John D. Carmack

John D. Carmack II (born August 20, 1970) is an American game programmer, and a co-founder and technical director of id Software.

Sourced

• In the information age, the barriers [to entry into programming] just aren't there. The barriers are self imposed. If you want to set off and go develop some grand new thing, you don't need millions of dollars of capitalization. You need enough pizza and Diet Coke to stick in your refrigerator, a cheap PC to work on, and the dedication to go through with it. We slept on floors. We waded across rivers.
  • Quoted in David Kushner, Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture Chapter 16, p. 292.

• Honestly, I spend very little time thinking about past events, and I certainly don't have them ranked in any way. I look back and think that I have done a lot of good work over the years, but I am much more excited about what the future holds.
  • When asked about the highlight of his career, Quoted in "John Carmack Interview, January 2006" Video Games Daily (2006-01-03)

• Because of the nature of Moore's law, anything that an extremely clever graphics programmer can do at one point can be replicated by a merely competent programmer some number of years later.
  • Quoted in Tom Ham, "Interview: John Carmack" gamespy.com (2004-01)

• The Xbox 360 is the first console that I've ever worked with that actually has development tools that are better for games than what we've had on PC.
  • Quoted in Seth Schiesel, Microsoft Unveils Games For Its New Xbox 360 The New York Times (2005-10-06)

• Nvidia's OpenGL drivers are my 'gold standard', and it has been quite a while since I have had to report a problem to them, and even their brand new extensions work as documented the first time I try them. When I have a problem on an Nvidia, I assume that it is my fault. With anyone else's drivers, I assume it is their fault.
  • Quoted in Thomas McGuire, Creative 3D Blaster GeForce4 Ti4400 review TechSpot (2002-05-02)

• The situation is so much better for programmers today - a cheap used PC, a linux CD, and an internet account, and you have all the tools necessary to work your way to any level of programming skill you want to shoot for.
  • Quoted in David Kushner, Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture Chapter 14, p. 254.

• Note to self: Pasty-skinned programmers ought not stand in the Mojave desert for multiple hours.
  • Quoted in John Carmack's .plan file (2000-05-15)

• The speed of light sucks.
  • Referring to network latency limitations, Quoted in John Carmack Biography.

• Story in a game is like a story in a porn movie. It's expected to be there, but it's not that important.
  • Quoted in David Kushner, Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture Chapter 8, p. 120.

• I'm good? Seriously?
  • Quoted in John Carmack Biography.

• It's nice to have a game that sells a million copies.
  • Quoted in John Carmack Biography.

• It's done, when it's done.
  • Referring to Doom 3, Quoted in John Carmack Biography.

• It's a good thing Doom 3 is selling very well...
  • Having destroyed a rocket test vehicle worth $35,000 USD, Quoted in John Carmack Biography.

• [A]t its best, entertainment is going to be a subjective thing that can't win for everyone, while at worst, a particular game just becomes a random symbol for petty tribal behavior.
  • Quoted in John Carmack Biography.

• This is a bit more expensive than my previous turbo-Ferrari habit, but not too bad.
  • On spending $2 million on building rockets, Quoted in "Carmack's Jet Vanes" (2004-05-13)

• The idea that I can be presented with a problem, set out to logically solve it with the tools at hand, and wind up with a program that could not be legally used because someone else followed the same logical steps some years ago and filed for a patent on it is horrifying.
  • On software patents, Quoted in "John Carmack: Knee Deep in the Voodoo" Voodo Extreme(2000-09-20)

• Programming in the abstract sense is what I really enjoy. I enjoy lots of different areas of it... I'm taking a great deal of enjoyment writing device drivers for Linux. I could also be having a good time writing a database manager or something because there are always interesting problems.
  • Quoted in Bob Colayco, "John Carmack Interview" Firing Squad(2000-02-09)

• "I was sort of an amoral little jerk when I was young. I was arrogant about being smarter than other people, but unhappy that I wasn't able to spend all my time doing what I wanted. I spent a year in a juvenile home for a first offense after an evaluation by a psychologist went very badly."
  • Quoted in "John Carmack Answers" Slashdot (1999-10-15)

• "But realistically, we don’t have that many problems at QuakeCon. If it was a football convention or something, there would probably be a lot more incidents."
  • Quoted in Billy Berghammer, "CES 2007: John Carmack And Todd Hollenshead Speak" Game Informer (2007-01-09)

• "Personally, I’ve always been of the sleek and minimalist design school: make sure the core play is consistent and strong, then let that idea play out against different environments and challenges, this tends toward focusing on bio-mechanical twitch responses, audio-visual awe, and leaning more toward general strategy and tactics development over specific puzzle solving."
  • Quoted in Brad Cook, "John Carmack: Making the Magic Happen" Apple.com

• "Sharing the code just seems like The Right Thing to Do, it costs us rather little, but it benefits a lot of people in sometimes very significant ways. There are many university research projects, proof of concept publisher demos, and new platform test beds that have leveraged the code. Free software that people value adds wealth to the world."
  • Quoted in Brad Cook, "John Carmack: Making the Magic Happen" Apple.com

• "Advances in technology won’t be as significant as they have been in the past, most games won’t be materially improved by simulating every drop of water in the pond you are wading through. More resources can be profitably spent to make the creation process easier. How things will play out with respect to connectivity and where the data resides and processing takes place is still a very interesting question. The overlap and convergence between desktop computers, consoles, laptops, handheld gaming devices, and cell phones is also interesting. It is all still quite exciting."
  • Quoted in Brad Cook, "John Carmack: Making the Magic Happen" Apple.com

See also

• John Romero
• Timothee Besset

External links

• John Carmack's Blog