Id Software

From Free net encyclopedia

(Redirected from ID Software)

Template:Lowercase

Template:Infobox Company

id Software is a computer game developer based in Mesquite, Texas, a suburb of Dallas. The company was founded by four members of the computer company Softdisk: John Carmack, a programmer, John Romero and Tom Hall, game designers, and Adrian Carmack, an artist. id Software is now considered the most influential of the many game development companies in the Dallas area, known as the Dallas Gaming Mafia.

Note the lower-case id, which some say refers to the id as a psychological concept. Originally, both letters were capitals (ID Software), and came from "Ideas from the Deep". The "I" was made lowercase in the release of the second Commander Keen series, and eventually the "D" was also dropped down to lowercase which, according to some changed the meaning of the company name.

The correct pronunciation of id Software is a much-argued subject. Since the original name came from "Ideas from the Deep", many argue that it is an abbreviation and hence should be pronounced "eye-dee". However, since both letters were changed from upper to lower case, and id Software's id History page makes a direct reference to Freud, many now argue that it is id as in "did" or "kid".

Contents

[edit]

History

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

[edit]

Commander Keen

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

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

[edit]

Wolfenstein 3D

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

[edit]

John Carmack

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

[edit]

Tom Hall

Tom Hall left id Software during the early days of Doom development (but not before he had some impact: he was responsible, for example, for the inclusion of teleporters in the game). He was let go before the shareware release of Doom and then went to work for Apogee working on Rise of the Triad with the "Developers of Incredible Power". Hall has frequently commented that if id Software ever sold him the rights to Commander Keen he will immediately develop another Keen title.

[edit]

John Romero

John Romero, who was also asked to leave, left after the release of the shareware Quake to form the ill-fated Ion Storm. Having already finished his work on Rise of the Triad and not finding himself compatible with the Prey development team at Apogee, Tom Hall left to join his ex-id compadre in this new company.

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

Romero now heads the Cyberathlete Professional League Board of Directors.

[edit]

Quake

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

[edit]

Opinion and engines

The success of Quake II, Quake III and Doom 3, though financially very successful, have met some critical opposition. id's games have continued to rate well in magazines, but community opinion on the later id games is often divided, with some accusing the company of being too orthodox in their design principles, especially with Doom 3. Many attribute this to three factors - the departures of Romero and level designers Sandy Petersen and American McGee, the subsequent promotion of Tim Willits to lead designer, and John Carmack's renowned reluctance to deviate from the early, successful Doom "formula". Despite any shortcomings in the design, id's games have always included new revolutionary technologies, varying from graphics to netcode.

Currently, id's game engines are licensed to many other developers. This, along with Carmack's heavily orthodox FPS design ideas have caused some in the community regard id firstly as a technology developer, and only secondly as a game developer. The price of licensing id's engines normally runs about $250,000 per title. Id releases its older game engines, such as that of Quake, Quake II and Quake III, under the GNU GPL for others to use free of charge (bound by the GPL license restrictions) [1].

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

In 2003, the book Masters of Doom chronicled the development of id, concentrating on the personalities and interaction of John Carmack and John Romero.

[edit]

Games by id Software

[edit]

Additional reading

  • Kushner, David (2003). Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture, New York: Random House. ISBN 0375505245.
[edit]

External links

de:Id Software es:Id Software fr:Id Software it:Id Software hu:Id Software nl:Id Software ja:Id Software pl:Id Software pt:Id Software ru:Id Software fi:Id Software sv:Id Software zh:Id Software

Retrieved from "http://www.netipedia.com/index.php/Id_Software"