Jon Carmack Timeline

  • Comander Keen Releases

    Comander Keen Releases
    While working at SoftDisk, John Carmack, John Romero, and others created the first Commander Keen Game in 1991. This game was one of the first sidescrolling platformers on PC due to its innovative Adaptive Tile Refresh technique.
  • Hovertank 3D Releases

    Hovertank 3D Releases
    Hovertank 3D releases, utilizing the innovative technique of 'ray-casting' to render its 3D levels.
  • Wolfenstein 3D Releases

    Wolfenstein 3D Releases
    Making use of raytracing just like its predecessor Hovertank 3D, Wolfenstein 3D utilized raytracing to create its 3D worlds. However, Wolfenstein 3D is commonly viewed as the grandfather of all FPS games, due to pioneering many mechanics that would go on to define the FPS genre.
  • Doom Releases

    Doom Releases
    While Wolfenstein 3D pioneered the modern FPS, Doom perfected it. Drawing on a more advancing form of Wolfenstein 3D's raytracing, it also used the innovative technique of Binary Space Partitioning to help render the game's expansive map.
  • Quake Releases

    Quake Releases
    Innovating on the techniques Doom used in both rendering and gameplay, Quake became one of the first games to use many techniques that 3D FPS games utilize to this day, such as culling and light mapping.
  • Quake 2 Releases

    Quake 2 Releases
    Expaning on Quake 1, Quake 2 featured a more advanced lighting engine that was based on the idea of radiosity. This allowed for Quake 2's maps to have bounce lighting, as opposed to only direct lighting like the original Quake.
  • Quake 3 Arena Releases

    Quake 3 Arena Releases
    Quake 3 Arena built on the same rendering engine used in Quake and Quake 2. Though this time around, it made use of the Fast Inverse Square Root algorithm, becoming one of the first notable games to use the algorithm to aid in 3D rendering.
  • John Carmack among 50 most influenial people in technology

    John Carmack among 50 most influenial people in technology
    At 28 years old, Time Digital placed John Carmack at #10 in their list of the 50 most influential people in the field of technology.
  • Doom 3 Releases

    Doom 3 Releases
    While taking a departure from the previous entries in the series gameplay-wise, Doom 3 continued the trend of featuring revolutionary graphics rendering technology. Specifically, it used an innovative technique for creating Stencil Shadow Volumes called Carmack's Reverse.
  • John Carmack Recieves Lifetime Achievement Award

    John Carmack Recieves Lifetime Achievement Award
    Due to his many contributions to the world of game development, the Game Developers Conference awarded Carmack with a Lifetime Achievement Award.
  • John Carmack Resigns from id Software

    John Carmack Resigns from id Software
    To focus full-time on his position as CTO at Oculus VR (Now Meta VR), John Carmack resigned from id Software.
  • John Carmack sues ZeniMax for $22.5 million

    John Carmack sues ZeniMax for $22.5 million
    John Carmack sued ZeniMax, claiming they never paid him the $22.5 million they still owed for their purchase of id Software.
  • John Carmack Recieves Honorary Doctorate

    John Carmack Recieves Honorary Doctorate
    For his numerous contributions in the fields of technology and computer science, the University of Missouri, Kansas City awarded Carmack with a Doctor of Engineering Honoris Causa.
  • John Carmack drops lawsuit against ZeniMax

    John Carmack drops lawsuit against ZeniMax
    ZeniMax paid off the money owed to Carmack, and both parties released all claims against each other.
  • John Carmack leaves Meta VR to focus on Keen Technologies

    John Carmack leaves Meta VR to focus on Keen Technologies
    To further pursue the development of an AGI(Artificial General Intelligence), John Carmack resigned from his position as consulting CTO at Meta VR to work at Keen Industries full-time.