar to Doom 380 00:23:23,240 --> 00:23:27,960 Speaker 1: and Wolfenstein. However, they were going to wait for Carmack's 381 00:23:28,040 --> 00:23:31,040 Speaker 1: new game engine to be finished. The big advantage here 382 00:23:31,119 --> 00:23:34,320 Speaker 1: was that they had already built first person shooters. They 383 00:23:34,400 --> 00:23:36,680 Speaker 1: knew how to build first person shooters, so they didn't 384 00:23:36,720 --> 00:23:41,200 Speaker 1: have as much uncertainty about game mechanics. That part was easier. 385 00:23:41,280 --> 00:23:43,080 Speaker 1: It meant that there was going to be less on 386 00:23:43,119 --> 00:23:47,159 Speaker 1: the development time once the game engine was finished. If 387 00:23:47,200 --> 00:23:49,560 Speaker 1: they had gone with that melee approach, they have a 388 00:23:49,600 --> 00:23:53,840 Speaker 1: lot more testing on their hands. So they went with 389 00:23:53,880 --> 00:23:56,320 Speaker 1: the first person shooter model, and they cut out a 390 00:23:56,359 --> 00:23:59,199 Speaker 1: lot of uncertainty, even though that meant refining something they 391 00:23:59,200 --> 00:24:03,879 Speaker 1: had already done earlier. They had also, by that time 392 00:24:04,200 --> 00:24:08,480 Speaker 1: gained a pretty substantial fan club, including some famous fans. 393 00:24:09,160 --> 00:24:13,240 Speaker 1: One of those fans was Trent Resiner from nine Inch Nails. 394 00:24:13,680 --> 00:24:16,560 Speaker 1: He was a big fan of Doom, and so once 395 00:24:16,560 --> 00:24:18,320 Speaker 1: they found out about this, they reached out to him 396 00:24:18,320 --> 00:24:21,119 Speaker 1: and asked if he might be interested to become the 397 00:24:21,200 --> 00:24:25,160 Speaker 1: music and audio director for Quake, and he said yes. 398 00:24:25,920 --> 00:24:28,399 Speaker 1: So he ended up doing the sound design and music 399 00:24:28,640 --> 00:24:31,840 Speaker 1: for a Quake and turning it into an immersive audio 400 00:24:31,920 --> 00:24:34,919 Speaker 1: experience on top of its visual impact. So if you 401 00:24:35,200 --> 00:24:37,439 Speaker 1: ever played Quake and thought, while the sound design for 402 00:24:37,440 --> 00:24:40,440 Speaker 1: this is pretty pretty special, it's because of Trent resin 403 00:24:42,200 --> 00:24:44,960 Speaker 1: Now When it was finished, Quake allowed players to look 404 00:24:45,000 --> 00:24:47,240 Speaker 1: in all directions. You could look up and down, which 405 00:24:47,240 --> 00:24:49,840 Speaker 1: meant you had to worry about aiming up or down 406 00:24:49,880 --> 00:24:52,800 Speaker 1: for the first time. Because in Doom, if an enemy 407 00:24:53,080 --> 00:24:55,440 Speaker 1: was in front of you and you shot at it, 408 00:24:55,880 --> 00:24:57,719 Speaker 1: you were aiming at it. It didn't matter if it 409 00:24:57,840 --> 00:25:00,840 Speaker 1: was on top of some airs or at the bottom 410 00:25:00,880 --> 00:25:04,399 Speaker 1: of some stairs. Your character was magically aiming up or 411 00:25:04,560 --> 00:25:08,720 Speaker 1: down based upon you facing the enemy. You didn't really 412 00:25:08,720 --> 00:25:11,439 Speaker 1: have to worry about aiming so much because you couldn't 413 00:25:11,480 --> 00:25:14,480 Speaker 1: look up or down, and Quake it was totally different. 414 00:25:14,520 --> 00:25:16,719 Speaker 1: You could look up and down, which meant that you 415 00:25:16,880 --> 00:25:20,159 Speaker 1: suddenly had to worry about that aiming. And so a 416 00:25:20,240 --> 00:25:24,960 Speaker 1: lot of the environments included things like balconies stairs raised platforms, 417 00:25:25,400 --> 00:25:27,680 Speaker 1: requiring you to be to look up or down or 418 00:25:27,680 --> 00:25:32,000 Speaker 1: else you would get blasted into oblivion. And Quake also 419 00:25:32,040 --> 00:25:35,200 Speaker 1: built on the success of Doom's multiplayer format. With Quake, 420 00:25:35,520 --> 00:25:39,800 Speaker 1: up to sixteen players could compete online simultaneously, a pretty 421 00:25:39,800 --> 00:25:44,280 Speaker 1: big jump from the four local area network players of Doom. 422 00:25:44,359 --> 00:25:48,240 Speaker 1: Deathmatches became much more chaotic and fast paced and pretty. 423 00:25:48,440 --> 00:25:50,800 Speaker 1: It was such a popular mode that some fans in 424 00:25:50,880 --> 00:25:53,520 Speaker 1: Texas decided that they wanted to hold a big event 425 00:25:53,640 --> 00:25:56,560 Speaker 1: and invite people to come in and bring their computers 426 00:25:56,600 --> 00:25:59,639 Speaker 1: with them. So if you wanted to attend, you brought 427 00:25:59,640 --> 00:26:02,600 Speaker 1: your Peter rig. You set it up inside this big 428 00:26:02,640 --> 00:26:05,359 Speaker 1: conference hall, and it would become an enormous local area 429 00:26:05,440 --> 00:26:09,040 Speaker 1: network where Quake could be played with huge groups, and 430 00:26:09,080 --> 00:26:12,960 Speaker 1: they called it Quake Con. It was such a big 431 00:26:13,000 --> 00:26:16,360 Speaker 1: deal that even the software team came out to it, 432 00:26:16,760 --> 00:26:19,880 Speaker 1: and it would become so popular that they would hold 433 00:26:19,920 --> 00:26:22,960 Speaker 1: it every year and its software would take advantage of 434 00:26:22,960 --> 00:26:26,320 Speaker 1: it to use it as an event to announce upcoming 435 00:26:26,359 --> 00:26:28,879 Speaker 1: titles and projects. So it became a kind of a 436 00:26:28,920 --> 00:26:31,760 Speaker 1: marketing thing for in software, even though it was organized 437 00:26:31,760 --> 00:26:35,280 Speaker 1: by fans. Very useful for for a company to have 438 00:26:35,359 --> 00:26:39,000 Speaker 1: the fans to allow to work for you. Quake was 439 00:26:39,080 --> 00:26:42,080 Speaker 1: incredibly successful, though it had a little bit of a 440 00:26:42,119 --> 00:26:46,080 Speaker 1: hiccup in its growth because of a decision that its 441 00:26:46,119 --> 00:26:49,320 Speaker 1: software made when it came to distributing the game. They 442 00:26:49,359 --> 00:26:52,000 Speaker 1: decided to offer part of the game for ten dollars. 443 00:26:52,200 --> 00:26:55,159 Speaker 1: So you pay ten bucks and you get access to 444 00:26:55,240 --> 00:26:57,720 Speaker 1: the early part of the game. Technically, you would get 445 00:26:57,720 --> 00:27:00,600 Speaker 1: the full game, but only the first few levels would 446 00:27:00,600 --> 00:27:04,160 Speaker 1: be accessible. Once you completed that section, you would get 447 00:27:04,200 --> 00:27:05,920 Speaker 1: informed at to unlock the rest of the game, you 448 00:27:05,960 --> 00:27:08,080 Speaker 1: would have to pony up the money that made up 449 00:27:08,080 --> 00:27:10,200 Speaker 1: the difference in the full price tag, which was another 450 00:27:10,240 --> 00:27:14,399 Speaker 1: fifty dollars. But hackers began to examine the code for 451 00:27:14,480 --> 00:27:17,640 Speaker 1: Quake because they knew if you had that first part 452 00:27:17,680 --> 00:27:20,159 Speaker 1: of it, you had the whole game, and eventually they 453 00:27:20,160 --> 00:27:22,840 Speaker 1: figured out how to bypass the system and get access 454 00:27:22,840 --> 00:27:25,520 Speaker 1: to the full game without paying that fifty dollars, and 455 00:27:25,560 --> 00:27:29,760 Speaker 1: the hack spread across the internet very quickly, but it 456 00:27:29,880 --> 00:27:33,680 Speaker 1: still was a success for in software, and it also 457 00:27:33,840 --> 00:27:36,840 Speaker 1: inspired a new art form. A group of Quake players 458 00:27:36,920 --> 00:27:41,160 Speaker 1: created a little comedy sketch using the game Quake. They 459 00:27:41,160 --> 00:27:43,720 Speaker 1: had a group of game characters that were trying to 460 00:27:43,800 --> 00:27:47,000 Speaker 1: seek out and stop someone who was cheating in the game, 461 00:27:47,400 --> 00:27:49,840 Speaker 1: and it turns out that the person cheating is actually 462 00:27:49,920 --> 00:27:53,960 Speaker 1: John Romero. They used the Quake game engine to tell 463 00:27:53,960 --> 00:27:56,200 Speaker 1: a story, something that was pretty new at the time, 464 00:27:56,240 --> 00:27:59,879 Speaker 1: and eventually people started calling this art form mashinima for 465 00:28:00,080 --> 00:28:03,760 Speaker 1: machine animation. If you want to hear more about this process, 466 00:28:03,800 --> 00:28:06,520 Speaker 1: you should check out the episode tech Stuff Talks to 467 00:28:06,640 --> 00:28:10,120 Speaker 1: Rooster Teeth, which we published originally back in February two 468 00:28:10,119 --> 00:28:13,960 Speaker 1: tho twelve. In it, I talked to Bernie Burns, founder 469 00:28:13,960 --> 00:28:17,480 Speaker 1: of Rooster Teeth, and one of the big shows they 470 00:28:17,560 --> 00:28:20,280 Speaker 1: did that got them started was a series called Red 471 00:28:20,400 --> 00:28:25,440 Speaker 1: Versus Blue that used the Halo game engine to animate stories. 472 00:28:26,320 --> 00:28:28,960 Speaker 1: These days, Rooster Teeth does all sorts of stuff, including 473 00:28:29,000 --> 00:28:31,879 Speaker 1: feature length films. So maybe sometime I can do a 474 00:28:31,920 --> 00:28:36,280 Speaker 1: follow up story with somebody from there. Fascinating company and 475 00:28:36,320 --> 00:28:39,480 Speaker 1: I'm a huge fan of their work. Back to its software, 476 00:28:39,600 --> 00:28:43,400 Speaker 1: just like Doom and Wolfenstein, that Quake engine became a 477 00:28:43,480 --> 00:28:47,400 Speaker 1: sought after asset. Valve Software licensed it for their first 478 00:28:47,440 --> 00:28:51,440 Speaker 1: person shooter Half Life, which Tom Hall once cited as 479 00:28:51,480 --> 00:28:54,280 Speaker 1: the next real landmark in first person shooters. For its 480 00:28:54,320 --> 00:28:58,000 Speaker 1: incorporated storyline. The Quake Engine would dominate in the computer 481 00:28:58,080 --> 00:29:01,600 Speaker 1: industry until it was eventually conquered by the Unreal Engine. 482 00:29:02,520 --> 00:29:06,600 Speaker 1: After Quake went gold, the company held internal conversations about 483 00:29:06,600 --> 00:29:10,440 Speaker 1: its direction, and things really came to add Romero felt 484 00:29:10,480 --> 00:29:12,880 Speaker 1: that they were relying too heavily on formats that they 485 00:29:12,920 --> 00:29:16,120 Speaker 1: had already perfected, and he said, we should really be 486 00:29:16,200 --> 00:29:19,560 Speaker 1: doing something new and innovative. We shouldn't just keep doing 487 00:29:19,600 --> 00:29:22,760 Speaker 1: what we do well. John Carmack and most of the 488 00:29:22,760 --> 00:29:26,000 Speaker 1: rest of its software felt that Romero wasn't really dedicating 489 00:29:26,040 --> 00:29:28,680 Speaker 1: himself to the work anymore, and that he'd become too 490 00:29:28,760 --> 00:29:31,840 Speaker 1: wrapped up in his own fame and lifestyle, and so 491 00:29:31,880 --> 00:29:37,120 Speaker 1: the company said, hey, Romero, can you make tracks. They 492 00:29:37,160 --> 00:29:40,320 Speaker 1: told him to resign, and he did. He then went 493 00:29:40,360 --> 00:29:43,000 Speaker 1: on to reconnect with Tom Hall and together they formed 494 00:29:43,080 --> 00:29:46,720 Speaker 1: the company ion Storm. More on that at the end 495 00:29:46,760 --> 00:29:48,640 Speaker 1: of the episode, It's got kind of a sad ending. 496 00:29:49,560 --> 00:29:52,640 Speaker 1: The ID Software team, meanwhile, went back to work creating 497 00:29:52,720 --> 00:29:56,200 Speaker 1: a sequel to Quake because of the hacking that they 498 00:29:56,240 --> 00:30:00,320 Speaker 1: experienced when they launched the first Quake. They I did 499 00:30:00,320 --> 00:30:02,240 Speaker 1: that the best way to move forward would be to 500 00:30:02,320 --> 00:30:05,400 Speaker 1: partner with an established publisher that They had been doing 501 00:30:05,440 --> 00:30:07,440 Speaker 1: this on their own for a while, and when they 502 00:30:07,480 --> 00:30:11,160 Speaker 1: were smaller it was easier to handle, but as they 503 00:30:11,200 --> 00:30:14,800 Speaker 1: grew they realized that they needed someone with a more 504 00:30:15,080 --> 00:30:19,720 Speaker 1: established approach to publishing. But they definitely didn't want to 505 00:30:19,720 --> 00:30:23,520 Speaker 1: deal with having their IP stolen anymore, so they formed 506 00:30:23,520 --> 00:30:27,560 Speaker 1: a long term relationship with Activision. The first game they 507 00:30:27,560 --> 00:30:32,160 Speaker 1: put out was Quake two in and then they immediately 508 00:30:32,160 --> 00:30:36,000 Speaker 1: got to work on Quake three. We're in the home 509 00:30:36,040 --> 00:30:40,000 Speaker 1: stretch here, but before I conclude the story of the 510 00:30:40,480 --> 00:30:43,960 Speaker 1: software company, let's take another quick break to thank our sponsor. 511 00:30:52,440 --> 00:30:56,200 Speaker 1: It wasn't that much longer after Romero's departure that it 512 00:30:56,280 --> 00:31:01,720 Speaker 1: seemed like his accusations were really accurate ones, and John 513 00:31:01,760 --> 00:31:06,360 Speaker 1: Carmack's leadership style complicated matters. He decided that Quake three 514 00:31:06,520 --> 00:31:12,200 Speaker 1: would be a multiplayer only style game, online only, multiplayer only, 515 00:31:12,480 --> 00:31:16,240 Speaker 1: no single player component, no monster designed because it would 516 00:31:16,280 --> 00:31:19,160 Speaker 1: only be player characters fighting each other, and the rest 517 00:31:19,240 --> 00:31:22,480 Speaker 1: of the team wasn't really happy because they felt it 518 00:31:22,520 --> 00:31:25,280 Speaker 1: was limited and it really meant that a lot of 519 00:31:25,320 --> 00:31:29,080 Speaker 1: them didn't have much to do. But Carmack insisted that 520 00:31:29,080 --> 00:31:31,880 Speaker 1: that was the approach they take. It was also said 521 00:31:31,920 --> 00:31:34,640 Speaker 1: that Romero, for whatever faults he may have had, was 522 00:31:34,760 --> 00:31:39,120 Speaker 1: much better at managing people than Carmack was. People felt 523 00:31:39,160 --> 00:31:43,480 Speaker 1: ignored or dismissed, and morale started to dip. Quake three 524 00:31:43,520 --> 00:31:48,640 Speaker 1: Arena launched in ninet. It of course had a brand 525 00:31:48,640 --> 00:31:52,200 Speaker 1: new game engine powering it. The first Call of Duty 526 00:31:52,240 --> 00:31:56,320 Speaker 1: game actually uses that Quake engine as its foundation, but 527 00:31:56,600 --> 00:31:59,720 Speaker 1: that didn't help people at ID Software feel that the 528 00:31:59,800 --> 00:32:02,360 Speaker 1: come but he wasn't just doing the same thing repeatedly. 529 00:32:02,920 --> 00:32:07,240 Speaker 1: And also, the Unreal engine ended up debuting and was 530 00:32:07,920 --> 00:32:11,920 Speaker 1: comparatively easy to use. If you looked at the Quake 531 00:32:11,960 --> 00:32:14,520 Speaker 1: engine and the Unreal engine side by side, and you 532 00:32:14,520 --> 00:32:18,520 Speaker 1: looked at the actual interfaces for the two, Unreal engine 533 00:32:18,600 --> 00:32:22,040 Speaker 1: was very attractive, and it ended up becoming stiff competition 534 00:32:22,120 --> 00:32:26,720 Speaker 1: for that Quake engine. On the game development side, things 535 00:32:27,080 --> 00:32:30,640 Speaker 1: slowed down at in Software Now that wasn't on purpose. 536 00:32:31,600 --> 00:32:34,000 Speaker 1: John Carmack felt that the next game on the company, 537 00:32:34,280 --> 00:32:37,920 Speaker 1: uh Dime, would have to have an even better game engine. 538 00:32:38,160 --> 00:32:41,640 Speaker 1: Big surprise there. Every time the game came out, Carmack said, 539 00:32:41,760 --> 00:32:44,120 Speaker 1: the next engine has to be even better. We can't 540 00:32:44,160 --> 00:32:46,640 Speaker 1: just make a game on this engine. That's where he 541 00:32:46,640 --> 00:32:50,120 Speaker 1: found his satisfaction in designing the latest, greatest gaming engine 542 00:32:50,120 --> 00:32:53,280 Speaker 1: with new features and new capabilities, something that could really 543 00:32:53,320 --> 00:32:56,520 Speaker 1: take advantage of the latest generation of hardware. But he 544 00:32:56,680 --> 00:32:59,960 Speaker 1: also wanted to keep his development team at its soft 545 00:33:00,040 --> 00:33:03,320 Speaker 1: where small. He felt that that made communication better, ad 546 00:33:03,320 --> 00:33:05,880 Speaker 1: meant that you were more nimble, you could react faster. 547 00:33:06,600 --> 00:33:09,360 Speaker 1: He didn't want to see id Software balloon into a 548 00:33:09,480 --> 00:33:15,640 Speaker 1: large corporation. So there's the problem, right, That's there's a 549 00:33:15,680 --> 00:33:18,400 Speaker 1: consequence to to these two decisions, and that is it 550 00:33:18,440 --> 00:33:23,480 Speaker 1: takes longer to make games because games were getting more complex. 551 00:33:24,080 --> 00:33:26,280 Speaker 1: You were no longer in an era where one or 552 00:33:26,320 --> 00:33:32,480 Speaker 1: two people could launch a triple A title game. You 553 00:33:32,520 --> 00:33:34,640 Speaker 1: had to have a group of people working on it. 554 00:33:35,000 --> 00:33:38,280 Speaker 1: The games were so much more complex that it was 555 00:33:38,320 --> 00:33:43,400 Speaker 1: taking groups of experienced programmers longer to make games, especially 556 00:33:43,440 --> 00:33:46,600 Speaker 1: by restricting the size of the development team. So if 557 00:33:46,600 --> 00:33:49,080 Speaker 1: you keep the development team the same while the games 558 00:33:49,080 --> 00:33:52,200 Speaker 1: get more and more complex, guess what it means everything 559 00:33:52,240 --> 00:33:56,360 Speaker 1: takes longer to produce. When It's Software announced in two 560 00:33:56,400 --> 00:33:59,200 Speaker 1: thousand that their next game was going to be Doomed three, 561 00:33:59,760 --> 00:34:02,240 Speaker 1: they didn't have an idea at the time, nor did 562 00:34:02,240 --> 00:34:04,440 Speaker 1: the fans that it would take more than three years 563 00:34:04,480 --> 00:34:07,560 Speaker 1: for that game to come out, which meant that when 564 00:34:07,560 --> 00:34:10,480 Speaker 1: it finally did launch in two thousand four, there had 565 00:34:10,560 --> 00:34:14,840 Speaker 1: been five years between games from its software Quake three 566 00:34:14,920 --> 00:34:21,480 Speaker 1: Arena in Doom three in two thousand four, yikes. While 567 00:34:21,560 --> 00:34:24,400 Speaker 1: working on the game, it Software did something that they 568 00:34:24,480 --> 00:34:27,520 Speaker 1: had not done before. They began to license out their 569 00:34:27,560 --> 00:34:32,520 Speaker 1: actual game intellectual property to other game studios. Not Apage, 570 00:34:33,239 --> 00:34:35,279 Speaker 1: you know, that's who they used to work with, but 571 00:34:35,320 --> 00:34:38,279 Speaker 1: to other game studios in general. So they allowed other 572 00:34:38,320 --> 00:34:43,360 Speaker 1: developers to create games and franchises that they had themselves designed. 573 00:34:43,640 --> 00:34:46,359 Speaker 1: So the first of those was Returned to Castle Wolfenstein, 574 00:34:46,440 --> 00:34:49,719 Speaker 1: which was developed by gray Matter Interactive and Nerve Software. 575 00:34:51,200 --> 00:34:54,080 Speaker 1: That game received some mixed reviews, especially for the single 576 00:34:54,080 --> 00:34:59,000 Speaker 1: player campaign, but the multiplayer aspect was generally praised. Activision 577 00:34:59,239 --> 00:35:02,120 Speaker 1: wanted an ex spansion pack for the game, and they 578 00:35:02,239 --> 00:35:05,719 Speaker 1: ended up working with a company called Splash Damage to 579 00:35:05,800 --> 00:35:09,640 Speaker 1: design that expansion pack. But boy were they not happy 580 00:35:09,719 --> 00:35:14,080 Speaker 1: when they saw the single player component to Wolfenstein Enemy 581 00:35:14,200 --> 00:35:17,719 Speaker 1: Territory that was the expansion pack. Activision said that the 582 00:35:17,760 --> 00:35:22,760 Speaker 1: single player campaign was not good enough to publish OUCH, 583 00:35:23,000 --> 00:35:26,560 Speaker 1: but the multiplayer was seen to be really, really fun 584 00:35:26,640 --> 00:35:31,000 Speaker 1: and enjoyable, and it worked fine, so Activision released it 585 00:35:31,080 --> 00:35:36,640 Speaker 1: for free. Here's the crazy thing. You could download the 586 00:35:36,719 --> 00:35:41,239 Speaker 1: multiplayer expansion and play it even if you didn't own 587 00:35:41,280 --> 00:35:45,160 Speaker 1: the original game, which means Activision gave away a free 588 00:35:45,280 --> 00:35:52,480 Speaker 1: multiplayer game. Why oh, I couldn't find an answer to that. 589 00:35:52,680 --> 00:35:54,600 Speaker 1: I guess maybe at the time, no one really thought 590 00:35:54,600 --> 00:35:58,920 Speaker 1: it through. Doom three debuted in two thousand four two 591 00:35:59,000 --> 00:36:03,400 Speaker 1: mixed reviews. It looked really pretty. The new game engine 592 00:36:03,440 --> 00:36:08,200 Speaker 1: was phenomenal. It had amazing lighting effects, lots of dynamic 593 00:36:08,280 --> 00:36:11,440 Speaker 1: lighting in that game, but many people felt that the 594 00:36:11,520 --> 00:36:15,640 Speaker 1: actual design of the enemies and the gameplay was pretty derivative. 595 00:36:15,880 --> 00:36:19,160 Speaker 1: Enemies tend to come straight at you once they spot you. 596 00:36:19,200 --> 00:36:21,799 Speaker 1: There wasn't a whole lot of variety to it. There 597 00:36:21,880 --> 00:36:24,440 Speaker 1: was a game mechanic that required you to switch between 598 00:36:24,440 --> 00:36:28,359 Speaker 1: a flashlight and your guns, which irritated people so much 599 00:36:28,400 --> 00:36:30,360 Speaker 1: that someone created a mod that allowed you to have 600 00:36:30,400 --> 00:36:33,960 Speaker 1: a flashlight taped to your gun, because they said, if 601 00:36:34,000 --> 00:36:39,240 Speaker 1: you're on Mars, you probably have tape. I think that's reasonable. 602 00:36:39,400 --> 00:36:41,840 Speaker 1: I remember playing this game and I did it without 603 00:36:41,840 --> 00:36:44,680 Speaker 1: the mod and I hated that fact that, you know, 604 00:36:44,760 --> 00:36:46,879 Speaker 1: you had to switch between your flashlight and your gun. 605 00:36:46,960 --> 00:36:50,040 Speaker 1: The whole idea was to make it more exciting and 606 00:36:50,080 --> 00:36:53,319 Speaker 1: to ramp up the tension, but ultimately it just made 607 00:36:53,360 --> 00:36:56,680 Speaker 1: me tecked off. Anyway, the game was a huge hit, 608 00:36:57,040 --> 00:36:59,959 Speaker 1: ended up becoming the top selling title and in Software's history, 609 00:37:00,200 --> 00:37:03,600 Speaker 1: partly because it was available on multiple platforms like consoles 610 00:37:03,600 --> 00:37:09,240 Speaker 1: in the PC. In two thousand five, Adrian Carmack left 611 00:37:09,280 --> 00:37:14,080 Speaker 1: the company, which meant that the only original founder remaining 612 00:37:14,080 --> 00:37:17,520 Speaker 1: with the company was John Carmack. And remember Adrian Carmack 613 00:37:17,560 --> 00:37:22,880 Speaker 1: and John Carmack not related. Adrian Carmack later sued in Software. 614 00:37:23,120 --> 00:37:25,839 Speaker 1: He alleged that he was forced out of the company 615 00:37:25,840 --> 00:37:28,439 Speaker 1: by the other co owners so that they could get 616 00:37:28,480 --> 00:37:32,719 Speaker 1: shares of ownership of the company. So, according to Carmack, 617 00:37:32,920 --> 00:37:36,960 Speaker 1: Adrian Carmack, that is, Activision had made an offer to 618 00:37:37,239 --> 00:37:41,520 Speaker 1: purchase the Doom Quake and Wolfenstein intellectual properties for about 619 00:37:41,840 --> 00:37:46,360 Speaker 1: fifteen million dollars, but he was rejected, or rather Activision 620 00:37:46,400 --> 00:37:50,400 Speaker 1: was rejected by it, and then the other co owners 621 00:37:50,400 --> 00:37:53,680 Speaker 1: of the company tried to pressure Adrian Carmack to sell 622 00:37:53,800 --> 00:37:59,399 Speaker 1: his shares back to them for eleven million dollars. He said, well, 623 00:37:59,440 --> 00:38:03,439 Speaker 1: that severely undervalues the shares that I own. I own 624 00:38:04,600 --> 00:38:07,000 Speaker 1: of ID software. It's way too little money for so 625 00:38:07,120 --> 00:38:11,120 Speaker 1: valuable a property. Then they gave him an offer of 626 00:38:11,160 --> 00:38:15,120 Speaker 1: twenty million, according to Adrian Carmack, and then they terminated 627 00:38:15,200 --> 00:38:19,719 Speaker 1: him once he did not agree to sell at that price. Ultimately, 628 00:38:19,960 --> 00:38:23,400 Speaker 1: the lawsuit that he leveled against in Software never went anywhere, 629 00:38:23,680 --> 00:38:28,400 Speaker 1: and that's most likely because Activision never actually purchased in Software, 630 00:38:28,440 --> 00:38:33,320 Speaker 1: so it all remained hypothetical in the first place. Uh. 631 00:38:33,360 --> 00:38:37,360 Speaker 1: In two thousand five, a major major event happened, not 632 00:38:37,520 --> 00:38:40,200 Speaker 1: just for its software, but I would say the world. 633 00:38:41,200 --> 00:38:47,960 Speaker 1: That's when the Rock Dwayne Johnson himself starred in the 634 00:38:48,040 --> 00:38:52,640 Speaker 1: film version of Doom. I guess you could say it 635 00:38:52,680 --> 00:38:56,719 Speaker 1: was inspired by the game, It wasn't really connected to 636 00:38:56,800 --> 00:39:00,520 Speaker 1: Doom that much. There's a first person perspective section in 637 00:39:00,560 --> 00:39:02,120 Speaker 1: the film that's meant to be a nod to the 638 00:39:02,160 --> 00:39:05,600 Speaker 1: original source material. It's a really cheesy movie. I saw 639 00:39:05,640 --> 00:39:07,759 Speaker 1: it for free at a pre screening and ask for 640 00:39:07,800 --> 00:39:12,600 Speaker 1: my money back. It stands at nine on Rotten Tomatoes. 641 00:39:13,360 --> 00:39:16,120 Speaker 1: Just a reminder though, that The percentage on Rotten Tomatoes 642 00:39:16,120 --> 00:39:18,080 Speaker 1: tells you how many critics gave it a negative or 643 00:39:18,120 --> 00:39:22,520 Speaker 1: a positive review. So a nine percent movie isn't necessarily 644 00:39:22,600 --> 00:39:25,920 Speaker 1: worse than say, a thirty percent movie. It just means 645 00:39:26,080 --> 00:39:28,360 Speaker 1: fewer critics gave it a positive review. If it's a 646 00:39:28,400 --> 00:39:32,160 Speaker 1: movie that's right in the middle somewhere, then it could 647 00:39:32,160 --> 00:39:34,480 Speaker 1: go either way, right like, if if it's a one 648 00:39:34,480 --> 00:39:37,080 Speaker 1: out of ten scale and everyone gives it a four, 649 00:39:38,239 --> 00:39:40,680 Speaker 1: the percentage could be really low, but you would still 650 00:39:40,680 --> 00:39:43,280 Speaker 1: say it's a better movie than something that warrants a one. 651 00:39:44,320 --> 00:39:47,520 Speaker 1: All that being said, Doom the movie is awful, don't 652 00:39:47,560 --> 00:39:54,239 Speaker 1: watch It's terrible is being generous. So John Carmack had 653 00:39:54,320 --> 00:39:56,359 Speaker 1: decided that he's going to work on another game, which 654 00:39:56,400 --> 00:39:59,399 Speaker 1: means yep, you guessed. He wanted to make an all 655 00:39:59,560 --> 00:40:02,759 Speaker 1: new aiming engine. Big surprise there, and so that meant 656 00:40:02,760 --> 00:40:07,080 Speaker 1: there'd be more years between games. Meanwhile, there were rumors 657 00:40:07,080 --> 00:40:11,160 Speaker 1: that other companies besides Activision were interested in ID software. 658 00:40:11,960 --> 00:40:15,080 Speaker 1: They were still licensing out properties like Quake and Wolfenstein 659 00:40:15,160 --> 00:40:19,320 Speaker 1: to other companies. Reviews mostly criticized the style of play, 660 00:40:19,400 --> 00:40:23,560 Speaker 1: echoing the concerns Romero had expressed years earlier saying you 661 00:40:23,560 --> 00:40:26,680 Speaker 1: guys are stuck in a rut. Carmack, in the meantime, 662 00:40:26,719 --> 00:40:29,560 Speaker 1: started looking into mobile games and how he might make 663 00:40:29,600 --> 00:40:32,400 Speaker 1: a big impact there. One of the projects from his 664 00:40:32,480 --> 00:40:36,480 Speaker 1: initiative was called Orcs and Elves, which was the first 665 00:40:36,640 --> 00:40:41,600 Speaker 1: new intellectual property involving ID Software UH in years, and 666 00:40:41,600 --> 00:40:45,279 Speaker 1: it was for mobile platforms. In two thousand nine, a 667 00:40:45,320 --> 00:40:50,200 Speaker 1: company called ZeniMax Media approached ID Software and an acquisition deal, 668 00:40:50,360 --> 00:40:56,360 Speaker 1: which the company ultimately accepted. Xenomax Media also owned another 669 00:40:56,480 --> 00:41:00,879 Speaker 1: big name in computer games, Bethesda. That's the company behind 670 00:41:00,920 --> 00:41:03,880 Speaker 1: games like the most recent incarnation of the Fallout series 671 00:41:03,920 --> 00:41:08,520 Speaker 1: and the Elder Scrolls franchise. Now, what set Zemax Media 672 00:41:08,560 --> 00:41:12,359 Speaker 1: apart from other suitors was it had a reputation for 673 00:41:12,440 --> 00:41:15,399 Speaker 1: letting subsidiary companies followed their own paths in a more 674 00:41:15,440 --> 00:41:21,880 Speaker 1: or less handsoff approach. This gave ID Software the resources 675 00:41:21,880 --> 00:41:25,960 Speaker 1: they would need to develop two games simultaneously, so they 676 00:41:26,000 --> 00:41:28,360 Speaker 1: could actually work on two titles at the same time 677 00:41:29,080 --> 00:41:32,239 Speaker 1: for the first time ever. Really. One of those two 678 00:41:32,239 --> 00:41:35,799 Speaker 1: titles was Rage and the other was a new incarnation 679 00:41:35,880 --> 00:41:40,280 Speaker 1: of Doom. Both games would end up using carmas next 680 00:41:40,600 --> 00:41:46,560 Speaker 1: game engine called id Tech five Rage launched in two 681 00:41:46,600 --> 00:41:49,879 Speaker 1: thousand eleven, totally new franchise. It's set in a post 682 00:41:49,960 --> 00:41:53,880 Speaker 1: apocalyptic world and features players driving around, shooting its stuff 683 00:41:53,920 --> 00:41:57,560 Speaker 1: and generally causing mayhem. The team at ID Software called 684 00:41:57,560 --> 00:42:01,120 Speaker 1: it an open but directed world, meaning the player didn't 685 00:42:01,160 --> 00:42:04,600 Speaker 1: have absolute freedom to do everything, but had a lot 686 00:42:04,719 --> 00:42:07,680 Speaker 1: more options available with some guidance of what was to 687 00:42:07,719 --> 00:42:11,200 Speaker 1: come next. The game received good reviews but failed to 688 00:42:11,239 --> 00:42:14,040 Speaker 1: make a big impact on the market, possibly because by 689 00:42:14,120 --> 00:42:16,839 Speaker 1: two thousand eleven the computer and video game industries were 690 00:42:16,920 --> 00:42:19,720 Speaker 1: way more competitive than they had been a few years earlier. 691 00:42:21,239 --> 00:42:25,959 Speaker 1: John Carmack also co founded a new company called Armadillo Aerospace. 692 00:42:26,680 --> 00:42:29,640 Speaker 1: His gig over there is to design spacecraft, which is 693 00:42:29,680 --> 00:42:32,719 Speaker 1: a pretty nifty side project for a computer game designer. 694 00:42:33,480 --> 00:42:37,840 Speaker 1: On November twenty second, two thirteen, he resigned from ID Software. 695 00:42:38,640 --> 00:42:42,360 Speaker 1: Carmac had expressed excitement and interest in the Oculus virtual 696 00:42:42,400 --> 00:42:47,200 Speaker 1: reality platform he had joined the company earlier in and 697 00:42:47,239 --> 00:42:49,800 Speaker 1: then realized that he was going to have to switch 698 00:42:49,840 --> 00:42:54,600 Speaker 1: to full time over at Oculus and leave ID Software. 699 00:42:54,760 --> 00:42:58,360 Speaker 1: His twenty two year tenure at ID Software came to 700 00:42:58,400 --> 00:43:00,800 Speaker 1: an end, and for the first time time in its history, 701 00:43:01,239 --> 00:43:05,160 Speaker 1: its Software no longer had a founding member on staff. 702 00:43:06,040 --> 00:43:09,400 Speaker 1: Carmack had said, I wanted to remain a technical advisor 703 00:43:09,440 --> 00:43:13,120 Speaker 1: for ID, but it just didn't work out, probably for 704 00:43:13,160 --> 00:43:19,359 Speaker 1: the best, as the divided focus was challenging. It Software's 705 00:43:19,400 --> 00:43:21,960 Speaker 1: new version of Doom took a little longer to come 706 00:43:21,960 --> 00:43:26,640 Speaker 1: out than they anticipated. It launched just last year on May. 707 00:43:27,440 --> 00:43:30,320 Speaker 1: It's the fourth game in the Doom franchise and technically 708 00:43:30,440 --> 00:43:33,719 Speaker 1: is a second reboot of the series. The setting is 709 00:43:33,760 --> 00:43:36,279 Speaker 1: a research facility on Mars where the portal to Hell 710 00:43:36,440 --> 00:43:38,879 Speaker 1: has opened up, and the player takes on the role 711 00:43:39,040 --> 00:43:43,480 Speaker 1: of the Doomslayer, and featured some old school shooter mechanics, 712 00:43:43,520 --> 00:43:45,880 Speaker 1: such as the fact that your health does not regenerate 713 00:43:45,960 --> 00:43:48,400 Speaker 1: over time, you have to find health packs and you 714 00:43:48,400 --> 00:43:50,719 Speaker 1: don't have to worry about reloading weapons, but you can 715 00:43:50,800 --> 00:43:54,400 Speaker 1: run out of ammunition, and it also brings back deathmatch modes. 716 00:43:56,239 --> 00:43:58,600 Speaker 1: Its software is The company continues to work on new 717 00:43:58,680 --> 00:44:02,720 Speaker 1: games on various platforms. But let's talk about the old 718 00:44:02,840 --> 00:44:05,680 Speaker 1: founders and some of their co workers. Where are they now. 719 00:44:06,719 --> 00:44:10,320 Speaker 1: John Romero went on to found other studios like ion Storm, 720 00:44:10,360 --> 00:44:13,080 Speaker 1: which he left in two thousand one after he left, 721 00:44:13,080 --> 00:44:17,439 Speaker 1: the Dallas office closed, and then about four years later 722 00:44:17,480 --> 00:44:22,239 Speaker 1: the Austin office for ion Storm closed. That's a whole 723 00:44:22,280 --> 00:44:24,960 Speaker 1: story in itself. He also worked at Midway for a 724 00:44:24,960 --> 00:44:28,520 Speaker 1: while and Gazillion before he founded a new social gaming 725 00:44:28,520 --> 00:44:31,720 Speaker 1: company called lut Drop, and he and his wife Brenda 726 00:44:31,800 --> 00:44:36,160 Speaker 1: Romero do a lot of advocacy work for education. John 727 00:44:36,200 --> 00:44:39,600 Speaker 1: Carmack is with Oculus, which is part of Facebook. He 728 00:44:39,640 --> 00:44:42,600 Speaker 1: continues to be a big advocate for virtual reality in 729 00:44:42,640 --> 00:44:45,399 Speaker 1: general and is still quite outspoken in the world of tech. 730 00:44:46,160 --> 00:44:48,880 Speaker 1: Tom Hall, who was the first of the founders to 731 00:44:49,000 --> 00:44:53,920 Speaker 1: leave ID Software, co founded ion Storm with Romero. Obviously, 732 00:44:54,000 --> 00:44:57,080 Speaker 1: that did not last. He also has worked at Midway 733 00:44:57,160 --> 00:45:02,000 Speaker 1: Games along with Romero, and at lute Drop along with Romero. 734 00:45:03,000 --> 00:45:05,880 Speaker 1: Adrian Carmack got out of the game business after his 735 00:45:05,960 --> 00:45:09,920 Speaker 1: contentious departure, at least for a while. He returned fairly recently. 736 00:45:09,960 --> 00:45:14,080 Speaker 1: In April sixteen, John Romero released a video teasing a 737 00:45:14,080 --> 00:45:17,960 Speaker 1: new first person shooter and announced that Adrian Carmack was 738 00:45:18,040 --> 00:45:21,759 Speaker 1: involved in the project. It was called black Room and 739 00:45:21,800 --> 00:45:24,920 Speaker 1: it was all attached to a Kickstarter campaign, but the 740 00:45:24,960 --> 00:45:29,239 Speaker 1: campaign was canceled in just four days before it could 741 00:45:29,239 --> 00:45:31,839 Speaker 1: reach its seven hundred thousand dollar goal. It had hit 742 00:45:31,960 --> 00:45:36,840 Speaker 1: a hundred thirty one thousand before Romero canceled the Kickstarter campaign. 743 00:45:37,239 --> 00:45:39,239 Speaker 1: He said that he was canceling it until they could 744 00:45:39,239 --> 00:45:42,200 Speaker 1: produce a working demo to show gamers what the finished 745 00:45:42,200 --> 00:45:45,440 Speaker 1: product would be like, so that people weren't just backing 746 00:45:45,920 --> 00:45:51,400 Speaker 1: an idea that may not ever materialize. Sandy Peterson had 747 00:45:51,480 --> 00:45:54,640 Speaker 1: left in Software in nine seven. He joined a company 748 00:45:54,680 --> 00:45:58,440 Speaker 1: called Ensemble Studios in and got involved in a little 749 00:45:58,480 --> 00:46:02,279 Speaker 1: game called Age of Empire Airs, which met with some success. 750 00:46:03,120 --> 00:46:05,800 Speaker 1: These days, he tends to work on cool board games. 751 00:46:05,840 --> 00:46:08,400 Speaker 1: There's one called Cathulu Wars that I really want to 752 00:46:08,400 --> 00:46:11,000 Speaker 1: try out. It also has a video game version and 753 00:46:11,160 --> 00:46:15,600 Speaker 1: was a highly successful crowdfunded project. Kevin Cloud remained at 754 00:46:15,600 --> 00:46:18,480 Speaker 1: ID Software and served as creative director for the company 755 00:46:18,480 --> 00:46:20,480 Speaker 1: for a while. One of the notes trivia I've found 756 00:46:20,480 --> 00:46:23,520 Speaker 1: out about Kevin Cloud is that when you look down 757 00:46:23,560 --> 00:46:26,040 Speaker 1: and you see the hands and doom and Doom too, 758 00:46:26,640 --> 00:46:30,000 Speaker 1: those are Kevin Cloud's hands. And that's all I've got. 759 00:46:30,320 --> 00:46:32,759 Speaker 1: That's the story of it Software. It continues on to 760 00:46:32,880 --> 00:46:35,640 Speaker 1: this day, and maybe sometime I'll have an update about 761 00:46:35,680 --> 00:46:38,719 Speaker 1: them in the future. For now, it's time to sign off. 762 00:46:39,040 --> 00:46:42,040 Speaker 1: If any of you have suggestions for future episodes or guests, 763 00:46:42,440 --> 00:46:46,000 Speaker 1: right and let me know the addresses Text stuff at 764 00:46:46,280 --> 00:46:49,239 Speaker 1: how stuffworks dot com or drop me a line on 765 00:46:49,280 --> 00:46:51,920 Speaker 1: Facebook or Twitter. The handle at each of those is 766 00:46:52,000 --> 00:46:55,400 Speaker 1: tech Stuff hs W and I'll talk to you again 767 00:46:56,040 --> 00:47:04,320 Speaker 1: really soon. For more on this and thousands of other topics, 768 00:47:04,520 --> 00:47:14,879 Speaker 1: is it how stuff works dot com