A visit to id software, 1993 | Hacker News Reader

A visit to id software, 1993

rome.ro

72 pointsabstractbill16 comments

When the hacker is demoing DOOM to his friends, there's something really endearing about the way he points out all the bugs. When you really, really care about something you can't help but notice all the details, and want to make it perfect.

Same thing when the composer is going through all the scenes he's composing music for, there's something refreshing about his enthusiasm.

I think I know the right phrase: "labor of love."

On a similar note, I find it amusing that he seems to be hitting every single secret area on the maps.

Yep, I loved that - cracked up every time he pointed out a bug.

A great book on Romero and Carmack's journey at id: http://www.amazon.com/Masters-Doom-Created-Transformed-Cultu...

Kind of unrelated, but the second time I watched it I was struck by the fact that there's hardly any cursing by John Romero or anyone watching him play.

Joe Siegler IM'd me a couple weeks ago and said he found a VHS tape that had some DOOM footage on it before its release and if I didn't want it he was gonna throw it out.

Do people really throw this sort of stuff away without realising its value?

I love that id has remained a small studio relative to their recognition, and while they might not always hit one out of the park — they love what they are doing and that makes me love their products moreso.

I've heard there's a lot of trickle down benefits, respect for each other, and a tight knit crew that keeps a low profile in Dallas-area. With the launch of id North (quake live), I believe this is the first time in their history that there's two distinctively separate teams for game dev. I read an interview w/ Carmack, he said the "web" was more difficult than they had initially anticipated, so I think spinning off a second team for QL and future web projects was the right move — and likely minimize team division/favoritism given their focus.

I actually still have my Black Book. The definitive tome of hard core graphics programming. I'd still recommend it to anyone looking to dig deeper into high performance programming (graphics or otherwise).

http://www.amazon.com/Michael-Abrashs-Graphics-Programming-S...

Too bad it's out of print, and they didn't do any subsequent editions.

Full text is available online (with Michael Abrash's permission):

http://www.gamedev.net/reference/articles/article1698.asp

The commentary during the DOOM segment makes me realize how fucking awesome it was when it first came out.

Playing it when it first came out made me realise how fucking awesome it was!

It was bloody amazing.

The first time I played DOOM on my 386, in the dark, with a soundblaster turned up nice and loud, was the first time a computer ever scared me ;-)

This is sort of fascinating from a startup perspective. Small companies that get big still have this sort of vibe to them for the most part. Google was run out of a closet (read: spare space at Stanford) before it became a titan.

You've got to eat your ve-ge-tab-les!

Gotta recommend the book Masters of Doom here http://www.amazon.com/Masters-Doom-Created-Transformed-Cultu...

I love these stories. For some reason they elicit quite an emotional response from me. Don't know what the emotion is though.

The moment when I first played doom hasn't been equaled since. Except maybe the first time I played Quake. Since then, nothing really made me realize that I was looking at the future. Graphics keep getting better but it all seems like it's been done before.

I agree completely. Doom and Quake(world) are the only two games to make my jaw drop. Nothing has rivaled it since and I still remember it distinctly.

I ran it on my 386 with 4MB of RAM (had to use QEMM just to free up enough conventional RAM) and in multiplayer I had to set it to postage stamp size on low quality to keep it fast enough for everyone on the game.

Playing 4 player over modem (with proprietary ACPi software/hardware) was amazing! I paid long distance to call the BBS's that supported it!

I do remember Descent via Kali over modem was also the first truly large scale multiplayer game I played over the modem (with the exception of Air Warrior, which was amazing even over 2400 baud) -- where as Kali required 14.4k at least.

Man, old times!

The moment I first played Doom was almost instantly recreated when I picked up a Wiimote for the first time.

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