id Software LLC () is an American

video game developer A video game developer is a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a large business with em ...

based in

Richardson, Texas Richardson is a city in Dallas and Collin counties in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 United States census, the city had a total population of 119,469. Richardson is an inner suburb of the city of Dallas. It is home to the Universit ...

. It was founded on February 1, 1991, by four members of the computer company

Softdisk Softdisk was a computer program, software and Internet company based in Shreveport, Louisiana. Founded in 1981, its original products were disk magazines (which they termed "magazettes", for "magazine on diskette"). It was affiliated and partly ...

: programmers

John Carmack John D. Carmack II (born August 21, 1970) is an American computer programmer and video game developer. He co-founded the video game company id Software and was the lead programmer of its 1990s games ''Commander Keen'', ''Wolfenstein 3D'', ''Do ...

and

John Romero Alfonso John Romero (born October 28, 1967) is an American video game developer. He co-founded id Software and designed their early games, including ''Wolfenstein 3D'' (1992), ''Doom (1993 video game), Doom'' (1993), ''Doom II'' (1994), ''Hexen ...

game designer Game design is the process of creating and shaping the mechanics, systems, rules, and gameplay of a game. Game design processes apply to board games, card games, dice games, casino games, role-playing games, sports, Wargame (video games), war ga ...

Tom Hall Tom Hall (born September 2, 1964) is an American video game designer best known for his work with id Software on titles such as '' Doom'', '' Wolfenstein 3D'' and ''Commander Keen''. He has also been the co-founder of Ion Storm, together wit ...

, and artist

Adrian Carmack Adrian Carmack (born May 5, 1969) is an American video game artist and one of four co-founders of id Software, along with Tom Hall, John Romero, and John Carmack (no relation). The founders met while working at Softdisks ''Gamer's Edge'' divi ...

. id Software made important technological developments in video game technologies for the PC (running

MS-DOS MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few op ...

and

Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

), including work done for the ''

Wolfenstein ''Wolfenstein'' is a series of alternate history World War II video games originally developed by Muse Software. The majority of the games follow William "B.J." Blazkowicz, an American Army captain, and his fight against the Axis powers. Earlie ...

'', '' Doom'', and '' Quake'' franchises at the time. id's work was particularly important in

3D computer graphics 3D computer graphics, sometimes called Computer-generated imagery, CGI, 3D-CGI or three-dimensional Computer-generated imagery, computer graphics, are graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data (often Cartesian coor ...

technology and in

game engine A game engine is a software framework primarily designed for the development of video games which generally includes relevant libraries and support programs such as a level editor. The "engine" terminology is akin to the term " software engine" u ...

s that are used throughout the

video game industry The video game industry is the tertiary industry, tertiary and quaternary industry, quaternary sectors of the entertainment industry that specialize in the video game development, development, marketing, distribution (marketing), distribution, ...

. The company was involved in the creation of the

first-person shooter A first-person shooter (FPS) is a video game genre, video game centered on gun fighting and other weapon-based combat seen from a First person (video games), first-person perspective, with the player experiencing the action directly through t ...

(FPS) genre: ''

Wolfenstein 3D ''Wolfenstein 3D'' is a 1992 first-person shooter game developed by id Software and published by Apogee Software and FormGen for DOS. It was inspired by the 1981 Muse Software video game '' Castle Wolfenstein'', and is the third installment ...

'' is often considered to be the first true FPS; '' Doom'' is a game that popularized the genre and PC gaming in general; and '' Quake'' was id's first true 3D FPS. On June 24, 2009,

ZeniMax Media ZeniMax Media Inc. is an American video game holding company based in Rockville, Maryland. The company was founded in 1999 by Christopher Weaver and Robert A. Altman as the parent company for Weaver's video game publisher Bethesda Softworks. ...

acquired the company. In 2015, they opened a second studio in

Frankfurt Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

, Germany.

History

Formation

The founders of id Software –

, and

– met in the offices of

based in

Shreveport, Louisiana Shreveport ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is the List of municipalities in Louisiana, third-most populous city in Louisiana after New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Baton Rouge. The bulk of Shreveport is in Caddo Parish, Lo ...

, developing multiple games for Softdisk's monthly publishing, including ''

Dangerous Dave ''Dangerous Dave'' is a 1988 platform game by John Romero. It was developed for the Apple II and MS-DOS as an example game to accompany his article about his GraBASIC, an Applesoft BASIC add-on, for the UpTime (disk magazine), ''UpTime'' disk m ...

''. Along with another Softdisk employee, Lane Roathe, they had formed a small group they called Ideas from the Deep (IFD), a name that Romero and Roathe had come up with. In September 1990, Carmack developed an efficient way to rapidly side-scroll graphics on the PC. Upon making this breakthrough, Carmack and Hall stayed up late into the night making a replica of the first level of the popular 1988 NES game '' Super Mario Bros. 3'', inserting stock graphics of Romero's Dangerous Dave character in lieu of Mario. When Romero saw the demo, entitled ''Dangerous Dave in Copyright Infringement'', he realized that Carmack's breakthrough could have potential. The IFD team moonlighted over a week and over two weekends to create a larger demo of their PC version of ''Super Mario Bros. 3''. They sent their work to

Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto. It develops, publishes, and releases both video games and video game consoles. The history of Nintendo began when craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi ...

. According to Romero, Nintendo had told them that the demo was impressive, but "they didn't want their intellectual property on anything but their own hardware, so they told us Good Job and You Can't Do This". While the pair had not readily shared the demo though acknowledged its existence in the years since, a working copy of the demo was discovered in July 2021 and preserved at the Museum of Play. Around the same time in 1990, Scott Miller of Apogee Software learned of the group and their exceptional talent, having played one of Romero's Softdisk games, ''Dangerous Dave'', and contacted Romero under the guise of multiple fan letters that Romero came to realize all originated from the same address. When he confronted Miller, Miller explained that the deception was necessary since Softdisk screened letters it received. Although disappointed by not actually having received mail from multiple fans, Romero and other Softdisk developers began proposing ideas to Miller. One of these was ''

Commander Keen ''Commander Keen'' is a series of side-scrolling platform video games developed primarily by id Software. The series consists of six main episodes, a "lost" episode, and a final game; all but the final game were released for MS-DOS in 1990 and ...

'', a side-scrolling game that incorporated the previous work they had done on the ''Super Mario Bros. 3'' demonstration. The first ''Commander Keen'' game, '' Commander Keen in Invasion of the Vorticons'', was released through Apogee in December 1990, which became a very successful

shareware Shareware is a type of proprietary software that is initially shared by the owner for trial use at little or no cost. Often the software has limited functionality or incomplete documentation until the user sends payment to the software developer. ...

game. After their first royalty check, Romero, Carmack, and

(no relation) decided to start their own company. After hiring Hall, the group finished the ''Commander Keen'' series, then hired Jay Wilbur and

Kevin Cloud Kevin Cloud is an American video game artist. He graduated from LSU-Shreveport in 1987 with a degree in political science. Cloud acquired his first full-time job as a computer artist at Softdisk in 1985. He was hired by id Software on March 10 ...

and began working on ''

''. id Software was officially founded by Romero, John and Adrian Carmack and Hall on February 1, 1991. The name "id" came out of their previous IFD; Roathe had left the group, and they opted to drop the "F" to leave "id". They initially used "id" as an initialism for "In Demand", but by the time of the fourth ''Commander Keen'' game, they opted to let "id" stand out "as a cool word", according to Romero. In September 1991, they relocated to

Madison, Wisconsin Madison is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. It is the List of municipalities in Wisconsin by population, second-most populous city in the state, with a population of 269,840 at the 2020 Uni ...

. Later on April 1, 1992, they relocated to an office in

Mesquite, Texas Mesquite is a city in the U.S. state of Texas, located in Dallas County, Texas, Dallas County with portions extending into Kaufman County, Texas, Kaufman County. The population was 150,108 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, and maki ...

. The shareware distribution method was initially employed by id Software through Apogee Software to sell their products, such as the ''Commander Keen'', ''Wolfenstein'' and ''Doom'' games. They would release the first part of their trilogy as shareware, then sell the other two installments by

mail order Mail order is the buying of goods or services by mail delivery. The buyer places an order for the desired products with the merchant through some remote methods such as: * Sending an order form in the mail * Placing an order by telephone call ...

. Only later (about the time of the release of ''Doom II'') did id Software release their games via more traditional shrink-wrapped boxes in stores (through other game publishers). After ''Wolfenstein 3D''s great success, id began working on '' Doom''. After Hall left the company,

Sandy Petersen Carl Sanford Joslyn "Sandy" Petersen (born September 16, 1955) is an American game designer. He worked at Chaosium, contributing to the development of ''RuneQuest'' and creating the acclaimed and influential horror role-playing game Call of Cthul ...

and Dave Taylor were hired before the release of ''Doom'' in December 1993.

The end of the classic lineup

''Quake'' was released on June 22, 1996 and was considered a difficult game to develop due to creative differences. Animosity grew within the company and it caused a conflict between Carmack and Romero, which led the latter to leave id after the game's release. Soon after, other staff left the company as well such as Michael Abrash, Shawn Green, Jay Wilbur, Petersen and Mike Wilson. Petersen claimed in July 2021 that the lack of a team leader was the cause of it all. In fact, he volunteered to take lead as he had five years of experience as project manager in

MicroProse MicroProse is an American video game publisher and video game developer, developer founded by Bill Stealey, Sid Meier, and Andy Hollis in 1982. It developed and published numerous games, including starting the ''Civilization (series), Civilizat ...

but he was turned down by Carmack.

ZeniMax Media and Microsoft

On June 24, 2009, it was announced that id Software had been acquired by

(owner of

Bethesda Softworks Bethesda Softworks LLC is an American video game publisher based in Rockville, Maryland. The company was founded by Christopher Weaver in 1986 as a Division (business), division of Media Technology Limited. In 1999, it became a subsidiary of Z ...

). The deal would eventually affect publishing deals id Software had before the acquisition, namely ''Rage'', which was being published through Electronic Arts. ZeniMax received in July a $105 million investment from StrongMail Systems for the id acquisition, it's unknown if that was the exact price of the deal. id Software moved from the "cube-shaped"

Mesquite Mesquite is a common name for some plants in the genera ''Neltuma'' and '' Strombocarpa'', which contain over 50 species of spiny, deep-rooted leguminous shrubs and small trees. They are native to dry areas in the Americas. Until 2022, these ge ...

office to a location in

during the spring of 2011. On June 26, 2013, id Software president Todd Hollenshead quit after 17 years of service. On November 22, 2013, it was announced id Software co-founder and Technical Director John Carmack had fully resigned from the company to work full-time at

Oculus VR Reality Labs, formerly Oculus VR, is a business and research unit of Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook Inc.) that produces virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) hardware and software, including virtual reality headsets such as the Qu ...

which he joined as CTO in August 2013. He was the last of the original founders to leave the company. Tim Willits left the company in 2019. ZeniMax Media was acquired by

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

for in March 2021 and became part of

Xbox Game Studios Xbox Game Studios (previously known as Microsoft Studios, Microsoft Game Studios, and Microsoft Games) is an American video game publisher based in Redmond, Washington. It was established in March 2000, spun out from an internal Games Group, fo ...

Company name

The company writes its name with a lowercase ''id'', which is pronounced as in "did" or "kid", and, according to the book '' Masters of Doom'', the group identified itself as "Ideas from the Deep" in the early days of Softdisk but that, in the end, the name 'id' came from the phrase "in demand". Disliking "in demand" as "lame", someone suggested a connection with

Sigmund Freud Sigmund Freud ( ; ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating psychopathology, pathologies seen as originating fro ...

's psychological concept of id, which the others accepted. Evidence of the reference can be found as early as ''Wolfenstein 3D'' with the statement "that's id, as in the id, ego, and superego in the psyche" appearing in the game's documentation. Prior to an update to the website, id's History page made a direct reference to Freud.

Key employees

– Artist (1992–2006), executive producer (2007–present) * Donna Jackson – Office manager / ''"id mom"'' (1994–present) * Marty Stratton – Director of Business Development (1997–2006), executive producer (2006–present), studio director (2019–present) * Hugo Martin – Creative director (2013–present)

Former key employees

Arranged in chronological order: *

– Co-founder,

, level designer, writer, creative director (1991–1993). After a dispute with John Carmack over the designs of ''Doom'', Hall was forced to resign from id Software in August 1993. He joined 3D Realms soon afterwards. *

Bobby Prince Robert Caskin Prince III, known professionally as Bobby Prince, is an American video game composer and sound designer. He has worked as an independent contractor for several gaming companies, most notably id Software and 3D Realms. Some of hi ...

– Music composer (1991–1994). A freelance musician who went on to pursue other projects after ''Doom II''. * Dave Taylor –

Programmer A programmer, computer programmer or coder is an author of computer source code someone with skill in computer programming. The professional titles Software development, ''software developer'' and Software engineering, ''software engineer' ...

(1993–1996). Taylor left id Software and co-founded Crack dot Com. *

– Co-founder,

, programmer (1991–1996). Romero resigned on August 6, 1996. He established Ion Storm along with Hall on November 15, 1996. * Michael Abrash – Programmer (1995–1996). Returned to

after the release of ''Quake'', but eventually worked with Carmack again at

Reality Labs Reality Labs, formerly Oculus VR, is a business and research unit of Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook Inc.) that produces virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) hardware and software, including virtual reality headsets such as the Qu ...

. * Shawn Green – Software support (1991–1996). Left id Software to join Romero at Ion Storm. * Jay Wilbur – Business manager (1991–1997). Left id Software after Romero's departure and joined

Epic Games Epic Games, Inc. is an American Video game developer, video game and software development, software developer and video game publisher, publisher based in Cary, North Carolina. The company was founded by Tim Sweeney (game developer), Tim Sween ...

in 1997. *

– Level designer (1993–1997). Left id Software for

Ensemble Studios Ensemble Studios was an American video game developer. It was founded by Tony Goodman in 1994 and incorporated the following year. It borrowed the name of Ensemble Corporation, a consulting firm founded by Goodman in 1990. It was acquired by ...

in 1997. * Mike Wilson – PR and marketing (1994–1997). Left id Software to become CEO of Ion Storm with Romero. Left a year later to found Gathering of Developers and later

Devolver Digital Devolver Digital, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Austin, Texas, specializing in the publishing of indie games. The company was founded in June 2009 by Nigel Lowrie, Harry Miller, Graeme Struthers, Rick Stults, and Mike Wil ...

. * American McGee – Level designer (1993–1998). McGee was fired after the release of ''Quake II''. He joined

Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by former Apple Inc., Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry ...

and created ''

American McGee's Alice ''American McGee's Alice'' is a 2000 third-person dark fantasy action-adventure video game developed by Rogue Entertainment under the direction of designer American McGee and published by Electronic Arts under the EA Games banner. The game ...

''. *

– Co-founder, artist (1991–2005). Carmack was forced out of id Software after the release of ''Doom 3'' because he would not sell his stock at a low price to the other owners. Adrian sued id Software and the lawsuit was settled during the Zenimax acquisition in 2009. * Todd Hollenshead – President (1996–2013) Left id Software on good terms to work at

Nerve Software Nerve Software, LLC was an American video game developer that was co-founded by ex-id Software employee Brandon James. Many of the original employees at Nerve were previously employed by Rogue Entertainment, another U.S.-based software company ...

. *

– Co-founder, technical director (1991–2013). He joined

on August 7, 2013, as a side project, but unable to handle two companies at the same time, Carmack resigned from id Software on November 22, 2013, to pursue Oculus full-time, making him the last founding member to leave the company. * Tim Willits – Level designer (1995–2001), creative director (2002–2011), studio director (2012–2019). He is now the chief creative officer at Saber Interactive. * Robert Duffy – Chief Technology Officer (1998–2024). Robert left id Software in January 2024.

Timeline

ImageSize = width:800 height:auto barincrement:20 PlotArea = left:100 bottom:60 top:0 right:15 Alignbars = justify DateFormat = yyyy Period = from:1991 till:2022 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal format:yyyy Legend = orientation:horizontal position:bottom ScaleMajor = increment:2 start:1991 Colors = id:code value:blue legend:Programming id:design value:green legend:Design id:art value:purple legend:Art id:management value:red legend:Management BarData = bar:JCarmack text:"John Carmack" bar:ACarmack text:"Adrian Carmack" bar:Romero text:"John Romero" bar:Hall text:"Tom Hall" bar:Wilbur text:"Jay Wilbur" bar:Green text:"Shawn Green" bar:Cloud text:"Kevin Cloud" bar:Prince text:"Bobby Prince" bar:Taylor text:"Dave Taylor" bar:Petersen text:"Sandy Petersen" bar:McGee text:"American McGee" bar:Wilson text:"Mike Wilson" bar:Jackson text:"Donna Jackson" bar:Abrash text:"Michael Abrash" bar:Willits text:"Tim Willits" bar:Hollenshead text:"Todd Hollenshead" bar:Stratton text:"Marty Stratton" bar:Duffy text:"Robert Duffy" bar:Martin text:"Hugo Martin" PlotData= width:11 textcolor:black align:left anchor:from shift:(10,-4) bar:JCarmack from:1991 till:2013 color:code bar:ACarmack from:1991 till:2005 color:art bar:Romero from:1991 till:1996 color:code bar:Romero from:1991 till:1996 color:design width:3 bar:Hall from:1991 till:1993 color:design bar:Wilbur from:1991 till:1997 color:management bar:Green from:1993 till:1996 color:code bar:Cloud from:1992 till:end color:art bar:Cloud from:2007 till:end color:management bar:Prince from:1992 till:1994 color:art bar:Taylor from:1993 till:1994 color:code bar:Petersen from:1993 till:1997 color:design bar:McGee from:1994 till:1998 color:design bar:Wilson from:1994 till:1997 color:management bar:Jackson from:1994 till:end color:management bar:Abrash from:1995 till:1996 color:code bar:Willits from:1995 till:2011 color:design bar:Willits from:2002 till:2011 color:management width:3 bar:Willits from:2011 till:2019 color:management bar:Hollenshead from:1996 till:2013 color:management bar:Stratton from:1997 till:end color:management bar:Duffy from:1998 till:end color:code bar:Martin from:2013 till:end color:art bar:Martin from:2013 till:end color:design width:3

Game development

Technology

Starting with their first shareware game series, ''Commander Keen'', id Software has licensed the core source code for the game, or what is more commonly known as the engine. Brainstormed by

, id Software held a weekend session titled "The id Summer Seminar" in the summer of 1991 with prospective buyers including Scott Miller, George Broussard, Ken Rogoway, Jim Norwood and Todd Replogle. One of the nights, id Software put together an impromptu game known as "Wac-Man" to demonstrate not only the technical prowess of the ''Keen'' engine, but also how it worked internally. id Software has developed their own game engine for each of their titles when moving to the next technological milestone, including ''Commander Keen'', ''Wolfenstein 3D'', '' ShadowCaster'', ''Doom'', ''Quake'', ''Quake II'', and ''Quake III'', as well as the technology used in making ''Doom 3''. After being used first for id Software's in-house game, the engines are licensed out to other developers. According to ''Eurogamer.net'', "id Software has been synonymous with PC game engines since the concept of a detached game engine was first popularized". During the mid to late 1990s, "the launch of each successive round of technology it's been expected to occupy a headlining position", with the ''Quake III'' engine being most widely adopted of their engines. However

id Tech 4 id Tech 4, popularly known as the ''Doom 3'' engine, is a game engine developed by id Software and first used in the video game ''Doom 3''. The engine was designed by John D. Carmack, John Carmack, who also created previous game engines, such a ...

had far fewer licensees than the

Unreal Engine Unreal Engine (UE) is a 3D computer graphics game engine developed by Epic Games, first showcased in the 1998 first-person shooter video game '' Unreal''. Initially developed for PC first-person shooters, it has since been used in a variety of ...

from

, due to the long development time that went into ''Doom 3'' which id Software had to release before licensing out that engine to others. Despite his enthusiasm for open source code, Carmack revealed in 2011 that he had no interest in licensing the technology to the mass market. Beginning with ''Wolfenstein 3D'', he felt bothered when third-party companies started "pestering" him to license the id tech engine, adding that he wanted to focus on new technology instead of providing support to existing ones. He felt very strongly that this was not why he signed up to be a game programmer for; to be "holding the hands" of other game developers. Carmack commended Epic Games for pursuing the licensing to the market beginning with Unreal Engine 3. Even though the said company has gained more success with its game engine than id Software over the years, Carmack had no regrets by his decision and continued to focus on open source until his departure from the company in 2013. In conjunction with his self-professed affinity for sharing

source code In computing, source code, or simply code or source, is a plain text computer program written in a programming language. A programmer writes the human readable source code to control the behavior of a computer. Since a computer, at base, only ...

, John Carmack has open-sourced most of the major id Software engines under the

GNU General Public License The GNU General Public Licenses (GNU GPL or simply GPL) are a series of widely used free software licenses, or ''copyleft'' licenses, that guarantee end users the freedom to run, study, share, or modify the software. The GPL was the first ...

. Historically, the

for each engine has been released once the code base is 5 years old. Consequently, many home grown projects have sprung up porting the code to different platforms, cleaning up the source code, or providing major modifications to the core engine. ''Wolfenstein 3D'', ''Doom'' and ''Quake'' engine ports are ubiquitous to nearly all platforms capable of running games, such as hand-held PCs, iPods, the PSP, the Nintendo DS and more. Impressive core modifications include GZDoom, which adds to the Doom engine modern hardware accelerared renderers and a scripting system called ZScript, and was also utilized in the creation of ECWolf for ''

'' and Raze for the

Build engine The Build Engine is a first-person shooter engine created by Ken Silverman, author of ''Ken's Labyrinth'', for 3D Realms. Like the Doom engine, ''Doom'' engine, the Build Engine represents its world on a 2D computer graphics, two-dimensional grid ...

. Meanwhile DarkPlaces adds stencil shadow volumes into the original ''Quake'' engine along with a more efficient network protocol. Other projects include Yamagi Quake II,

ioquake3 id Tech 3, popularly known as the ''Quake III Arena'' engine, is a game engine developed by id Software for its 1999 game ''Quake III Arena''. It has subsequently been used in numerous games. Commercially, id Tech 3 competed with early version ...

, and dhewm3, which maintain the goal of cleaning up the source code, adding features and fixing bugs. Even earlier id Software code, namely for '' Hovertank 3D'' and ''

Catacomb 3D ''Catacomb 3-D'' (also known as ''Catacomb 3-D: A New Dimension'', ''Catacomb 3-D: The Descent'', and ''Catacombs 3'') is a first-person shooter video game, the third in the '' Catacomb'' series, the first of which to feature 3D computer graphic ...

'', was released in June 2014 by Flat Rock Software. The GPL release of the ''Quake III'' engine's source code was moved from the end of 2004 to August 2005 as the engine was still being licensed to commercial customers who would otherwise be concerned over the sudden loss in value of their recent investment. On August 4, 2011,

revealed during his

QuakeCon QuakeCon is a yearly convention held by ZeniMax Media to celebrate and promote the major franchises of id Software and other studios owned by ZeniMax. It includes a large, paid, bring-your-own-computer ( BYOC) LAN party event with a competiti ...

2011 keynote that they will be releasing the source code of the ''

Doom 3 ''Doom 3'' is a 2004 first-person shooter, first-person shooter game developed by id Software and published by Activision. ''Doom 3'' was originally released for Microsoft Windows on August 3, 2004, adapted for Linux later that year, and Vide ...

'' engine (

) during the year. id Software publicly stated they would not support the

Wii The Wii ( ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America, and in December 2006 for most other regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major home game console, f ...

console (possibly due to technical limitations), although they have since indicated that they may release titles on that platform (although it would be limited to their games released during the 1990s). They continued this policy with the

Wii U The Wii U ( ) is a home video game console developed by Nintendo as the successor to the Wii. Released in late 2012, it is the first eighth-generation video game console and competed with Microsoft's Xbox One and Sony's PlayStation 4. The W ...

but for

Nintendo Switch The is a video game console developed by Nintendo and released worldwide in most regions on March 3, 2017. Released in the middle of the Eighth generation of video game consoles, eighth generation of home consoles, the Switch succeeded the ...

, they collaborated with

Panic Button A panic alarm is an electronic device that can easily be activated to request help during an emergency where danger to persons or property exists. It is designed to contact assistance quicker, easier, and simpler (in some cases, less conspicuo ...

starting with 2016's '' Doom'' and '' Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus''. Since id Software revealed their engine

id Tech 5 id Tech 5 is a proprietary software, proprietary game engine developed by id Software. It followed its predecessors, id Tech 1, id Tech 2, 2, id Tech 3, 3 and id Tech 4, 4, all of which had subsequently been published under the GNU General Publi ...

, they call their engines " id Tech", followed by a version number. Older engines have retroactively been renamed to fit this scheme, with the ''Doom'' engine as id Tech 1.

IMF Music File Format

IMF ("id music file" or "id's music format") is an

audio file format An audio file format is a file format for storing digital audio data on a computer system. The bit layout of the audio data (excluding metadata) is called the audio coding format and can be uncompressed, or audio compression (data), compressed t ...

created by id Software for the AdLib

sound card A sound card (also known as an audio card) is an internal expansion card that provides input and output of audio signals to and from a computer under the control of computer programs. The term ''sound card'' is also applied to external audio ...

for use in their video games. The format is similar to

MIDI Musical Instrument Digital Interface (; MIDI) is an American-Japanese technical standard that describes a communication protocol, digital interface, and electrical connectors that connect a wide variety of electronic musical instruments, ...

, in that it defines musical notes, and does not support sampled

digital audio Digital audio is a representation of sound recorded in, or converted into, digital signal (signal processing), digital form. In digital audio, the sound wave of the audio signal is typically encoded as numerical sampling (signal processing), ...

for sound effects. IMF files store the actual bytes sent to the AdLib's OPL2 chip, which uses

FM synthesis Frequency modulation synthesis (or FM synthesis) is a form of sound synthesis whereby the frequency of a waveform is changed by modulating its frequency with a modulator. The (instantaneous) frequency of an oscillator is altered in accordance wi ...

to produce audio output. The format is based on the AdLib command syntax, with a few modifications. Due to the limited features and relatively low sound quality, modern games no longer use IMF music. A large number of songs in id Software's early games (such as ''Commander Keen'' and ''Wolfenstein 3D'') were composed by

in IMF format. Other game developers like Apogee Software also used this format in their games (such as '' Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure'', '' Duke Nukem II'', and '' Monster Bash'').

Linux gaming

id Software was an early pioneer in the

Linux gaming Linux-based operating systems can be used for playing video games. Because few games natively support the Linux kernel, various software has been made to run Windows games, software, and programs, such as Wine, Cedega, DXVK, and Proton, and ma ...

market, and id Software's

Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...

games have been some of the most popular of the platform. Many id Software games won the Readers' and Editors' Choice awards of

Linux Journal ''Linux Journal'' (''LJ'') is an American monthly technology magazine originally published by Specialized System Consultants, Inc. (SSC) in Seattle, Washington since 1994. In December 2006 the publisher changed to Belltown Media, Inc. in Hous ...

. Some id Software titles ported to Linux are '' Doom'' (the first id Software game to be ported), '' Quake'', ''

Quake II ''Quake II'' is a 1997 first-person shooter, first-person shooter game developed by id Software and published by Activision. It is the second installment of the Quake (series), ''Quake'' series, following ''Quake (video game), Quake''. Develope ...

'', '' Quake III Arena'', ''

Return to Castle Wolfenstein ''Return to Castle Wolfenstein'' is a 2001 first-person shooter, first-person shooter game developed by Gray Matter Studios and published by Activision. It was initially released for Microsoft Windows and subsequently for the PlayStation 2 (as '' ...

'', '' Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory'', ''

'', '' Quake 4'', and '' Enemy Territory: Quake Wars''. Since id Software and some of its licensees released the source code for some of their previous games, several games which were not ported (such as ''

'', '' Catacomb Abyss'', ''

'', '' Spear of Destiny'', '' Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold'', '' Blake Stone: Planet Strike'', '' Super 3D Noah's Ark'', '' Rise of the Triad'', '' Doom 64'', '' Strife'', ''

Heretic Heresy is any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs, particularly the accepted beliefs or religious law of a religious organization. A heretic is a proponent of heresy. Heresy in Christianity, Judai ...

'', '' Hexen'', '' Hexen II'', '' Star Trek: Voyager – Elite Force Holomatch'', '' Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast'', '' Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy'') can run on Linux and other

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware and software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ...

s natively through the use of

source port A source port is a software project based on the source code of a game engine that allows the game to be played on operating systems or computing platforms with which the game was not originally compatible. Description Source ports are often ...

s. ''

Quake Live ''Quake Live'' is a first-person arena shooter video game by id Software. It is an updated version of '' Quake III Arena'' that was originally designed as a free-to-play game launched via a web browser plug-in. On September 17, 2014, the game ...

'' also launched with Linux support, although this, alongside

OS X macOS, previously OS X and originally Mac OS X, is a Unix, Unix-based operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 2001. It is the current operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. With ...

support, was later removed when changed to a standalone title. The tradition of porting to Linux was first started by Dave D. Taylor, with Zoid Kirsch doing some later porting. Since '' Quake III Arena'', Linux porting had been handled by Timothee Besset. The majority of all

games, including those made by other developers, have a Linux client available, the only current exceptions being ''

'' and '' Brink''. Similarly, almost all of the games utilizing the ''Quake II'' engine have Linux ports, the only exceptions being those created by Ion Storm ('' Daikatana'' later received a community port). Despite fears by the Linux gaming community that

would not be ported to that platform, Timothee Besset in his blog stated "I'll be damned if we don't find the time to get Linux builds done". Besset explained that id Software's primary justification for releasing Linux builds was better code quality, along with a technical interest in the platform. However, on January 26, 2012, Besset announced that he had left id. John Carmack has expressed his stance with regard to Linux builds in the past. In December 2000 Todd Hollenshead expressed support for Linux: "All said, we will continue to be a leading supporter of the Linux platform because we believe it is a technically sound OS and is the OS of choice for many server ops." However, on April 25, 2012, Carmack revealed that "there are no plans for a native Linux client" of id's most recent game, '' Rage''. In February 2013, Carmack argued for improving emulation as the "proper technical direction for gaming on Linux", though this was also due to ZeniMax's refusal to support "unofficial binaries", given all prior ports (except for ''Quake III Arena'', via

Loki Software Loki Software, Inc. (Loki Entertainment) was an American video game developer based in Tustin, California, that porting, ported several video games from Microsoft Windows to Linux. It took its name from the Norse deity Loki. Although successful ...

, and earlier versions of ''Quake Live'') having only ever been unofficial. Carmack didn't mention official games '' Quake: The Offering'' and '' Quake II: Colossus'' ported by id Software to Linux and published by Macmillan Computer Publishing USA. Despite no longer releasing native binaries, id was an early adopter of Stadia, a

cloud gaming Cloud gaming, sometimes called gaming on demand or game streaming, is a type of Online game, online gaming that runs video games on remote Server (computing), servers and Streaming media, streams the game's output (video, sound, etc.) directly to ...

service powered by Debian Linux servers, and the cross-platform Vulkan API. A Linux version of '' Doom'' from 2016 was tested internally, while it and its sequel '' Doom Eternal'' can be run using

Wine Wine is an alcoholic drink made from Fermentation in winemaking, fermented fruit. Yeast in winemaking, Yeast consumes the sugar in the fruit and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Wine is most often made f ...

and

Proton A proton is a stable subatomic particle, symbol , Hydron (chemistry), H+, or 1H+ with a positive electric charge of +1 ''e'' (elementary charge). Its mass is slightly less than the mass of a neutron and approximately times the mass of an e ...

Games

''Commander Keen''

'' Commander Keen in Invasion of the Vorticons'', a

platform game A platformer (also called a platform game, and sometimes a jump 'n' run game) is a subgenre of action game in which the core objective is to move the player character between points in an environment. Platform games are characterized by levels wi ...

in the style of those for the

Nintendo Entertainment System The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan on 15 July 1983 as the and was later released as the redesigned NES in several test markets in the ...

, was one of the first

games with smooth horizontal-scrolling. Published by Apogee Software, the title and follow-ups brought id Software success as a shareware developer. It is the series of id Software that designer

is most affiliated with. The first ''Commander Keen'' trilogy was released on December 14, 1990.

''Wolfenstein''

The company's breakout product was released on May 5, 1992: ''

'', a

(FPS) with smooth 3D graphics that were unprecedented in computer games, and with violent gameplay that many gamers found engaging. After essentially founding an entire genre with this game, id Software created '' Doom'', '' Doom II: Hell on Earth'', '' Quake'', ''

'', '' Quake III Arena'', ''

and Quake 4.'' Each of these first-person shooters featured progressively higher levels of graphical technology. ''Wolfenstein 3D'' spawned a prequel and a sequel: the prequel called '' Spear of Destiny'', and the second, ''

'', using the id Tech 3

engine An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power ge ...

. A third ''Wolfenstein'' sequel, simply titled ''

'', was released by

Raven Software Raven Software Corporation (trade name: Raven; formerly Raven Software, Inc.) is an American video game developer based in Middleton, Wisconsin, and part of Activision. Founded in May 1990 by brothers Brian and Steve Raffel, the company is most ...

, using the

. Another sequel, named '' Wolfenstein: The New Order''; was developed by

MachineGames MachineGames Sweden AB is a Swedish video game developer based in Uppsala. The studio was founded in 2009 by seven former employees of Starbreeze Studios, including founder Magnus Högdahl. After unsuccessfully pitching game ideas to several ...

using the

engine and released in 2014, with it getting a prequel by the name of '' Wolfenstein: The Old Blood'' a year later; followed by a direct sequel titled '' Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus'' in 2017.

''Doom''

Eighteen months after their release of ''Wolfenstein 3D'', on December 10, 1993, id Software released '' Doom'' which would again set new standards for graphic quality and graphic violence in computer gaming. ''Doom'' featured a

sci-fi Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

/ horror setting with graphic quality that had never been seen on personal computers or even

video game console A video game console is an electronic device that Input/output, outputs a video signal or image to display a video game that can typically be played with a game controller. These may be home video game console, home consoles, which are generally ...

s. ''Doom'' became a cultural phenomenon and its violent theme would eventually launch a new wave of

criticism Criticism is the construction of a judgement about the negative or positive qualities of someone or something. Criticism can range from impromptu comments to a written detailed response. , ''the act of giving your opinion or judgment about the ...

decrying the dangers of violence in video games. ''Doom'' was ported to numerous platforms, inspired many knock-offs, and was eventually followed by the technically similar '' Doom II: Hell on Earth''. id Software made its mark in video game history with the

release of ''Doom'', and eventually revisited the theme of this game in 2004 with their release of ''

''. John Carmack said in an interview at QuakeCon 2007 that there would be a '' Doom 4''. It began development on May 7, 2008. '' Doom 2016'', the fourth installation of the ''Doom'' series, was released on Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on May 13, 2016, and was later released on Nintendo Switch on November 10, 2017. In June 2018, the sequel to the 2016 ''Doom'', '' Doom Eternal'' was officially announced at E3 2018 with a teaser trailer, followed by a gameplay reveal at

in August 2018.

''Quake''

On June 22, 1996, the release of '' Quake'' marked the third milestone in id Software history. ''Quake'' combined a cutting edge fully 3D engine, the ''Quake'' engine, with a distinctive art style to create critically acclaimed graphics for its time. Audio was not neglected either, having recruited

Nine Inch Nails Nine Inch Nails, commonly abbreviated as NIN (stylized as NIИ), is an American industrial rock band formed in Cleveland, Ohio in 1988. Its members are the singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer Trent Reznor and his frequent col ...

frontman

Trent Reznor Michael Trent Reznor (born May 17, 1965) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and composer. He came to prominence as the founder, lead singer, multi-instrumentalist, and primary songwriter of the industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails. T ...

to facilitate unique sound effects and ambient music for the game. (A small homage was paid to Nine Inch Nails in the form of the band's logo appearing on the ammunition boxes for the nailgun weapon.) It also included the work of Michael Abrash. Furthermore, ''Quakes main innovation, the capability to play a deathmatch (competitive gameplay between living opponents instead of against computer-controlled characters) over the Internet (especially through the add-on '' QuakeWorld''), seared the title into the minds of gamers as another smash hit. In 2008, id Software was honored at the 59th Annual

Technology & Engineering Emmy Award The Technology and Engineering Emmy Awards, or Technology and Engineering Emmys, are one of two sets of Emmy Awards that are presented for outstanding achievement in engineering development in the television industry. The Technology and Engineer ...

s for the pioneering work ''Quake'' represented in user modifiable games. id Software is the only game development company ever honored twice by the

National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS), also known as the National Television Academy until 2007, is an American professional service organization founded in 1955 for "the advancement of the arts and sciences of televisio ...

, having been given an Emmy Award in 2007 for creation of the 3D technology that underlies modern shooter video games. The ''Quake'' series continued with ''

'' in 1997. However, the game is not a storyline sequel, and instead focuses on an assault on an alien planet, Stroggos, in retaliation for Strogg attacks on

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...

. Most of the subsequent entries in the ''Quake'' franchise follow this storyline. '' Quake III Arena'' (1999), the next title in the series, has minimal plot, but centers around the "Arena Eternal", a gladiatorial setting created by an alien race known as the Vadrigar and populated by combatants plucked from various points in time and space. Among these combatants are some characters either drawn from or based on those in ''Doom'' (" Doomguy"), ''Quake'' (Ranger, Wrack), and ''Quake II'' (Bitterman, Tank Jr., Grunt, Stripe). '' Quake IV'' (2005) picks up where ''Quake II'' left off – finishing the war between the humans and Strogg. The spin-off '' Enemy Territory: Quake Wars'' acts as a prequel to ''Quake II'', when the Strogg first invade Earth. ''Quake IV'' and ''Enemy Territory: Quake Wars'' were made by outside developers and not id. There have also been other spin-offs such as Quake Mobile in 2005 and ''

'', a web browser based modification of ''Quake III''. A game called ''Quake Arena DS'' was planned and canceled for the

Nintendo DS The is a foldable handheld game console produced by Nintendo, released globally across 2004 and 2005. The DS, an initialism for "Developers' System" or "Dual Screen", introduced distinctive new features to handheld games: two LCD screens worki ...

. John Carmack stated, at

2007, that the ''

'' engine would be used for a new ''Quake'' game.

''Rage''

Todd Hollenshead announced in May 2007 that id Software had begun working on an all new series that would be using a new engine. Hollenshead also mentioned that the title would be completely developed in-house, marking the first game since 2004's ''

'' to be done so. At 2007's

WWDC The Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) is an information technology conference held annually by Apple Inc. The conference is currently held at Apple Park in California. The event is used to showcase new software and technologies in the macO ...

, John Carmack showed the new engine called

. Later that year, at

2007, the title of the new game was revealed as '' Rage''. On July 14, 2008, id Software announced at the 2008 E3 event that they would be publishing ''Rage'' through

, and not id's longtime publisher

Activision Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Santa Monica, California. It serves as the publishing business for its parent company, Activision Blizzard, and consists of several subsidiary studios. Activision is one o ...

. However, since then ZeniMax has also announced that they are publishing ''Rage'' through

. On August 12, 2010, during Quakecon 2010, id Software announced ''Rage'' US ship date of September 13, 2011, and a European ship date of September 15, 2011. During the keynote, id Software also demonstrated a ''Rage'' spin-off title running on the

iPhone The iPhone is a line of smartphones developed and marketed by Apple that run iOS, the company's own mobile operating system. The first-generation iPhone was announced by then–Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs on January 9, 2007, at ...

. This technology demo later became ''Rage HD''. The game was ultimately released in October 2011. On May 14, 2018, Bethesda Softworks announced '' Rage 2'', a co-development between id Software and

Avalanche Studios Avalanche Studios Group is a Swedish video game developer and publisher based in Stockholm. It is a parent company that includes Avalanche Studios, Expansive Worlds, and Systemic Reaction. Founded by Linus Blomberg and Christofer Sundberg in M ...

Other games

During its early days, id Software produced much more varied games; these include the early 3D first-person shooter experiments that led to ''

'' and '' Doom'' – '' Hovertank 3D'' and ''

''. There was also the '' Rescue Rover'' series, which had two games – ''Rescue Rover'' and ''Rescue Rover 2''. Also there was

's ''

'' series, which included such notables as the tech demo (''In Copyright Infringement'') which led to the ''

'' engine, and the decently popular '' Dangerous Dave in the Haunted Mansion''. ''In the Haunted Mansion'' was powered by the same engine as the earlier id Software game '' Shadow Knights'', which was one of the several games written by id Software to fulfill their contractual obligation to produce games for

, where the id Software founders had been employed. id Software has also overseen several games using its technology that were not made in one of their IPs such as '' ShadowCaster'', (early- id Tech 1), ''

'', '' Hexen: Beyond Heretic'' (id Tech 1), '' Hexen II'' ( ''Quake'' engine), and '' Orcs and Elves'' ('' Doom RPG'' engine).

Other media

id Software has also published novels based on the ''Doom'' series ''Doom'' novels. After a brief hiatus from publishing, id resumed and re-launched the novel series in 2008 with

Matthew J. Costello Matthew John Costello (born 1948) is an Irish-American writer specializing in the genres of Horror fiction, horror, Gothic fiction, gothic, and science fiction. His articles have appeared in publications including the ''Los Angeles Times'' and ' ...

's (a story consultant for ''

'' and now '' Rage'') new ''Doom 3'' novels: '' Worlds on Fire'' and '' Maelstrom''. id Software became involved in film development when they oversaw the film adaption of their '' Doom'' franchise in 2005. In August 2007, Todd Hollenshead stated at QuakeCon 2007 that a ''

'' movie is in development which re-teams the ''

Silent Hill is a horror media franchise centered on a series of survival horror games created by Keiichiro Toyama and published by Konami. The first four main games—'' Silent Hill'', '' Silent Hill 2'', '' Silent Hill 3'', and '' Silent Hill 4: The ...

'' writer/producer team,

Roger Avary Roger Roberts Avary (born August 23, 1965) is a Canadian-American film director, screenwriter and producer. He is best known for his work with Quentin Tarantino on the script for ''Pulp Fiction'' (1994), for which they won Best Original Screenpla ...

as writer and director and Samuel Hadida as producer. A new ''Doom'' film, titled '' Doom: Annihilation'', was released in 2019, although id itself stressed its lack of involvement.

Controversy

id Software was the target of controversy over two of their most popular games, '' Doom'' and the earlier ''

''. More recently in 2022, id Software found themselves mired in a controversy concerning libel against Doom Eternal's composer.

''Doom''

''Doom'' was notorious for its high levels of gore and

occultism The occult () is a category of esoteric or supernatural beliefs and practices which generally fall outside the scope of organized religion and science, encompassing phenomena involving a 'hidden' or 'secret' agency, such as magic and mystic ...

along with satanic imagery, which generated controversy from a broad range of groups.

Yahoo! Games Yahoo! Games was a section of the Yahoo! website, launched on March 31, 1998, in which Yahoo! users could play games either with other users or by themselves. The majority of Yahoo! Games was closed down on March 31, 2014, and the balance was cl ...

listed it as one of the top ten most controversial games of all time. The game again sparked controversy throughout a period of

school shooting A school shooting is an Gun violence, armed attack at an educational institution, such as a primary school, secondary school, high school or university, involving the use of a firearm. Many school shootings are also categorized as mass shooti ...

s in the United States when it was found that

Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold Eric David Harris (April 9, 1981 – April 20, 1999) and Dylan Bennet Klebold ( ; September 11, 1981 – April 20, 1999) were American high school seniors and mass murderers who perpetrated the Columbine High School massacre at Columbine ...

, who committed the

Columbine High School massacre A school shooting and attempted bombing occurred on April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School in Columbine, Colorado, United States. The perpetrators, twelfth-grade students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, murdered 13 students and one teach ...

in 1999, were avid players of the game. While planning for the massacre, Harris said that the killing would be "like playing ''Doom''", and "it'll be like the

LA riots Los Angeles riots or protests may refer to: *1992 Los Angeles riots, following the acquittal of police officers accused of using excessive force against Rodney King *Watts riots, of 1965, following an arrest for drunk driving in the Watts neighborh ...

, the Oklahoma bombing,

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

Vietnam Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...

, '' Duke Nukem'' and ''Doom'' all mixed together", and that his shotgun was "straight out of the game". A rumor spread afterwards that Harris had designed a ''Doom'' level that looked like the high school, populated with representations of Harris's classmates and teachers, and that Harris practiced for his role in the shootings by playing the level over and over. Although Harris did design ''Doom'' levels, none of them were based on Columbine High School. While ''Doom'' and other violent video games have been blamed for nationally covered school shootings, 2008 research featured by Greater Good Science Center shows that the two are not closely related.

Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical and Academic Area, Longwood Medical Area in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is the third oldest medical school in the Un ...

researchers Cheryl Olson and Lawrence Kutner found that violent video games did not correlate to school shootings. The

United States Secret Service The United States Secret Service (USSS or Secret Service) is a federal law enforcement agency under the Department of Homeland Security tasked with conducting criminal investigations and providing protection to American political leaders, thei ...

and

United States Department of Education The United States Department of Education is a cabinet-level department of the United States government, originating in 1980. The department began operating on May 4, 1980, having been created after the Department of Health, Education, and ...

analyzed 37 incidents of school violence and sought to develop a profile of school shooters; they discovered that the most common traits among shooters were that they were male and had histories of depression and attempted suicide. While many of the killers—like the vast majority of young teenage boys—did play video games, this study did not find a relationship between gameplay and school shootings. In fact, only one-eighth of the shooters showed any special interest in violent video games, far less than the number of shooters who seemed attracted to books and movies with violent content.

''Wolfenstein 3D''

As for ''Wolfenstein 3D'', due to its use of Nazi symbols such as the

swastika The swastika (卐 or 卍, ) is a symbol used in various Eurasian religions and cultures, as well as a few Indigenous peoples of Africa, African and Indigenous peoples of the Americas, American cultures. In the Western world, it is widely rec ...

and the anthem of the

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party ( or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor ...

, ''

Horst-Wessel-Lied The "" (), also known by its incipit "" ('The Flag Raised High'), was the anthem of the Nazi Party (NSDAP) from 1930 to 1945. From 1933 to 1945, the Nazis made it the co-national anthem of Germany, along with the first stanza of the "". The "" ...

'', as theme music, the PC version of the game was withdrawn from circulation in Germany in 1994, following a verdict by the Amtsgericht München on January 25, 1994. Despite the fact that Nazis are portrayed as the enemy in ''Wolfenstein'', the use of those symbols is a federal offense in Germany unless certain circumstances apply. Similarly, the

Atari Jaguar The Atari Jaguar is a home video game console developed by Atari Corporation and released in North America in November 1993. It is in the fifth generation of video game consoles, and it competed with Fourth generation of video game consoles, fo ...

version was confiscated following a verdict by the Amtsgericht Berlin Tiergarten on December 7, 1994. The Unterhaltungssoftware Selbstkontrolle lifted the outright ban in 2018 in favor of analysing depictions on a case-by-case basis, and the international version of the game was removed from the list of banned titles in 2019. Due to concerns from Nintendo of America, the

Super NES The Super Nintendo Entertainment System, commonly shortened to Super Nintendo, Super NES or SNES, is a 16-bit home video game console developed by Nintendo that was released in 1990 in Japan, 1991 in North America, 1992 in Europe and Oceania a ...

version was modified to not include any swastikas or Nazi references; furthermore, blood was replaced with sweat to make the game seem less violent, and the attack dogs in the game were replaced by giant mutant rats. Employees of id Software are quoted in ''The Official DOOM Player Guide'' about the reaction to ''Wolfenstein'', claiming it to be ironic that it was morally acceptable to shoot people and rats, but not dogs. Two new weapons were added as well. The Super NES version was not as successful as the PC version.

Soundtrack dispute

In May 2020, after the Doom Eternal Original Soundtrack was released, there was a serious backlash to the Doom Eternal OST and accusations of low quality work that did not match composer Mick Gordon's usual standards. On April 19, Gordon confirmed on

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

that it was not his work, and Marty Stratton subsequently posted on May 20 a 2,500-word

open letter An open letter is a Letter (message), letter that is intended to be read by a wide audience, or a letter intended for an individual, but that is nonetheless widely distributed intentionally. Open letters usually take the form of a letter (mess ...

Reddit Reddit ( ) is an American Proprietary software, proprietary social news news aggregator, aggregation and Internet forum, forum Social media, social media platform. Registered users (commonly referred to as "redditors") submit content to the ...

blaming Gordon for everything that went wrong with the process of creating music for the soundtrack. Following this, public outcry against Gordon reached a level where he received explicit death threats and graphic messages of intent to harm him and his family. Gordon's message accounts, servers, and phones were allegedly inundated with abuse to extreme levels, seriously impacting his mental health. On November 9, 2022, Mick published a 14,000-word article on

Medium Medium may refer to: Aircraft *Medium bomber, a class of warplane * Tecma Medium, a French hang glider design Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''The Medium'' (1921 film), a German silent film * ''The Medium'' (1951 film), a film vers ...

explaining his side of the story as a defensive rebuttal of the nine outlined accusations in Stratton's post (described as "an extensive series of lies"), substantiated with various forms of evidence including photographs of emails, receipts, and file metadata to verify his claims. It included claims that Gordon had yet to receive over half of his payment for his work and awards from the soundtrack's nominations at The Game Awards 2020 Stratton had reportedly claimed to deliver on Gordon's behalf; that his name had been listed on the OST's pre-order for weeks before Bethesda had contracted him to work on it just 48 hours before the game's release; Mossholder had been composing an alternate version of the OST as early as August 2019, and in response to request from Gordon's lawyers for Stratton's Reddit post to be removed, Gordon was offered six figures in exchange for a lifetime gag order, but never the possibility of Stratton's defamatory post being removed. On November 16, 2022, Bethesda released a statement backing Marty Stratton, Chad Mossholder, and everyone in the id software team. Their statement further claimed that they had evidence to rebut Gordon's claims, without releasing mentioned evidence, and expressed concern that his statement enticed harassment and violence towards the team.

People

In 2003, the book '' Masters of Doom'' chronicled the development of id Software, concentrating on the personalities and interaction of John Carmack and John Romero. Below are the key people involved with id's success.

John Carmack

Carmack's skill at 3D programming is widely recognized in the software industry and from its inception, he was id's lead programmer. On August 7, 2013, he joined

, a company developing

virtual reality headset A virtual reality headset (or VR headset) is a Head-mounted display, head-mounted device that uses 3D near-eye displays and positional tracking to provide a virtual reality environment for the user. VR headsets are widely used with Virtual reali ...

s, and left id Software on November 22, 2013.

John Romero

John Romero saw the horizontal scrolling demo ''Dangerous Dave in Copyright Infringement'' and immediately had the idea to form id Software on September 20, 1990. Romero pioneered the game engine licensing business with his "id Summer Seminar" in 1991 where the Keen4 engine was licensed to Apogee for Biomenace. John also worked closely with the DOOM community and was the face of id to its fans. One success of this engagement was the fan-made game ''Final DOOM'', published in 1996. John also created the control scheme for the FPS, and the abstract level design style of DOOM that influenced many 3D games that came after it. John added par times to Wolfenstein 3D, and then DOOM, which started the phenomenon of Speedrunning. Romero wrote almost all the tools that enabled id Software and many others to develop games with id Software's technology. Romero was forced to resign in 1996 after the release of '' Quake'', then later formed the company Ion Storm. There, he became infamous through the development of '' Daikatana'', which was received negatively from reviewers and gamers alike upon release. Afterward, Romero co-founded The Guildhall in Dallas, Texas, served as chairman of the CPL eSports league,

created an MMORPG publisher and developer named Gazillion Entertainment, created a hit Facebook game named Ravenwood Fair that garnered 25 million monthly players in 2011, and started Romero Games in Galway, Ireland in 2015. Romero Games Both Tom Hall and John Romero have reputations as designers and idea men who have helped shape some of the key PC gaming titles of the 1990s.

Tom Hall

Tom Hall was forced to resign by id Software during the early days of ''Doom'' development, but not before he had some impact; for example, he was responsible for the inclusion of teleporters in the game. He was let go before the shareware release of ''Doom'' and then went to work for Apogee, developing '' Rise of the Triad'' with the "Developers of Incredible Power". When he finished work on that game, he found he was not compatible with the ''

Prey Predation is a biological interaction in which one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not ki ...

'' development team at Apogee, and therefore left to join his ex-id Software compatriot John Romero at Ion Storm. Hall has frequently commented that if he could obtain the rights to ''

'', he would immediately develop another Keen title.

Sandy Petersen

Sandy Petersen was a level designer for 19 of the 27 levels in the original ''Doom'' title as well as 17 of the 32 levels of ''Doom II''. As a fan of H.P. Lovecraft, his influence is apparent in the Lovecraftian feel of the monsters for ''Quake'', and he created ''Inferno'', the third "episode" of the first ''Doom''. He was forced to resign from id Software during the production of ''Quake II'' and most of his work was scrapped before the title was released.

American McGee

American McGee was a level designer for ''Doom II'', ''The Ultimate Doom'', ''Quake'', and ''Quake II''. He was asked to resign after the release of ''Quake II'', and he then moved to

where he gained industry notoriety with the development of his own game ''

''. After leaving Electronic Arts, he became an independent entrepreneur and game developer. McGee headed the independent game development studio Spicy Horse in Shanghai, China from 2007 to 2016.

References

Bibliography

* Kushner, David (2003). '' Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture'', New York: Random House. .

External links

* {{Authority control 1991 establishments in Louisiana 2009 mergers and acquisitions American companies established in 1991 American corporate subsidiaries Companies based in Richardson, Texas Microsoft subsidiaries Video game companies based in Texas Video game companies established in 1991 Video game development companies ZeniMax Media