1994 Article on id

[Tabasco]

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=21405

   
   

From DoomED, the level designer can place monsters and objects (the different colored blocks on the screen), but, more importantly, can manipulate the walls, ceilings, and floors of the game environment. The editor allows bitmap combination from a group created by the graphic artists, so the level editor can improvise without having to draw new bitmaps.

Although it has often been theorized that Id uses a lot of assembly language in its development, the main language used is ANSI C. “Assembly language is almost dead,” declares Carmack. “Doom has only two assembler routines: one to vertically stretch a column and the other to horizontally texture-map a row. Everything else is in C.”

If all of Doom was written in assembler and the programmer could manage the overhead correctly, Carmack theorizes it would only make the game 15 percent faster. And, although the main raycasting trace in Wolfenstein was written in assembly language, Carmack says he could write Wolfenstein faster in C because of today’s better algorithm technology.

Writing in ANSI C eases the strain of porting to other operating systems and recompiling the code on DOS, and NeXTStep helps clean out bugs during the development process. Carmack feels he could get Doom up and running in a window on a Macintosh over a weekend, but Id won’t write the port itself.

Id is willing to work with advocates of various operating systems, and talk of Macintosh, OS/2, and UNIX versions of Doom were discussed as possibilities.

Carmack

He's probably so awesome he could get Doom 2 running on Wii

[Great Rumbler]

Maybe even Final Doom. 

[muckhole]

Wasn't there a book written about id? "Masters of Doom" or something? I'm tempted to find it and read it if it's any good, even though I doubt there's much of the drama between Carmack and Romero.

[tiesto]

I remember buying a big book on DOOM level editing and attempting to make my own levels using the included WAD editors. Good times, but I never got anywhere with it.

[Enl]

I remember buying a big book on DOOM level editing and attempting to make my own levels using the included WAD editors. Good times, but I never got anywhere with it.

I think I had that same book too. That was some of my earliest steps into wanting to make games. I made several levels and reworked a lot of music and sprites. Nothing substantial that I released, but considering my age at the time I managed to learn a lot from it. I wish I still had that book.

He's probably so awesome he could get Doom 2 running on Wii

He'll probably just port Doom 64 instead. And by port I mean dumped onto VC.

[Positive Touch]

He'll probably just port Doom 64 instead. And by port I mean dumped onto VC.

i would pay for that

[Sho Nuff]

Midway ported Doom 64...Carmack ported Jaguar Doom

[drew]

Doom 64

[trippingmartian]

Masters of Doom is a excellent read. It's right up there with Game Over. (I still want to pick up that Lucasarts book, Rogue Leaders. Anyone read it?)

A photo from when id was working on a unlicensed SMB port for PC:

[tiesto]

Masters of Doom is a excellent read. It's right up there with Game Over. (I still want to pick up that Lucasarts book, Rogue Leaders. Anyone read it?)

A photo from when id was working on a unlicensed SMB port for PC:

(Image removed from quote.)

Didn't the unlicensed SMB port eventually become Commander Keen?

And yeah, both Wolf3D and DOOM were pretty mindblowing back in the day, I kinda stopped following iD after Quake 3 Arena though.

[Positive Touch]

Didn't the unlicensed SMB port eventually become Commander Keen?

yes

[HyperZoneWasAwesome]

the Id Superpack I bought on Steam ($32 on sale!) might have been the best value I've ever spent on any gaming sort of item.  Doom and Doom 2 are indeed still pretty rocking, and the newer stuff ain't half bad either.  I'm loving it.

[Positive Touch]

the Id Superpack I bought on Steam ($32 on sale!) might have been the best value I've ever spent on any gaming sort of item.  Doom and Doom 2 are indeed still pretty rocking, and the newer stuff ain't half bad either.  I'm loving it.

did it come with dangerous dave

[HyperZoneWasAwesome]

did it come with dangerous dave

nein.  Does come with 5 versions of Commander Keen, Final Doom, Doom 2, Ultimate and Master Levels of Doom (a shitload of mission packs), Heretic and Hexen and Hexen 2 and a Hexen expansion, Quake 1-3 plus Team Arena plus another shitload of mission packs for Quake 1 and 2, Wolfinstien and Return to Castle Wolfinstien and The Spear of Destiny, and Doom 3 plus its expansion.  All for about 32 bucks, is now priced at $70.  Still a steal.