id Software programming wizard John Carmack took some time off from his rocket science today to comment on the just-announced software development kit for Apple's iPhone.

"Just based on the blurbs, it looks very good--a simulator plus debugging on the native device is the best of both worlds, and a 70% royalty deal for apps over iTunes is quite good," said Carmack in a forum post on Slashdot.

Doom RPG (Mobile) and Orcs & Elves (Mobile, DS) were developed by Fountainhead Entertainment with help from Carmack. Fountainhead founder Anna Kang, John Carmack's wife, was brought on by id last year to head up the company's mobile division.

"We (Id) have put in our application like everyone else, so I don't have any inside information at this point," added Carmack. "I think [Apple CEO] Steve [Jobs] is still... Read more

In an interview with Gamasutra, Id Software's John Carmack says Blizzard's World of Warcraft has spurred PC gaming, and he reaffirmed his company's support of the PC as a platform.

Carmack described World of Warcraft as "a train driving all the PC sales numbers altogether on gaming." He acknowledged that most players of "higher-end games" play them on the consoles, but said "the PC still has a strong enough margin to make games, and we continue to support it."

The studio head went on to say part of the reason PC gaming has remained less popular is because of well-implemented console connectivity features like Xbox Live and other PC-like options. The company's forthcoming title Rage will launch on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 as well as PC and Mac.

According to USA Today, old guard PC developer id Software will more fully embrace the mobile gaming market in which it already has seen some measure of success. Anna Kang, founder of Orcs & Elves series and Doom RPG developer Fountainhead Entertainment, will head up id Mobile, the new division devoted entirely to cell phone games. Classic id franchises Wolfenstein and Quake are expected to make the jump to mobile.

Doom RPG and the Orcs & Elves franchise were notoriously born out of a desire by id Software co-founder John Carmack to improve the state of mobile gaming as well as give him a chance to work on smaller, more personal projects that do not require large development teams. Fountainhead developed the games using initial technology developed by Carmack. Kang, previously an id employee, is Carmack's wife. She will apparently keep her Fountainhead post while serving as president of id Mobile.

Fountainhead and id's mobile games have seen both critical and commercial success. The first Orcs & Elves game has been ported by Fountainhead to Nintendo... Read more

Orcs & Elves for Nintendo DS is shipping soon, and so IGN has posted a Q&A with John Carmack, who talks about his experience with developing for the handheld system.

The long-standing belief that the PlayStation 3's Cell processor is a developer's nightmare when compared to the working with the Xbox 360 has been challenged by Yann Le Tensorer, co-founder of Ubisoft TiWak.

"It's wrong to say it's harder to code on the PlayStation 3. It's just something that needs to be learnt," said Le Tensorer to GamesIndustry. Le Tensorer is the co-creator of the YETI engine used in Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter (PC, X360) and the upcoming Beowulf (PC, PS3, X360, PSP).

"It's not harder to develop on the PS3 than it is on the 360, it's just a different console," he added. "Developers might say it's harder because it just takes time to understand the technology. We're still early in the lifecycle."

At this year's QuakeCon, id's resident gangsta John Carmack acknowledged that his company's new engine id Tech 5 may potentially evolve into a more robust form on the PlayStation 3 than on the Xbox 360. However... Read more

Man, id really doesn't mess around. Between news of the Wolfenstein movie, the id catalog on Steam, the first details of the awesome-looking Rage, and all the other tidbits, CEO Todd Hollenshead and lead programmer John Carmack just kept on trucking through last night's QuakeCon event. After sitting through most of this year's relatively mundane E3 conferences, it's nice to see that someone out there remembers how to put on a good show.

For this special weekend edition of News Bytes, we have a release date for Skate (PS3, X360) and word of an impending Xbox Live demo, a list of 49 EA-published games that will be losing their online functionality, news that Warhawk (PS3) and Dynasty Warriors:GUNDAM (PS3, X360) have gone gold along with pricing info, and the announcement of a simultaneous real-life/in-game wedding at SOE's Fan Faire. ... Read more

id Software's John Carmack wants to create a Quake Arena game on Nintendo DS, the company co-founder disclosed during his QuakeCon 2007 keynote. The renowned programmer cited the portable's wi-fi capabilites and built-in wireless game sharing as aspects of the systems he likes.

Though Quake Arena-themed, the title, which would run at 60fps, would have gameplay similar to Doom II's deathmatch mode. Carmack said the limited range of movement found in Doom II's multiplayer would be more "digestable" on a portable. His inspiration for this decision was Nintendo's Metroid Prime Hunters, which he said seemed "really cool" at first, but found difficult to play for extended periods of time.

Several publishers have been approached with the concept, but id has yet to sign a definitive contract. Despite the non-concrete nature of the plan, Carmack spoke as if the project is fairly likely to happen, and would be his next project on DS. As he did with Orcs & Elves on DS, Carmack hopes to lay the initial groundwork for the game and then have another team handle the heavy development lifting.

Check out all news from QuakeCon.

Among its multiple QuakeCon announcements this evening, id Software unveiled its plans to form a second development team whose first project will be an slightly updated version of Quake 3. Titled Quake Zero, the game will be available for free--supported by advertising dollars--and run in a web browser on both PC and Mac.

"We appreciate what you guys have done over the years in building the popularity of [Quake 3]," said id CEO Todd Hollenshead. "We also like 'free.'"

"We at id are building a second team," he continued. "Our first project is Quake Zero, which means zero cost, zero hassle. You'll be able to play Quake 3 in your web browser for free, supported only by advertising dollars." id will be working with Apple to ensure the game runs ideally on Macs as well as PC.

During John Carmack's keynote address, the id co-founder and programming lead noted his preference for "straightforward and elegant" games such as Quake 3 Arena. "Honestly, I sit down and look at Enemy Territory, and I'm a little overwhelmed," he admitted.

Check out all news from QuakeCon.

The new property id Software executives have repeatedly hinted towards is named Rage, co-founder and programmer John Carmack revealed at today's QuakeCon festivities.

"Everybody knows we're going to do a good job with the run and gun action stuff...but we are branching out," explained Carmack, who noted id's love for a Road Warrior-esque post-apocalyptic atmosphere.

A trailer for the title showcased driving and expansive outdoor areas in addition to id's traditional shooting elements. Shacknews editor Chris Remo described both the character models and the environment as incredibly detailed, complete with good facial animation on NPCs and impressive detail on a small fly.

The company estimates that the single-player game--which has ... Read more

Electronic Arts today announced that id Software's fantasy RPG franchise Orcs & Elves is coming to the Nintendo DS.

Originally developed by Fountainhead Entertainment for mobile phones, which will receive Orcs & Elves II, the DS version of the first person tactical role playing game will feature better graphics and more levels, items and monsters.

"Orcs & Elves was a perfect fit for the DS," said John Carmack, founder and technical director at id Software, "We were able to take excellent advantage of the 3D hardware and unique user input capabilities, and expand the game to include a lot of wonderful features that we just couldn't fit on the cell phones. Orcs & Elves II is a polished gem of a game for the mobile platforms, opening up new parts of the world to explore, while carrying forward and improving all the elements that were loved about the original game."

Orcs & Elves will ship this holiday season.

During Apple CEO Steve Job's address at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference 2007 today, id Software co-founder John Carmack (pictured left) unexpectedly showed the first of the company's new game technology, referred to as id Tech 5. The engine--which supports PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC and Mac development--is being used internally by id on an as-yet-unannounced new property and will also be available for third party licensing.

Showcasing a highly detailed environment set in desert valley--presumably a race track given the banners, flags, spectator, and vehicle--the ... Read more

Joining a group whose ranks include industry luminaries such as Will Wright, John Carmack, Shigeru Miyamoto, Sid Meier, Peter Molyneux, Richard Garriott, and Trip Hawkins, late M.U.L.E. designer and multiplayer innovator Dani Bunten will next month become the latest inductee into the American Interactive Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame.

Bunten's seminal 1983 multiplayer turn-based strategic simulation M.U.L.E., delivered by her studio Ozark Software for Electronic Arts, was not a commercial success but became a widely played and massively influential work, one frequently cited to this day among designers. The less ambitious but more commercially palatable adventure The Seven Cities of Gold followed, and was a rare strong seller for Bunten, spawning the successor Heart of Africa. Continuing with her multiplayer innovation, Bunten released the modem-compatible Modem Wars, which suffered due to low modem penetration at the time. Two more networked games followed, Command HQ in 1990 and the four-player landmark Global Conquest in 1992, both at friend Sid Meier's studio Microprose.

In 1992, Bunten--born Daniel Bunten--underwent a male-to-female sex change operation and took the name Dani Bunten Berry. Around that time she became less publicly involved in the games industry and her design output dropped. Nonetheless she continued working on games on a more infrequent basis, gave talks, and published her writings on her personal site. About her chosen field of multiplayer items, she remarked, "Art, animation, sound, music, and people playing together! Who could ask for more in a medium!" In 1998, Bunten passed away at the age of 49 due to lung cancer.

Bunten's legacy remained strong in the development community, particularly PC design circles, during and after her life. Just prior to her passing she received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Computer Game Developers Association. Will Wright dedicated his 2000 hit The Sims to her.

The award will be presented at the annual D.I.C.E. summit on February 8. Legendary designer Sid Meier will accept the award on her behalf.

As they had promised, Game Informer has posted the second part of their id Software interview with John Carmack And Todd Hollenshead by amending the original article. Topics in the second part include the Nintendo Wii, episodic gaming, Steam, QuakeCon and the DOOM movie.

Over at the Game Informer website you can find an interview with John Carmack And Todd Hollenshead of id Software. The two are asked about their Emmy wins, engine technology, use of DirectX 10, Microsoft's attempts to make Vista a gaming platform and bringing Xbox Live to the PC, working with Vista, developing for multi-core systems, and thoughts on the Playstation 3 and Microsoft's XNA platform.

GI: After Enemy Territories: Quake Wars ships with the highly modified Doom 3 engine and the MegaTexture support, is it time for you guys to move on from that engine?
Carmack: Yes, the in-house development project that we've been working on is all new technology. It still has some roots in the Doom 3 technology, but almost everything is new in there. We're still not talking about exactly what the project is, but it's a new IP, it's diverting a little bit from the standard id formula and it's not just a first-person shooter. Technically, it's build around an advancement over the MegaTexture technology from Quake Wars. Where that was applied just to the terrain, the version of the new technology applies it into everything, so we can have that level of rich detail on all the surfaces on the entire world. That's the push that we're making with graphics technology. The gameplay is somewhat different from anything that we've of done before. The company is pursuing Wolfenstein, Doom and Quake franchises with other partner developers and all, but we're trying to develop a brand-new franchise with this new one. Hopefully, we'll be talking about that sometime this year, and we'll be able to go ahead and come out of our own little cone of silence about it.

id Software became what it claims is the first independent game developer to win an Emmy, when the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences honored it this week with an award for the technological advances it made in rendering with its QUAKE engine, used in various forms in countless games. Company co-founder and technical director John Carmack was also presented with an award, also recognizing breakthrough advances in rendering technology. Carmack's award was given for his role as lead programmer on the seminal DOOM. The Emmys given to id and Carmack fell into the Technology and Engineering category for Science, Engineering and Technology for Broadband and Personal Television, which includes video game technology. They were presented at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

"This is an incredible honor for John Carmack and id Software," said company CEO Todd Hollenshead, speaking on behalf of id. "We consistently push the limits of gaming technology, and it's great to be recognized for the passion and dedication we put into our games."

The official QuakeCon website has been updated with tournament results. Techfear takes a look at the event's exhibitors and sponsors. Gamernode has a best-of video. And lastly PlanetQuake4.net has videos from John Carmack's keynote speech, id Software's Q&A session and Splash Damage's Enemy Territory: Quake Wars tools session.

id Software's John Carmack gave his annual keynote address at QuakeCon yesterday and PlanetQuake4.net and GameSpy have writeups. Among other things, Carmack mentioned that id's next game will be a 3D action game though they are "are branching out into different directions" with the project. The game will use an advanced version of the MegaTexture technology powering Quake Wars so we should see plenty of outdoor areas. As for his cellphone projects, Carmack had this to say

"The cell phone platform stuff has been really pretty fun," said Carmack on his side projects developing cell phone games. "I look at that and think, 'This would have been such a cool environment to learn programming and game development on.'" "I tell people now, if you want a professional programmer, programming something on the cell phone might be a really good way to start, because you can just do it in Java, and you don't have to learn DX9 to get stuff on the screen. I look back at how I learned programming on an Apple II; there was a lot of benefit to being able to write a couple-of-pages program to see stuff happen on the screen that you really don't get with PC development nowadays."

id's John Carmack is a man of many interests, most of which involve a lot of numbers. You may recall his adventure into cell phone game development with Doom RPG. He's doing it again, this time with a, uh, non-Doom cell phone RPG called Orcs & Elves, created by Carmack and co-developed by id and Fountainhead Entertainment. CNN/Money's Chris Morris had a chat with Carmack about his current plans.

Carmack's foray into the world of cell phone gaming can be partially attributed to his wife, who noticed men standing around the mall playing games on their phones as their wives shopped or tried on clothes.

She started approaching them and asking if the games were any fun. The answer, almost universally, was "No, but it's a good way to kill time."

A role-playing adaptation of "Doom" was Carmack's first stab at cell phone games. Now he's created "Orcs and Elves," which is the first new intellectual property from id Software since "Quake" was released in 1996.

Carmack has been talking about the potential in cell phone gaming for some time now. In his keynote delivered at Game Developers Conference 2004, he pointed out the viability of the platform as a place to generate new IP without the enormous investment, and therefore risk, required to generate a new property on PC or consoles. He likened cell phone development to early PC development, in which very small teams could create a polished product on a shoestring budget. In that vein, he now describes spending two days holed up in a hotel room finishing Orcs & Elves. "My sneaky little plan is we might be able to graduate a franchise from cell phones to one of the big platforms," he said, though he didn't give any indication as to whether this particular game is in line to move on up.

He notes that due to positive reception, the game will probably see a sequel. Visually, it actually looks a bit like Doom, putting a more cartoonish slant on the classic shooter's iconic pseudo-3D look and muddy color design (screenshots here). In the past, Carmack has commented on the unsuitability of cell phone control schemes to action games, which would explain why the traditionally FPS-focused developer has made two RPGs in a row. In fact, he wants to take that even further, with a cell phone MMO. "I have absolutely no interest in going and competing with Blizzard in the high end of that market, he notes, "but a cell phone version might be interesting."

Gamer Within has posted a Q&A with id Software programmer John Carmack, asking him extensively about his MegaTexture technology which is used in the upcoming Enemy Territory: Quake Wars. Thanks -efx-.

The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences recently inducted Richard Garriott into its ranks, and now Sony's slightly less weighty Walk of Game has announced its 2006 recipients. Being honored with Lifetime Achievement awards are acclaimed Civilization designer Sid Meier and id technological guru John Carmack.

Recognized around the world as the "Father of Computer Gaming", Sid and his games have been honored with virtually every major award in the gaming industry. In 1999, Sid was the second person ever to be inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts and Science's "Hall of Fame", and in 2002, he was honored with an induction into the Computer Museum of America's Hall of Fame. Sid put computer gaming on the map with such hallmark games as Civilization, Railroad Tycoon and Pirates, all of which are still revered as the greatest games ever made. ...

In his spare time, Carmack oversees the design, construction and launch of guided rockets through his other venture Armadillo Aerospace.

The Walk of Game does not only accept developers, it also accepts games. This year, three franchises have been added to the list of honorees: Starcraft, Everquest, and Final Fantasy. Also, in keeping with the Walk of Game's somewhat suspect trend of adding actual game characters, Lara Croft herself has been inducted.

Each of the new additions--people, games, and Lara Croft--will receive a star on the physical Walk of Game in Sony's Metreon theater complex in San Francisco. Past inductees are Nolan Bushnell, Shigeru Miyamoto, Halo, Link, Mario, and Sonic The Hedgehog.