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John Carmack

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John Carmack
Occupation(s)Technical Director, id Software
Founder, Armadillo Aerospace
SpouseKatherine Anna Kang

John D. Carmack II (born August 20 1970) is a widely recognized figure in the video game industry. A prolific American programmer, Carmack co-founded id Software, a computer game development company, in 1991. Carmack was the lead programmer of the highly successful id computer games Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Quake, and subsequent sequels to Doom and Quake. His revolutionary programming techniques, combined with the unique game designs of John Romero, led to a mass-popularization of the first-person shooter genre (FPS) in the 1990s.

Youth

Carmack, son of local television news reporter Stan Carmack, grew up in Shawnee Mission, Kansas, part of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, and became interested in computers at an early age. He graduated from Raytown South High School contrary to the misstatements that he graduated from Shawnee Mission East High School[dubious – discuss]. He then attended the University of Missouri - Kansas City for two semesters before withdrawing to work as a freelance programmer.

Game programming

File:John Carmack working.jpg
John Carmack working on Doom 3

Softdisk, a computer company in Shreveport, Louisiana, hired Carmack to work on Softdisk G-S (an Apple IIGS publication), uniting him with John Romero and other future key members of id Software such as Adrian Carmack (not related). Later, this team would be placed by Softdisk in charge of a new, but short-lived, bi-monthly game subscription product called Gamer's Edge for the IBM PC (MS-DOS) platform. In 1990, while still at Softdisk, Carmack, Romero, and others created the first of the Commander Keen games, a series which was published by Apogee Software, under the shareware distribution model, from 1991 onwards. Afterwards, Carmack left Softdisk to co-found id Software, where he remains.

He has pioneered or popularised the use of many techniques in computer graphics, including binary space partitioning which Doom became the first game to use, surface caching which he invented for Quake, Carmack's Reverse which he devised for Doom 3, and MegaTexture, used in Enemy Territory: Quake Wars. While he was not the first to discover Carmack's Reverse, he developed it independently.

Carmack's engines have also been licensed for use in other influential first-person shooters such as Half-Life and Medal of Honor.

Free software

John Carmack at E3 2006

Carmack is a well-known advocate of open source software, and has repeatedly voiced his opposition to software patents, which he likens to "mugging someone".[1] He has also contributed to open source projects, such as starting the initial port of the X Window System to Mac OS X Server and working to improve the OpenGL drivers for Linux through the Utah GLX project.

Carmack released the source code for Wolfenstein 3D in 1995 and the Doom source code in 1997. When the source code to Quake was leaked and circulated among the Quake community underground in 1996, a programmer unaffiliated with id Software used it to port Quake to Linux, and subsequently sent the patches to Carmack. Instead of pursuing legal action, id Software, at Carmack's behest, used the patches as the foundation for a company-sanctioned Linux port. id Software has since publicly released the source code to Quake, Quake 2 and most recently Quake 3, all under the GNU General Public License (GPL). The Doom source code was also re-released under the GPL in 1999.

Carmack is also noted for his generous contributions to charities and gaming communities. Some of the recipients of Carmack's charitable contributions include his former high school, promoters of open source software, opponents of software patents, and game enthusiasts. In 1997 he gave away one of his Ferraris (a 308 model) as a prize to the winner of the Quake "Red Annihilation" tournament, Dennis Fong.

Other activities

Carmack during the 2005 X PRIZE Cup in Las Cruces and Alamogordo, New Mexico

Though Carmack is best known for his innovations in 3D graphics, he is also a rocketry enthusiast and the founder of Armadillo Aerospace.

Carmack met Katherine Anna Kang after she visited him at the id offices with a friend during QuakeCon '96. They married January 5 2000 and their son, Christopher Ryan, was born on August 13 2004.

Carmack has a blog (previously a .plan). He also occasionally posts comments to Slashdot.

Recognition

  • In 1999, Carmack appeared as number 10 in TIME's list of the 50 most influential people in technology.[1]
  • On March 22, 2001, Carmack became the fourth person to be inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences' Hall of Fame, an honor bestowed upon those who have made revolutionary and innovative achievements in the video and computer game industry.
  • In 2003, Carmack was one of the subjects of the book Masters of Doom, a chronicle of id Software and its founders.
  • In 2005, the film Doom featured a character named Dr. Carmack, in recognition of Carmack who co-created the original game.
  • In March 2006, Carmack was added to the Walk of Game, an event that recognizes the developers and games with the most impact on the industry.[2]
  • In January of 2007 in Las Vegas, Nevada, John Carmack and id software were awarded with two Emmy Awards. The Science, Engineering & Technology for Broadcast Television, which includes broadcast, cable and satellite distribution, and secondly, Science, Engineering and Technology for Broadband and Personal Television, encompassing interactive television, gaming technology, and for the first time, the Internet, cell phones, private networks, and personal media players. id Software is the very first independent game developer to be awarded an Emmy since the Academy began honoring technology innovation in 1948.[3]

References

  1. ^ "Are video game patents next?" Slashdot article
  2. ^ Walk of Game
  3. ^ Emmy Awards

Further reading

Wikiquote has quotations related to John Carmack.

Articles

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