Peaceful greens
Recently, the network reported that the company id Software has begun to develop the fourth part of Doom. I rummaged through the archives and found an interview that Game Magazine took from the guys at id Software in 1993. It happened just at the moment when the first part of the famous game was under development. True, it was then called Green and Pissed.
3.30 pm Friday. The outskirts of Mesquite, Texas, USA. Aliens captured a group of developers id Software, not so long ago with the triumph released Wolfenstein 3D. Aliens, owners of a barbaric accent, interrogated the abductees, including: creative director Tom Hall (Tom Hall), programmers John Romero (John Romero) and John Carmack, artist Adrian Carmack, designer user guides Kevin Cloud (Kevin Cloud) and CFO Jay Wilbur (Jey Wilbur).
A little later, George Broussard and Scott Miller, co-owners of Apogee, fell into the paws of the newcomers. The group of programmers also included secret agent Dave Taylor, who recorded everything on a tape recorder. The film was found in the archives of the electronic journal Game Bytes. In the beginning, Jay Wilbur’s voice is heard, then Tom Hall and John Romero. John cries and often screams: “Where are you sharing my NeXT computer, bastards?” Some of the materials are indecipherable. Apparently, they were interrogated with passion. Screaming in agony, the developers have wiped their fingers into the blood, their little fingers show clear signs of transfalangal tunnel syndrome.
')
Games Magazine (those Aliens): How old are you guys?
id Software: We are of different ages, one is 20, the other is 30. Together we are 150!
GM: Did you write the version of Castle Wolfenstein for Apple II?
id: no It was Silas Warner from Muse Systems. And this company has released Beyond Castle Wolfenstein.
GM: But you did have to get permission to use the name?
id: Not at all. Copyright for the name Castle Wolfenstein for a long time did not interest anyone. They were even bought by an old woman from Michigan somewhere in the flea market, and she, too, was on the drum. In short, our lawyers talked to her kindly, and the rights now belong to us.
GM: What computer games do you like now and what have you played in the past?
id: Well, Wolf3D, naturally. This is a thing! Another Monkey Island. Everything Origin does is cool too. John Romero prefers games like Ultima. Tom likes to shoot. John likes puzzles. We are united by one thing - we love arcade games, and the quarters in our pockets are not translated. Recently, we often hack in Street Fighter II. What else? Fatal Fury for NeoGeo. We have such a job - we have to play different games on all home gaming systems, I repeat: at all, and we do it seriously.
GM: When did you start programming?
id [through massive noise and noise]: Four of us started on Apple II. But the artists - mean vagrants, that you take with them! [They laugh like horses.] Well, okay, one could say that Kevin painted on Apple II. And we started in 1980.
GM: When did you launch Wolf3D? Before work began on Ultima Underworld?
id: Have you fallen from an oak tree? Ultima Underworld for two years in development. And we launched our project on December 15, 1991. Of course, we heard about Ultima Underworld, and we also thought that texture mapping was a great idea. John Carmack then said: “Hey, men, I can do it!” After six months, we really did it. So to speak, asked them pepper.
GM: What did you do before Wolfenstein 3D?
id: We did Commander Keen 4-6, and before that a whole bunch of games for SoftDisk. By the way, Commander Keen was named the game of the year and the best shareware program of the year.
GM: Why did Wolfenstein 3D have so little advertising?
id: But this is shareware! Low overhead. Why spend money on advertising, if you can distribute a copy of the game to everyone almost for free.
GM: Does this way of spreading the game generate income? Or do you already regret not making the game commercial?
id: We like our approach. In the usual commercial way too much cost. And it is better not to climb into it. It's much easier to deal with the shareware market. People get the product immediately, as soon as work on it is completed. No sooner did you finish the game, and after some two hours, people already play it.
GM: How long have you been testing Wolf3D?
id: Exactly one month. Our programmer, John "Kill − or − Be − Killed" Romero is the fastest player in the world. He went through episode 1 in 5 minutes and 20 seconds. He is so fast that it is no longer funny. We call him Doctor of Game Sciences John.
GM: So you are testing very carefully ...
id: Debugging a program is a matter of principle. There are always mistakes - until someone finds them.
GM: What does the TAB-X shortcut mean? Additional items?
id: Just bonus points and all that ...
GM: Did you release several level editors for the game?
id: We saw these editors. One of them is nothing, but we cannot approve them.
GM: Are you worried that people take your engine and write their game on it?
id: Well, yes, in this case, someone will have problems with the law. We have now released versions 1.1 and 1.2, some bugs have been fixed. But there will be no level editors, not even for the commercial version. We had plans to announce a competition with a large prize fund. It was supposed that this would be a competition in skill, but since it was an opportunity to cheat, we decided not to hold a competition.
GM: More detail please! What should have been done?
id: Some object was hidden in the maze. If you saw him, you could win a prize by calling Apogee. A whole bunch of games from Apogee or money, a check for ...
GM: And what was that object?
id: It was in a maze that is very difficult to pass. You find this object and call in Apogee, call it - and this is a victory. Unfortunately, the cheat code allowed to cheat and pass through walls. There would be a million calls.
GM: What graphics mode did you use for Wolf 3D?
id: VGA mode with four streams and four planes and the ability to mirror the page. We could at four moments draw four pixels at once, and this greatly increased the speed.
GM: What language was it written in?
id: The scaling and ray tracing routines were written in assembly language.
GM: What development systems were used?
id: Borland C ++, but only as an ANSI C translator.
GM: What projects are you currently working on?
id: Wolf3d for Atari Lynx and Nintendo. In addition, we are working on a game with the working title Green and Pissed. The final version will probably have a different name, since the publisher is pressing on us ... [A lot of giggling.]
GM: What game is this?
id: Like Wolfenstein (although Wolfenstein doesn't hold a candle), but John has significantly improved the engine. The full screen version is 50% faster. Walls at arbitrary angles, ceilings of different heights, various light sources, objects that can be raised and lowered. Something like Stygian Abyss, but no deformation of the image very quickly. I also wrote an engine for Bard? S Dungeon (the game will be released early next year). Plus, we help other shareware dealers. For example, do BioHazard using our engine? and from Commander Keen 4.
GM: Are you going to do multiplayer games that can be played modem or online?
id: Yes, Green and Pissed will be like that. Communication is planned via serial, network, Atari Lynx (up to 4 players).
GM: Explain what exactly Wolfenstein 3D heroes are saying?
id: The main villain says: "Guten Tag", I hope everyone understands this. When a villain dies, he says: “Mutti”, which means “Mom!”.
GM: Thanks for the clarification! However, at the end he says: “KK”. What is it?
id: It was supposed to be proof that you won. We came up with this for a contest that never took place due to cheat codes.
GM: By the way, during the game I feel dizzy because of the fast movements around the screen. Have you already been told about such cases?
id: Yes.
GM: Do you see this as a compliment?
id: Yes. We get close enough to reality to make your brain think that everything moves so fast. I guess this is a compliment.
GM: Did you think about making an experimental game, a stereoscopic version?
id: [John] I’m working a lot on a virtual reality type game right now. I use the system on the NeXT platform. Yes, we have a full-featured device in the virtual world using stereo glasses or something similar.
GM: Does Wolf3D sell well?
id: Very well.
GM: Can you name the numbers?
id: Four times better than any other game of ours.
GM: Did your games bring you income before?
id: Oh yes, they feed us so far. Now four times better!
GM: So shareware really works?
id: No, just don't tell anyone! It's horrible! [Giggles.] It only works because of the idea of a trilogy, when they give you the first part for free, and then you are already sitting on the hook. We are pushing the games of the people, so! [Laugh.]
GM: You make the world's fastest arcade games. Do you want to stay on top?
id: We like to do something that no one else can do.
GM: Are you afraid of competition from other companies?
id: Not at all. We thrive if there is competition. Where are you competitors? Hid in the corners? Give the competition!
GM: What should programmers be able to do to be honored to work in the team that created Wolf3D?
id: You must really love what you do. The reason for our success is that we are the best team in the business. John is really great at programming. Carmack is a good engine specialist. Adrian and Kevin are amazing artists. And I [Tom] is good because I spend all day thinking up all sorts of nonsense.
GM: That is?
id: Seriously! All sorts of nonsense! I invent heroes, dialogues, everything that comes into play. I design it all. I used to just do levels, but this is too narrow for me.
GM: Do any of you have a university degree?
id: Yes, there are such ... But in our business, ambition and love for games is more important.
GM: Have you encountered any problems?
id: Yes, to complete all levels, and there are 60 of them, hellish perseverance is needed. When developing the 59th level, it is very difficult to come up with something new.
GM: How did you start working together?
id: We used to work in SoftDisk. Scott Miller from Apogee asked us to make a game for him. We sent him a piece of paper on which Commander Keen 1 was described in one paragraph. After three months of work, without weekends and free evenings, we created a whole trilogy and released Commander Keen 1. Then Adrian joined us with a couple more guys. In principle, all those who are now working in id, were previously in SoftDisk.
GM: What were you doing at SoftDisk?
id: Mostly software. We had to write one game every month. Excellent training, just bad that it was impossible to do anything else. Then we did this on our own. We decided, so to speak, to become famous.
GM: Were you paid a salary?
id: No, we wrote the game in our free time, that is, after working in SoftDisk. Scott helped us with something before Commander Keen. Well, everyone quickly thanked Scott!
GM: We are not very distracting you from business? It's Friday, the end of the working day ...
id: No, yes, we are nothing special and not busy, just playing the fool. Playing Street Fighter II and debugging the beta version of Spear of Destiny is the name of the commercial version of Wolf3D.
GM: How will it be different?
id: 20 new levels, new graphics, bosses, songs, conspiracies, this new, new then! ..
GM: What surrounds you in a work environment?
id: We have Neo − geo, Super Nintendo, Geneis, Turbo Grafix 16, Nintendo, Gameboy and the standing machine Pacman. But when it is necessary to take a project, the work takes seven days a week, 16 hours a day, not to rest. So it was when we turned in Commander Keen. Schedule of death row
GM: What are your future plans?
id: Green and Pissed and transfer games to other platforms. After Green and Pissed we will deal with Commander Keen 7. In general, the whole of 1993 is strictly planned out, unless some uncle arrives with a check for a very large amount. [Giggles.] And then we "bend over like the wind!" ["Dune"?]
GM: What more valuable can you tell us?
id: We drink a lot of soda! Soda + pizza + programmer = program.
GM: What is your favorite food?
id: John Carmack is fueled exclusively by Diet Pepsi and pizza.
GM: What will you do this weekend?
id: To work.
GM: That is?
id: We do not find a place for ourselves, forgive the pun, until we find what to do, and then we do it. That is why our projects are ready in 6-7 months. We work all the time. Call Origin and ask why their games run for two years, although there are three times more people there. And because this public does not work every day. They don't work at night either ...
GM: Merry you guys!
id: No, we're just crazy! “We are the wind!” [Dune again?]
At this point, they themselves began to vigorously ask questions, but only noise and noises remained on the film. It's a pity. After all, the truth was somewhere nearby. We can only wait with bated breath for Green and Pissed. Perhaps in this game we will see green scoundrels as they remember them. To work with tape
X-Files was approved by Mike Novikoff.
The interview was translated from the December issue of Game.EXE magazine in 2000
3.30 pm Friday. The outskirts of Mesquite, Texas, USA. Aliens captured a group of developers id Software, not so long ago with the triumph released Wolfenstein 3D. Aliens, owners of a barbaric accent, interrogated the abductees, including: creative director Tom Hall (Tom Hall), programmers John Romero (John Romero) and John Carmack, artist Adrian Carmack, designer user guides Kevin Cloud (Kevin Cloud) and CFO Jay Wilbur (Jey Wilbur).
A little later, George Broussard and Scott Miller, co-owners of Apogee, fell into the paws of the newcomers. The group of programmers also included secret agent Dave Taylor, who recorded everything on a tape recorder. The film was found in the archives of the electronic journal Game Bytes. In the beginning, Jay Wilbur’s voice is heard, then Tom Hall and John Romero. John cries and often screams: “Where are you sharing my NeXT computer, bastards?” Some of the materials are indecipherable. Apparently, they were interrogated with passion. Screaming in agony, the developers have wiped their fingers into the blood, their little fingers show clear signs of transfalangal tunnel syndrome.
')
Games Magazine (those Aliens): How old are you guys?
id Software: We are of different ages, one is 20, the other is 30. Together we are 150!
GM: Did you write the version of Castle Wolfenstein for Apple II?
id: no It was Silas Warner from Muse Systems. And this company has released Beyond Castle Wolfenstein.
GM: But you did have to get permission to use the name?
id: Not at all. Copyright for the name Castle Wolfenstein for a long time did not interest anyone. They were even bought by an old woman from Michigan somewhere in the flea market, and she, too, was on the drum. In short, our lawyers talked to her kindly, and the rights now belong to us.
GM: What computer games do you like now and what have you played in the past?
id: Well, Wolf3D, naturally. This is a thing! Another Monkey Island. Everything Origin does is cool too. John Romero prefers games like Ultima. Tom likes to shoot. John likes puzzles. We are united by one thing - we love arcade games, and the quarters in our pockets are not translated. Recently, we often hack in Street Fighter II. What else? Fatal Fury for NeoGeo. We have such a job - we have to play different games on all home gaming systems, I repeat: at all, and we do it seriously.
GM: When did you start programming?
id [through massive noise and noise]: Four of us started on Apple II. But the artists - mean vagrants, that you take with them! [They laugh like horses.] Well, okay, one could say that Kevin painted on Apple II. And we started in 1980.
GM: When did you launch Wolf3D? Before work began on Ultima Underworld?
id: Have you fallen from an oak tree? Ultima Underworld for two years in development. And we launched our project on December 15, 1991. Of course, we heard about Ultima Underworld, and we also thought that texture mapping was a great idea. John Carmack then said: “Hey, men, I can do it!” After six months, we really did it. So to speak, asked them pepper.
GM: What did you do before Wolfenstein 3D?
id: We did Commander Keen 4-6, and before that a whole bunch of games for SoftDisk. By the way, Commander Keen was named the game of the year and the best shareware program of the year.
GM: Why did Wolfenstein 3D have so little advertising?
id: But this is shareware! Low overhead. Why spend money on advertising, if you can distribute a copy of the game to everyone almost for free.
GM: Does this way of spreading the game generate income? Or do you already regret not making the game commercial?
id: We like our approach. In the usual commercial way too much cost. And it is better not to climb into it. It's much easier to deal with the shareware market. People get the product immediately, as soon as work on it is completed. No sooner did you finish the game, and after some two hours, people already play it.
GM: How long have you been testing Wolf3D?
id: Exactly one month. Our programmer, John "Kill − or − Be − Killed" Romero is the fastest player in the world. He went through episode 1 in 5 minutes and 20 seconds. He is so fast that it is no longer funny. We call him Doctor of Game Sciences John.
GM: So you are testing very carefully ...
id: Debugging a program is a matter of principle. There are always mistakes - until someone finds them.
GM: What does the TAB-X shortcut mean? Additional items?
id: Just bonus points and all that ...
GM: Did you release several level editors for the game?
id: We saw these editors. One of them is nothing, but we cannot approve them.
GM: Are you worried that people take your engine and write their game on it?
id: Well, yes, in this case, someone will have problems with the law. We have now released versions 1.1 and 1.2, some bugs have been fixed. But there will be no level editors, not even for the commercial version. We had plans to announce a competition with a large prize fund. It was supposed that this would be a competition in skill, but since it was an opportunity to cheat, we decided not to hold a competition.
GM: More detail please! What should have been done?
id: Some object was hidden in the maze. If you saw him, you could win a prize by calling Apogee. A whole bunch of games from Apogee or money, a check for ...
GM: And what was that object?
id: It was in a maze that is very difficult to pass. You find this object and call in Apogee, call it - and this is a victory. Unfortunately, the cheat code allowed to cheat and pass through walls. There would be a million calls.
GM: What graphics mode did you use for Wolf 3D?
id: VGA mode with four streams and four planes and the ability to mirror the page. We could at four moments draw four pixels at once, and this greatly increased the speed.
GM: What language was it written in?
id: The scaling and ray tracing routines were written in assembly language.
GM: What development systems were used?
id: Borland C ++, but only as an ANSI C translator.
GM: What projects are you currently working on?
id: Wolf3d for Atari Lynx and Nintendo. In addition, we are working on a game with the working title Green and Pissed. The final version will probably have a different name, since the publisher is pressing on us ... [A lot of giggling.]
GM: What game is this?
id: Like Wolfenstein (although Wolfenstein doesn't hold a candle), but John has significantly improved the engine. The full screen version is 50% faster. Walls at arbitrary angles, ceilings of different heights, various light sources, objects that can be raised and lowered. Something like Stygian Abyss, but no deformation of the image very quickly. I also wrote an engine for Bard? S Dungeon (the game will be released early next year). Plus, we help other shareware dealers. For example, do BioHazard using our engine? and from Commander Keen 4.
GM: Are you going to do multiplayer games that can be played modem or online?
id: Yes, Green and Pissed will be like that. Communication is planned via serial, network, Atari Lynx (up to 4 players).
GM: Explain what exactly Wolfenstein 3D heroes are saying?
id: The main villain says: "Guten Tag", I hope everyone understands this. When a villain dies, he says: “Mutti”, which means “Mom!”.
GM: Thanks for the clarification! However, at the end he says: “KK”. What is it?
id: It was supposed to be proof that you won. We came up with this for a contest that never took place due to cheat codes.
GM: By the way, during the game I feel dizzy because of the fast movements around the screen. Have you already been told about such cases?
id: Yes.
GM: Do you see this as a compliment?
id: Yes. We get close enough to reality to make your brain think that everything moves so fast. I guess this is a compliment.
GM: Did you think about making an experimental game, a stereoscopic version?
id: [John] I’m working a lot on a virtual reality type game right now. I use the system on the NeXT platform. Yes, we have a full-featured device in the virtual world using stereo glasses or something similar.
GM: Does Wolf3D sell well?
id: Very well.
GM: Can you name the numbers?
id: Four times better than any other game of ours.
GM: Did your games bring you income before?
id: Oh yes, they feed us so far. Now four times better!
GM: So shareware really works?
id: No, just don't tell anyone! It's horrible! [Giggles.] It only works because of the idea of a trilogy, when they give you the first part for free, and then you are already sitting on the hook. We are pushing the games of the people, so! [Laugh.]
GM: You make the world's fastest arcade games. Do you want to stay on top?
id: We like to do something that no one else can do.
GM: Are you afraid of competition from other companies?
id: Not at all. We thrive if there is competition. Where are you competitors? Hid in the corners? Give the competition!
GM: What should programmers be able to do to be honored to work in the team that created Wolf3D?
id: You must really love what you do. The reason for our success is that we are the best team in the business. John is really great at programming. Carmack is a good engine specialist. Adrian and Kevin are amazing artists. And I [Tom] is good because I spend all day thinking up all sorts of nonsense.
GM: That is?
id: Seriously! All sorts of nonsense! I invent heroes, dialogues, everything that comes into play. I design it all. I used to just do levels, but this is too narrow for me.
GM: Do any of you have a university degree?
id: Yes, there are such ... But in our business, ambition and love for games is more important.
GM: Have you encountered any problems?
id: Yes, to complete all levels, and there are 60 of them, hellish perseverance is needed. When developing the 59th level, it is very difficult to come up with something new.
GM: How did you start working together?
id: We used to work in SoftDisk. Scott Miller from Apogee asked us to make a game for him. We sent him a piece of paper on which Commander Keen 1 was described in one paragraph. After three months of work, without weekends and free evenings, we created a whole trilogy and released Commander Keen 1. Then Adrian joined us with a couple more guys. In principle, all those who are now working in id, were previously in SoftDisk.
GM: What were you doing at SoftDisk?
id: Mostly software. We had to write one game every month. Excellent training, just bad that it was impossible to do anything else. Then we did this on our own. We decided, so to speak, to become famous.
GM: Were you paid a salary?
id: No, we wrote the game in our free time, that is, after working in SoftDisk. Scott helped us with something before Commander Keen. Well, everyone quickly thanked Scott!
GM: We are not very distracting you from business? It's Friday, the end of the working day ...
id: No, yes, we are nothing special and not busy, just playing the fool. Playing Street Fighter II and debugging the beta version of Spear of Destiny is the name of the commercial version of Wolf3D.
GM: How will it be different?
id: 20 new levels, new graphics, bosses, songs, conspiracies, this new, new then! ..
GM: What surrounds you in a work environment?
id: We have Neo − geo, Super Nintendo, Geneis, Turbo Grafix 16, Nintendo, Gameboy and the standing machine Pacman. But when it is necessary to take a project, the work takes seven days a week, 16 hours a day, not to rest. So it was when we turned in Commander Keen. Schedule of death row
GM: What are your future plans?
id: Green and Pissed and transfer games to other platforms. After Green and Pissed we will deal with Commander Keen 7. In general, the whole of 1993 is strictly planned out, unless some uncle arrives with a check for a very large amount. [Giggles.] And then we "bend over like the wind!" ["Dune"?]
GM: What more valuable can you tell us?
id: We drink a lot of soda! Soda + pizza + programmer = program.
GM: What is your favorite food?
id: John Carmack is fueled exclusively by Diet Pepsi and pizza.
GM: What will you do this weekend?
id: To work.
GM: That is?
id: We do not find a place for ourselves, forgive the pun, until we find what to do, and then we do it. That is why our projects are ready in 6-7 months. We work all the time. Call Origin and ask why their games run for two years, although there are three times more people there. And because this public does not work every day. They don't work at night either ...
GM: Merry you guys!
id: No, we're just crazy! “We are the wind!” [Dune again?]
At this point, they themselves began to vigorously ask questions, but only noise and noises remained on the film. It's a pity. After all, the truth was somewhere nearby. We can only wait with bated breath for Green and Pissed. Perhaps in this game we will see green scoundrels as they remember them. To work with tape
X-Files was approved by Mike Novikoff.
The interview was translated from the December issue of Game.EXE magazine in 2000
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/25203/
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