A legendary company that creates real legends. Computer games developed by iD Software became not only famous, they determined the very development of three-dimensional "shooters" for decades to come.
And it all started so harmlessly ... In September 1990, a group of three programmers who worked for the company softdisk, regardless of the employer, is working on a fundamentally new technology for smooth background scrolling. Their names were John Carmack, Tom Hall and John Romero. Realizing the full prospects of development (its author was Carmack), the trinity begins to experiment on creating their own games. However softdisk such developments were not interested at all. So the decision arose to create his own company focused exclusively on computer games.
But from decision to implementation is a long way. And most importantly, what the ambitious trinity lacked was money. And, as usually happens in such cases, there was a person who agreed to finance a troubled enterprise. It was Scott Miller, founder and president of the company Apogee Software. Initial capital ID Software amounted to 2000 US dollars. Future celebrities work tirelessly, while remaining employees softdisk. They are joined by artist Adrian Carmack (John's namesake), who worked for the same company.
The game is born Commander Keen, about the adventures of the brave Commander Keane. The novelty was not much different from the games of that time, but, nevertheless, became very popular. Appears and much less popular, but still very famous catacombs.
Officially ID Software was registered on February 1, 1991.
The name is based on the term "id", proposed by Z. Freud and meaning the most primitive substructure of the mental apparatus responsible, roughly speaking, for pleasure.
And so, on May 5, 1991, the first legend appeared, created by ID Software – Wolfenstein 3D. The game instantly becomes mega popular. And although attempts to ban the game as “bloody and cruel” were adopted in some countries (still, it was necessary to kill people, not Martians), it remains a bestseller for a long time.
Inspired by success, the developers decide to continue to develop in the direction of 3D games. As a result, on December 10, 1994, a new masterpiece appears - the famous doom. Perhaps no other game has known such success. She is played all over the world. Fans of the game appear everywhere, calling themselves only “doomers”. The game enters computer folklore, becoming the basis of many anecdotes and funny stories. Some try to write fantasy novels and short stories based on it. Nostalgic memories of those times can be heard today (for example, this article).
The reasons for such popularity can be considered such nuances as the perfection of the game from a technical point of view, and the atmosphere in which the player plunged from the very first minutes. It was also important that the regime was applied for the first time multiplayer, which allows four players to play online at the same time.
A second version appears a little later. doom. However, technically, it practically did not differ from the first. Added new levels and new monsters. Everything else was recognizable.
And to this day, the same classic doomremains a standard. As soon as a new platform or operating system appears, there are enthusiasts who port this game to it. There were versions of the game for the now almost forgotten BeOS, someone submitted a version of the game to run on iPhone…
In 1996 when ID Software presents a new legend - Quake. The first ever truly 3D game. When it was created, the developers created a fundamentally new graphics engine. A year later, the second version of the game appears (Quake II), and then, in 1999, the third - Quake III Arena. The main feature of the latter is exclusively multi-user orientation.
The company starts a new activity. Namely, trading not so much in games as in engines for them. Based on engines developed ID Software, other masterpieces from other developers appear (Half Life, Medal of Honor, Soldier of Fortune).
iD Software, meanwhile, is reanimating old masterpieces. Appear Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Doom III. Their sales are top notch. By Doom III even a fantastic action movie was filmed, which, however, did not reach its original source in terms of popularity.
There is a semi-joking opinion that ID Software deals with engines, and creates masterpiece games for their advertising. There is some truth in this. Well, this is perhaps the first time in history when advertising not only performs its tasks well, but also brings a good additional profit.
