Difference between revisions of "John Carmack"

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John Carmack working on Doom 3

John D. Carmack II (born August 20, 1970, 53 years old) was the lead programmer at id Software and one of the company's co-founders. He created the Doom engine and the engines for all other id releases until his departure in 2013.

Biography

John 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 Shawnee Mission East High School, then attended University of Missouri–Kansas City for two semesters before dropping out to work as a freelance programmer.

Shreveport, Louisiana software company Softdisk hired Carmack after a series of successful contract assignments, uniting him with John Romero and other future members of id Software. In 1990, Carmack, Romero, and others created the first of the Commander Keen series, which would be published as shareware by Apogee Software from 1991 onwards. Afterwards most of that team left Softdisk to form id Software; in particular, Carmack had created a breakthrough demo of smooth 2D scrolling under MS-DOS, but both Softdisk and Nintendo declined further development.

Carmack's most recognized accomplishments are in programming first-person shooter games. He was the main developer of several seminal titles including Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, and Quake, as well as their newer followups (including Doom 3 and the rest of the Quake series). He has invented several graphical rendering algorithms, notably surface caching and Carmack's Reverse. Carmack's engines have been licensed for use in other influential action games such as Hexen, Half-Life, and Medal of Honor: Allied Assault.

Carmack works to promote open source philosophy and fan feedback in his game designs. When the source code to Quake was stolen and circulated among the Quake community underground, 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, at Carmack's behest id Software used the patches as the foundation for a company-sanctioned Linux port. In 2009, Carmack posted to the Doomworld forums to solicit players' input on the mechanics of the upcoming Doom Classic.

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

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

On August 7, 2013, Oculus VR announced John Carmack as its new Chief Technology Officer. On November 22, 2013, IGN reported his resignation from id Software.

Carmack met Katherine Anna Kang after she visited him at the id offices with a friend during QuakeCon '96. They married around January 2000 and have a son, Christopher.

Awards and honors

On March 22, 2001, Carmack was inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences' Hall of Fame, an honor bestowed upon those who have made revolutionary and innovative achievements in the video and computer game industry.
On March 24, 2016, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts announced Carmack had been awarded the honor of a Fellowship at the British Academy Games Awards.^[1]

Notes

John Carmack makes a small appearance in Mike "Cyb" Watson's Massmouth 2 mod, as either an ally or an enemy (depending on player choices in the prior level).
John is not related to Adrian Carmack.
The Doom movie references the programmer by naming the movie's lead scientist "Dr. Carmack".

Sources

This article incorporates text from the open-content Wikipedia online encyclopedia article John Carmack.
This article incorporates text from the open-content Wikipedia online encyclopedia article List of first-person shooter engines.
Kushner, David (2003). Masters of Doom: how two guys created an empire and transformed pop culture, New York: Random House. ISBN 0375505245.
Starting gear
John Carmack Joins Oculus as CTO
Doom Creator John Carmack Officially Leaves id Software

References

↑ Toms, Lucy (24 March 2016). http://www.bafta.org/press/press-releases/john-carmack-to-be-honoured-with-bafta-fellowship. BAFTA Press Releases. Retrieved 18 April 2016.

id Software v · t · e
Doom era (1993-2003)	Employees Michael Abrash • Christian Antkow • Adrian Carmack • John Carmack • Kevin Cloud • Tom Hall • Todd Hollenshead • Donna Jackson • American McGee • Sandy Petersen • John Romero • Shawn Green • Dave Taylor • Jay Wilbur • Tim Willits • Mike Wilson
Doom era (1993-2003)	Hired associates John Anderson • Gerald Brom • Dario Casali • Milo Casali • John Cash • Bernd Kreimeier • Randy Linden • Robert Prince • Don Ivan Punchatz • Gregor Punchatz • John Coffey • Paul Radek • Trent Reznor Nerve Software • Raven Software • Rogue Entertainment • TeamTNT • Williams Entertainment
Doom 3 era (2004-2008)	Employees Christian Antkow • Adrian Carmack • John Carmack • Kevin Cloud • Todd Hollenshead • Donna Jackson • Katherine Anna Kang • Kenneth Scott • J.M.P van Waveren • Tim Willits
Doom 3 era (2004-2008)	Hired associates Matthew Costello • Trent Reznor • Chris Vrenna id Mobile • Nerve Software • Raven Software
ZeniMax era (2009+)	Employees Christian Antkow • Kevin Cloud • Mark Diaz • Donna Jackson • Hugo Martin • Jason Martin • Jason O'Connell • Mike Rubits • Tiago Sousa • Marty Stratton • Emerson Tung • Tim Willits
ZeniMax era (2009+)	Related Mick Gordon • Andrew Hulshult • Bethesda Softworks • Nerve Software • Nightdive Studios • ZeniMax Media

[1] Toms, Lucy (24 March 2016). http://www.bafta.org/press/press-releases/john-carmack-to-be-honoured-with-bafta-fellowship. BAFTA Press Releases. Retrieved 18 April 2016.

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@@ Line 37: / Line 37: @@
 * [http://doom-ed.com/blog/category/doom-ed/john-carmack/ John Carmack's Blogged Dev Diaries]
 * [http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/games/archives//2004/09/doom_and_quake_creators_dev_diaries_are_blogged.html Doom and Quake creator's dev diaries are blogged]
-* [http://www.doomworld.com/interviews/int7.shtml Doomworld interview]
+* [https://www.doomworld.com/interviews/int7.shtml Doomworld interview]
 * [https://slashdot.org/interviews/99/10/15/1012230.shtml Slashdot interview]
 * [http://armadilloaerospace.com/n.x/Armadillo/Home Armadillo Aerospace site]