Author: Galan SK
A few months ago, the wealthy Microsoft spent a lot of money before the start of the next generation war and acquired ZeniMax Media, the parent company of Bethesta (B) and all its studios. I believe Spencer and a group of big guys were ready to manage the rights and couldn't wait to know the development progress of "The Elder Scrolls 6", but they probably only know whether this new folder is kept in their hands.
In addition, after the IP of "Fallout" was handed over to Microsoft, Obsidian and fans of the series who had been merged into the first party undoubtedly showed bright smiles. The happy enemies once again entered the same house. Perhaps, the spiritual sequel " Days Outer World " can be a big shot. In the future, they no longer have to block the Qishui B Society to make "Fallout", but directly threw the original "Fallout" on the face of the former big brother and angrily said: "The 84 points back then were you who made trouble?"
Of course, the above is a bit too far. If you put away your divergent thinking, it is not only Obsidian's old buddies who smile. You should know that there are many high-quality game studios under ZeniMax Media; there are Arkane Studio, a developer of " Predation " and " Shame ", as well as Tango GameWorks founded by "father of biochemistry" Shinji Mikami, and even the old shooting game developer id Software is under their command.
Having said so much, we can finally get closer to today's topic. Although it is very good news recently, after the company was acquired by Microsoft, John Carmack , one of the co-founders, took the initiative to show goodwill, was even more exciting. After all, he created the engine of "Half-Life" and "Medal of Honor" and opposed "software patents". He practiced the source codes of " German Headquarters 3D", "doom" and "Thor's Hammer" and only he would do it. In addition, as for what kind of miracles this program master can create, perhaps no one would have expected. Okay, the next thing we will talk about in this episode of the game celebrity is this legendary figure.
The rebellious genius
John Carmack II was born in Kansas, USA in 1970 and grew up in the Kansas City metropolitan area. But as the son of local news reporter Stan Carmack, what attracted him since childhood was not the news and media, and he was not the black and white words in the newspaper, but a bunch of electronic components. At that time, microcomputers were booming. Perhaps due to objective conditions, he showed interest in computers when he was a child.
For most children of that era, electronic games are a new thing. Just put the game console in the most conspicuous position in the mall, and children can face the screen and concentrate all their attention and indulge in it, so the arcade hall is undoubtedly their best opportunity to get in touch with video games, and obviously, John Carmack is no exception. During the summer vacation when he was eight years old, he accidentally caught a glimpse of an arcade game called "Space Invaders" in the mall. Since then, the game has formed an indissoluble bond with him. Of course, such an opening is far from as sweet as "boy meets girl" in the TV series, but it undoubtedly laid the foreshadowing for his future life.
However, John Carmack was not liked by his teacher when he was a teenager, and his naughty always left a negative impression, which was once considered mentally problematic. Especially at the age of 14, he was arrested for stealing Apple II computers with aluminum heater. Not only was he forced to go home to reflect, but he was also taken to have a mental assessment. The results were not optimistic. The report shows that he was indeed a child with insufficient empathy.
In this regard, Carmack also mentioned in an interview: "When I was a little bastard who didn't know right or wrong, I was arrogant because I was smarter than others, but what was unhappy was that I couldn't spend all my time doing what I wanted to do."
returned to school after taking a break for a while, but he still failed to become the "child of other people's family" in the eyes of parents. He also studied hard and stumbling throughout high school. In addition to despising the rote memorization courses, he was also dissatisfied with the lack of challenge and creativity in the content he learned. Contradictory such as
accompanied his entire student career.
But it was not just the time in middle school, but even after he arrived at university, he was unable to follow the steps of others. At that time, except for computers, he was not interested in everything else, so he only studied computing within two years at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. The computer science related courses, and then out of dissatisfaction with all aspects, Carmack dropped out of school and started a freelance career and became an independent programmer. As for the courage to drop out, it is entirely because he fully believes in the talent he showed in computers.
In fact, the Carmack family has a tradition of self-taught. His grandfather only studied for two years, but became an electrical engineer by himself. And when he was better than his younger brother than his younger brother, Carmack was undoubtedly better.
mentioned earlier that he really had no talent in being a good baby who was a conservative person, and he was not willing to allocate his skill points to the skill tree of becoming an ordinary person. So after spending only a few points, he allocated the rest to On the more critical project - this gave him a cheating life.
Carmak is not concerned about the school's homework, but when he graduated from high school, his programming level was already quite high. When he arrived at university, the relaxed and free learning atmosphere gave him further study hobbies and regarded hobbies as a good opportunity to work. At first, he just tried to make some gadgets for the need for self-entertainment, but soon, these mini-games were bought by software companies one after another and became famous in the circle. However, all the problems were hidden behind ambitions. After making his first pot of gold, he was very optimistic about his future, but after real work, he found that he could only Getting a salary of $1,000-2,000 per month is not enough to support his daily expenses. Money brings him pressure in all aspects. It is true that he has a talent that others cannot reach, but he is still young and has insufficient experience in struggling in society. When the pressure has posed a threat to survival, what he can provide is no longer motivation, but makes him a member of thousands of workers and tired of dealing with daily troubles. During this period, in order to earn enough money to subsidize his family, he had to complete a lot of boring work.
Just like in "This Killer Not Too Cold", 12-year-old Mathilde once asked Lyon:
"Is life always so difficult, or is it only like childhood? "(Is life always this hard, or is it just when you're a kid?)
" is always the case. "(always like this)
Original intention and change
Until 1990, a software company called Softdisk found Carmack and decided to hire him to work in Softdisk GS (Apple II GS publication), things took a turn.
" I learned a lot in a short time, which may be the turning point in my personality. Over six months, my programming skills have basically doubled. "His persistence has received the favor given by God, and after examining himself, his personality has also changed to a certain extent.
During his work at Softdisk, he met John Romero and Adrian Carmack who founded id Software in the future, and at the same time, they wrote the computer game Commander Keen) sold 30,000 units in a few months. It may feel a bit insignificant to look at this number at the current scale of development and investment, but this is an extremely amazing number for the computer game industry, which was in its infancy at the time.
"I was very happy after working at Softdisk. Almost as soon as I open my eyes, I start programming, or read programming related books, or talk about programming techniques with people.Turns out, $27,000 is enough to buy all the books and pizza I want, and I have a good enough computer at work, so I don't feel like I have more of it. "
But unlike the expected, another opportunity was in front of him.
Maybe he thought it was time to start his career, maybe it was because the game they developed together gave him enough confidence in the commercial success of the game they worked together, maybe it was time to feel that they should break out of their comfort zone and take a step forward. Soon after, Carmack and others resigned collectively and jointly founded id Software.
Speaking of the origin of the company's name, in fact, the correct way of writing id Software is to use the lowercase "id" in English. The word originated from Sigmund Freud's discussion on this Idiom in psychology. The 3D game manual of the German headquarters contains Sigmund's famous saying "that's Id, as in the id, ego, and superioro in the psyche". Even now, the official website of id Software still has Freud's footprint.
After getting involved in first-person shooting games, his previous skills were combined with his imaginary ideas. Carmack took the lead or promotes many technologies that use computer graphics.
He used binary tree segmentation technology for the first time on Doom and surface caching technology for the first time in Quake. He also used "Carmack Reversal" named after him in Doom3.
"Wolfenstein" (Wolfenstein) 3D), Doom and Quake were born one after another, and while bringing earth-shaking changes to first-person shooters, Carmack's name was truly imprinted in the history of the game, and his legend did not stop there.
"I know most people would not believe this, but the 100-fold increase in revenue did not have much impact on me personally. It would certainly be happy to be in a position where people can’t exert any influence on you, but that’s definitely not the focus of my life. I drove a Ferrari to work, but my daily life was almost exactly the same as eight years ago. Get up, go to work, hoping to make some good things and go home. I'm still very happy. "
It is worth mentioning that the engine created by Carmack was used by Vavle to create "Half-Life", which made G Fat who could not count 3 famous. Then there was a "shut up and take my" and "shut up and take my money".
On the other hand, "Counter-Strike" created by this engine has become popular in domestic chartered computer rooms and computer rooms.
game
self-discipline, diligence and strong action have allowed him to move forward bravely when facing new possibilities. After a period of "not doing his job", Carmack fell in love with the VR industry. Because id's parent company, ZeniMax Media, recently acquired by Microsoft, opposed Carmack spending his thoughts on VR, in 2013, Carmack resolutely resigned from id Software and Oculus VR works full-time. This caused him a lot of trouble because shortly after he left, ZeniMax filed a lawsuit against Oculus' parent company Facebook, accusing him of plagiarizing his own business secrets - obviously, the finger of the matter was pointed at Carmack. The dispute lasted for four years and the two sides were entangled, but fortunately it ended in a settlement.
Until now, it is difficult for us to see the blueprint outlined by the VR industry for the future. This time, Carmack failed to bring it. Miracle. But we also know that the rise of VR is still affected by objective factors in all aspects. Although it seems to be a bright road ahead, few people are willing to get involved. It was not until this year that a "Half-Life: Alex" that can be regarded as a 3A level appeared. However, when there is the first adventurer to conquer the peak of danger, perhaps more people will be willing to step up step by step in his footsteps.
The anxious Carmack is not willing to spend time continuing this long-distance race with no end.On November 13, 2019, Carmack announced that he would resign from his position as Oculus CTO (Chief Technology Officer) to become a "Course Consulting CTO" in order to allocate more time to his work on artificial intelligence (AGI).
In addition, when he was "not doing his job", he was addicted to supercars and modified cars, trying to play the role of a dad and start his own son's development plan. Living up to expectations, Carmack posted on an email group in 2015 that his 10-year-old son developed a game using the Racket programming language, and then provided a free download link to the game. What is even more enviable is that this handsome guy seems to have inherited the part of his father's similarity to Eisenberg, and becomes a handsome boy just around the corner.
If the above is just a regular operation, then what is more worth mentioning is the anecdote of him building the Rockets.
Around 2000, John Carmack became interested in aerospace, a field that was completely incompatible with the game. Soon, he invested the large amount of cash he earned from the gaming industry into the aviation field, first providing financial support to some local amateur engineers, then established Armadillo Aerospace, and provided funds with "a annual fee of more than one million dollars" to fully support his side business.
In October 2008, Armadillo Aerospace participated in a NASA competition called the "Moon Lander Challenge" and won first place and a prize of $350,000 in the first-tier competition. In September 2009, they completed Level 2 and received a $500,000 bonus. At this point, Carmack gradually became tired of these "entertainment activities" and took the lead in VR research, and the company also suspended its activities.
has also made outstanding contributions to charity and is also very concerned about game social activities. Carmack set up a foundation named after himself to fund his high school alma mater, advocates of open source software, opponents of game patents, and enthusiastic players. In 1997, he gave one of his Ferrari sports car as a prize to Dennis Fong, the winner of the "Red Annihilation" of Thor's Hammer competition.
"DOOM Revelation " writes: Carmack only lives in his current moment. Focus is the source of his power. He neither had a longing for the future nor nostalgic thoughts in his heart. His attention was all focused on how to solve the complex problems in front of him: thinking and coding. He does not keep anything from the past: photos, records, games, disks.
years old, and Carmak, who knows destiny, hopes to concentrate all his energy on the projects he is interested in. As a program expert who is obsessed with technology, especially after he has been deeply engaged in the AI industry a few years ago, he may return to the industry he once loved very much and give more intelligence to the NPCs in the game. In the future, there will be no village that regards Ji Ge as a god like " Elder Scrolls 5", nor will he "hit a shot in the knee", but uses thousands of people and thousands of faces to bring players more intoxicating immersion. Of course, all of this is still a beautiful idea.
Finally, quote this paragraph from the book "DOOM Revelation" as the conclusion: "Everyone has a dream that cannot be realized. Perhaps it requires too much time and money, such as driving a sports car and flying a plane; perhaps it is that the dream is too outrageous, such as engaging in a Star Wars with an alien, fighting a bayonet with a vampire, or perhaps it is that the dream will violate the law, such as beating a boss and walking in the middle of the night. But no matter whether it can be realized or not, they are always hovering in your mind, and every day makes you think a lot. This is why there is a multi-million dollar industry to help people realize all kinds of bizarre daydreams; this is why there are electronic games."
I hope that looking back several years later, we can all love electronic games as we are now, as always.
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