Light the candles and open the beer, because we have a very important anniversary to celebrate. Id Software is celebrating 25 years in 2016. In addition to being one of the main responsible for the formation of the culture of computer games, the Id was the creator of games that helped define what we know today as first person shooters, or games First-person shooter. After all, many consider Wolfenstein 3D and Doom as the true starting points that define the most popular genre of video game industry today.
The Id was founded on 1 February 1991. Its founders John Carmack, John Romero, Adrian Carmack and Tom Hall, met when they worked at Softdisk, a company that was an odd mix of magazine, game developer and distributor of demo discs. But the most interesting fact and unusual about the beginning of Id happened before she was officially formed.
One year before the studio foundation, Carmack and Romero They built, from scratch, an adjustment for PC Super Mario Bros. 3 – an amazing feat at the time, as computers could not handle horizontal scrolling games the same way as a home console. The game was initially a rough demo that used characters from Dangerous Dave, game created by Romero in Softdisk. But over time, the duo managed to make a Mario so beautiful and close to the original that even contacted Nintendo to negotiate the licensing and launch of a possible PC version.
Of course, Nintendo rejected the proposal immediately, but others had secretly interested in the work of the team. With games like Dangerous Dave attracting a small group of fans, a representative of the deceased producer Apogee began writing for Romero, pretending to be a fan, not to alert the Softdisk. That’s because this representative had every intention of taking the two talented programmers from there so they could make their own games using the innovative (for the time) shareware concept in which part of the game is offered for free so people feel tempted to buy the rest.
Attracted by this offer and taking advantage of the technology they had created for the “port” of Mario 3, the team that would form the Id developed a platform game called Commander Keen, who It was released in December 1990 and and was very successful. Keen was a little boy transported to a saga of science fiction, armed with his ever faithful laser gun and protected by a giant helmet football team Green Bay Packers.
This caught the attention of direct chiefs of staff Romero and Carmack in Softdisk that rather than complain about the company computers are being used “illegally” to compile the code of Commander Keen, offered to help in business. The proposal, however, was down the drain when the directors of Softdisk at the time did not like the idea. Because of this divergence, in February 1991, id Software has ceased to be “a bunch of guys Softdisk working in their spare time” and began its official operations as a developer of independent games.
Although the Id have continued to work in the Commander Keen series for a few years, the first unpublished games were crucial to ensure success and the future Studio. In April 1991 it was released 3D Hovertank, one of the first games to bring 3D first-person perspective to the PC. Soon after, in November 1991, came 3D Catacomb, an adaptation of an old fantasy game project created by Carmack, redesigned for the revolutionary 3D engine of Hovertank 3D.
These games, although they merit by technical innovation (as the 3D and the first-person view were usually relegated to flight simulators at the time), they are only remembered today as laboratories for the engine that would be used in the classic Wolfenstein 3D, released in 1992. The game of first person shooters focused on World War II, quite innovative and violent for its time, it was a resounding success that formed the fame of Id as a major developer of shooters. And that’s how we know it today.
After Wolfenstein, considered one of the first blockbusters among PC games, things went from strength to strength for the team of Id, which continued to improve their work with the release of Doom (1993) and Quake (1996). Both are remembered to this day as generational milestones of the FPS genre, and no wonder.
Doom introduced us to the concept of verticality in shooters, and make significant advances in basic mechanics that we use today. Who does not remember the BFG (“big fucking gun”), one of the coolest weapons in the history of video games? Quake, in addition to being the first shooter developed entirely in 3D (before him, enemies and weapons in FPS animation were done by two-dimensional sprites) can be considered as one of the first representatives of electronic sports. And I know how important eSports gained over the past two decades -. A lot of it was because of the mere existence of Quake
In addition, the Id was responsible for the creation of technologies that were the basis for several other projects of developers – games Also they epoch, like Half-Life, Valve, in 1998. When you are playing any game over the Internet or are installing a mod on your Fallout 4, remember that Id had an important role in training and popularization of these elements . Romero and Carmack to work as games designers, and especially programmers, inspired a whole generation of developers. The visionary intelligence Carmack, coupled with the technical fastidiousness and attention to Romero detail, formed a dream team that was rarely repeated in the industry.
Romero left the Id in 1996 to develop the troubled and infamous Daikatana, which ended up being a commercial failure and criticism. Carmack, in turn, joined in 2013 the team Oculus company. as head of technology operations, offering his experience as a programmer to develop the virtual reality headset Oculus Rift.
Above you can see a demo of Super Mario Bros. 3 for PC developed by Carmack and Romero in 1990. If you want to know more about the history of Id and their founders, read Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created and Empire and Transformed Pop Culture (no translation into Portuguese), written by David Kushner – who is also author of GTA – The Great Outside the Law (Publisher Darkside), about the history of the creation of Rockstar Grand Theft Auto. We also recommend watching the video series “Dev Plays” in which John Romero said Doom design, a beautiful lesson for anyone who has aspirations of developing games.
Marcus Oliveira is assistant editor of IGN Brazil and does not hide being a card-carrying fan of Carmack and Romero. Follow him on Twitter.
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