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FYI, I just read the book Masters of Doom, by David Kushner. It was written in 2004 and chronicles the lives and careers of John Romero and John Carmack, creators of the Doom and Quake epic first person shooters.
It was a good study in the contrasting personalities of the two and how they meshed to revolutionize the industry. I'd recommend it if you liked playing the games.
If I liked?Quote:
Originally Posted by medievalelks
Son, Doom is the game I played most in my life. Just 6 months ago I was playing I and II again. I own the boxset of I and II (not the expansion packs unfortunately) although the floopies don't work anymore. I've owned the expansion packs but lost them to the traditional borrow-it-and-never-see-it-again. I've built maps, tried mods, even got sacked because of it...
I've read the book too a couple of years ago. Did find it a little romanticized sometimes. But certainly a good read even if one is not an aficionado. For one it describes in non programming way, the process of game planning, game development and the genius behind it. But is invaluable also as an essential read for anyone interested on gaming history.
If that's true, you're a little young to be calling me "son"...Quote:
Originally Posted by Mario F.
Actually - and I don't know why - I've got Mario pegged as 30-40 (sorry if that's insulting :)).Quote:
Originally Posted by medievalelks
I've read Masters of Doom, more than once actually since the first time I borrowed it from a friend back in 2005(ish), then bought it myself about a year ago. T'is a good read.
Not insulting to me. I'm 42 in a month. ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by ahluka
dang yall are old. haha.
I'm 39. Anyways, if I used to name my father "son", when I was lecturing him, I'll certainly call you son when I'm lecturing you. And you gotta catch me first if that offends you that much.
EDIT: BTW, what do you mean by "If that's true, you're a little young to be calling me "son". We are obviously almost the same age... so what makes you think it's not possible for someone our age to have played Doom more than any other game before or after that?
I think medievalelks misread "Doom is the game I played most in my life" to be "Doom is the game I played for most of my life", though you must have been very precocious to have been playing Doom when you were a baby or a toddler.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mario F.
Well, Doom was launched when I was 23. Looks like the perfect age to get addicted.
You...lectured your father?Quote:
Originally Posted by Mario F.
If you say so. :rolleyes:Quote:
I'll certainly call you son when I'm lecturing you.
Roll your eyes all you want, but I find it a little enervating, the fact you can't accept that as a simple innocuous expression to add some flavor to the argument. But to each his own. I'll remember to not get friendly with you next time.
And yes, I used to lecture my father. When you get to 87 after an hard life of work to give your children the opportunities you never had, your mind is probably not your best asset. Then your children will be lecturing you on many issues; from telling you to take a bath, to insist on you to eat proper food and dress better. He never complained.
It would have been meanwhile much more interesting to keep discussing the book. Something that is apparently ruined.
I read masters of doom, it was a good book.
On a realistic note, I think that a lot has changed in the industry since then, so I wouldn't really get to pent up on expecting to make it big in such an unconventional way these days.
Sorry, didn't see a smiley, and have long since grown tired of the irreverent "Gen-X" crowd, especially on the internet.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mario F.
I agree.Quote:
Originally Posted by BobMcGee123
I think it's still possible for someone to come up with something new and groundbreaking. And it's probably still a rule of thumb that 9 out of 10 times this will happen in some garage and not from within the industry.
The problem however is that indeed it may be much harder these days to plant your foot inside the industry and compete with the million dollar companies. It's much easier to sell yourself and your work.
The thing I find interesting about these two fellas, besides their geniuses, is how they were able to actually work together.
I havent read the book myself, but Doom was created by ID Software, but what has always thrown me is why did they make some of source code ( especially "Quake - Arena" ) open source? Surley, it opens itself up to some form of copyright, and if a budding coder implemented what they saw, there is nothing ID could do about it.
Video games become worthless very quickly. Theres not many games that are still being sold that are more than 10 years old. As Quake 3 has gone through the budget phase, if it were still to be sold it would be one of those 3 for £5.00 games thats barely going to cover the cost of the packaging. By making the game open source, it helps keep it alive. People can make better mods for it and stuff. The source itself is probably a bit too old for people to rip and use for a commercial quality games, but useful to people who want to learn how to code games.Quote:
but what has always thrown me is why did they make some of source code ( especially "Quake - Arena" ) open source?
Carmack was vehemently against patenting their code. He loved giving back to the community.Quote:
Originally Posted by swgh
They didn't need every last penny, and he realized that. If I recall correctly, they made like 7K a month when the released Commander Keen, 30K a month when they released Castle Wolfenstein, and...
100K the first day when they released Doom.
They didn't immediately release source though, e.g. they've withheld the q3 engine source until only within the past year or two, when it was no longer groundbreaking. This may have mostly been due to legal issues of their customers that were paying to license the engine, or something like that (I dunno).
Since we are on the topic, Doom 4 was just announced a few days ago! :)
I never went farther than Quake II. I've got some catching up to do, but I don't think my laptop can run these new games. In fact, I know it can't, and I can't justify upgrading for a game.Quote:
Originally Posted by DavidP
My old desktop that I gave away ran Return To Castle Wolfenstein very nicely. Which engine was that built on? Quake arena?
How old is your laptop? You might try running Doom 3...it is 4 years old by now.
The laptop is two years old and runs RTCW and SOF II nicely, until about five minutes in when it predictably crashes.Quote:
Originally Posted by DavidP