6 ms·

What an awesome cynical ending: "John decided that developing on Windows 95 was the way to go."

pvg 10y ago
I think John Romero is just glossing over the details since it's a (cray) Cray story. The PC was id's primary target platform and Carmack surely knew that Win32 is where things were headed. He ended up moving to NT as his development platform. Here's his .plan from a little later that talks about this in some detail: http://rmitz.org/carmack.on.operating.systems.html http://rmitz.org/carmack.on.operating.systems.html
- bluedino 10y ago
  There's a few more answers about choosing Windows on a Slashdot QA https://games.slashdot.org/story/99/10/15/1012230/john-carmack-answers https://games.slashdot.org/story/99/10/15/1012230/john-carma...
  - pvg 10y ago
    Yep, also interesting, I ended up not linking it since it seemed a bit too far from the events Romero talks about. It's also a great reminder of how shaky OS X's early years were.
to3m 10y ago
This sort of decision is probably why John Carmack is now CTO of multi-billion dollar corporation Oculus VR, and John Romero is... umm... well, I think he lives in Ireland now? Mind you, you might also like to count how many awesome genre-defining games Carmack worked on after Romero got the boot...
- pvg 10y ago
  how many awesome genre-defining games Carmack worked on after Romero got the boot Not that many, really, after their collaboration ended.
  - AceJohnny2 10y ago
    Whoosh.
- digi_owl 10y ago
  Neither did really. but then ID games were always more about the tech then the games themselves. While reading over the backlog of filfre.net articles i recall running into a quote about how game developers are notorious for forgetting everything about story and such when new tech comes along. Resulting in games that are basically spruced up tech demos for the first few years. we can kinda see the shift with Quake3 vs Half-Life. Q3 had the better engine, but HL had a solid story and presentation. Meaning that by that time the world of 3D engines had matured, and people were less likely to be wowed by higher polygon counts and more lights.
- kyberias 10y ago
  Yeah, I'm not blaming Carmack for making that decision. It just sounds a little bit like Romero didn't think too highly of Windows 95. Why do you think I should count Carmack games? I have nothing against the guy and I'm fully aware of his accomplishments. I was merely commenting what Romero wrote.
digi_owl 10y ago
There seems to be a massive tone shift towards there end there. The rest of the article is all "we" but towards the end it is "I released Quake", "I quit". Funny thing is that i seem to recall the gaming press back then putting the blame squarely on Romero for Quake languishing in development hell. This because he kept changing his mind about the theme of the game, resulting in the hodgepodge of map styles and enemies we encounter.

pvg 10y ago

I think John Romero is just glossing over the details since it's a (cray) Cray story. The PC was id's primary target platform and Carmack surely knew that Win32 is where things were headed. He ended up moving to NT as his development platform. Here's his .plan from a little later that talks about this in some detail: http://rmitz.org/carmack.on.operating.systems.html http://rmitz.org/carmack.on.operating.systems.html

bluedino 10y ago
There's a few more answers about choosing Windows on a Slashdot QA https://games.slashdot.org/story/99/10/15/1012230/john-carmack-answers https://games.slashdot.org/story/99/10/15/1012230/john-carma...
- pvg 10y ago
  Yep, also interesting, I ended up not linking it since it seemed a bit too far from the events Romero talks about. It's also a great reminder of how shaky OS X's early years were.

to3m 10y ago

This sort of decision is probably why John Carmack is now CTO of multi-billion dollar corporation Oculus VR, and John Romero is... umm... well, I think he lives in Ireland now? Mind you, you might also like to count how many awesome genre-defining games Carmack worked on after Romero got the boot...

pvg 10y ago
how many awesome genre-defining games Carmack worked on after Romero got the boot Not that many, really, after their collaboration ended.
- AceJohnny2 10y ago
  Whoosh.
digi_owl 10y ago
Neither did really. but then ID games were always more about the tech then the games themselves. While reading over the backlog of filfre.net articles i recall running into a quote about how game developers are notorious for forgetting everything about story and such when new tech comes along. Resulting in games that are basically spruced up tech demos for the first few years. we can kinda see the shift with Quake3 vs Half-Life. Q3 had the better engine, but HL had a solid story and presentation. Meaning that by that time the world of 3D engines had matured, and people were less likely to be wowed by higher polygon counts and more lights.
kyberias 10y ago
Yeah, I'm not blaming Carmack for making that decision. It just sounds a little bit like Romero didn't think too highly of Windows 95. Why do you think I should count Carmack games? I have nothing against the guy and I'm fully aware of his accomplishments. I was merely commenting what Romero wrote.

digi_owl 10y ago

There seems to be a massive tone shift towards there end there. The rest of the article is all "we" but towards the end it is "I released Quake", "I quit". Funny thing is that i seem to recall the gaming press back then putting the blame squarely on Romero for Quake languishing in development hell. This because he kept changing his mind about the theme of the game, resulting in the hodgepodge of map styles and enemies we encounter.