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By Nick
P.
“'Ž‹‚n`XBPm•3/4ѹ"vbV\dv(tm)'jd~¸*ŸkE10RÄÞѬyWNG`|Ÿ¯•jKBC_}
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7>Z„¤*3/4²ž}cKJQoƒ£¹ÊÂ(c)zW4//Fe-ÂÚØ1/4‡kO@Mf|¤ÀDZˆS-)”
To many people, the code above
is gibberish or a product of a mixture of caffeine and boredom. Or perhaps lack
of proper keyboard skills. To John Carmack, however, it shows a Zombie severing
its own flesh and using it as weaponry while a blood-stained Fiend hovers in the
background, ready to pounce. In reality, the code above is the futile
interpretation Microsoft Word does at reading Quake's game engine. The game
Quake, developed by id software, was as ground-breaking as the original and
classic blood-fest, Doom, and took average people across numerous dimensions,
fighting off annoying zombified rottweilers and hovering Scrags, ducking the
grenades of blood-thirsty Ogres, and gladly experimenting with nail guns whilst
traversing gigantic castles with satanic decors. A lot of effort led up to the
game’s release, and a lot of work followed it, work that spans the existence of
a company called id.
The concept for a
first-person shooter game at first was a difficult one; drawing out an entire
level and allowing a player to wander about it was quite a task for both,
programmer and computer. So John Carmack began to think upon the problem. Why
draw an entire level while it simultaneously draws so much from the computer?
Why not just draw what the player sees? After all, you need not worry about a
10-ton horned demon loading rockets into its arm-based rocket launcher until you
actually come across it.
It is around these
ideas that the first 1st person perspective game was born: Hovertank.
It is this ideology that led to the first real 3D-shooter game forged:
Wolfenstein. Though a milestone, its graphics were simple: squarish rooms after
squarish rooms, blue-uniformed guards after, well, blue-uniformed guards… you
get the point (hopefully). Hovertank and Wolfenstein solved the problem of how
to create a 3D atmosphere without needing 10 Creyon supercomputers. However,
viewing the same 6-planed rooms over and over was unnerving, enough to make any
carpenter yawn. Work began on another game with the goal of creating a more
immersive environment. People were no longed frightened by such architecture as
designed by cubism artists.
Soon, Doom was
released. Id had succeeded and Doom was a hit, though people simply downloaded
the free shareware and never bought all the episodes, thinking that the game in
its entirety was shareware (Also in part due to the first episode’s somewhat
awkward ending). This is where id clipped a hurdle and fell face forward on the
track. Regardless, Doom held amazing architecture, numerous ghastly demons, and
let’s face it, it’s just plain cool, when someone at the airport asks you what
you have on your laptop, to simply say, “Doom.”
The story, for its
1993 release, was extremely original. For reasons not really explained by the
game, a portal to hell opened on Mars and its two moons and monsters came out
and began to feed like it was all-you-can-eat teriyaki chicken night over at
KFC. Fortunately, you’re like a rotten wing and have to fight your way through
the levels until you kill Mr. Boss, and so on. An instant classic.
Doom was described
as a 3D-shooter, and in a sense, it was. However, the game mostly gave the
illusion of the 3 dimensions rather than rendering them in reality. There were
numerous limitations, such that one room could not be created atop another one
or that inclined surfaces could not be rendered, these being few among other
things. Also, there was something called ‘sprites’. Speaking of which, I’m
thirsty. Let me get a cold Sprite.
Ok, back. As I was
saying, ‘sprites’ are essentially flat pictures, cardboard cutouts of things.
These things include all monsters, weapons, and items. It is for this reason
that when you try to look at them from a different angle, objects seemingly
rotate; they were flat and did not actually take up any volume in space. It was
apparent that full 3D immersion was the next step in first-person shooter
gaming. But before taking this step, id software developed Doom II, which was
released without a free shareware as to not confuse any people too lazy to press
F5 or to read the message at the end of the game (ah, the hazardous mixture of
illiteracy and software). Without any such hurdles, the game outsold the
original and was an even bigger hit. Id developed several different games, Hexen
and Heretic, with this engine, though they were overshadowed by Doom’s imposing
stature and remained known to the most loyal of fans. With Final Doom released
shortly afterward, id felt satisfied.
Final Doom,
however, was not final. The game enjoyed an expanding community of loyal fans
that spread like hell-spawn demons through the Internet, creating new levels and
patches to brighten the experience. Doom will never be final.
‘Sprites’ had to
go. And went they did, out through the teleport.
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