     Mesquite lies one gallon of rental car gas outside of
downtown Dallas. By the side of the freeway is a large black
box of a building that looks strikingly out of place in this
Southern suburbia. Here in a modest office on an upper floor
of this obsidian block, id Software created the intensely
violent action games that cut deep tin computer gaming:
WOLFENSTEIN 3D and DOOM. Stories abound from the early days
of computer gaming when people sat in their living rooms
pouring their dreams into 8 bit computers, selling them in
zip-lock bags and watching in amazement as the checks piled
in, sometimes turning these pioneers into millionaires. When
I stepped into the modest offices of id Software and saw how
democratically and, often, anarchistically these 10 people
ran their operation, and when I heard just how successful
their games and their shareware marketing approach have
been, I couldn't help but think that I had stepped back into
the wilder and woollier days of the computer gaming Gold
Rush.
     I was met by id CEO Jay Wilbur, who gave me a tour of
the grounds: a spartan reception area with a shelf packed
with awards, offices for the programmers, tech support, and the
two artists, a storage room and kitchen occupied by a
foosball table, an entire pallet of caffeinated drinks, a
large box of chips, and a fridge filled with ice cream
treats. Roughly at the venter of the space is a "living
room" area with couches and a pool table.
     As we finished the rounds, the small talk was cut short
by a scream, "Sonofabitch!", and the sound of something like
a wrecking ball attacking a wall. Jay smiled. It was only
programmer John Romero and betatester Shawn Green in the
first of many daily network DOOM sessions. The level of
competition is vicious, I would soon find out, and the
textual taunts that fly across the network during play are
like to fry a preacher's profanity circuits. Nearly four
months after the release of DOOM, the id guys are still
obsessed with their creation. I've heard the statement, "We
just set out to create games that we want to play," but I've
never been so convinced that this was true.
     Assuming Jay to be The Boss, I asked to meet with him
one-on-one for the background on id. He flatly refused.
"Everything is run democratically here. We all have a say." So he
gathered the majority of the id group, and we pulled up
chairs around the pool table-turned PingPong table,
currently the site of a Battle Masters fantasy-miniatures
game. Setting my tape recorder on a well-defended hex of the
Milton Bradley game, I shot the breeze with: 26 year-old
John Romero, tools programmer, level designer, and the best
DOOM player in the world; Sandy Petersen, a long-time paper
game (CALL OF CHTHULU) and computer game designer
(HYPERSPEED) who now does the majority of the level design;
Kevin Cloud, a soft spoken southern gentleman of 26 years
and one of two id artists; and finally, Jay Wilbur, the
bleachblond 33-year old who handles operations and manages
the finances (a BIG job these days). John Carmack, the 23
year-old programming savant and the man behind the core id
technology, was making a special effort to come in "early"
for the meeting, but at 2:00 p.m. he was nowhere to be
found. A half hour later, he would walk in bleary-eyed,
explaining that he'd been in "vampire mode" for the last
week, programming WOLFENSTEIN 3D for the Atari Jaguar.

ID THE BEGINNING...

     Id Software is basically a collection of pilgrims from
a company called Softdisk out of Shreveport, Louisiana.
Softdisk put out a monthly disk of arcade games, and in
1989, Romero, Wilbur Cloud, Adrian Carmack, and Tom Hall
were a part of the game development group there. John
Carmack, an Apple IIGS programmer, came to Softdisk in 1990,
lured by the opportunity to learn IBM programming under
Romero's tutelage.
     In 1990, Romero began to get fan mail for one of the
arcade games his group had programmed. He would tack the
goofy, though worshipful, fan letters proudly to his wall,
ignoring the many requests to call his fans back. So proud
was he, he failed to recognize that, though the names on the
letters were different, the address was the same. Then, he
made a connection. While reading about a piece of shareware
in a computer magazine, Romero saw a contact address that
seemed strangely familiar. Looking up at the fan letters, he
noticed the address was the same.Scott Miller, head of
Apogee software, had written all of the letters, each with a
different variation on his name. He was impressed with
Romero's work and wanted Romero to work for him. But,
knowing that all of the mail at Softdisk was screened, he
couldn't contact Romero directly, so he wrote the letters.
     After Romero got over the disappointment (he was proud
of  his  fan  club), he called Miller back, and ideas  were
thrown  about. In December of 1990, a group of  programmers
at  Softdisk proposed COMMANDER KEEN to Miller. They  began
moonlighting,  programming Keen out of the  bedroom  of  "a
really  cool lake house. We could go out in the  middle  of
the day and go kneeboarding for a while, and then come back
in and start programming," recalled Romero.
     COMMANDER  KEEN sold very well for a shareware  game,  and
when  they got their first check from Apogee, Romero,  John
Carmack  and Adrian Carmack (no relation) decided to  leave
and  form their own company. The original name was IFD Soft
ware, or Ideas From the Deep, but it was later shortened to
ID,  which originally stood for In Demand. Not pleased with
In Demand ("it was lame"), someone suggested the connection
with the Freudian term id. They liked the connotations  and
adopted it.
 A  few  months later, id hired Tom Hall from Softdisk  and
moved   to   Madison,  Wisconsin.  After  a   hard   winter
programming the remainder of the COMMANDER KEEN series, the
group  moved  to  their current location.  They  hired  Jay
Wilbur and Kevin Cloud Irom Softdisk, and began working  on
WOLFENSTEIN 3D.
 WOLFENSTEIN 3D followed a Carmack project called CATACOMBS
3D.  The  group  wanted  to  fold  knowledge  gleaned  from
CATACOMBS into a fast action 3D
game called "It's Green And Pissed," where the player would
hunt mutants in a bio research lab. They reminisced about an old Apple II
game called CASTLE WOLFENSTEIN and decided that the setting
of  this classic (a captured U.S. soldier trying to  escape
from  a  Nazi fortress) would be a great game in  3D.  They
hunted  down the original designer, Silas Warner,  only  to
find  that  he  had sold the rights. The rights  trail  led
through  three or four long-dead companies, finally  ending
with  a  guy selling the original game out of his basement.
The  copyright on the game had long since lapsed,  so  they
applied for the copyright themselves.
     When WOLFENSTEIN 3D was released, all hell broke loose.
The tremendous 3D environ ment blew the minds of people who had
come to expect a certain level of production value in shareware games.
The cry from the press "I can't believe it's shareware!", echoed the 
sentiments of players everywhere. The game logged 150,000 registrations 
as shareware, and sold 150,000 copies in retail stores as Spear of Destiny.
Id estimates worldwide shareware distribution to top one million.
 As  the  fame  of  WOLFENSTEIN began to build,  the  group
started  a  few  new projects and began working  on  a  new
graphics  engine that they would license to Raven  Software
(for Origin's SHADOWCASTER), and they began a conversion of
WOLF  3D  for the Nintendo. Their experience with  Nintendo
was  a  bad one, being forced by the company to change  the
game to eliminate the Nazis and turn the German Shepherds
into rats. Once this disfigured version  of  WOLF 3D  was
finished, they vowed never to work  for  Nintendo again.
 At  this time, the ideas for DOOM began to percolate,  but
there  were  troubles  in  the development  team.  Creative
director Tom  Hall had developed a design for DOOM that the
rest  of the  team  didn't like. Basically, Hall wanted to inject  a
story  into DOOM and make the environment more interactive,
but  the rest of the team didn't want a story to slow  down
the  relentless,  visceral action. So Hall  and  id  parted
ways,  making  way for designer Sandy Petersen.  The  group
hired  Petersen  inJuly of 1993, and he  immediately  began
working with Romero's design tools, developing many of  the
levels in the final version of DOOM. A few months later, id
added  Dave Taylor, a UNIX hack for IBM, to program the  in
termission screens, automap, and sound code.

DOOM'S DAY

As  Doom  progressed, word of its wonders began  to  spread
through the press and the on-line networks. Anticipation in
the gaming community reached a fevered pitch  when  the 
company announced a December  release.  Id advertised that
the shareware version would be released  on the  10th  at
midnight  on the University  of  Wisconsin's computer  system.
The system allowed 125 users on its FTP site,  and  all  125
slots were full  that  night.  Wilbur couldn't get on the 
system to upload the game.
     When  Wilbur requested the sysop to clear the system,  the
sysop  complied  and raised the user limit by  50.  Despite
this,  users  started pouring in again, and  Wilbur  barely
made it into one of the last slots.
     In addition to the users on the Wisconsin system, hundreds
of  others "watched" Jay upload DOOM through the  IRC  chan
nel.  The  second  Jay completed the upload,  thousands  of
people on the IRC channel slammed the Wisconsin system  and
crashed it...twice.

SHARE IT WITH TME WORLD

Despite  the  success  of  their  games,  id  continues  to
surprise the market by sticking with shareware distribution
(although the sequel to DOOM will be a commercial release).
But  there  are advantages to marketing via shareware  that
the  group  supports, not the least of which is  a  healthy
profit  margin. id also likes the fact that people can  try
out  their games before they buy them, and they like  being
able  to  distribute their games immediately after  they're
finished.  They especially enjoy not having  to  deal  with
marketing and retail pressures. "I don't think you  can  be
any  closer to the consumer than in shareware," said Cloud.
"Yes, but the main reason for being in shareware is greed,"
replied Petersen, half joking.
     Though  id  is  rolling in the fruit of their  labors,  it
doesn't seem to have affected their day-to-day lives  much.
Several  of them are buying or building houses, except  for
J.  Carmack who still lives out of a one bedroom apartment;
he  sees no need for a big place because he spends most  of
his  waking  hours  at id. Instead of a home,  Carmack  has
bought not one, but two Ferrari Testarossas, the second  of
which   is   currently  undergoing  an  800hp  twin   turbo
transformation.  "I want dangerous acceleration,"  he  said
with  a nervous laugh. Romero has since turned a green  eye
on Carmack's machines and has be to \ ( Ilo\v Testarossa.
     Aside  from  enabling Carmack to buy new toys,  the  money
seems   unimportant   to   him.  What   is   important   is
programming_creating better and better  games  by  creating
better, tighter, faster code. He talks about WOLFENSrEIN as
if  he's embarrassed. "It was just a simple piece of work,"
he  says dismissively, "DOOM was just so much better." Yet,
DOOM  is  already starting to lose his favor. He's  looking
forward  to the next project, where he can turn  his  obses
sion into the next huge leap in irnmersive gaining.

SHAKIN' AND QUAKIN'

What  is the next huge leap? They wouldn't say much,  still
in  the idea phase and reluctant to build expectations  too
early,  but  they did tell me this: the name is QUAKE,  the
game  engine will be completely brand new, and the 3D world
will be so complete that creatures and characters will have
depth,  rather than being flat sprites. The current setting
(notice  I didn't say the evil Sword, "story") is a fantasy
world where the player becomes a Thor-like being wielding a
giant  hammer,  which he can throw at or bludgeon  anything
that  moves. The world will have some real physics, so that
characters will tumble when they fall from heights, and  be
knocked  flat on their backs. As Romero was describing  the
multiplayer  Quark  of his imagination,  he  was  literally
hopping  out of his seat and pantomiming the violent  drama
between two warrior gods, punctuating the action with sound
effects (which he is given to in most conversations). If they 
can calm Romero down long enough to get  some work done, id
hopes to start working on QUAKE  in September and release the
game for Christmas of '95.

DOOM 2 - DIE!

     In the meantime, id is working on the sequel to DOOM _ DOOM
II:  HELL  ON EARTH. If you haven't yet finished the  first
game,  I'm going to have to spoil your fun. At the  end  of
DOOM,  your  marine escapes the pit of Hell, along  with  a
couple  of  our  friendly demons. In DOOM II,  your  marine
returns  to  an  Earth city to find that it is  overrun  by
nasties.  Nastiness is essentially what  the  new  game  is
about.
     DOOM  II uses the same engine as the original, but  offers
27-30  new  levels populated by six new evil  creatures_and
it's going to be tough! Carmack told me, "It's not going to
be an easy thing. We want to please players who have played
all of the shareware  stuff.
     We're  going  to  include  episode one [shareware DOOM]
so that if people find DOOM II too  tough, they  can go back
and train on that.-' And train you  must, inexperienced ones,
because the first few levels of DOOM II saw my character in
death throes more than I'd care to l count.
     The new cast of characters for DOOM II is an interesting
and deadly lot. In the Junior Badguy division are a chain 
gun-wielding sergeant, the Hell Knight (a junior version of
the Baron of Hell), and a new Cacodemon that shoots Lost Souls
(the screaming heads) out of its mouth. In the heavvweight division
are a skeleton that shoots guided fireballs that will
track  you, an extremely obese chum as ith plasma launchers
for arms bald the ArchVile. The ArchVile is a truly hideous
thing that attacks by conjuring hell fire from t he ground.
If  the  ArchVile  gets a bead on you,  he'll  go  through,
conjuring hocus pocus with his hands. If you're in his line
of  sight when he's through conjuring, you'll be frozen  in
your tracks and take the equivalent of a BFG attack on your
mortal  flesh.  Ugly stuff. And that's not all_he  has  the
power to raise dead creatures.
     As  if  the  creatures  weren't nasty  enough,  the  level
designs  are  downright  devious. AWs  Petersen  said,  "We
learned a lot about designing levels in DOOM, and we'll put
what  we learned to use in DOOM II." Apparently, what  they
learned  was  how  to  put  the  plaver  in  more  perilous
predicaments. I played about 10 of the new levels, and each
has  a  few  very  sticky moments. In a particularly  hairy
scenario,  the player is locked inside a small  arena  with
both  a Cyberdemon and the Mastermind Spider _ the endlevel
creatures  from the registered version of DOOM.  You  enter
this  arena  with  little in the way of  weapons,  and  the
creatures  immediately turn their tremendous  firepower  on
iyou.  If you hesitate, you're giblets. The key is  to  run
around  the arena, frantically dodging rockets and  machine
gun  spray, and try to get the two creatures to fight  each
other. Once
they're  going  at  it, you must creep up on  the  platform
where they're battling and inch your way around them  to
get  to  a  lever  that  opens up  the  exit  door.  The
feeling  you  get is of a little mortal running  between
the legs of two battling titans.
      Since  the game takes tplace on Earth, there  are
a  number of city scenarios. There are tall buildings  with
imps peeking out through the windows, machine gun sergeants
tucked  in  doorways  and  on ledges,  and  demons  on  the
rooftops. I stood  in  the central square of one cityscape
and looked around. In seconds, there were at least 15 
fireballs and  a hailstorm  of  gun fire flying at me from
every direction.  Along  with the increase in monsters comes 
slightly  higher system  requirements  for  optimal  play.
Lots  of  active monsters and multiple projectiles can bog
down a processor, so if the first DOOM ran a bit slowly on
your machine, DOOM II may bog down to the point of irritation.
 No  decision  has  been made yet on  the  subject  of  new
weapons. A few of them expressed their disappointment  with
the  BFG and suggested that it might be changed, but  there
wasn't a majority opinion on the subject, which is what  is
required for action at id.

THE EDITOR'S DEMISE

     As  my day with id drew into a windy Texas evening, I found
myself  in Episode 1 Level 5. an id favorite, in a  network
DeathMatch with  Romero, Cloud, and CGW columnist Paul Schuytema. Over
the  next few hours, Romero taught us the delicate  art  of
slaughter, racing around the map at supernatural speeds and
using  the  mouse with such skill that he could, literally,
run circles around us while keeping his weapon aimed at our
spinning heads. We even teamed up against him at one point,
but he continued to annihilate us, racking up 99 "frags" in
no time. I managed to get Romero a dozen times, but most of
these kills were suicidal, short-range rocket attacks  that
took us both out.
     Humbled and hobbled by hand cramps, I said my goodbyes and
headed out, glad to have discovered this small group of peo
ple  posessed by a vision, blessed with the talent to  make
the vision a reality, and absolutely loving the process and
the fruits of creation_a perfect picture of what this hobby
is all about.

