
John Carmack's adolescent years (2003) - danso
https://books.google.com/books?id=ltQ6LYHpmQEC&lpg=PT28&ots=Ob2Vq21O1k&pg=PT25#v=onepage&q&f=false
======
nhayden
This is probably one of my favorite books, but I'm not much of a reader. It's
just really cool to see two really enthusiastic guys doing what they loved
back in the wild west era of game development and becoming extremely
successful at it. It's amazing that one guy (Carmack) single-handedly created
the technology needed to have such a revolutionary experience on PCs. It's
doubly cool that he's about to do the same thing twice in one lifetime (with
Oculus).

~~~
myth_buster
May I suggest Hackers by Steven Levy [0]. It was a phenomenal and
inspirational read for me. Having born during the turn of the century, I'd
missed the evolution of computers and programming. This book helped me fill
that gap.

Incidentally, Hackers was what I read after I read Masters of Doom. Here's a
quote from Masters of Doom:

" Overnight, it seemed, Carmack was in a strange house, with a strange family
and going to a strange school, a junior high with no gifted program or
computer’s. He’d never felt so alone. Then one day he realized he wasn’t. The
book Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution was a revelation. "

Edit: Donald Knuth heartily recommends it too[1].

[0] [http://www.amazon.com/Hackers-Computer-Revolution-
Anniversar...](http://www.amazon.com/Hackers-Computer-Revolution-Anniversary-
Edition/dp/1449388396)

[1] [http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~uno/retd.html](http://www-cs-
faculty.stanford.edu/~uno/retd.html)

~~~
fossuser
I thought Hackers was great - you might also like two other of Levy's books:
In the Plex (which follows Google's history) and Crypto (which is especially
relevant today).

Some people find his style dry, but I've found it direct and really
interesting (probably because I'm already interested in the material anyway).

~~~
myth_buster
Thanks, will check them out. I too like that he doesn't spice things up to
read like a novel and a bit less hand waving when it comes to technicals.

------
cubano
Ah yes...adolescent "bombs" and BBS's...what nerds back in the day didn't
enjoy these both?

My favorite bomb cocktail was brake fluid, pool chlorine, and PVC. We lived in
Florida on a river and we used to see how many fish we could "catch" with one
of our homebrew contraptions.

I guess that would make me a "terrorist" by today's standards? I'm not sure
anymore...

~~~
api
Ahh, bombs and hacking, the glories of childhood.

I remember when I learned about water electrolysis. I built an electrolysis
cell with a high voltage rectifier diode and a two liter coke bottle and
proceeded to fill giant punching bag balloons with a perfect stoichiometric
mixture of hydrogen and oxygen gas. (Was smart enough to use a long cord and
stay away while the power was on.) Then I tied them up with firework fuse. WOW
were those ever loud!

Also got in trouble for hacking (black hat sense) when I was fifteen. I wasn't
stealing or wrecking things though, just doing "catch and release" stuff
because I was bored and had a modem.

~~~
girvo
I was banned from computers at school for the last two years of high school,
as I kept defeating every single defence they had in place. My impetus to do
so? I wanted to run compilers and interpreters so I could keep learning
programming.

------
jokoon
What always impresses me about carmack, is that there's only his sheer talent,
and you only see nothing else.

I'm going to sound a little judgmental, but you don't often hear him talk
about work politics or non-technical stuff, it can be a little curious. I
really wonder if he ever talks about his personality or his younger years at
all, or if he learned something when thinking back about it. Has he ever given
his opinion or talked about this type of stuff?

I wonder if he has ever planned to write a programming or non-programming
book, or anything else other than code.

~~~
imron
Talent is one thing, but as Carmack himself said, focused hard work is the
real key to success.

~~~
sp3000
Being able to focus and work hard for long periods of time can itself be
described as a talent. Not many people possess the ability to do so to the
levels of people like John Carmack and Bill Gates.

------
radmuzom
The post title is misleading. 'Masters of Doom' is not a book on John
Carmack's adolescent years alone, but a book focusing on the lives of both
Carmack and John Romero, with a few other 'minor' characters, who were the
main people behind idSoftware. It is a fascinating read.

~~~
archagon
I wish there were more books about the PC game industry at that time. I grew
up with Apogee games and I'd love to read more about the company's history and
the creation of Duke Nukem 3D! It's too bad that interest in early console
gaming overshadows early PC gaming, especially since there were a lot more
"hacker"-types working in PC games in the 90s.

There's a nice collection of interviews[1] that Apogee did with many of the
original developers a few years ago, but it's hardly enough!

The poster that Interceptor Entertainment made for the 3D Realms Anthology[2]
is like a nostalgia bomb for me. :)

[1]:
[http://legacy.3drealms.com/legacy.html](http://legacy.3drealms.com/legacy.html)

[2]: [https://3drealms.com/catalog/3d-realms-
anthology_50/](https://3drealms.com/catalog/3d-realms-anthology_50/)

~~~
Trellmor
There is also a book [1] about Blizzard that I really enjoyed.

[1] [http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00G8UL474](http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00G8UL474)

~~~
douche
Yeah, I wish there had been a similar book about the Warcraft side of the
company, since Warcraft was one of the first non-shareware games I played on
my first PC. Patrick Wyatt's blog[1] has some pieces on it, but more would be
lovely.

[1]
[http://www.codeofhonor.com/blog/archives](http://www.codeofhonor.com/blog/archives)

------
angersock
Every time I think about some stupid, stuffy startup that acts like a big corp
when it's just a bunch of MBAs playing with other people's money, I think back
to the story of ID, and smile.

------
solocshaw
I never knew Carmack was such a delinquent badass. And he's still a sports car
hobbyist:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L51eoUFp_YA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L51eoUFp_YA)

------
atrilla
A wonderful book, indeed. It "teaches" a useful business management lesson:
when two strong egos clash, the company drowns.

I also admire Carmack's way to tackle new (sometimes unknown) problems: read
the literature, learn, do. And never failed following this.

I loved the parts when Romero swam across the lake to work all night with the
rest of the crew, or when they invited in a stripper with pizza but Carmack
wouldn't set the keyboard aside. So determined.

~~~
ANTSANTS
>I loved the parts when Romero swam across the lake to work all night with the
rest of the crew,

That was also one of my favorite passages:

 _" The lake house was filled with the sense of unlimited possibilities. And
the bond between Carmack and Romero was becoming stronger by the day. It was
like two tennis players who, alter years of destroying their competition,
finally had a chance to play equals. Romero pushed Carmack to be a better
programmer. Carmack pushed Romero to be a better designer. What they shared
equally was their passion._

 _This was most clear to Carmack one late weekend night. He was sitting in the
house working at his PC as lightning flashed outside. Mitzi curled lazily on
top of his monitor, her legs draping over the screen. The heat of her body was
causing Carmack’s heat-sensitive display to ooze its colors. He pushed Mitzi
gently from the monitor, and she scurried away with a hiss._

 _A rainstorm had picked up, and it was mighty. Cross Lake spilled into the
backyard like the prelude to a horror movie. The lake was so high that it
pushed the ski boat to the top of the boathouse. Long black water moccasins
slithered toward the deck. The bridge leading to Lakeshore Drive was
completely washed out. When Jay arrived after having been out for the day,
there was no way to get in. It was, as he described it, “a turd floater” of a
storm, bringing everything from the bottom of the lake to the surface. He
turned away to wait it out._

 _Romero arrived with a friend later to find the bridge even worse than when
Jay got there. There was simply no way he was going to get his car over the
flooded expanse. And there were probably alligators and moccasins now making
it their home._

 _Back in the house, Carmack resigned himself to working on his own that
night. After all these hours, he had come to appreciate Romero’s diverse range
of talents, gleaned from years of making his own Apple II games. Romero had
been not only a coder but an artist, a designer, and a businessman. On top of
all that, he was fun. Romero didn’t just love games; in a sense, he was a
game, a walking, talking, beeping, twitching human video game who never seemed
to let anything get him down. Like a game character, he could always find an
extra life._

 _Just then the door behind Carmack swung open. Mitzi dashed under his feet.
Carmack turned to see Romero standing there with his big thick glasses,
soaking wet up to his chest, lightning flashing behind him, a big smile on his
face. It was a real moment, a moment so impressive that Carmack actually saved
it in his thin file of sentimental memories. This one he wanted for future
access: the night Romero waded through a stormy river to work. "_

------
aresant
Video of Carmack's first two games Shadowforge & Wraith:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7py_FGQ5tU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7py_FGQ5tU)

Along with abandonware links to play 'em on your IIGS emu

Or for the 68kmla guys hiding out here on your original hardware :)

------
billsimpson
I loved reading "Masters of Doom." It's an easy read, and a fascinating story
about a handful of people of had a remarkable influence on an entire industry.

Also, I learned by reading it that Carmack and Romero created Commander Keen
(somehow I'd never made that connection with their later games). Commander
Keen was my Mario. Perhaps it was more than that. It introduced me to
shareware, which led me to BBSs, and then the Internet.

------
knd775
Seems like a great book. Just ordered a copy. You should send them a bill for
commission, danso ;)

------
daok
This is one of my favorite book. I really like the raise and fall of
IdSoftware. I also like to see how the relationship between Carmack and Romeo
changed during the decade where they were so successful.

------
neuromancer2701
Wikipedia states that the James Halliday character in Ready Player One is
based on Richard Garriott but I have always thought it was closer to Carmack
especially now with the whole Occulus business.

------
JDiculous
Good thing he didn't stay in college and work for IBM

------
rezaur
Loved this book, Id Soft was one of the companies who showed that a small team
can do huge job. I am going to read this book again someday.

------
robodale
I own and have read the book Masters of Doom 4 times. I'm getting the urge to
read that puppy again...

------
antouank
So when is the movie coming out?

~~~
nhayden
Not sure there's enough drama to really make this a good movie. There is some
drama and bickering and Romero leaving when he got bored but that's about it.

~~~
mhomde
Are you kidding?? :) The two John' starting out as friends. Chaos Romero vs
order Carmar. The rise of a small indie developer to super stardom. The
ensuing split with Romero going full hubris with Ion Storm (Heck with the
amount of drama and dirt available a movie on ion storm _alone_ would make a
great movie). Scenes with an battle axe breaching an office door, a gamer
winning a ferrari. An underlying theme of "everyone's expendable".

It would make for one epic movie in the right hands.

~~~
myth_buster
Yeah, they did a good job with Indie Game: The Movie [0] with an order of
magnitude less drama.

[0]
[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1942884/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1942884/)

------
goatse
Best book ever, Carmack is a true legend.

------
nether
Christ, what an asshole. He'd be a terrible fit for most Valley startups
today. Totally unsocialized and self-centered.

~~~
throwawaymaroon
I assume you're saying this with a certain amount of irony.

He was just a kid, for one, and in the Valley, "socialized" doesn't mean
respectable, it means "willing to appear to toe the party line."

