Chapter 4 Chapter 3 Copyright Infringement by Dave

Shreveport was already famous for its simulation art long before computer games, a new form of simulation, emerged. During the American Civil War in 1864, Confederate troops at Fort Turnbull put charred tree trunks on wagons as cannons, successfully scaring away Union troops.When a Confederate general inspected the fort, he reprimanded its commander that its defenses were "all bluffs," and the place became known as "Fort Bluff." One hundred and twenty years later, Shreveport had new simulated weapons—in those games published by Floppy Magazine.The magazine is run by Al Vekovius, a former professor of mathematics at Louisiana State University in Shreveport.Although he is only in his forties, he has already begun to bald, and some of the surviving hair always stands restlessly, as if charged with static electricity.He is still the same as when he was teaching in the 1970s. He usually likes to wear a sweater and an inconspicuous tie. He walks three steps and does two steps. Although he is neither tall nor fat, young people call him affectionately. "Old Ai".As the head of the School of Computing, Al was involved with a sense of purpose and enthusiasm from the very beginning as the hacker movement reverberated through MIT and Silicon Valley.Inspired by this zeitgeist, Al and Jim Mangham, another mathematician at the college, hatched a business plan in 1981: the Computer Software Subscription Club.For a small fee each month, subscribers receive a brand new disk full of tools and entertainment programs ranging from money management software to solitaire.The plan came naturally to them both—like the subscribers, they were computer geeks themselves.

At that time, the big software publishers had few such enthusiasts in their eyes, and they only valued operating through retail.While these enthusiasts could gather on BBSs to communicate, early modems were too slow to be a way to distribute software.In this case, a monthly floppy disk is a natural underground channel for software distribution.And, for those young programmers who have no other way to release software, this is the stage for them to show themselves.All in all, this kind of magazine is like an independent label in the music industry, producing a collection of works by several underground bands and publishing them.

Floppy had their first issue for the Macintosh in 1981, and the business was doing well, and then they started dabbling in software for the Kamando computer. In 1986, they began to release software for IBM-PC and its compatible machines. The so-called compatible machines refer to machines that can run the same operating system.After so many years of development, the price of personal computers has finally become acceptable to ordinary users, and a large number of new users have emerged.By 1987, the circulation of "Floppy Disk" had reached 100,000 copies, and the monthly subscription fee was $9.95.Al was named the 1987 Shreveport Business Person of the Year.

The thriving business has also brought greater challenges. Al is now running a large company with assets of 12 million US dollars and a total of 120 employees. There are many competitors chasing after him, including New Hampshire's " New Era, he began to feel a little powerless. In the winter of 1988, Al called Jay. They met at a game industry conference. Jay was still an editor at "New Age". Al asked Jay if he would like to come here Help, while Jay was there feeling so unappreciated by his boss and fed up with the cold weather that he agreed to join Floppy Magazine and run the Apple II software division.Jay also tells Al that he knows two game programmers who are also looking for work, a former New Age employee named Lane Roathe and a John Romero.

Al was thrilled to hear the news.Although he also puts some games in "Floppy Disk" magazine from time to time, he has realized that this is not enough. He can feel the huge business opportunities in the emerging PC entertainment market. With such successful precedents as Broderbund, Electronic Arts and Virgin, "Software" has no reason to give up this big cake.He asked Jay to bring the two game programmers along. ﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡ The opportunity couldn't have been better for Romero, who had just come off a string of disappointments, from a cold New Hampshire winter to mistakenly leaving a good job at Wiggin to join his boss's doomed new venture , he was a continent away from his wife and children, who were waiting to see how he could get back together.Despite his initial success, the family life he longed for gradually drifted away from him.He was looking forward to changing his situation and starting a new life in South Louisiana. In the summer of 1989, Romero, Jay, and Ryan set off for Shreveport.

The journey alone has put Romero in a much better mood.Wren was a kindred spirit with Romero, who lived with him for a month.He's five years older than Romero, but his background is similar: He spent his childhood in Colorado, not far from where Romero was born, listening to heavy metal, reading underground comics and playing video games .Now he is a free spirit, casually tying a bandanna over his forehead and wrapping his long hair.He got along well with Romero, and while he didn't have Romero's ambition and seemingly inexhaustible energy, they shared a love for the subtleties of Mac programming and the exhilaration it brought.And like Romero, Ryan also only wants to make games. His own company is called Blue Mountain Micro. Like Romero's "top thinking", Ryan is the light commander of Blue Mountain Micro. .While in New Hampshire, they merged into Ideas from the Deep.

Jay is also a Mac guy, but of a different kind. He says he's not really a programmer, but there are two things about him that Romero really cares about: one is his knowledge of Mac code. The understanding is very thorough, and the second is that he has an incomparable enthusiasm for games.Jay was thirty years old, seven years older than Romero. He had grown up in Rhode Island, the son of an insurance arbitrator father and a greeting card salesman mother. He's not good at sports, but has a knack for machines, whether it's playing Planet Impact or tearing down his motorcycle.When he was in his twenties, he was involved in a traffic accident, and the insurance company's compensation brought him a Macintosh.But soon Jay discovered that he didn't really like the lonely life of a programmer, he preferred to chat with people and pass some good time.So he went to work as a bartender at TGI Friday Nightclub, where he was so popular that he was even chosen to teach Tom Cruise how to mix while he was filming Cocktail.Jay's people skills got him into the hospitality industry.A subsequent job at New Age was a perfect fit for his abilities: he was both a manager and an avid player.Now, he's going to "Software," and he's looking forward to making a big splash.

By the time the trio arrived in Shreveport, they had become like old friends, and with a few days of stops at Disneyland on the way, the trip felt like a new and exciting adventure for them .But the future is a question mark for them, and when their car pulls into downtown Shreveport, they don't even know they're there. Shreveport is located in the northwest corner of Louisiana, right next to Texas. In 1989, the city was just getting started. The bursting of the oil economic bubble plunged the place into a depression, and the swamps spreading all around made the already humid air even more dignified.The city is full of homeless people, who gather behind dilapidated buildings to escape the scorching sun, two of which are the offices of Soft Disk. The administrative department of "Soft Disk" was built next to an asphalt parking lot, and the road at the entrance extended to the foot of the hill. The people who worked here were like ants locked in a box without seeing the light of day.

Al excitedly ran out of the room to greet them and babbled on how fast the company was growing and how much he wanted them to join.Romero and Lane showed him ZappaRoids, their own Planet Impact-like game, and Al was pleased, not just because of their obvious programming skills, but because they The enthusiasm that is characteristic of that young man. Romero told Al his ambition from the very beginning: he had no interest in making those tool software, he just wanted to make large-scale commercial games.This happened to coincide with Al. He told Romero how excited he was to enter the game field, and Romero and Ryan were the pioneers of this newly established special project department. Fully focus on game development.When he walked out of the room, Al patted Romero on the back and said, "Oh, by the way, let me know if you need to rent a house. I have a place in the city that I can rent to you. My side business is landlord."

Romero, Lane, and Jay left Floppy's administration building and walked to another building where the programmers, or "smart people," worked.As a software company, it doesn't look like much fun: insurance brokers upstairs and downstairs, every programmer has an office with fluorescent lights, it's quiet, no music, no laughter, no people play games.This place is like a pressure cooker, with so many programs produced every month. Romero introduced himself to the people inside, and they then asked Romero: "Is Al renting a house for you?" One person told him not to rent Al's house: "I used to be like you. When I first arrived, he said he had a house for me. It turned out to be a cabin with a bad location. That's not counting. Wait until I live in it." It was only later that I realized what 'dirty and messy' was. I just lay down on the sofa when I saw a big bug crawling out of a hole in the floor."

But now there's nothing to depress Romero, he's back on his path, he's got a job making games, and Kelly and the two kids are going to love this new environment.It's a whole new beginning for him, and everything is going great.He called Kelly and told them to pack up and move to Shreveport. ﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡ Romero and Lane immediately hit the ground running in Special Projects, their dream job.In addition to games, Romero also has a top priority, which is to move away from the Macintosh to the PC.He told Al that he felt that the Macintosh had faded away, mainly because of the rise of IBM-PC and its compatible machines, and Apple's refusal to integrate into IBM's software standards, which directly made users more inclined to IBM-PC machine.But Romero didn't tell Al, in fact, he felt a little outdated. He was too invested in the Macintosh in the past year, so that he can't keep up with the trend of PC now. If he wants to become a rich man and an ace in the future As for the programmer, he has to master the programming of the PC as soon as possible, and it is not too late to make up for it. "It's impossible for one person to keep doing it on the same machine," he said to Al. "Although I'm not very good at PCs now, I'm a quick learner." Al told him it didn't matter: "Go ahead and do what you want." What Romero wanted to do was learn a hot computer language called C.But then he discovered that he couldn't learn the language because no one in the company knew how to use it, and Romero felt stuck.In the process of improving "Zappa Planet", he began to chew on books, absorbing all the knowledge about PC programming he could get his hands on, such as Pascal language and 8086 assembly language, and soon he called his previous one "Egypt". Pyramids of Egypt was ported to the PC for the Mac.Within the first month, his work was included in "The Big Blue Disk," Floppy's main issue for the PC.He did a great job on the PC, but that also led to trouble, as the PC department became overwhelmed with heavy workloads, and they became more and more dependent on Romero's individual abilities.By the end of the first month, Romero had spent far more time helping others rewrite PC programs than he had spent making games.Moreover, he hadn't noticed that the Special Projects Department was facing disbandment. Al wanted Romero to make tools for the PC.Lane, despite being able to share a department with Romero, chose to continue writing software for the Macintosh.Romero later reflected: For the first time, his friend saw the future differently than he did.The chances of success are in games for PCs, not Macs.In order to learn PC programming, Romero agreed to temporarily join the PC department, but he told Al that when the time came, he still hoped to return to game production. But the time never seemed to be right, and Romero began to tire of the job.He has been writing PC tool software for almost a whole year. Although he wanted to improve the level of PC programming by porting some previous Macintosh games, at that time, PCs were basically only regarded as running business. The program's platform, after all, can only display a handful of colors and emit sound through tiny speakers.Romero is nowhere near the kind of full-time game production life he wants.To make matters worse, problems arose in his family as well.To save money, he moved his wife and children to a house in nearby Houghton with Wren and Jay.Romero always stays at the company to work, Kelly has no social activities, and watches the children running around the room all day. This kind of life is extremely depressing for her.Romero made her all kinds of promises, but she just huddled on the sofa and moped, and she began to feel that nothing was more important to Romero than the game. Leaving his family behind didn't make Romero's job much better.Al felt that the growing business had brought him too much trouble. In order to maintain discipline, his management methods began to become tough.Al reprimanded Romero and Lane for turning off the fluorescent lights because they couldn't stand the reflection on the screen. Romero was also criticized for his overblown music. Can reluctantly put on the headphones.Also annoying to Romero were colleagues whose first impression of demoralization turned out to be worse than that, with no motivation to be seen from them.One tech support guy fell asleep on his desk at every turn—even when he was answering customer calls, and Romero made a habit of waking him up with heavy metal.And that wild guy from the mountains in the Mac department, he used to work for Hewlett Packard, this short-circuit guy one day somehow went off to live in the mountains for a year, and then he wore a short Jack, with a long, scraggly beard, came to Floppy to take over the Macintosh division, but Romero didn't see his Zen-like philosophical outlook as helping the division grow. Romero, who couldn't bear it anymore, challenged Al: "You told me that there would be a large-scale commercial game for me to make, but look at what I am doing now. I am helping the gang in the PC department all day long. People write tool software. If it keeps going like this, I'm going to leave here and go to LucasArts," Romero said, referring to George Lucas, who created Star Wars. George Lucas' new game company.Elder Al didn't want that. Romero had proven to be one of the most valuable employees here. Al admired Romero's focus. Whenever he walked over to check, Romero always sat down. In front of his machine, with his eyes glued to the screen, he worked non-stop for hours.Al told Romero he didn't want him to go. Romero told Al that he has been paying attention to various PC games in the past year, and he feels that there is a lot of room for development, because at that time PCs were not as powerful as Apple machines, so there were no games on them. No bright spots - all simple static images, nothing compared to the rich and colorful games on the Macintosh.Now is a good time to make a move.Al agreed with Romero's idea, and he suggested a monthly issue of the game. "Monthly?" Romero was taken aback. "Impossible, one month is definitely not enough." "However, our subscribers are used to one disc per month," Al said. "Or we can make it bimonthly for a while, but we still have to do it every month as soon as possible." "I think this is more feasible, although the time is not too much, but we can still make something that can be sold. I need a team: an artist, a programmer or two, a project manager, I don't want to spend all day Sitting there worrying about management, I have to write programs." Al told Romero it was impossible to add a full-time artist to him, he could only transfer the work to the current art department employees, but he could have a project manager and another programmer, and Al let Romero Melo went to find it himself. Romero couldn't wait to run back to the Macintosh office to tell Ryan and Jay the good news: "Guys! We're about to start making games!" Wren will be the editor of the PC game bimonthly called "Gamer's Edge" (Gamer's Edge), and now there is only one programmer who is familiar with the PC, and this person must be a player like Wren and Romero.Jay said that he knew a young man who was definitely suitable for the position. This person had sent a lot of wonderful games, and he even knew how to port Macintosh games to the PC.Romero was immediately intrigued: Am I not learning to port games, too?He thought Jay could try to poach the young man, but Jay told him it wouldn't work, he'd already tried, and the kid genius had turned him down three times for a job at Floppy just because he didn't like being in The company goes to work.Romero begged Jay to try again, and though Jay had no hope in mind, he picked up the phone and offered Carmack one last olive branch. ﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡ When Carmack arrived at Floppy in his brown Jaguar, he hadn't even thought about taking the job.Although as a freelancer, money is always relatively tight, and he often pesters Jay and other editors to send checks to buy daily necessities, but he still likes this way of life. Although there is nothing wrong with a stable life, but He was in no hurry to trade his industriousness and intelligence for a stable life; there had to be something more impressive to him. When Al saw Carmack, he was stunned. Is this the genius boy he always heard mentioned?A kid in a faded T-shirt and slashed jeans who, apart from a little muscular body, doesn't look like a preteen? !But when Al introduced the plan of "Player's Blade" to him, Carmack said some unique views. In his opinion, the so-called tight schedule was not a problem at all. games, including those published by Floppy Disk.Al led Carmack to another building where Romero and Lane were eagerly waiting for their arrival.Carmack's liking for the place was enhanced by a stack of Dr. Dobb's Journals, the hacker magazines from the Homebrew club, by the side of the aisle.But it was the conversation with Romero and Wren that left the deepest impression on Carmack. The three programmers started a lively discussion about game programming almost as soon as they met. From the double resolution of the 16-bit image mode on the Macintosh to the skills of 8086 assembly language, they talked non-stop, not only Computer stuff, and other common interests: Dungeons and Dragons, Planet Impact, Lord of the Rings.When Carmack told how he longed to own a computer as a kid, Romero said, "Man, I wish I could have bought you one." Carmack never expected to meet someone as smart as he was, especially when it came to programming.These two guys not only can talk, they do know more than Carmack. "They're not just like me, they're better than me," Carmack thought.Romero is an exciting guy, not only because of his programming skills, but also in other aspects of his ability-his artistic talent, his design creativity.Carmack was a pompous man, but if someone was better than him, he wouldn't be cocky. On the contrary, he'd stay and learn—he'd take the job at Floppy. ﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡ Now that Gamer's Blade is staffed, the company gave them a small room in the back as an office.But they still lacked one important machine - a refrigerator, because doing game development requires a large stockpile of junk food, such as soda and pizza.Romero, Carmack, and Lane decided to scrape together $180 and buy a used one first.When they moved the luxury item into the aisle, they clearly felt the jealous eyes of other colleagues.Over the next week, they kept adding stuff in: microwaves, stereos, Nintendos. "This guy Romero actually brought in a game console?!" Colleagues were so jealous that Romero had to explain to them that it was for research.But his colleagues didn't like him, and what made them even more unbearable was that some workers pushed a batch of brand new 386PCs into the so-called game department. This was the most powerful machine at that time. Others in the company The employee's machine is only a quarter as fast. When Gamer's Blade was ready, they put the pizza in the microwave, plugged it in, and the instant they hit the heat button, the office went dark—the fuse tripped.The other employees felt they couldn't take it any longer, so they found Lao Ai.And Lao Ai told them that these people in the game department are not here to play, they are here to save the company, "Yes, save us." He also told these employees that the prosperity of recent years is coming to an end, and the company is now Most of the resources are in the Macintosh department, but the Macintosh is at the end of its rope, and he recently even had to lay off twenty-five people in one day.He is telling his complaining employees: "Listen, don't whine, if the game department can hit a home run, it will be good for us. But don't worry, it will be fine." In fact, Al was not sure.He walked to the office of "Gamer's Blade" and pushed open the door. It was pitch black, with only the faint light of the monitor. He tried to turn on the light, but the switch didn't respond. "Oh, we removed those annoying light bulbs," Romero told Al. "Well, fluorescence is not good for the eyes." Ren explained without raising his head. Al looked up and saw the bare light sockets sticking out.They've clearly made this place their home, and Al looks around again: microwave, refrigerator, fast food, metal bands on the stereo, longhair Warrants posters on the wall, Carmack and Roy Mello, and Ryan, each sat in front of an expensive machine.Al got angry: "It's like this, we can't release the first game disk in two months, we have to release it in four weeks, and you have to put two games in it, so as to attract users .” "A month?!" they yelled.The original two-month deadline was tight enough that they couldn't make two games from scratch, they could only port existing Mac games to the PC, which is what both Carmack and Romero are good at. They even thought about transplanting everything, one is "Dangerous Dave" (Dangerous Dave), just from the name, it can be seen that it was written by Romero, and the other is Carmack's "Crypt". (The Catacomb). "Dangerous Dave" was made by Romero in 1989 for "New Age". With just a few pixels on the screen, he needs to run and jump through various mazes to collect treasures, but of course the premise is to save his life.It's similar to a Nintendo arcade game called Donkey Kong that Romero admired. Crypt is Carmack's latest role-playing game, following Contrast and Ghost, and Carmack was clearly influenced by the arcade game Gauntlet.In that popular game, where players shoot, cast spells and fight their way through mazes, it's an action version of Dungeons and Dragons.That's one thing Romero and Carmack have in common: They both love action arcade games, they aspire to make them themselves, and they're confident in their abilities.So they turned up the stereo and got to work. Romero cheerfully refers to the ensuing period as "squeeze mode," or "death progress."They masochistically enjoy all-night programming with lots of coffee and blaring music.In pure competitive spirit, Carmack and Romero competed to see who could port their Mac game to the PC first.Soon, the ace programmer learned how powerful the genius boy is, and Carmack easily leads Romero.They had a great time, and Romero was full of admiration for his new friend and colleague.They program like this every day until late at night. But for Romero, there is an unspeakable difficulty hidden behind this free life-he is divorced. The goal of becoming a rich man in the future is already a big challenge for the 22-year-old Romero, let alone being a qualified husband and father at the same time.But Kelly has no interest in the game Romero loves, and her mood is getting more and more depressed. She wants family dinners, church services, and weekend picnics, and Romero can't get up on these things. .He also tried to make a double harvest in his career and love, and he even left the office early when other colleagues were still working.But family life is a bottomless pit. Romero doesn't know if he has so much time and energy. Although he also wants to have a happy family that he didn't have when he was a child, he sometimes feels that he is not born to be such a good husband and father. .In the end, both he and Kaili thought that breaking up was the best way for everyone, but Kaili not only wanted to break up, she also wanted to return to her home in California. Romero almost collapsed when he heard her decision. Knowing that the children will not live with him.But he comforted himself by saying that it doesn't matter if the distance is far away. As long as he has the heart, the distance between the children and him will definitely be closer than the distance between him and his father when he was a child, even if they are separated by a few states. ﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡ Instead of moaning about family matters, Romero threw himself into making the game.Carmack and Romero honed in on porting the game, finding ways to work together that best complemented each other's strengths.Carmack was most interested in writing the heart of the game, the engine, the module that instructs the computer how to display images on the screen.Romero is happy to make various auxiliary tools, so that they can make the characters, environment, and maps of the game. In addition, Romero also likes to do game design, such as how the game is operated, what the fighting looks like, and what is the best way to play. interesting.The two of them complemented each other like yin and yang: Carmack had a talent for programming, and Romero was good at design and art and sound.Carmack started playing games at a very young age, and when it comes to games, no one can compare to Romero.An ultimate programmer and an ultimate gamer - together they are the perfect combination. But Wren wasn't quite in tune.Although he is the editor of Gamer's Blade, unlike Romero, he is not enthusiastic about PCs, which makes him more and more alienated from everyone.In Romero's eyes, this old friend is simply not competent for such an urgent job, he will only drag everyone down, and Romero does not want any factors to affect their performance, just like he and Ray soon Just as he became friends with Ryan, he also quickly felt that Ryan was a redundant guy. In his opinion, as long as Carmack and himself were included, they were enough to meet all challenges.When Ryan was out of the office, Romero kept pacing up and down the room and said to Carmack, "Let's get this guy out of here." ﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡ Meanwhile, Carmack and Romero, especially the latter, already had another suitable candidate in mind: Tom Hall.Tom, a twenty-five-year-old programmer who had been working in the Macintosh division before Romero joined Floppy, was also, in Romero's view, a "hysterical guy."Tall and witty Tom seems to be living in another weird world, nothing can keep up with the whimsical ideas that are constantly pouring out of his mind, his office is full of yellow sticky notes and graffiti, he Some inexplicable phrases, such as: "Slimy Adventures and Fantastic Blop" will change on the screen every day.When he met Romero, he would raise an eyebrow and make a noise that didn't sound like anything from Earth.Moreover, he is also a player. Tom was born and raised in Wisconsin to an engineer father and a journalist mother.His mother was, as he puts it, "Milwaukee's Erma Bombeck."He didn't have to struggle to get the game the way Romero or Carmack did, and when his parents discovered the youngest in the family's love for games, they bought him everything right away: an Atari 2600 for home use. Game consoles, and then the Apple II. Little Tom was an eccentric kid who would run around the room in a Green Bay Packers football helmet and Converse sneakers.At school, his treasure was a brown grocery bag stuffed with graffiti and eight-millimeter film, which he carried everywhere and kept by his desk during class.Later he changed to a small schoolbag to put those things in, and when he entered high school, it became a backpack. Tom is also a Star Wars fan—he's seen it thirty-three times in total.In addition, he loves all kinds of trick sports. He is the state's Frisbee golf champion. He likes paper crafts. He also likes to build dominoes. As a star, Tom's idol was Bob Speca, a professional domino player. When Tom got the Macintosh, an infinite world unfolded in front of him.Like Carmack and Romero, Tom taught himself as much as he could about making games.When he entered the computer department of the University of Wisconsin, he had already made nearly a hundred games, most of which were arcade games imitating "Donkey Kong".But unlike Carmack and Romero, Tom enjoyed student life, taking courses in everything from linguistics to physics and even anthropology.Tom believes that he can put all kinds of knowledge together through the unique medium of computer games. For example, he can create a new language for the aliens in the game. You can also write stories and create characters. Tom was actively involved in various volunteer activities on campus, and later he began writing assistive teaching software for children with learning disabilities.He loved doing it, and he loved seeing the faces of children as they entered the world he had created—his games were no longer just his own.Although games are not yet considered an orthodox form of expression, let alone an art form, Tom feels that they are at least a remarkable means of communication, like movies and novels. When he graduated from college, Tom found that his dreams were shattered, and his resume for the game company always fell into the sea.Most graduates are faced with the contradiction between dreams and reality. Like them, Tom chose to give up and start looking for a "real" job.每当他穿上西装去参加面试，桌子对面的人都会问他一个同样的问题：“这份工作真的是你想要的吗？”汤姆清楚地知道答案，而且他会听从自己心里的声音：“不是”。几经挫折后，他在《软盘》谋得了一份职位。 一年多以后，罗梅洛来到《软盘》时，汤姆立刻就喜欢上了这个家伙，罗梅洛也喜欢汤姆最近的一个名叫《战斧星球的传说》（Legend of the Star Axe）的游戏。它显然取自于汤姆最喜欢的书《银河顺风车旅行指南》（A Hitchhiker's Guild to the Galaxy）：一本英国作家道格拉斯·亚当斯（Douglas Adams）的小说，里面融合了英国喜剧团体巨蟒（Monty Python）的幽默风格以及《星球大战》的科幻元素。汤姆在这个游戏里把一辆雪佛莱（Chevrolet）搬进了银河系，他还设计了许多有趣的种族，譬如喋喋族——这种长着两只大眼睛的绿色生物总喜欢围着别人不停地唧唧喳喳。 罗梅洛和卡马克的共同点在于他们都是程序员，而罗梅洛和汤姆的共同点则在于他们都是喜剧演员，他们总是能一唱一和，譬如聚在一起琢磨汤姆创作的外星人语言应该如何发音，当然他们最后的成果也无非就是“哔哔……嘟嘟……哔嘟哔嘟……”。他们还都喜欢黑色喜剧，互相讲黄色笑话，并乐此不疲。 当卡马克和罗梅洛忙于移植《墓窖》和《危险的戴夫》时，汤姆总会时不时地过来帮忙，而雷恩却越来越懈怠。罗梅洛终于决定正式招募汤姆为《玩家之刃》的主编，负责管理，而汤姆也和他们以前一样，渴望着全身心地投入到游戏制作中，并且，汤姆也意识到苹果机的好日子快到头了，PC游戏才是未来，他的未来。但老艾却不同意，他说汤姆已经是苹果机部门的主编，他还得留在那儿。 ﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡ 尽管很失望，但卡马克和罗梅洛觉得暂时缺少汤姆也能继续下去，真正让他们无法进行下去的是缺少一个美工。虽然那个年代的程序员在美工方面大都是自力更生，但这显然不能满足卡马克和罗梅洛的雄心，如果他们想做更好的游戏，他们就还需要一个专业并且专注的美工，就像他们分别专注于编程和设计一样。罗梅洛以前那些苹果机游戏的美工都是他独立完成的，他自己在这方面已经很棒了，但他想把这项工作转交给其他人——二十一岁的艾德里安·卡马克（Adrian Carmack），《软盘》的临时工。 很凑巧，艾德里安和卡马克的姓氏一样，但他们没有任何血缘关系。从到《软盘》的那一刻起，垂至腰际的黑发就使艾德里安在死板严肃的美工部门显得格外与众不同。那个部门，在罗梅洛看来，和这个公司的其他部门一样，懒散得没救了。那些人不玩游戏，他们脑海里甚至都没有这种东西，他们每天上班就是给支票结算软件画一个个小图标，然后到点就走人。只有艾德里安看上去不是那么无趣，而且——他有好多重金属乐队的T恤。 但罗梅洛不知道，艾德里安其实也不算是个玩家，至少不再是了——尽管游戏曾经把他引上了艺术的道路。在什里夫波特长大的艾德里安也经历了街机的年代，整个下午都和朋友一起打《行星撞击》和《吃豆子》，他是如此喜欢那里面的美术图案，以至于他上课无聊的时候，就在笔记本上画下那些游戏的配图，有时候也画一些莫利哈切特（Molly Hatchet）这类金属乐队的唱片封套。还在青春期的他，已经沉入了艺术的世界，而把游戏抛在了身后。 小艾德里安的心灵还遭受着一些其他事情的冲击。他的父亲，本地一家餐饮公司的腊肠销售员，在艾德里安十三岁的时候因心脏病突发去世，这使得本就沉默敏感的艾德里安愈发的乖僻，尽管他那做信贷员的母亲和两个妹妹尝试过帮助他，但他还是逃避到绘画的世界里，他还养了一个蝎子作为宠物。对于这样的一个孩子，萦绕在他心头的自然都是一些黑暗的主题。 在艾德里安上大学的时候，他经历了更为真实的体验。为了挣钱念书，他在本地一家医院做起了助手，他的工作就是冲洗那些在急救室里拍下的病人照片，那全是疾病和惨祸——他看到严重的褥疮导致的皮肤脱落，他看到枪伤，他看到残肢断臂。有一次他甚至看到一根栅栏柱穿过一个农夫的腹股沟，照片质量很好，非常清晰，他拿了几张卖给朋友。 他的绘画变得更加阴暗，但也更具水准。他在大学的美术导师列莫恩斯·巴坦（Lemoins Batan）很赏识他的才能，尤其是他的准确和看似毫不费劲的精细。当列莫恩斯问他想做什么的时候，艾德里安说他以后就想从事美术行业，他正在积累这方面的经验，列莫恩斯告诉他，听说《软盘》正在招人。 而当艾德里安发现《软盘》做的原来是计算机上的美工时，他没兴趣了，他画画是用笔和纸，而不是键盘和打印机。但《软盘》给临时工的薪水比医院要高，于是艾德里安同意了，他开始日复一日地画那些中规中矩的小图标，直到有一天他走进办公室时发现他的老板正在和两个年轻的程序员大声争执着什么，另外一个美工凑到他面前问他：“你知道是怎么回事吧？” 艾德里安平静地回答他：“不知道，我一点头绪都没有。” “他们正在谈论你。” “噢，妈的，麻烦来了。”艾德里安觉得可能是出了什么事，譬如他被解雇了之类的。 当他们争执结束的时候，两个程序员走了过来，向艾德里安介绍说他们是罗梅洛和卡马克——他在《玩家之刃》的搭档。 ﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡ 罗梅洛和卡马克向艾尔建议下一期《玩家之刃》最好只做一个游戏，一个全新的大型商业游戏，艾尔同意了，放手让他们去追逐他们的梦想。尽管两个月的时间对于一个这样的游戏来说仍然很紧，但现在他们人员都已各就各位——卡马克负责引擎，罗梅洛负责游戏设计以及制作辅助工具，艾德里安做美工，雷恩负责协调管理的同时也做一些零碎的编程，看起来他们可以做到。 下一个游戏的点子是卡马克提出来的。他正在尝试一项编程上的突破：让游戏的世界不再局限于屏幕的边界——所谓的“卷轴效果”。街机是这项技术的样板，早期街机游戏的移动也是局限在一个静态的屏幕内，譬如，用于把球击来击去的球拍只能在屏幕的底部和顶部之间移动，再譬如《吃豆子》里的迷宫，也是局限于屏幕那么大，还有《太空入侵者》，玩家控制的飞船只能在屏幕下方左右移动，外星飞船们则是从屏幕顶部涌现。所有这些游戏都把玩家局限在那一小方天地里，缺乏一种宽广的可延伸的感觉，这种状况一直持续到1980年，在那一年，威廉斯公司推出了一款名叫《防御者》（Defender）的街机游戏，这是第一个流行的卷轴游戏，在这个科幻射击游戏里，玩家不再受屏幕大小的限制，他操纵飞船在行星的表面水平移动，一路上击落敌机营救人质，屏幕上的一幅小地图显示着玩家在整个世界里的当前位置。如果把地图扩展为正常尺寸，这个世界大概有三个半屏幕那么大。与其他街机比起来，《防御者》显得宏大得多，玩家就像进入了一个更为广阔的虚拟空间。它很快变得和《太空入侵者》一样流行，还胜过《吃豆子》成为了业界的年度游戏。无数的卷轴游戏随之出现，到1989年的时候，卷轴技术已经是新游戏的一项必不可少的标准，这其中最成功的莫过于任天堂红白机上的《超级马里奥兄弟3》（Super Mario Brothers 3）。 但在那时，1990年9月，还没有人研究出如何在PC上实现卷轴效果，大家都用一些蹩脚的技巧来让玩家觉得游戏的世界比屏幕要大，譬如当玩家移动到屏幕最右边的时候，游戏会停顿一会，然后右边的场景出现在屏幕上。部分原因是PC的性能还很差，无论是街机还是苹果机，或是任天堂那样的家用机都比PC强不少。而卡马克下定决心要找出一种办法来在PC上实现像《防御者》或《超级马里奥》那样的平滑卷轴效果。 《玩家之刃》的下一个游戏就要朝着这个方向走。当大伙聚在一起讨论的时候，卡马克给他们演示了他最新的成果，他已经可以让屏幕上的内容平滑地往下方移动，和那些成熟的卷轴游戏比起来，这项技术还很粗糙，它就像是一条传送带，图像按照固定的速度和路线落下，玩家还不可能随心所欲地在里面畅游，那就像是拖动演员背后的舞台布景。 罗梅洛这个博览过几乎每一款PC游戏的玩家，没有见过这种效果。这对他们而言是一个成为先行者的好机会。他们给游戏命名为《搜捕》（Slordax），一个简单的飞船射击游戏，就像《太空入侵者》或《小蜜蜂》（Galaga）一样。 他们有四个星期的时间。从一开始他们就配合得非常默契：卡马克紧张地修改图像引擎的代码，罗梅洛编写制作角色和关卡的工具，当卡马克差不多的时候，罗梅洛也开始了游戏性的设计。汤姆经常摸进他们的办公室来做一些角色和背景。艾德里安也在屏幕上画出了飞船和行星的草图，罗梅洛看到后立刻就觉得这个沉默的临时工是个才华横溢的家伙。 尽管对计算机还不是很熟悉，但艾德里安很快就习惯了用键盘来做图。由于技术的限制，那个时候的美工基本上只能用“点画法”。那时的计算机图像卡（CGA）只支持四种颜色，更高级的增强图像卡（EGA）也只支持十六种颜色，这对一个画家来说远远不够。艾德里安能用的颜色就这么几种，但他还是得创造出一个有生气的世界，行话里把这叫做“挤像素”，艾德里安在这方面显得很是得心应手。 艾德里安在他们中间刻意地保持低调，不光是因为他性格本就如此，还有一个原因是因为他不知道如何和这些玩家们相处——卡马克简直就是一个机器人，说起话来简短扼要，但又总是加上奇怪的“嗯嗯”来结尾，他可以整天坐在那里写程序，一言不发地拿出让人惊叹的成果。罗梅洛，也是个怪异的家伙，就喜欢开些恶心的玩笑，有空的时候还接着画他的《麦尔文》。但艾德里安觉得他们都是挺有趣的人。 汤姆则是另外一个故事，艾德里安第一次见到他的时候，他正蹑手蹑脚地推开办公室的门，穿着蓝色的紧身衣和白色的汗衫，束着披肩，手里还握着一把塑料的长剑——这是他万圣节的装束，他站在门口，扬了扬眉毛，然后发出一声怪叫。罗梅洛笑得气都喘不过来，然后汤姆留下来帮着做工具和设计，而艾德里安则盼着他赶快离开。 几天后的一个晚上，汤姆在办公室里呆了很久，直到罗梅洛和艾德里安都先后走了，只剩下他和卡马克两人。《搜捕》已经很圆满地结束了，卡马克正开始研究新的东西，他是个天生的夜猫子；他喜欢在办公室里呆到凌晨，他喜欢那种宁静，那种孤寂；他喜欢那种可以让他更加融入到工作中的感觉，他很开心，他做着他一直以来想做的事情：编写游戏。在这种时候，他根本不会去想以后会怎么样，如果他能就这么编写游戏并且有足够的钱买比萨和书，他就很满足了。他很早就说过，只要给他一台计算机，一些比萨和可乐，哪怕把他锁到柜子里，他也可以过得很好。 当汤姆在卡马克身边坐下时，卡马克给他看了他正在做的东西，一种可以把动画应用于游戏背景的技术。计算机屏幕是由许多像素组成的，一组像素则可以构成一个图素（tile），美工们首先用像素来画出图素，然后再用创作好的图素来搭建整个世界，这就像是给厨房铺瓷砖（tile）。而卡马克刚找到了一种可以让这块瓷砖上的图像动起来的办法，“而且，”他对汤姆说，“我还可以在你们接触到某块图素的时候激活一些事件”。 “这个东西做起来简单么？”汤姆问道。 “当然，嗯”卡马克回答说，他只需要加一些代码来处理这个事件就行了。汤姆清楚地知道这会是多么惊人，因为《超级马里奥》之类的游戏靠的就是动画背景，而且，当玩家跳起来顶到某块闪烁着的砖头时，会触发一些事件，譬如落下若干金币。想到这里，汤姆来了精神。而卡马克要给他看的还不止这些。 卡马克在键盘上敲了几下，向汤姆展示了他的另一项成就：平滑的卷轴效果。这种由《防御者》和《超级马里奥》带来的技术，能够在玩家走到屏幕边缘的时候通过背景卷动让玩家体验到一个连续的世界。经过几个夜晚的尝试，卡马克终于在PC上也实现了这种效果。和往常一样，他用了一种独特的手段。很多人会一上来就试图走捷径，卡马克觉得这不是解决问题的方法。他一开始先试了最直接的途径，在整个屏幕上重新绘制图像，但行不通，因为那时的PC实在太慢了。然后他尝试着优化——可以通过多使用一些内存来换取性能的提高吗？他试了几次，发现这也是死路一条。 最终卡马克冷静了下来，从头开始考虑，“我要的是什么？——我要在玩家穿过游戏的时候图像能够平滑地移动。”他回想起他以前做的《墓窖》，在那个游戏里，当玩家走到屏幕上地牢边缘时，他会让背景做一次很大的调整，这种基于图素的卷动在当时是很常见的技术，而他现在要的是基于像素的卷动，哪怕玩家只移动了一点点，背景也要随之调整。问题是如此频繁地重绘远远超出了当时PC机的能力，但卡马克很快找到了突破口。 如果，卡马克想道，不是每次重绘整个屏幕，而是只重绘那些真正改变了的部分，会怎么样呢？那样的话，卷轴效果执行起来会快很多。他盯着屏幕，假想着一个由蓝天白云组成的背景，玩家跑向屏幕右边，如果它跑得足够远，那些云朵将会被它逐渐抛在身后，直到从屏幕上消失，尽管改变的只是一片白云，大部分蓝色的区域没有变化，但计算机不知道这些细节，它不知道其实有更快捷的办法，它只会笨拙地重绘每一个组成蓝天的像素，从屏幕的左上方开始，一个像素一个像素地往右，再一行行往下，直到完成整个屏幕。接下来卡马克就干了一件漂亮的事情，使得效率得到极大的提高。他写了一段代码，用来哄骗计算机，让它觉得譬如左数第七块图素其实是屏幕上的第一块，这样的话，卡马克就可以让计算机在他指定的地方开始绘制图像，计算机就可以直接绘制白云，而不需要再一个像素一个像素地填充蓝色的天空。为了确保玩家移动时感觉到平滑的效果，卡马克还想出了一个小技巧：让计算机在屏幕右边以外的地方画一块额外的天空，这其实是画在计算机的显存里，但当它们真正进入屏幕的时候，它就不再需要重新绘制，而是直接从显存里反映到屏幕上。卡马克把这个过程叫做“图素自动刷新”。 汤姆立刻感觉到了这技术的潜能：这意味着他们可以在PC上做出《超级马里奥》！还没有任何地方的任何人做过这样的事情，而他们现在就可以做出来，就在这里，就在现在，在PC上实现他们最喜欢的游戏。这简直是颠覆性的革新，汤姆想道，尤其是考虑到任天堂是一个如此封闭的系统，本来是绝不可能像翻录一盘磁带一样把任天堂的游戏翻录到PC机上，但他们可以把图素，甚至是像素，挨个地照抄下来，然后把马里奥在PC上彻底地重现！ “我们来做《超级马里奥》！”汤姆说，“就今晚，从第一关下手！” 他打开电视机，插入《超级马里奥》的卡，开始游戏并按下暂停，然后在电脑上打开图素编辑器，就像别人临摹名画一样，汤姆开始在PC上重画出《超级马里奥》第一关里的图素，一个不漏——金币、白云、水管……。他惟一没有照着原样画的东西是主角本身，他直接用了《危险的戴夫》里的人物图片，除此之外，他还不停把地在原版马里奥里发现的各种游戏功能一一告诉卡马克，然后卡马克迅速地在PC上逐个实现，与此同时，卡马克还在对卷轴效果进行优化。房间里多出十几个可乐瓶的时候，他们完成了第一关，时钟已经指向了凌晨五点五十分。卡马克和汤姆把工作保存在一张磁盘里，放在罗梅洛的桌子上，然后就回家睡觉了。 罗梅洛早上十点钟到了公司，看到了这张磁盘，还有一张便条，上面是汤姆的笔迹：“敲DAVE2”。罗梅洛把磁盘插入软驱，输入命令，屏幕暗了下来，然后浮现出一行字： 侵犯版权的戴夫 戴夫站在字的一旁，带着红色的棒球帽，穿着绿色的T恤。字的另一边是一个阴沉的法官，戴着白色的假发，手里挥舞着他的小锤子。罗梅洛满怀好奇地敲了下空格键，屏幕上出现了熟悉的《超级马里奥》场景：蓝色的天空，白色的云朵，绿油油的灌木丛，一个问号在一块砖头上转来转去。奇怪的是，站在里面的主角不是马里奥，而是他那危险的戴夫。罗梅洛按下方向键，戴夫开始沿着地面走动，就在背景开始平滑卷动的一刹，他整个人呆住了。 罗梅洛几乎喘不过气来，他简直无法相信屏幕上发生的事情，他就坐在那里用手指摁住键盘，控制着戴夫在场景里来回走动——这难道是真的？难道卡马克这小子原模原样地做出了任天堂的东西？难道我们实现了世界上每一个玩家都曾有过的想法？我们在PC上有了这样的突破？天哪，它将带给我们马里奥带给任天堂的那些东西——凭借着《超级马里奥》，任天堂就即将要取代本田（Toyota）成为日本最成功的公司，它每年的销售额达到了十亿美元。宫本茂（Shigeru Miyamoto），这个马里奥系列的创作者，本是个不名一文的乡下孩子，现在已经变成了游戏界的沃尔特·迪斯尼（Walt Disney），《超级马里奥兄弟3》卖出了一千七百万份拷贝，相当于十七白金的记录——这是迈克尔·杰克逊（Michael Jackson）那种流行巨星才能做到的事。 罗梅洛看到了他的未来，他们的未来。那明亮多彩的梦境漂浮在房间里，涌现在他眼前。PC机正是热门，每天都在进入更多的家庭，很快，它将不再是奢侈品，而是一台普通的家电，又有什么东西可以比精彩的游戏更能让PC成为生活的好伴侣呢？一旦有了那样的游戏，人们就不再需要买什么任天堂，而只需要买PC就够了。他现在只是坐在什里夫波特一个简陋的办公室里，但他眼前屏幕上所展现的技术却可以做出那样的精彩游戏。他看到了他们的前程，儿时未来富翁的梦想就快要变成现实。 罗梅洛被这突如其来的惊喜击溃了，他动弹不得，甚至都站不起来。直到卡马克几个小时后回到办公室，他才有力气说话。他只有一件事要告诉他这个朋友，这个编程天才，这个绝配般的搭档： “不用想了，我们走人！”