John Carmack Gets Lifetime Achievement Award
The daddy of 3D engines that powered Doom and Quake games gets recognized.
John Carmack, one of the geniuses in 3D gaming technology will be recognized in March at 2010 Game Developers Choice Awards for his lifetime of achievement.
Carmack's involvement in the design of game engines led to the Doom and Quake franchises as well as the numerous games based off of his engine code.
The announcement from GDC reads:
John Carmack and his team at id Software, the company he co-founded in 1991, pioneered real-time 3D graphics in game, setting the pace and the standard for other developers to follow. Carmack and his colleagues at id are credited with essentially creating the modern-day first-person shooter (FPS) genre with the PC game Wolfenstein 3D in 1992, and helping to popularize networked multiplayer gaming on PCs with the release of Doom in 1993.
id has gone on to create other major FPS and action game franchises such as Quake, and Carmack and id Software are currently in development of a number of projects, including the free-to-play, web-based title Quake Live, the upcoming new franchise RAGE, and DOOM 4.
As a largely self-taught technology purist, Carmack has devoted himself to pushing the limits of hardware and software. He's helped to set the technical and gameplay standard for modern 3D gaming - and in the process, created some of the most popular video game franchises in history, which is why he's being honored by the Game Developers Choice Awards this year.
Former Game Developers Choice Lifetime Achievement Award recipients include Sid Meier, Shigeru Miyamoto, Will Wright - who will be presenting the award to Carmack at the ceremony on March 11, 2010 during Game Developers Conference 2010 in San Francisco - and other legendary game creators.
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A very bright and talented individual.
Looking at the list of previous recipients I noticed Sid Meier of "Civilization" fame. That brings back a lot of memories from a long long time ago.
Gratz! Idk what I would do without my FPS games
So ... afterwards they shoot him?
Carmack has life left in him. If he gets a hair cut he might even get laid before the end.
well deserved imho. The man created some of the most popular computer games ever written. Wolf 3D, the Doom series and Quake are all under this man's belt. Hats off to you Mr Carmack you are a pioneer in this industry and produced the greatest FPS games known to date. Here's to more success
A very bright and talented individual.Looking at the list of previous recipients I noticed Sid Meier of "Civilization" fame. That brings back a lot of memories from a long long time ago.
+1. Too bad they don't make games like games like Wolfenstien, Quake,etc any more. All we have now are cr@ppy console ports.
f he gets a hair cut he might even get laid before the end.
Fail. He already has a wife and a kid.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_D._Carmack
Gratz! Idk what I would do without my FPS games
It is called the outdoors. I kid.
we miss you man.
all those years ago when you showed Nintendo what gaming could really look like, on the family PC no less.
wish you would do it again now...
It is called the outdoors. I kid.
buy a console lol
This guy deserves a freaking Emmy, Oscar, Nobel Peace Prize (really Obama, you kidding me?), and a moat of sharks with fricking lasers on their heads!
Even then, we wouldn't be doing the man justice.
The Doom Ri-Res pack is the way to go guys.
Download it
Play it
It is the way, the truth and the light.
I still haven't made it as far as the end level of Doom 2 where you see John Romero's head on a spike, it will be interesting to see if they have got a more up to date skin for John's face.
IDDQD IDKFA anybody
good old days i still remember 
this guy has no boundaries
he absolutely deserves it but isn't that too late?
I still have fond memories of playing Doom 1&2 on a Pentium 1 running at 60MHz. Doom 3 is still probably the scariest game I ever played. Now stop making iPhone games and finish Doom 4.
Congrats to Carmack. Somewhere John Romero is kicking himself again, for leaving id.
Congrats to Carmack. Somewhere John Romero is kicking himself again, for leaving id.
At least he is immortalised as a head on a spike
Glad he got the award he deserves it.
Not only for making breakthrough games but for also supporting Linux !
I should mention I had 3D fps games on the Amiga pre Carmack...
Congratulations! How many games have tried to live up to the quakes gamestyle, quick, fast, skillbased FPS.
Not like todays wannabe console games with auto-aim and other crap needed to even control it, then when the word skill or elite gamer is amonth the words i can only laugh my ass off!
Hey... don't forget Carmack's involvement in Commander Keen, either! Why the heck does "real" gaming all have to be FPSs?
Does anyone remember the blurb in Commander Keen 1 where they "previewed" Quake... at the time they bragged about the 256 color graphics and how you would start out as the most powerful person on earth!
I don't think Carmack has taken a picture of himself since that last one was taken back in 1985. Congrats to him tho, the engines he makes are ground breaking.
A renowned game programmer with an asian wife - an idol to every single basement-dwelling atheist.
+1. Too bad they don't make games like games like Wolfenstien, Quake,etc any more. All we have now are cr@ppy console ports.
Huh? Did you just happen to miss the Half Life franchise? The S.T.A.L.K.E.R. franchise? Crysis franchise? Mass Effect franchise? All of those are ongoing and PC-first if memory serves me correctly.
Nope, Mass Effect was 360 first. Dragon Age was one of the most recent to be on PC at the same time, stuff like KotOR was xbox first.
Also the next Crysis will be for consoles too.
Doom as well as the offshoots which were the eventual results of his engine advancements (Hexen, Heretic, etc.) were the games that left my SNES to gather dust. Carmack was the first to really show off the advantages of PC gaming. As long as he continues supporting PC I'll continue supporting his games.
I still have fond memories of playing Doom 1&2 on a Pentium 1 running at 60MHz. Doom 3 is still probably the scariest game I ever played. Now stop making iPhone games and finish Doom 4.
actually, I could see why he might be interested in phones. they pose the same technical challenges of the Doom 3 era on PC. if we are lucky he may actually make an iphone game that you want to buy.
Nope, Mass Effect was 360 first. Dragon Age was one of the most recent to be on PC at the same time, stuff like KotOR was xbox first.Also the next Crysis will be for consoles too.
Okay point taken on Mass Effect. But the next Crysis will still be a PC-based design, not a port, as its two predecessors - and more importantly to the point - of the original argument that there are no modern great PC games without being lamed as a console-first design.
personally i don't like the guy.
he's very talented for sure, but every single interview with him i have read, has him making ridiculous claims or insulting other developers.
personally i don't like the guy. he's very talented for sure, but every single interview with him i have read, has him making ridiculous claims or insulting other developers.
Ridiculous claims that I'm sure he can back up. On his own he was the first to implement real time rendering of 3D graphics and in the process started the consumer 3D accelerator market. I'm sure any "ridiculous" claims he makes are based on his experience and well thought out. The guy is literally a rocket scientist. And well, I'd talk smack too if I was as intelligent as him.
Definitely deserved, but I do feel its a bit late. He (and his team) is arguably one the most influential people(s) in the development of PC gaming, if not the most. Without him I can't imagine where PC gaming would be without his innovations in 3D graphics.
But...what have you done for us lately? iD hasn't really thrown out any titles in a long time that were more than tech demos (a couple exceptions), and his studio doesn't have any real name recognition with the younger generation.
Of course Rage will probably change all that. Bethesda + iD is like Superman and Batman having a baby.