It’s id Software’s 19th birthday today. It makes me wonder: how many people working at id right now actually know that?
Next year will be two decades of Keen, Wolfenstein, Doom, and Quake. How many game companies still standing can boast 20 years? Not many. And most companies that live past 20 years are so far removed from their origins that they’re not even the same company.
John Carmack and Kevin Cloud, two of id’s earliest team members, and John as a co-founder, are still with the company, and working hard on RAGE and Doom 4. John is right down in the pit with the development team, where all the action happens. Kevin manages, as always, exceptionally well on multiple fronts. I salute their efforts to continue the dynasty.
It all started on February 1, 1991. John, Adrian and I left our jobs at Softdisk (R.I.P.) and began work immediately on Dangerous Dave in the Haunted Mansion at the id lake house in Shreveport, Louisiana. Tom Hall needed to stay a few months longer at Softdisk, to help them ease his transition out of the Apple II team. But after work, he’d come over and help out.
Those were prolific years. The years 1990 and 1991 saw us develop almost 20 games with wildly different play styles and themes. The Keens, The Dangerous Daves, the Rescue Rovers, the Catacombs, and more. There were a lot of them and all were fun. Wolfenstein 3D begat the first-person shooter genre in 1992, and id hasn’t looked back.
Congratulations on 19 years, id!
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Happy 19th ID!
Man, it just makes me happy that my Game Gods of id Software are still around and doing the same thing in the past 1.9 decades — only better! I’m always awed by the story of you guys and how this dynasty started.
This is partly why I try to emulate the positive things of what you guys have done. I dream to work with an awesome team and someday get to have a game company as strong and influential as id.
I’ve read “Master of Doom” two or three times, and my dream is to make that kind of games id Software have done in the old god times, too! What I like from id software is the way they worked at the beginning and the way they thinked about the purpose of their job: to do great funny games and to spent a good time making them…
ID Software & John Romero for ever!
I’m not gonna lie, I miss Commander Keen so much. It was really fun to play that game…
Cheers for another 19 years!
i’m 22 years old and i can proudly say that i grew up with id Software games… they are the best. Doomer 4 life (:!
Happy Birthday ID!!!
Happy Birthday, id!
Congratulations, John; by the way, who is the Father – you, the Surgeon, or John Carmack? )) Just kiddin’ hehe.
Seriously, I still remember hilarious scenes of us copying doom from floppies to as many pc’s as possible in our school computer class LAN consisting mainly of 386s. One person had to watch the door for teacher approaching after break, while the others were busy making hidden copies inside system folders of pcs )) And that floppy drives were sooooo slow, and the teachers were soooo fast! Go, progress bar, go!
This way Norton’s or some Win32 folder could suddenly appear to occupy over 15MB on our machines! and we were literally ‘doomed” when our teacher found out, cause doom is “violence”, my ass..
I was 13 or 14 at that time, such good memories.
Yeah, and it was taking place in Moscow, Russia (yeah, yeah, I know, damn baby commies playing doom and all that prejudice shit ))
Ah, and the red screen after exit, and awesome exit comments.
So, I think, I’ll congratulate myself as well, since id is a piece of me.
Thank you, guys, you rock!
really nice pjroect…much easier than cwiid…ps, feature request..classic and nun-chuck support…unique311
Great little article. How the years have flown. I remember sitting my young son on my knee so we could play Keen together. He’s now 18 and making his own way in the world. And who could forget the fast paced action of Wolf 3D. And then Doom – the game that took us to the next level, the game that said all bets are off and this is the future of gaming. The excitement and technical genius of Quake. And one of id’s best games ever – Quake 2. But let’s not forget the part id’s technology played in other great games like the awesome ROTT, Heretic and Hexen (which I know you hand a hand in John). I still fire up ROTT even to this day and it’s one of my favourite games ever (based on the Wolf code with floor and sky texture mapping courtesy of The Kid – now The Man). What an amazing legacy. I do think though John id is not the company it once was. I think some of its spirit walked out the door when Tom Hall and then you left. It’s still an awesome company and Carkmack is still a demi-God, but some of the id magic is gone. Times change, they always do. The industry has changed radically. But we should NOT forget the wonder and joy that id created in its heyday.
I can’t believe 19 years have passed already!
Thanks for the great moments your/their games provide(d) me. My high school was basically spent playing your games. I should probably blame you for a few not so good grades…
At the same time, I can’t avoid being a bit sad at how much id changed. The current id may make nice looking engines, but their recent works all lack something: they simply aren’t much fun to play.
I’m sure if guys like you and Tom Hall were still at id their output would certainly be better than what it currently is.
Happy birthday!
19 years, has it already been THAT long? Then again, id’s games were some of my earliest PC memories back on the Commodore 286.
Looking back, the amount of changes and innovation in games and technology in those past years never ceases to amaze me. I’m looking forward for what they have in store for us with Rage.
Cheers id
Time passes by… I can remeber when I had my 486 DX4 – 100 Mhz and I played on it. Then I bought my 3DFX Voodoo 3000 and downloaded Carmacks patch. My eyes couldn´t believe ! It was like changing from a B/W TV to a Plasma Screen ! I knew that Id would have changed it forever. And really not looking back ! I still have Quake on my Computer (not the 486 though
but using those new engines that are now been distributed (GlRack I think). Ampper keep the game still alive and rock solid. This is a quake that will never stop shaking the world… and future generations.
Man…it was 1992, I was 14 years old. First time I played Wolf 3D.
Today I played first episode of Wolf 3D, still a good game all these years.
Happy Birthday Id Software!
I was born 7 days after the formation of id
.
Doom was the first game I played…Thank you id software for
everything. Happy birthday id!!!!
I remember when Wolfenstein was brand new, I was forever hooked on FPS gaming. I was very young at the time and didn’t actually have a computer of my own. I would play the game at a friends place on his Dad’s computer after school every chance I could get.
Eventually when Doom was released I had myself a brand new 486. It was an SX/25MHz machine with a whopping 4MB of RAM. I still enjoy Doom today, which goes to show how its great gameplay makes it just as fun almost 15+ years later…
Thank id, and thanks to you too John!
I was one of the original moderators for DWANGO in Long Beach, CA. Congratz!@
I remember the beginning and the end for some of the founders of id. From the lake house to Mesquite…from rags to riches i’d say. Happy bday to id.
Met John once here over at the Netherlands, played Daikatana deathmatch with him. Still have a picture of that one, me and John, sitting afterwards, both long haired dudes
Having played Wold and then going to Doom back in the day did it for me. That was my religious conversion – I was hooked ever since!
Congrats and game on!
Theo
Many years ago, early 90′s, I loved Amiga, and hated PC IBM.
Then I saw Doom, and ALL changed.
ID showed to me the potential of PC, in a manner I never tought possible.
ALL the modern success of PC as a game machine, is because Doom existed.
Happy birthday and thanks ID, thanks Romero, I hope the two JohnS one day will work again together.
Doom 4 can be a good excuse for that?