Chapter 7 Chapter 6 Gloomy Days

This time, Romero's soap bubble burst. On a gloomy afternoon, the id folks arrive in Madison and find that it's not as much fun as Romero and Tom have described it to be.Their apartment was in a sprawling complex, each looking alike, and compared to their lake house in Shreveport, it was a dump: no yard, no lake lights, no speedboats.When they walked into the hall, the roadside was not a tree-lined path, but two men with grim faces were dealing drugs. They had a so-called office: a three-bedroom apartment where everyone had their own quarters, except for Carmack, the one who didn't care much, so he agreed to sleep in the loft above the office.Worst of all was Adrian, who had reluctantly left his hometown when everyone else had to walk across a parking lot to get back to their residence, and now found an apartment on the other side of the complex. , have to drive to and from get off work.The happiest was Romero, who had a fresh start: a new girlfriend, a new game.Tom is also very happy, he is back to the place where he grew up, he likes the school environment here.The only thing that made these two satisfied guys feel awkward was Jason, who seemed to be a total outlier, but he was already a friend of Carmack's, and Carmack didn't want him to leave.

Although some were happy and some were sad, they immediately invested in the development of the second trilogy of "Kean".After several months of working together, they cooperated more and more tacitly.Carmack and Romero were in perfect sync, one working on improving the game's engine, the other busy with editors and tools, with nothing to distract them.One night, when they were busy, Beth brought a few female companions to id's office. She tried her best to attract Romero's attention, but couldn't arouse him to respond. Beth asked angrily. Said: "Why can't we bring our men home to have sex?!"

"Because we have to work," Romero replied.Carmack laughed. Tom was also incredibly focused. The success of "Kean" made him feel like a roller coaster ride, which stimulated his imagination to new heights, and he added a potato man with a gun to the game, a stuttering poisonous mushroom, and his The favorite little stupid fish - the little green guy with big front teeth and a pair of dumbfounded eyes. Adrian is still as unimpressed with these lovable characters as ever, but he still does his best to bring these boring characters to life.His creations have become more detailed and colorful, in no way inferior to the best games out there.Although his grievances against Tom, Keene, and Madison have accumulated more and more, he has now found a way to vent, such as painting Keene with eyeballs protruding from his throat and tearing his throat. He laughed out loud as the pained Keen switched back and forth.

Work on "Kean" is well underway, and the checks are coming in.Carmack can now take time out to continue working on the 3D main perspective design game.The final advance came from technology he had heard from Romero, and it was one aspect of his complementary pairing with Romero: Carmack was good at graphics programming, but he had no idea what was going on in the game production world. Interest, he was never a real player, he just made games, just like he was only the master of "Dungeons and Dragons", but never participated in exploration; Romero was just the opposite, he paid attention to everything, everything All the producers of the game, one of the producers, told him this new concept: "texture mapping".

Material mapping refers to applying a detailed texture to the surface of an object on the screen, so that you can draw a textured brick wall instead of a brown square.Romero heard the term from Paul Neurath, whose company, Blue Sky Productions, was developing a game called Ultima Underworld. The game will be published by Geliott's Viking, the original author of the Genesis series.Nulas told Romero that they were applying texture maps to the polygons in the 3D world.Romero's reaction was, "Cool!" As soon as he hung up, he moved over to Carmack and told him, "Paul told me they're making a game with texture maps."

"Maps?" Carmack took a few seconds to play with the concept in his head, then told Romero, "I can do that too." Then there is "Crypt 3D", which has gray walls and green stains on it. The player walks through the maze and can shoot fireballs in his hand. This hand is drawn in the middle of the bottom of the screen, and the player looks like bowing his head Seeing his own arm stretched into the screen, through such a hand, id subtly gave the player a strong hint: you are not just playing this game, you are in this game! "Crypt 3D" was released half a year before "Underground Genesis", and because of Geliott's fame, that role-playing game attracted more attention.But it can be said that together they have brought the 3D gaming experience to a new level that is more immersive.When Scott Miller saw "Crypt 3D", he had only one thought: "We're going to make a shared game like this."

﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡ Around Thanksgiving, things got tougher in Madison.The cops break in and capture the two drug dealers next door to them; someone hoses the gas out of their car; and hapless Adrian loses his water bed cover and with nothing to replace it, he has to I slept on the floor for several months; Carmack also slept on the floor. He wanted to, and he didn’t feel any discomfort. Romero finally couldn’t stand it anymore, bought a mattress for Carmack, and expressed his gratitude to him. He said, "Dude, you should get a good night's sleep." Madison is entering winter, real winter.The snow fell continuously, and the parking lot became an ice skating rink.Every afternoon after Adrian got up, he had to sit in the cab for twenty minutes before the ignition could be turned on, and he had to drive to the office.One day they went out to buy pizza together, and rushed back into the car within two steps of getting out of the car—it was so cold that no one wanted to go out again, so they decided not to eat pizza and drove home.

They ended up staying in their room all day, and although they didn't go out very much in Shreveport, at least they could go out when they wanted to, like a walk by the lake, unlike here, which was totally have no choice.They gathered more and more frequently in the world of "Dungeons and Dragons", and in order to make the game expand even more, they put up recruiting posters on the streets.On the top of the poster, Adrian drew the head portraits of everyone in the game corresponding to id—Tom with a beard holding a big axe, Romero holding a long sword, and Adrian standing tall and wearing a belt The word "death" was printed on their clothes, and Carmack was wearing wizard clothes, holding a rulebook in his hands. Next to them was a black silhouette of a head with a big question mark drawn on it. In the middle of the poster was the words: "Sought for: Priest or/and Rogue. Our combat is character and event driven, engaging... just moved business here, needs a new player or two, you'll enjoy in combat: character interaction, Great balance, unexpected surprises, and pizza. What you can never do in combat: Dominate the world."

Tensions were growing—not about who would run the world, but who would run their office.Adrian had had enough of Tom and Romero's nonsense, not only imitating the alien language with their mouths, but also imitating the characters in "Kean" with their hands and feet, and even Carmack was bored.What was even more troublesome was Jason. Although he was completely redundant, Carmack still spoke for him. They had no choice but to let Jason fool a simple game for "Floppy Disk" to fulfill their contract. The second Keen trilogy is nearing completion, and id is focusing its attention on the next game for Tianji.At this time, their respective roles are also clearer: Carmack is the technical head, responsible for making a new engine for the next game; Tom is the main designer, responsible for conceiving the plot and all aspects of the game; Romero sits right in between, helping Carmack write tools and creating ideas with Tom; Adrian is responsible for putting their requests into drawings, adding a little gore from time to time .

And when they sat down one night to discuss the new game, the roles changed a bit. First up is Tom, who, inspired by the huge success of the first Keen trilogy a few months ago, is looking forward to a third trilogy, as his hero George Lucas produced. Like Star Wars.But Carmack's new technology is clearly heading in another direction: fast-paced first-person perspective games. "Kean" is neither fast enough nor is it a first-person perspective. It is just a scrolling adventure game similar to Mario, and the next game will definitely not go down this road again. Tom is disappointed, but he accepts the reality of the POV and immediately hits an idea: “Hey, remember that guy from the movie The Thing? Everyone asks him what's in there, and he just says, 'I don't know, but it's really weird in there, and it makes me sick', and it's like a game, because in a game, you don't know you Why are you shooting at monsters, you just know they're green and pissing you off, why can't you make a game like that about mutants coming out of a lab, you can't put any of them Let them go." Tom then proceeded to come up with a name for the game and read it out loud: "Hell Xenomorph!" "Go to hell, Xenomorph!" "3D Demon!" "Terrence of Texture Mapping and other crap... ...", "Or," he concluded, throwing away the fancy words and calling it: "Unpleasant stuff."

Everyone laughed, and Romero shouted: "Yes! Some players will come to the store in the future and say to the salesperson, um, I'm sorry, do you have any unpleasant things here?" Despite everyone's applause, Tom Immediately retracting this idea, he also found that the name was too ridiculous. Romero continued: "Well, I don't know how to put it, but the idea sounds so old-fashioned, it's come up countless times: 'Ah, monsters fill the whole lab, and then what...' We're going to Do something fancy, like, if we did Wolfenstein in 3D, how fucking cool would that be!" Wolfenstein!The word immediately cheered Carmack and Tom, and like Romero, Mac gamers had grown up playing the classic action game that inspired the legendary Silas Warner in the 1980s. A masterpiece of the early years.They immediately understood what Romero meant. The Wolfenstein theme is a perfect fit for Carmack's new technology, as it's essentially a maze shooter in which players battle Nazis, find various treasures, and finally face Hitler himself.Despite the rough graphics of the original, it allowed players to feel like they were in a large world, which was very unique at the time.Computer or arcade games back then, for example, played on only one screen, but in Wolfenstein, what appeared on the screen was just a room in that huge castle, and each room was a maze of walls .When the player passes through a maze, he can enter the next room, and the picture on the screen changes accordingly. Although there is no smooth scrolling, the player can indeed feel that he is exploring in a huge world, and he does not Knowing what awaits him in the next room: usually, of course, a Nazi soldier screaming in German. Seeing that everyone was in favor of this idea, Romero continued to use his imagination: "In the original game, players can pick things from the dead bodies of enemies. How cool would it be if this happened in a three-dimensional world? You can go over there, drag the corpse to the corner, and search his pockets one by one." He imitated the voice: "XuXu, XUXu...We can use this opportunity to play a completely different game, It's fast-paced, textured, and if we can make the graphics beautiful, the sound realistic, and make it incredibly fun to play, then we're going to be successful, especially with this theme." At that time, the computer game industry was still a peaceful and peaceful scene: players built and managed virtual towns in "SimCity", and used strategies to reproduce famous battles in history in "Civilization" - But just through some icons and numbers, there is no blood. Wolfenstein 3D will be something they've never seen before. "It's going to be a shocking, extremely shocking game," concluded Romero. Carmack couldn't agree more, and Romero has always been able to come up with these convincing ideas like a god.Carmack came to appreciate Romero's genius all the more: he could use Carmack's technology to create wonderful new worlds that Carmack himself could never conceive.Adrian didn't know much about Wolfenstein, but he was eager to make any new game, as long as it wasn't Keen, and he was eager to try the art in 3D.Tom, although he still has "Kean" in mind, he thinks it's okay to go back to the third trilogy after finishing this game. After all, he is still a designer of this company, and he is not the kind who insists on People who have their own opinions, let's follow everyone this time. This game will be even more amazing than the past - thanks to Carmack's new technology; this game will have an even greater impact on the world - because id's steering wheel is now in Romero's hands inside. ﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡ On a winter night, Carmack tied up his shoes, put on his coat, and walked into the snowstorm in Madison alone in the freezing cold. He had no car, and he had sold his jaguar long ago.The outside world was completely covered by heavy snow, and the surrounding area was completely white, with icicles hanging from the trees.Carmack was about to attend to an urgent business, and he ignored the inclement weather as much as he ignored Romero and Tom's mischief by his side when necessary. Carmack walked into the bank and asked the teller to change a check for eleven thousand dollars, which he was going to use to buy a NeXT computer, the one that Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple, opened after leaving Apple. The company's product, which incorporates the technology of the NeXTSTEP operating system, is far superior to Steve's previous works, and is designed for software developers. The market for PCs and games is growing, and it can be used for more and more people. The game platform is a tool for developing more colorful games.It is the Christmas gift that Carmack, a young programmer, gave himself. Besides the new NeXT computers, there were other changes to id's office.Jensen was finally fired, and now they're a four-person business.In the outside world, there is also a fresh smell in the air. The Reagan-Bush era is coming to an end, and new trends of thought are surging.First in Seattle, where the trio Nirvana's record Nevermind dethroned Michael Jackson to the top of the charts, and soon genres like grunge and hip-hop were Their harsher, blunter claims swept the world. id is the rebels in the game industry, and what they have to do is to break the tradition.Back then, the likes of Mario and Pacman still ruled the gaming world, and there had never been anything more disruptive in this space than Wolfenstein 3D. The name Wolfenstein 3D took them a lot of brains, because at first they felt they couldn't just use the name first used by Silas Warner's Muse software, Tom came up with a long list of backups, starting with the artificial From "The Fourth Reich" or "Deep Germany", to the inexplicable "Castle Hasselhoff" (Castle Hasselhoff), the funny "Luger Me Now" (Luger Me Now), he even wanted to Some German names: Dolchteufel (Evil Dagger), Geruchschlecht (Strange Smell).Unexpectedly, they later found out that Muse Software had gone out of business in the mid-80s, that trademark had expired, and they could safely use the Wolfenstein 3D name. Scott liked their plan so much that he had been begging them to do a 3D shared game for months, and having played Wolfenstein, he appreciated Romero's ideas: bang bang The gunfire, moving fast, brought the Nazis down one by one. "Kean" revenue continued to flow, and the second trilogy has also been released on the shareware market, but sales have been disappointing, only one-third of the original. Channel sales will affect the sales in the sharing market, and his worries have become a reality, because now he only has one in his hand that can be given to the players of the sharing game.Regardless, id is still his cash cow, and he doesn't have the slightest doubt about their skill or imagination.As for Wolfenstein 3D, he assured them it would bring in at least $100,000. But id is not only satisfied with so much, Ryan, the trial manager of id, negotiated with the modeling company about the list of two retail games. The folks at id were both happy and worried, the "Kean: Alien Ate My Babysitter" (Alien Ate My Babysitter) they handed over to the styling company did not sell well, id thinks the bad cover art on the box ruined it, do The company that designed it was originally designed for products like Lipton black tea (Lipton).But id was attracted by the enticing prospect of benefiting from both retail and sharing markets.No other company does this, not even a giant like Virgin or Sierra.Although Ryan and the people at Styling were full of concerns about the game's theme, and kept talking to id about "don't get involved in World War II-related stuff", they accepted the retail version of Wolfenstein 3D. id was able to get things his way again, and they were getting used to feeling that way. ﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡ Mizi took the NeXT machine as her new nest, and she lay lazily on the big black monitor all day long, with her legs hanging down in front of the screen.Carmack, Romero, Tom, and Adrian sat at their machines, surrounded by empty pizza boxes and Coke bottles, as the peaceful world outside and the world of Wolfenstein 3D took shape on their screens. a huge contrast.The game was destined to be bloody from the moment it was born in their minds—as Romero intended, and fast—and it was up to Carmack to deliver. Thanks to the combination of ray-tracing algorithms and texture maps used to create Catacombs 3D, Carmack knew the game was fast enough to be immersive.For Wolfenstein 3D, he doesn't really have much improvement to do, it's nothing more than perfecting the existing code: fixing various minor problems, making some optimizations to make them neater and more elegant.In order to maintain the speed of the game, the characters inside are not three-dimensional, but just two-dimensional pictures, just like the cardboard targets in the real world. The game in Romero's mind is: "destroy Nazi soldiers like mowing grass", for this reason, he gave full play to his imagination, no matter how crazy the idea is at this time, it is not too much, he wants the player to feel The tension, terror and terror of fighting in a Nazi bunker filled with SS troops - even Hitler himself.Adrian consulted the history books and scanned the photos of the great dictator. These heads will be hung in various levels of the game. It's not enough, "Can we..." Romero suggested: "Put some military dogs in the game, purebred German Shepherds! Players can shoot them down with guns." Adrian liked this idea, he Immediately sketched the pattern of the military dog, and the various appearances of it lying on the ground whining when it died. "There's still blood in the game," Romero added. "A lot of blood, more than any game today. Weapons can be simple, as long as they are deadly, such as daggers, pistols, or add a Gatling machine gun ( Gatling)." Adrian put Romero's ideas into writing. Tom came up with various items that could be collected in the game.In early text adventure games, the player's task was essentially just two things: killing enemies and collecting items.Tom designed the treasures scattered throughout the bunker.In addition, there is another thing to consider is the supply. The player will have a hundred points of life at the beginning of the game. When he is hit, this value will decrease until it is zero-killed, then, the game There must be something for the player to replenish their health, and Tom wants to play tricks on the supply items: "For example...chicken legs?" "That's right," Romero agreed. "Or, more outrageously, dog food?" Now that there are military dogs in the game, it makes sense to use dog food as supplies. Tom imagined the protagonist eating the dog food, and couldn't help being amused. "Or," he suggested, "when the player's life value is very low He can walk to the corpse of a Nazi soldier when it's time, like ten o'clock, and then..." Romero caught Tom's meaning immediately, "Bah, bah." He imitated the voice, and wiped his lips : "Wow, not only can you eat chicken offal, but now you can also eat human offal!" They worked like this until late at night.Carmack and Romero played their respective roles to the fullest, with one refining the engine and the other exploring its capabilities and adding new elements to the tool.Carmack's well-crafted guitar was only in Romero's hands before it was able to produce a moving tone.But their friendship is not the same as the friendship between ordinary people. They don't discuss their lives, and they don't discuss their dreams.On some nights they would sit together and play F-Zero racing games, and their friendship was largely one of work, their shared love of the game, and their unbridled pursuit of it. They have a different view of the game than anyone else.Tom, still thinking about his lovely "Kean", was uneasy about the violent content, afraid of causing dissatisfaction from the outside world, afraid that it would be too bloody.And Adrian likes blood and blood. The Nazi soldiers he described were lying in puddles of blood after being shot, but his favorite was "Dave in the Haunted House", oh... that Gothic style Yes, creepy world. And Carmack and Romero are very consistent on this point.As long as Romero is passionately demonstrating the engine's capabilities in various ways, Carmack is very satisfied, he doesn't care what the subject matter of the game is.He wrote a smooth, concise, and fast engine, and the game in Romero's mind is also smooth, concise, and fast.Romero has even begun to play Wolfenstein 3D, which has little content, just to implement these principles from the beginning. At first, they let players drag and loot the corpses of Nazi soldiers in the game, just like the original Wolfenstein, but they didn't like the end result.When Romero saw Tom dragging a dead body across the screen, he sighed, "Yeah... that doesn't make the game much fun, it slows it down, good idea, but when Does anyone care if you can drag those corpses while you're running around, walking through halls, and taking down every enemy you come across? We'd better get that code out, as long as it's something that slows us down on mowing — take it all away!" The brutality isn't just about the graphics and design, it's about the sound too. id has developed a good relationship with a game sound engineer named Bobby Prince, who lives near Madison and works for Tianji.He was highly recommended to id by Scott Miller, who worked on some of the Keen sound effects.For Wolfenstein this time, id needed his help more than before. For example, the sound of weapons should sound powerful. In order to achieve this effect, they used digital sound effects for the first time. Bobby gave a lot of suggestions, such as The sound of machine guns was recorded. One afternoon, Romero was going to experience the sound effects in the game. The game had basically taken shape. Moreover, at Scott’s suggestion, Carmack improved the engine that originally only supported 16-color EGA graphics cards to support 256-color ones. VGA card, the increase in the number of colors allowed Adrian to show his strengths. He put on steel helmets and leather boots for the soldiers. When they were hit, there would be a fine animation, first from the chest A large stream of blood spewed out from the inside, and then slowly twitched and fell down. Romero loaded the test level, staring silently at the barrel of his machine gun as Nazi soldiers gathered around him, and then, pressing the fire button, the machine gun roared and fired a stream of bullets, and the sound of gunshots came from the speakers. Out, the Nazi soldiers flew out backwards.Romero also jumped up with his hands off the keyboard, then rolled on the floor laughing.This is another unforgettable moment, similar to the moment he saw Dave walking in the world of Mario for the first time. When Romero finally had enough of laughing, he got up from the ground clutching his stomach and gasped, "You know what? There's never been a game like this before." On the screen, blood was bubbling from the bodies of the little Nazi soldiers. ﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡ On a February afternoon in 1992, Roberta Williams and her husband, Ken Williams, were sitting in a palatial North Carolina office as their Sierra entertainment had grown into a sprawling game. Empire, whose annual sales revenue has increased from 100 million in 1980 to 1 billion now, and the games they publish have also expanded from early graphic role-playing to various genres, all of which are based on their corporate culture: shaping the game Designer branding.This couple is the leader of the game industry. Now, there is a mail package in front of them. Xue Leshan has always been accepting game submissions, and today's package made them shine.The letter of introduction was written by a programmer named Romero, who had heard that Roberta was getting interested in games for kids, so he sent this game he and his buddies had made, which was on the shareware market It's selling really well here, and it's called Commander Keen: Farewell, Galaxy. It made such an impression on the Williamses that they next invited this Romero and his partner to the Sierra headquarters for an interview. The folks at id were flattered to hear the news - they grew up playing Sierra, and now the king and queen are inviting them to the palace for an interview.Also, the timing couldn't have been better: Wolfenstein 3D was already taking shape, and if Sierra gave them a good price, they could land a big deal, so they decided to do a short demo for The Williamses watch. When they arrived at the Sierra office building, anyone could tell at a glance that the gang hadn't been out in at least a month: Romero's hair was disheveled, Tom's beard was the same, Carmack's clothes were torn. Lots of holes, and they were all ripped jeans.Before meeting the Williamses, they were shown around Sierra's offices.For Romero and Tom, it was a visit to the gaming hall of fame.In a CD-burning room, they met Warren Schwader, and Romero and Tom looked at each other at the name, then bowed respectfully and looked deeply at Shu. Ward bowed and said, "Hooray, hooray." Shuwad—Romero and Tom knew—was the creator of the Macintosh game Threshold, a game they loved a lot.Romero excitedly said to Shuward: ""Limit"! You are our elder!" The novelty wore off after a while, and Carmack chatted with a programmer in the corner. Romero, Tom, and Adrian watched as Carmack easily solved a few problems for that guy. When he got up When he left, the Sierra programmer hadn't recovered. He had been completely overwhelmed by Carmack's extraordinary skills.While walking on the road, Romero patted Carmack on the back lightly: "My God, you shocked them all." Carmack shrugged sheepishly, and Romero felt proud to have such a partner. pride. The Williamses were used to seeing young people like this. In their eyes, these were just very bright but very innocent children.When the Williams couple brought them to a luxury hotel named Edna, the waiter took Mr. Williams aside and told him that these people dressed like homeless people could not come in, Williams The mister could only explain to him that these were very important guests before he was able to bring the id people into the office. Everyone was seated around a huge oak table, a fire was blazing in the fireplace, food was served quickly, and conversation began.The Williamses had discovered and nurtured many young talents, and they were very proud of it, but the few in front of them looked too inexperienced and obviously lacked business acumen.Their faces changed when they learned how much money id was making with Keen on the shareware market: "You mean, you guys make $50,000 a month on a shareware?" id showed the Williamses the numbers: Scott raised id's royalties to 45%, and id basically had no expenses.They explained to the two giants of the game industry that through the shareware model, Ascension received 95 cents for every dollar received, and Romero proudly told them: "Our work is shared The best thing in the software market, so we can make so much money, if you think that's amazing, look at this..." Tom took out a portable computer and put it on the table, and asked Mr. Williams to come and knock After pressing the keyboard, "Wolfenstein 3D" appeared on the screen. Mr. Williams played for a while with a blank face, and the id people waited nervously, and finally he said: "Ah, it's very beautiful." Then he exited The game ended, and the end screen showed cute Keen and a green Vauticon monster, with a large line in the middle: "id software: part of the Sierra family?" "Would you mind removing that last question mark?" Mr. Williams said before offering id $2.5 million. ﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡ The id people excitedly went back to their icy home, discussing the deal, 2.5 million is a big amount, and they only have four or five people to split the huge sum of money, but they didn't rush to agree, they didn't want to do it This stock trade, they want some cash.So, just like when he did business with Scott in the first place, Romero suggested: "We can let them send $100,000 in cash first, and if they agree, then we will sell it, and if they are not interested, we will pull it down. " The request was denied, and while the Williamses appreciated id, they weren't prepared to shell out that much cash all at once.From id's point of view, the Williamses obviously didn't understand what id was doing. They didn't realize the potential of Wolfenstein 3D at all. If they did, they should have sent the money without hesitation. id was very disappointed. The loss of this big business was certainly a reason, but more importantly, it was because they felt that they were not taken seriously, especially because the other party was still a hero in their minds. Wolfenstein 3D is going to change the world, id knows it well, there's never been a game like this on a computer, fuck Sierra and its crap programmers, Romero said, id is going to continue Stay independent and go on your own to win bigger victories. ﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡ Even though the deal fell through, the trip to Sierra fueled their ego, which carried over to the Dungeons & Dragons game, a world that reflected their inner identities.Romero has been fiddling with the "Complete Book of the Demon World" that he snatched from the beast in the last few rounds. This is an ominous sign. The book can allow them to rule the world or destroy it. at once.卡马克对罗梅洛的鲁莽越来越担心，他不想看着这个倾注了他毕生心血的世界就这么被毁掉，不得已，他拨通了还在什里夫波特的杰伊，请他飞到麦迪逊来继续他的游戏角色，以阻止罗梅洛不顾后果的举动。但杰伊抽不开身。卡马克决定放手测试下罗梅洛的决心，看看他这个伙伴究竟要走多远。 一天深夜，城主卡马克告诉罗梅洛，游戏里的一个恶魔要跟他谈笔交易：用《魔戒全书》换取他要的任何东西。罗梅洛答复道：“如果我把书给他，那我一定要件非同寻常的宝贝。”卡马克向他保证那个恶魔可以拿出大刀（Daikanata）。罗梅洛的眼睛立刻亮了，大刀是游戏里最强大的武器，罗梅洛不顾其他人的反对，告诉卡马克，他愿意把书给那个恶魔。按照手册的规定，卡马克摇出骰子来决定恶魔接下来的举动——它用《魔界全书》召唤出了更多的恶魔。卡马克告诉他们，一场宏大的战役已无可避免，很快结果就出来了，“阳间已在魔鬼的蹂躏之下，”卡马克平静地说：“每个人都牺牲了，就是这样，结束了，嗯。” 死一般的寂静，没有人能接受这样的结果：这个游戏，这个在什里夫波特湖畔小屋里制造出无数欢声笑语的游戏，这个在麦迪逊陪伴他们度过一个个寒冷冬夜的游戏，就这么结束了？悲伤笼罩着房间的每一个角落。最终，罗梅洛开口对卡马克说道：“靠，那么好玩的游戏，就这么毁掉了？有什么办法能继续吗？”他其实知道这个问题的答案，卡马克是个实事求是的人，他的游戏也一样，他回答道：“没有，都结束了。” 这件事情的教训：罗梅洛走得太远了。 伴随着《龙与地下城》世界的终结，以及雪乐山的拒绝，再加上麦迪逊越来越冷的天气，id似乎陷入了前所未有的低潮。为了完成《德军总部3D》，他们需要帮助，他们清楚地知道这帮助将来自何方：凯文·克劳德（Kevin Cloud）。 凯文是《软盘》的编辑主任，在id离开什里夫波特后，他就是id和那里的联络人。凯文是个勤奋的、有组织能力和艺术家气质的人，他看上去是id最完美的补充。凯文于1966年出生于一个电工和一个教师的家庭，他在什里夫波特看着漫画书玩着街机长大，在攻读政治学学位期间，他在《软盘》找了一份工作，开始是从事美工，这份工作最终改变了他的人生。 《玩家之刃》成立之初，凯文就和他们成了朋友，在最后的离去风波里，凯文是他们为数不多的盟友之一。凯文操着慢吞吞的南方口音，喜欢穿成牛仔的样子，总是彬彬有礼，但有时也很有趣。像罗梅洛和汤姆一样，他也喜欢那些恶心的玩笑，但和他们不一样，凯文可以很快约束着自己进入专注状态。在id离开《软盘》后，凯文展现了他处理事务的老练——他巧妙地和《软盘》周旋，让id拥有最大限度的自由。 id给凯文打了电话，请他来加入这个队伍，只有一个条件，就是他必须搬到麦迪逊来。凯文没有一丝犹豫，他在《软盘》已经呆够了，而且他刚新婚不久，正想开始一段新的人生。于是他收拾起细软，和妻子一起驱车十九个小时，于天亮时分赶到了麦迪逊。 凯文敲响了id的门，几分钟后，卡马克穿着睡衣，顶着乱糟糟的头发出现在了门后，他睡眼惺忪地朝外面瞟了一眼，嘟囔道：“晚点再来。”然后他立刻关了门回到床上继续睡觉，留下凯文夫妇伫立在寒风中。 凯文只好对妻子说：“噢，我们去喝点咖啡吧。”晚些时候他们回到了id的办公室，并谈妥了加入id的具体事宜。凯文随即兴高采烈地告诉他们，他已经找到了一处不错的公寓，第二天上午就可以签租房协议。受凯文的启发，id的人们也觉得是时候换个地方了，于是罗梅洛和汤姆接下来的一天都在外面寻找新房子，晚上他们回到办公室向卡马克和艾德里安汇报说他们找到了一处很漂亮的小区，但是，罗梅洛的比特状态显然又跳到了关，他说道：“我们是可以搬到城的另一头，但是，我跟你们说，我他妈的受够了这冰天雪地的鸟地方，我讨厌这里！” “我也是！”艾德里安立刻附和道。 罗梅洛继续说道：“我真的，真的，不想再呆在这了，我以前不知道威斯康星是这么糟糕，去加利福尼亚怎么样？那青山绿水的地方！在那里，一个人可以整年都呆在室外也不会怎么样，不像这里，呆在外面可以被活活冻死，我决定了，比起炎热和寒冷，我选择炎热，我宁可大汗淋漓，也不要像这样穿得鼓鼓囊囊，滑来滑去，手指都僵得动不了！我们是做游戏的，我们可以去任何地方！”他知道，无论他去哪里，他的女朋友贝丝都会很开心地一同前往。 午夜时分，他们围聚在地图边讨论着下一站的方向，“牙买加！”汤姆建议道，而艾德里安则建议：“达拉斯怎么样？”——达拉斯？——达拉斯！ 去达拉斯的理由太多了：那里是南方，那里有温暖的气候，天极公司也在那里，斯科特·米勒已经催促了无数次让他们过去。斯科特告诉他们，那里有一个巨大的湖，就像什里夫波特一样，他们可以找一所房子，继续在湖面上飞驰。更棒的是，汤姆补充道，德克萨斯州没有州一级的所得税，他们可以赚到更多的钱。就是达拉斯了！ 只有一个麻烦：凯文。天亮以后他就要去签订租房协议，那样id就得继续在这个鬼地方多呆至少六个月。一定要赶快告诉凯文，现在是凌晨三点，id的人们手忙脚乱地给凯文住的旅馆留了一条消息，凯文几个小时后醒来，收到了这条消息：“不要去签协议！马上给我们打电话！我们是风！我们是风！” “噢，上帝，”凯文对妻子说：“那帮家伙肯定是发现预算不够，决定不雇我了。”等他拨通电话，他才放下心来，尽管刚开了十九个小时的车赶到这里，他还是答应和id一起继续前往达拉斯，那儿离他的家乡更近。“我们是风！我们是风！”电话那头还在重复着，这个词似乎蕴涵了他们所有的特质：他们的自发性、他们的速度、他们的无从琢磨。 几个星期后，一辆搬家大货车停到了id办公室的门口，他们站在车后看着司机打开货柜，就在门缓缓移开的时候，他们难以置信地瞪大了双眼，下巴都快掉到了地上：像是幻觉，像是天意，车箱里孤零零的放着一台——《吃豆子》！这是伴随着他们长大的街机，这是罗梅洛在萨克拉曼多城里四处留下最高分的游戏，这是他们在什里夫波特仿造着它做出PC卷轴版的那个游戏！罗梅洛咽了咽口水，向司机问道：“那是你的机器吗？” “我想它现在是我的了，”司机回答道：“有人把它留在了我的卡车上，他不想把它搬进家门。” id的人们互相看了看，不约而同地点了点头。罗梅洛开口对司机说：“嘿，伙计，可以把它卖给我们吗？” 司机看了看这些留着长发，穿着破牛仔的年轻人，他们看上去连理个发的钱都拿不出来，更别说是买这么棒的街机，他傲慢地回答罗梅洛：“当然！一百五十块。” 卡马克把手伸进口袋，“没问题，”他告诉司机，然后从一大把支票里翻出几张纸币：“把它留在车上。” 游戏就要在德克萨斯上演了。