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John D. Carmack II (born August 20, 1970) is a widely recognized figure in the video game industry. A prolific programmer, Carmack co-founded id Software, a computer game development company, in 1991.
Carmack grew up in Shawnee Mission, Kansas, part of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, and became interested in computers at an early age. He graduated from Shawnee Mission East High School, then attended the University of Missouri - Kansas City for two semesters before dropping out to work as a freelance programmer. Softdisk in Shreveport, Louisiana hired Carmack, uniting him with John RomeroAlfonso John Romero (born October 28, 1967) is a famous figure in the computer gaming industry. He worked for id Software from its founding in 1991 until 1996 and was involved in the creation of several milestone games including Commander Keen Wolfenstein and other future key members of id Software. In 1990Events January January 3 Former leader of Panama Manuel Noriega surrenders to American forces. January 7 The Leaning Tower of Pisa is closed to the public due to safety concerns. January 9 Lt Gen Bazilio Olara Okello The man who led the coup aginst Dr Apo, while still at Softdisk, Carmack, Romero, and others created the first of the Commander KeenCommander Keen is the main character in a series of computer games developed by id Software in the early 1990s, which were successful at replicating the side-scrolling action of the NES Super Mario Bros. games in DOS. The cartoon-style platformers are not games, a series which was published by Apogee SoftwareApogee Software, Ltd. is a video game publisher that was established in 1987. Unlike traditional publishers which sold games in retail outlets, Apogee sold their software via the shareware distribution method, depending mostly on BBS's for distribution of, under the sharewareShareware is software that is distributed without payment ahead of time as is common for proprietary software. Typically shareware software is obtained free of charge by downloading, thus allowing one to try out the program ahead of time. A shareware prog distribution model, from 1991 onwards. Afterwards, Carmack left Softdisk to co-found id Software, where he remains.
Carmack's most notable programming ventures are in the area of first-person shooter games. His programming skills contributed heavily to the development of seminal games of that genre: Wolfenstein 3D, DOOM and Quake, amongst others. He has invented several computer graphic algorithms, notably surface caching and Carmack's Reverse. Carmack's game engines have been licensed for use in other influential first person action shooter games such as Half-Life and Medal of Honor.
Carmack works to promote elements of open source thinking and fan feedback in his game designs. When the source code to Quake was stolen and circulated among the Quake community underground, a programmer unaffiliated with id Software used it to port Quake to Linux, and subsequently sent the patches to Carmack. Instead of pursuing legal action, at Carmack's behest id Software used the patches as the foundation for a company-sanctioned Linux port.
Carmack is also noted for his generous contributions to charities and gaming communities. Some of the recipients of Carmack's charitable contributions include his former high school, promoters of open source software, opposers of software patents, aerospace research, and game enthusiasts. In 1997 he gave away one of his Ferraris as a prize to the winner of the Quake "Red Annihilation" tournament, Dennis Fong.
On March 22, 2001, Carmack was inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences' Hall of Fame, an honor bestowed upon those who have made revolutionary and innovative achievements in the video and computer game industry.
In 2003, Carmack was one of the subjects of the book Masters of Doom, a chronicle of id Software and its founders.
Though Carmack is best known for his innovations in 3D graphics, he is also a rocketry enthusiast and the founder of Armadillo Aerospace.
Carmack met Katherine Anna Kang after she visited him at the id offices with a friend during QuakeCon '96. They married around January 2000 and their son Christopher Ryan was born at 12:50pm on August 13 2004.