Chapter 8 Chapter 7 Spear of Destiny

Video games have never been considered a good thing in Texas.It is a scourge, and it leads the children badly, making them put all their breakfast money into coins.In Mesquite, a small town southeast of Dallas, conservative residents took these anxious thoughts to court, hoping to block video games. The lawsuit went all the way to the Supreme Court, and the plaintiff was eventually dismissed— — This is what happened in 1982, when the so-called video games were just arcade machines like Pacman. On April Fool's Day in 1992, id brought a "Pacman" to Mesquite and became the first local game company.

Carmack and Romero couldn't be happier, they're back in the sunny South.Everything in Dallas is oversized, the freeways are wide, the trucks are long, the garages are huge, and even the people there are oversized, from burly cowboys to curvaceous Blonde. id chose Mesquite because it was closer to Scott Miller, whose Celestial Headquarters is in Garland, only a few minutes away by car, and Mesquite, they discovered, was indeed a very livable place.Standing on the top floor of the La Prada apartment next to Interstate 635, through the huge tea-colored glass, you can see the garden and the blue swimming pool downstairs. When id moved in, the leisurely bikini girls were Wandering in the pool, the water polo crossed the net, sparking strings of splashes, and the spicy aroma wafted from the nearby barbecue grill.They are home.

Scott was ecstatic to hear that these talented programmers were going to be his neighbors.He and his partner, George Broussard, rushed to La Prada immediately, took id's men to a Mexican restaurant for a feast of exotic burritos and nachos, and then took them to a huge My playground: "Speed ​​Zone," where they chase each other in go-karts. id then marveled at the real sports cars Scott and George drove, and AK obviously profited a lot from Keen's success.Romero said to Carmack: "Hey, man, their car is so much better than ours, it's time for us to put on a show in the next day!"

Success is in sight and there is no way to escape it.In addition to guaranteeing them a hundred thousand dollars in income, Scott also increased the commission to 50% - such a high royalty has never been seen in this industry. As long as the group of young people are happy, Scott even promised Tianji came to make a game for Floppy Disk to fulfill the contract between id and Floppy Disk, because id hated the distraction, so that id could focus on the development of Wolfenstein 3D. Floppy received Scuba Venture, unaware that it was actually made by Celestial, not id. Regarding Wolfenstein 3D, Scott had bigger ambitions in mind.At the beginning, he just wanted to follow the usual way, release a trial version of one chapter, which contains ten levels, and then let players buy the remaining two chapters.But then he learned from Romero and Tom that they only need one day to make a level, tata!Scott heard the sound of banknotes.Why only three chapters?We could do six chapters, Scott suggested: "If you can do thirty more levels—it only takes you fifteen days, we can price the first three chapters at thirty-five dollars, and six chapters together at fifty dollars." USD, if the player buys the first three chapters first, then he only needs to spend another twenty dollars to get the remaining three chapters, it’s a good deal for him to buy!” id thought about it, and then agreed to Scott’s suggestion.

Not everything was smooth sailing. When Mark Ryan disagreed with them on something, id suddenly fired their manager. In Romero's words: "Too fucking sudden, Boom! He's gone." id lost their official and only business person.Of course, even though Carmack and Romero were programmers, they weren't new to businesses; they'd been running things for themselves since they were kids.Carmack created a group with his friends during the production of "Ghost", and later contributed to game magazines as a freelance programmer for a long time; Romero has always been a lone ranger, completing more than a dozen games on his own. Macintosh games and sold them all to publishers.But like all artists and programmers, they don't like to worry about business matters, they prefer to focus on their own field.Also, the more they get involved in making games, the more they tire of the mountain of routine: paying bills, buying groceries, keeping on the phone... The company needs a new head of business who can do business like they did when they were making games. So eclectic, bold and confident.If you just want to find someone at random, then things couldn't be easier. Those young so-called professional managers have called id from all directions, but id doesn't want these people. They already have a suitable candidate in their mind—they An old friend of mine, Jay Wilbur.

They told Jay on the phone that the condition was this: as id's CEO (Chief Executive Officer), he would get 5% of the company's shares and have the right to make decisions in business matters without any interference, as long as he said " OK" and just drive over to Mesquite.Jay just got tired of working on Floppy and felt he had done his duty to Old Ai.He told the guys at id to get the grill ready and he was on his way. ﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡ "Let you run! Bastards!" Romero yelled. "Go to hell! Da da, da da..." SS soldiers were everywhere: in corridors, in halls, in front of Hitler's portrait, on wood Behind the barrel, Romero is now in that world, sweeping through rooms with a machine gun, Nazi soldiers falling like grass before him, Romero stepping over their mangled corpses and moving on.

This is the top floor of the La Prada apartment at midnight. Romero is upstairs in the attic. Adrian is on his right, Tom is behind him, and a mess of network cables and adapters are on the left. A card from Street Fighter II, id's favorite game of late.Carmack is downstairs, sitting on top of a pile of empty Coke bottles surrounded by pizza boxes, his beloved NeXT computer in front of him, Kevin on his right, and Jay behind him.They've only been here a few days, but it's clear they've settled down. Romero's growing enthusiasm for Wolfenstein 3D's development is easy to sense, just pay attention to how loudly he shouts.Everyone found that this game is not just a part of work for Romero, but a part of life. He spends more and more time on game testing, and when he is not testing, he is passing BBS is looking for players from all over the world to help him test.

"Hey! Do you guys know what to put in here?" Romero paused the game and shouted to everyone, "Shhh! We should add this feature so that after you take down those nazis, you can stop, Piss on them! Hohohoho! Interesting!" Adrian and Tom were amused by Romero, Tom reached under the table, crumpled up a wad of paper and threw it at Romero, Romero also had his ammo depot, and he immediately responded with three or four One of the paper balls missed, and they reached Kevin on the other side of the attic, and Kevin joined the battle without showing any weakness.Carmack, for his part, tried to focus on his work.Paper ball fights, yelling at the Nazis, and Romero's whims had been a part of life since Mesquite, but Carmack never took part in them, and no one expected him to.So far, Carmack's focus has been enough to deal with these distractions, when they're not there, so he can focus on optimizing the engine to make it faster and more stable.

Paper fights didn't bother Carmack; it was the retractable walls that bothered him.These retractable walls are actually the secret doors in the game. This wall can be retracted inwards, and then slide horizontally to reveal a secret room with many good things.Tom has pestered Carmack countless times about this function, lobbying him: "Secrets are an essential part of any wonderful game. Our previous games have always had various secrets that surprise players, such as The Vauticon language in "Kean", and when the player does not move Keen for a long time, this cute little guy will stretch and yawn, "Wolfstein 3D" cannot do without such a function, the most natural The best way is to hide the secret room behind a movable wall."

But Carmack was unimpressed. It was, in his words, "an ugly tweak" and he didn't want to clutter up the code for this extra functionality.For him, writing games has increasingly become a matter of elegance: how to achieve the desired effect in the cleanest way. The engine of Wolfenstein 3D was never designed to have a wall retracting into a secret room. There should only be a door that can slide open and close. The door just moves along the plane of the wall. Indentation is required.The simpler the function, the faster the engine will run, and the more realistic it will be, so Carmack's reply: "No, there will be no walls to shrink in."

Tom didn't give up either, and he would bring up the matter at every opportunity.Romero soon joined Tom's side, explaining to Carmack: "We know you're overwhelmed with the programming of this new engine, but can you add this feature? Just one feature. Let the wall shrink. Come on in, we'll have fun, and we'll put it all over the place." Carmack turned them down anyway.This is the first time id has had a significant divergence in game design. During work breaks every day, they would play ball together in the swimming pool downstairs.Once again, when Carmack was there, Romero begged him again: "Dude, we need the walls to move! You can't just run through those rooms and kill all the Nazis, you gotta have something secret! You It’s a great thing to do, and just adding this one feature would make me and Tom very happy! It’s all by design.” "Forget about that wall!" Carmack snapped. The pressure was mounting, and the people of id began to fight 16 hours a day, seven days a week.Kevin and Jay were very helpful.Kevin assisted Adrian with some of the characters in the game, and also contributed to the packaging and marketing design.As the company's CEO, Jay's main job is not to formulate the company's strategic planning or business promotion. He is busy with other affairs, such as whether there is any printing paper?What about toilet paper?Is the disk running out?Pizza ordered?Bill paid?Jay got the job in large part because he was the only person at id who could keep his personal books in balance. But there are some things that Kevin and Jay can't help with, like trying to stop Romero and Tom from messing around, two excess energy guys who have been jumping around and chirping in imitation of Keen. The voices of those characters, but now—unfortunately for everyone else—they have stereos.Bobby Prince would come and camp at id's apartment from time to time and turn this into a small recording studio, those tuners and mics these two guys couldn't put it down, they didn't sleep, they went wild in there all night babble and record it. One night, it occurred to them that id's answering machine, they could record a welcome message and put it in: it opened with a cheerful piano, and then Romero's voice came from behind: "id software is made up of the letter I and the number 5." Here's to you..." He got it from the end of Sesame Street, and then Tom squeezed his voice and sang high: "Five, five, that's five strawberry pies! Immediately there was thunderous applause and cheers.In another scene, they use a tuner to create a devilish low tone: "id software is not available right now," and the devil belches: "because they're on my plate!" Third, Tom He told the story that he was in the stone house of id software, when suddenly, the devil appeared: "What do you have to do with id?!" Tom told the devil that he was only here to help id record the voicemail, and the devil roared, "Go to hell, You idiot!" Then there was a roar, followed by gunshots, and, finally, a scream from Tom. Adrian had had enough, and on the night of the answering call, he got up and walked away without a word.While Carmack remained in the office, he could bear it for the time being. ﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡ It's not just people with id feeling the pressure.One day, Scott got a call from the styling company, which Scott had been associated with since id decided to let them release the retail version of Wolfenstein 3D.When they had trouble communicating with id, they came to Scott for help. This time, a manager expressed their anxiety to Scott: "We think it's better not to have blood or World War II related things in the game. , we were really worried about that, they looked too real, there had never been a game like this before, and it was sure to turn off a lot of people.” Scott also thought about this issue: Wolfenstein 3D is essentially just It's a maze game, like Pacman with guns, but outsiders don't necessarily see it that way. "I'll try to persuade them," Scott replied. He immediately dialed the number of id: "Hey, people from the modeling company think this game should be more disciplined." He clearly heard the angry noise on the other end of the phone.Yes, id should do something about violence.In the end, Scott compromised: "So, let's do it!" - that's what id wanted. Adrian added all kinds of creepy details to the game: skeletons hanging from chains, dead bodies leaning against the fence in the cell, and flesh and blood everywhere on the walls.And what Tom originally asked him to make were pots, pans and other daily necessities. Adrian liked this change. He gradually felt that the game was just a game, and it didn’t need to copy reality. He had been longing to make this kind of dark theme, now has the opportunity.He splattered blood wantonly. Tom and Romero made the game more powerful in other ways, such as screaming.They stayed late in the office, recording orders in fierce German: "Be careful!", "Come on!" His wife said goodbye forever: "Eva, goodbye!" In order to unify the atmosphere of the entire game, they recorded the Nazi carol "Horst Wessel Lied" (Horst Wessel Lied) as the opening background music of the game. They also produced so-called "death views."When the boss at the end of a chapter is killed, words will appear on the screen: "Let's watch it again", and then a slow-motion replay of the fierce battle between the player and the boss just now, until the moment when the boss dies.This can be said to be a death record film produced by id.They then decided to include a screen at the beginning of the game stating: "This Holocaust game is self-rated by id Software as PC-13 (not suitable for children under 13)." Although this is actually a mockery of those who fear violent material , but it did make Wolfenstein 3D the first self-rated video game. As the game neared completion, retractable walls were the only problem.Romero and Tom thought they had to go to Carmack one last time, but to their surprise, Carmack spun his chair and told them that this feature had already been added.Carmack eventually agreed that the feature, as he likes to say it, was the Right Thing.Secret locations can add an extra layer of fun to a game, and Tom and Romero are right about that.Carmack's transformation took them by surprise, but also made them unforgettable for a long time.Yes, Carmack was a stubborn guy, but if you insisted on arguing an issue with him, and he had your reasons, he was more than happy to be persuaded by you. Romero and Tom happily added secret rooms to each level. When the player walks to such a wall, if he presses the door open button, the wall will shrink in and slowly move away. The room is usually filled with various treasures and supplies, such as chicken legs and ammunition.They even made a secret level featuring enemies from Pac-Man. The game's secrets boil down to psychological and philosophical considerations, and when the player does something out of the ordinary, like pushing a seemingly solid wall, he's rewarded—treasure and supplies.In addition, there are cheat codes, many games have this kind of short commands, after the player enters, he will get extra health and weapons, but he also has to pay for this, that is, he will lose the chance to win high scores.All of these, like life, have a cause and an effect. At 4 o'clock in the morning on May 6, 1992, the trial version of Wolfenstein 3D was completed, and the finishing work was over. Tom entered the story outline: "You are William J. Blazekovic, a The agent of the Allied Powers, nicknamed BJ (William JBJ Blazkowicz), is responsible for scouting the enemy and giving the enemy a fatal blow if necessary... Your mission this time... is to infiltrate the last Nazi stronghold..." In normal games, players can At the beginning, choose the difficulty of the game, such as "easy", "medium", and "difficult". In this game of id, after entering the game, the player will see a question: "How tough are you?", there are four in total Choose, each has a corresponding avatar, from a bloody BJ-"I am death incarnate" to a BJ wearing a beanie with a pacifier in his mouth-"Daddy, can I play?"; In the same way, when the player exits the game, he will be faced with a mocking question: "Press N for warriors, Y for cowards", or: "Press N for kill and glory; press N for work and anxiety , press Y." Tianji company has established their own BBS last year: "Software Creations" (Software Creations).After finishing the detail polishing and error debugging of Wolfenstein 3D, id can now publish it through this BBS.Countless players who are fascinated by Keen are eagerly waiting for this new game. "Who knows?" said Tom. "If gamers like it, it might sell better than Keen." Keen was still at the top of the shareware charts. Carmack, Adrian, Romero, Jay, Kevin, Scott huddle around a computer connected via modem to a BBS, early summer crickets sing cheerfully outside the window, Pacman is quiet The ground flashes in the corner of the wall, the keyboard is pressed, the file of Wolfenstein 3D is modulated into an analog signal as a bit stream, and then enters the telephone line, departs from Mesquite, leaves Dallas, passes through Texas, and heads to New England City. You're done, everyone agrees that you can go back to bed - what about tomorrow?Wait for it to come. ﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡ "Here's the pizza money!" Jay yelled. It was the first royalties from Wolfenstein 3D. The number of times is at most twice that of "Kean". After all, "Wolfenstein 3D" is still released through relatively underground sharing channels and BBS. A good harvest, after all, this game still has costs: rent and wages of 750 US dollars per person per month, a total of 25,000 US dollars. The number on the check is one hundred thousand.It's only the first month, and with the revenue from "Kean," id's annual revenue is sure to hit $1 million.Players were deeply attracted by the first chapter, and they couldn't stop, which violated the usual business logic-free distribution brought more sales, and Scott's plan was successful again. Wolfenstein 3D quickly became an underground cultural phenomenon. Before the mainstream media noticed it, players on BBS had already begun to discuss its immersive game experience, unprecedented graphics technology and tension. Thrilling gameplay - thanks to the individual geniuses of Carmack and Romero, respectively.Not only the pages of major BBS are full of posts discussing "Wolfstein 3D", but also the forums of some emerging online service providers - Prodigy, CompuServe, America Online (AOL) - are also occupied by it. , the emails about it are overwhelming. One fan wrote: "It doesn't surprise me that it's the hottest thing on BBS and newsgroups, I love this game. Like you turn a corner with lightning speed, bring down three soldiers and An SS man, then nimbly turning around and taking out the guy who's coming after you. It's such a great feeling! And the nervousness of opening each door because you don't know what's behind it What's the situation." A Microsoft employee said excitedly on the Internet: "Wolfstein is so popular in Microsoft, I can hear those German shouts wherever I go." He also mentioned how he hoped that id Can port this game to Microsoft's new Windows (Windows) operating system. Summer is here, and the mainstream media has given its praises."It's better to be compared to an interactive movie than an arcade game," wrote one shareware magazine. "It single-handedly demonstrated the power of shareware to the world," wrote another. Brilliant." Even old-line magazines like Computer Gaming World joined in the cry: "For the first time, the technology is able... A bright future.” Virtual reality, a buzzword that mainstream media loves to use, is applied together with Wolfenstein 3D and is called a virtual reality game.There are also people in Kentucky who show game images to players through virtual reality glasses, and then rent them out at fairs, earning $500 a day. Players don't need so-called virtual reality glasses to integrate them into the world. In fact, their sense of integration is too real. Many people have symptoms of vertigo, and some players even vomit during the game.Tianji Company received a large number of such calls, and such stories are too numerous to enumerate on the Internet, and there are various explanations. Some players think that the picture of the game is too realistic, so that the brain thinks that it is indeed a real world. , but it is completely different from the real life experienced by the brain; some other players think that the "jitter" of the image causes physical discomfort; others think that it is because people are not used to moving without acceleration, just like The speed jumps directly from zero to sixty.Players even exchanged ideas-how can I keep playing without feeling uncomfortable? The violent content of Wolfenstein 3D has also sparked controversy.A reviewer wrote: "The most indispensable thing in this game is ketchup. When you hit enemies, they will spew out a lot of red liquid. If you are sensitive to violence in the game, then you may Find a way to avoid this game as much as possible.” Most people don’t care much about the human blood in the game, what they can’t accept is that dogs can also be shot to death by players, in fact, what makes them feel excited is the bloody massacre."It's true that the game has no positive social impact, but we're just obsessed with it," wrote one magazine. There are some people who are okay with the violence, but are very upset that id made Nazis as enemies in the game.Jay gets a letter from the Anti-Defamation League protesting id's use of the swastika in the game.Bigger troubles arose in Germany. Wolfenstein 3D was disseminated through the Internet. CompuServe is a multinational operator, and players in Germany can naturally download it. Soon, the German government noticed this game. This country banned Nazi symbols from appearing in mass entertainment media after World War II. Therefore, Wolfenstein 3D was ordered to be banned.Tianji Company began to receive unopened and returned packages, so Scott had to use ordinary packages without specifying the contents to send the game to Germany. CompuServe soon learned of the German government's ban, and heeded the advice of German lawyers to remove Wolfenstein 3D from its service.The move caught the attention of all sectors of society, especially lawyers, because it was the first legal dispute to take place in cyberspace: if a game—or any other item, such as an image, book, movie—was uploaded in a certain country to What should I do if I violate the laws of another country?A lawyer published an article on the Wolfenstein 3D case, arguing that it was a "counterintuitive mistake" to ban a game from the Internet simply because of "Nazis in electronic space." Pointing out that the electronic space should exist as an "independent country". In the illustration of the article, the flags fluttering in the wind are wrapped around the markings of rats like poisonous snakes. !" Wolfenstein 3D also stimulated the creativity of players, who modified the game and created so-called "game modes" (Mods).Like many others, Carmack and Romero were veterans of modding games themselves.Many games even directly provide editors to players so that they can build their own levels, such as "Gold Digger" (Lode Runner) as early as 1983.Also in 1983, three players created Castle Smurfenstein (Castle Smurfenstein) based on the original Wolfenstein—with the Nazis replaced by cute Smurfs. id's Wolfenstein 3D is much more complicated and more difficult to modify. Players must be able to accurately replace the game's data.But not long after the game's release, id received a modified version that looked exactly like the original, except the in-game music was replaced with "I Love You, You Love Me," the theme song from the children's show Barney. ", the SS boss in it was also replaced by the smiling little purple dinosaur Barney.Carmack and Romero couldn't be happier, but the others are not.Kevin, who is very business-minded, expressed his concern. Players modifying the game content in this way obviously violated their copyrights. Scott agreed with Kevin. What if someone makes a new version and sells it?This will affect id's own profitability.But Carmack and Romero were all for open, free, and fun game modification, so the issue was put aside for now. ﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡ Despite the game's success, id didn't get carried away, and the atmosphere at work became even more tense.Immediately after the release of the demo, they began work on the remaining five chapters.The pressure was palpable: Thousands of players had sent checks, and id was going to get them the right merchandise right away. The folks at id had been busy for weeks before they found a chance to take a break: Kansas City was hosting an Apple Festival.For them, a nostalgia trip like this is the best way to unwind. Romero met Jay at the Apple Festival, and now after all those years of struggle, they can go back there to show what they have achieved.They piled into Tom's Toyota with their brand new seven thousand dollar laptop loaded with Wolfenstein 3D, and thirteen hours later they arrived in Kansas City. The party was held at a community college, and the far-flung guests lived in student housing.When signing in, id noticed a special name: Silas Warner, they looked at each other, and said in unison: "No way!" - Silas is the creator of Wolfenstein, as far as id knows In his case, he didn't know that someone had remade his game. People from id lined up into the lecture hall with their laptops, waiting nervously for Silas to arrive. Silas looked like Donkey Kong as he paced the stage.He is too big, weighing 320 pounds, and can crush a mouse with a pinch, but he is also an easy-going and interesting person. His topic today is his entrepreneurial history, his Muse software.He spoke wryly of its successes, as well as of its downfalls.After his speech, he was mobbed by admirers, and id stood by, waiting for their turn.Finally, Romero suppressed the excitement in his heart and said: "Hi, Silas, we are id software, we have remade your "Wolfenstein", and it is already on sale, today we brought it, please Take a look, and then sign the game manual." Silas glanced at these ordinary-dressed young programmers and the expensive computer in their hands, then raised his eyebrows, and said unhurriedly : "Oh, okay, someone seems to have told me about this on the phone." Romero couldn't wait to launch the game, and to their relief, Silas praised their work and signed them. name. Later, they returned to the dormitory building. It was an unforgettable night. Everyone gathered in the lobby to talk about the game. There were even some famous people in the Apple world. When programming, you can put a hamburger in the drawer, pinch a small piece and send it to your mouth from time to time, and just sit like this for several days.But when people gathered around id's computer to play Wolfenstein 3D, it was clear that Bill Burger was no longer the only focus. A month later, id took their first official vacation since the company was founded. During this vacation, they experienced what it's like to be a celebrity. After completing all the levels, id decided to spend $5,000 each to Disneyland for the weekend to celebrate.They rode the roller coaster over and over again and watched various shows. In the evening, they stayed at the Florida Hotel next to the theme park.Sitting in the giant spa tub, they thought life was so good, they decided to go back and give themselves a raise to $45,000 a year—a lot of money at the time. Wolfenstein 3D, they celebrated, had brought them success. "Who mentioned Wolfenstein just now?" someone in the pool next to him asked, and then he patted his friend: "We love that game!" The id people looked at them dubiously, but the players couldn't pretend, they jumped into id's pool, talking about that game endlessly.It's an exciting time, especially for Romero, who for so many years has been the one who adores people, and now he's sitting in this spa tub, under giant palm trees, surrounded by the lights of a theme park, With dollars flying before his eyes, and himself being treated like a legend—for a moment, Romero was intoxicated. ﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡ As the game became successful, the personalities of Carmack and Romero increasingly contrasted: Carmack was more obsessively involved in technology, and Romero was more obsessively involved in games.Tom describes their differences in a help manual for Wolfenstein 3D, where he portrays Romero as an ultimate gamer and Carmack as a technical master, as he writes: John the Surgeon and Engine Engineer John. Tom wrote: "John Romero, currently the best Wolfenstein 3D player in the world, has a record of 5 minutes and 20 seconds to break through the first chapter on medium difficulty. He didn't kill all the enemies, but just ran to the end of the level with the shortest route and the fastest speed. We call him a surgeon, because he can remove obstacles on the road as accurately and decisively as a surgical operation. He welcomes everyone to challenge this record, he Advice to everyone: 'Use the mouse and keyboard, hold down the right shift key and the up arrow most of the time, that's the fastest way forward, don't stop and wait for the enemy to appear - charge, before they see it Kill 'em while you're at it, there's no way cowards can become world-class Wolfenstein 3D players'." Next, Tom described Carmack's work: "John the engine engineer. We call the part of the program that is responsible for displaying images on the screen the 'engine', and the powerful texture engine of Wolfenstein 3D is created by our id The technical genius John Carmack made it. But he felt that the engine was outdated, and what he would bring us next was a holographic world." It's true that, as before, Carmack has put his past achievements behind him, and his next job is to implement a more realistic virtual world. 1992年5月，就在《德军总部3D》发布后，尼尔·斯蒂芬森（Neal Stephenson）的小说《雪崩》（Snow Crash）出版了，在书里，尼尔描写了一个名叫“变体”（Metaverse）的虚拟电子空间。但卡马克灵感的来源并不是科幻小说，而是科学本身。科技在进步，他的技艺也在提高。 在为造型公司制作零售版本时，卡马克有了试验新技术的机会。这个游戏名叫《命运之矛》（Spears of Destiny），这本是传说中杀死耶稣的那柄神秘长矛，后来希特勒得到了它，并试图通过它获得超人的能力，游戏里，BJ必须要把它从希特勒手里夺走。在《德军总部3D》的巨大成功面前，造型公司原先关于暴力的担心没有了，id继续在它血腥的道路上昂首前进。 《命运之矛》用的是《德军总部3D》的引擎，在其他人忙于制作游戏内容的时候，卡马克得以空下来研究新的技术。一开始，他用现有的美工资源做了不计其数的小实验，譬如他做了一个类似他和罗梅洛常玩的F-Zero赛车游戏，错综复杂的蓝色线条布满了他的屏幕，随后他加入图片，他只用了一幅德军总部里的希特勒头像，他把这图一张接一张地铺满了整个路面，造出了一条希特勒公路。卡马克会迷失在屏幕上的世界里，迷失在抽象的几何空间中，他思索着速度的感觉、位置的变换、旋转、斜坡…… 不久后，卡马克的实验成果成为了游戏《造影者》（Shadowcaster）的一部分。这是一家名叫Raven的小公司制作的游戏，id在威斯康星州的时候认识了他们，因为他们那时是麦迪逊除id以外惟一的一家游戏公司，它的创始人是两兄弟：布赖恩·拉费尔（Brian Raffel）和史蒂文·拉费尔（Steven Raffel）。Raven最早是给阿米卡（Amiga）家用机开发游戏的，罗梅洛非常欣赏他们的作品，于是邀请他们一起为天极公司开发游戏，Raven拒绝了罗梅洛，理由是他们对PC市场不感兴趣。但id和Raven还保持着联系，随着PC市场的红火，最近Raven和电子艺界签署了一份PC游戏的合同，id建议他们使用卡马克的引擎，并让id抽取一部分利润。双方都觉得这笔交易不错，于是就有了《造影者》，卡马克也忙了起来。 id的其他人则不像卡马克那么投入，除了罗梅洛以外的所有人似乎都被《德军总部3D》弄得精疲力尽。艾德里安厌倦了那些现实主义的纳粹图像，开始不时地和凯文出去散心——凯文最近一直在和他合作，他们变得更要好了。汤姆则对游戏的设计方向越来越失望，在一些场合，他会把罗梅洛拽到一边，问他什么时候开始制作《基恩》的最后一个三部曲，罗梅洛总是回答他：那还没有提上议事日程，改天再说；而背地里，罗梅洛则对汤姆的纠缠不休感到厌烦。汤姆对《命运之矛》也越来越敷衍了事，罗梅洛竭尽所能地想调动他的积极性，跟他描绘赚到钱以后就可以去买漂亮的本田新款Acura，实在行不通，他们就抛开工作，到《街霸II》里互相踢打一番。 就这样，汤姆一觉得没劲，他们就调出游戏，而汤姆动不动就觉得没劲，什么时候都不想干活，于是他们就一天天晚上坐在电视机前玩《街霸II》。楼下，卡马克努力集中精神制作《造影者》的引擎，他已经要触到什么了，那正确的事情，它就在那里，一些前所未有的东西在他的屏幕上渐渐成型。尽管几个月来他忍受了纸团大战，忍受了录制留言电话，忍受了那扭曲的怪叫，但现在，楼上的喧闹终于让他忍无可忍。卡马克关上机器，站起来拔了电线，每个人都停下了手头上的事，看着卡马克，“我想我还是回到我房间里独自工作比较好。”卡马克说完就搬起他黑色的NeXT走出门，他接下来几个星期都没再回来。 ﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡ 《命运之矛》于1992年9月18号发布，它进一步巩固了id的名望。他们再次赢得了最佳娱乐产品奖，媒体和同行一如既往地对id的这个新游戏大加赞誉。在计算机游戏开发者大会（CGDC: Computer Game Developers Conference）上，斯科特参加了一个市场营销讨论会，电子艺界的官员在会上称赞了《德军总部3D》在没有任何广告和市场推广的情况下取得的令人难以置信的成功。按照那时的经验，下载共享软件的用户里最多只有百分之一到二的人会付款购买，更糟的是，任何一个用户都可以在购买到完全版以后把它拷贝给朋友们。尽管是这样，《德军总部3D》以及其他id游戏的订单仍滚滚不断，销量持续上升，id现在每个月的收入达到了十五万美元。 还有公司向id抛出了橄榄枝，一个他们完全没有意料到的公司，最不可能的公司：任天堂。id当初想为它制作PC版马里奥的时候被它拒绝过，而现在，它的口气变了，它给id开价十万美元，要id把《德军总部3D》移植到超任家用机（Super Nintendo）上。而且，因为任天堂是一个家用系统，所以他们必须做一个合家欢版本，也就是说，去掉所有的血污。并且，任天堂不喜欢看到狼狗被玩家射死，它建议道，是不是可以换种动物呢？譬如老鼠？这是巨头任天堂，id答应了。 更有意思的是，一个制作宗教主题游戏的公司：智慧树（Wisdom Tree），也给id打来了电话，他们的代表向杰伊询问是否可以获得《德军总部3D》引擎的授权，他们想做一个关于诺亚方舟的主视角游戏，为了让船上的动物们乖乖听话，玩家要四处放置水果和蔬菜。杰伊听完他们的计划后大笑了一番，因为智慧树的这个游戏要运行在超任家用机上，而且不经过任天堂的许可。任天堂，杰伊知道，从不做任何有关宗教的游戏，不管是撒旦还是诺亚。杰伊答应了智慧树。 在这个时候，还有比生意更值得关心的事情：卡马克的技术。他带着在《造影者》引擎里取得的成果回到了id的办公室，大家立刻注意到，这是个相当大的飞跃。引擎里一眼就能看出来的新特性有：亮度衰减，带材质贴图的地板和天花板。 亮度衰减的意思是，就像在现实世界中，当你打着手电筒行走时，越远的物体就越陷入黑暗。在《德军总部3D》里，所有的房间，所有的角落，都是亮堂堂的，没有色调的变换，而画家们都知道，光的效果是使图画栩栩如生的关键一环。有了亮度衰减后，卡马克的虚拟世界更加鲜活了。 卡马克还学会了如何把材质贴图应用于地板和天花板，此外，他还摸索出了如何实现不等高的墙体。新引擎的执行速度大约是《德军总部3D》的一半，但《造影者》是一个冒险游戏，它是基于探索的，而不是战斗，所以速度慢一些没有关系。 这个飞跃对卡马克而言绝不是一件轻松的事情，他花了大量的时间才想出如何在屏幕上正确地绘制地面。他的勤奋和自律给他带来了回报，他现在甚至能够绘制出倾斜的地面，玩家可以感觉到自己在上坡还是在下坡，这简直让人难以置信——凯文在游戏里的一座小山上来来回回跑了二十分钟。而且，很明显，id该用新的技术去制作一个新的游戏了。 ﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡ 《德军总部3D》完成了，《命运之矛》也完成了，大家跃跃欲试地要开始新的主题，尤其是汤姆，前面这两个游戏已经让他心力憔悴，迷宫射击游戏不是他喜爱的题材，他惦记着《基恩》，他渴盼着能马上开始最后一个三部曲的制作。让他高兴的是，卡马克和他的想法一样，他甚至开始琢磨起那些可爱的唷扑在三维世界里舞动的样子。 另一个被拿出来讨论的想法是：异形。id所有人都是这部科幻片的影迷，他们觉得这个题材很适合做游戏，杰伊做了一些调研，发现版权不是问题，id可以下手。但他们很快就放弃了这个念头，因为他们不想被那些大制片厂束缚着手脚做事。卡马克的新技术太惊人了，他们不需要向其他人做任何妥协。大伙继续冥思苦想。 让汤姆失望的是，关于《基恩》的讨论没有持续多久。他们一致认为，新引擎的速度感和所能带来的刺激不适合制作一个儿童题材的游戏。汤姆望向罗梅洛——他的朋友和伙伴，但罗梅洛也明确表示不想再做《基恩》。这不奇怪，毕竟，《德军总部3D》就得自于罗梅洛的想法，他显然更喜欢这样的血腥，胜过喜欢《基恩》的童趣。而艾德里安，汤姆不用问也知道他会怎么说。甚至连一开始赞同汤姆观点的卡马克也改变了主意，讨论开始转移到和基恩彻底相反的话题上——魔鬼。 卡马克和魔鬼的交情源远流长：在童年时的教会学校里、在《龙与地下城》的世界里——罗梅洛就是召唤出了这些魔鬼，才毁灭了那世界。现在，该让这些魔鬼们在游戏的世界里登场了。id现在有让人惊叹的技术，那为什么不做一个关于魔鬼和技术的游戏呢？卡马克说道，譬如玩家用高科技武器击退来自地狱的魔鬼们？罗梅洛喜欢这个想法，还没有人做过这样的题材。凯文和艾德里安也同意这样做，他们不止是同意，他们甚至为能够进行病态扭曲的艺术尝试而窃喜不已，他们可以把恐怖电影《鬼玩人》（Evil Dead II）里的场景活生生地搬到游戏里了。他们达成共识：这将是一个综合了《鬼玩人》和《异形》的游戏，主题就是高科技和地狱、鲜血和恐惧…… 游戏还缺一个名字，卡马克已经有了主意。在导演马丁·斯科塞斯（Martin Scorsese）1986年的《金钱本色》（The Color of Money）中，汤姆·克鲁斯扮演一个年轻的桌球赌球手，某个场景里，他怀抱一个黑色的盒子坐在球桌旁，里面放着他那名贵的球杆。正在打球的一个本地高手问他：“你那里面装的什么东西？” 克鲁斯笑了，因为他知道眼前这个人接下来将面临什么。就像，卡马克想道，那id曾带给《软盘》的，或者，id的下一个游戏将要带给世界的： “这里面？”克鲁斯打开盒子，回答道：“末日（Doom）”