Chapter 17 Chapter 16 The Eternal World

At the end of 2000, Carmack had double happiness. One was that id released Quake3, and the other was that he ushered in his own wedding.A few years ago, he got a letter from Katherine Anna Kang, a California businesswoman and Quake fan, who wanted to host a women's Quake tournament.Carmack said that would be great, but you'd probably only get twenty-five—she got fifteen hundred.Carmack has respect for anyone who can prove him wrong: Anna?What kind of person is she? She is a self-respecting self-love self-improvement woman.As an Asian-American who grew up in Los Angeles, Anna was called a "banana"—a derogatory term that refers to their yellow skin despite being assimilated in their thinking by white society.The contempt of others did not shake Anna's belief in the slightest, as she said: "Women are not subordinate to men, interracial marriage is not a sinful fate, just like capitalism is not a poisonous weed, and socialism does not necessarily It’s the panacea.” Russian-American writer Ayn Rand (Ayn Rand) is Anna’s spiritual idol, and she hopes that she can be as powerful as Gail Wynand (Gail Wynand) in Rand’s (The Fountainhead) .In the world of Quake, she does.

After that successful tournament, Ana continued to stay in touch with Carmack.His selflessness is his charm - as he shares his code and knowledge with the world.Although she once called him an idiot, she believed that he actually had a deep and broad mind.Carmack was also drawn to her, and they talked about Ay Rand, about the worldview, about games, and Carmack liked her argumentative tone. They began a far-flung romance until Carmack, with the consent of other employees, offered Ana a job at id as a reason for Ana to move to Dallas.She came and went quickly, and her time at id didn't last long, but her relationship with Carmack would: They got married in Hawaii, and only family and close friends were invited to the wedding.This was Carmack's first vacation, and he didn't forget to bring his laptop with him just this time.He has work to do.

In Carmack's eyes, Quake 3, like all his other games, was a thing of the past compared to what he was about to do.Online games are increasingly popular, and some of them are permanent online worlds that exist as objectively as the real world, where players can visit and explore at any time.The medieval-style "EverQuest" (EverQuest) and "Ultima Online" (Ultima Online) based on Richard Geliott's original book (Ultima Online) sold millions of copies, creating a class of so-called "multiplayer online role-playing games". (MMORPG: massively multiplayer online role-playing games)” games, thousands of players from all over the world can gather together, they live in digital time and space, and they spend dozens of hours a week fighting, exploring, and leveling up. "Ever Quest" is called "EverCrack" by players.Some players have even begun to trade real money for virtual treasures, such as weapons or equipment, on sites such as Ebay.

This scene is the most widely recited scene in the early "hacker ethics" period, and now it really happened. "This allows us to have virtual resources," Carmack said, "so that we can create wealth from nothing and replicate it at will... Unlike physical entities in the real world, objects in the digital world are We have shown that it is possible to replicate wealth. The world will be richer." Back in Dallas, Carmack decided to tell his colleagues about these new ideas: "We should focus on building a common infrastructure, and then make a game on top of it. This infrastructure will provide the network that people have been talking about and waiting for. Three-dimensional environment, we can achieve it now." This is the goal that Carmack has dedicated his life to, this is the sci-fi dream of novelists from Aldous Huxley to William Gibson, this is The holographic imaging platform in "Neural Wanderer", the computer space in "Neural Wanderer", and the variant in "Avalanche", this is virtual reality. It has many names, but the technology mastered by human beings has never been able to turn it into reality— — even a prototype.And now, Carmack believes, the time is right.

He glanced at his colleagues in the conference room, expecting their approval, and all he got was stares. "We are a game company," Adrian said, "What we make is games." Carmack sighed. He knew that no matter how powerful he was, no matter how much he paid, no matter how much prestige he had, he couldn't do it alone. To accomplish this goal, he needs someone to use his technology to map out a brave new world. He needs someone who is crazy about it. Awesome stuff! —he needs Romero.The meeting broke up badly. So, what does id do next?Although no one wants to do "variants", everyone wants to try something new.Gramer's suggestion: "Quest", a multiplayer role-playing game, has nothing to do with first-person shooters.Adrian and Kevin were also quite moved by this, after all, this is a field that id has never set foot in.Others also joined in.The player community has been dissatisfied with id's refurbishment of old themes for a long time. This time, it's time for something new, just like Gramer announced: "Farewell, bazooka!" Everyone agreed that "Mission" will be id's next work.

But soon Carmack hated the game, and he felt that the next three years would be buried in it, which made him unbearable.At the same time, there was another voice, a voice that had been echoing in everyone's ears for several years: remaking Doom.Carmack didn't like the idea very much, but he didn't dislike it either.Under the supervision of id, a company called Gray Matter is producing a new version of Wolfenstein 3D: Return to Castle Wolfenstein, and players have high expectations for it.Carmack has considered many features of the next-generation graphics engine, such as fully dynamic lighting and shadow effects, which will be useful if Doom3 is made.Moreover, second-generation id employees such as Tim Willitz and Paul Steed were able to enter the game industry because of Doom, and they couldn't be more excited to write a new chapter in this ancient legend.Carmack even asked Trent Rezzo of Nine Inch Nails if he would be interested in continuing to arrange and modulate the sound effects for id if he made Doom3, and the rock star who participated in the production of Quake agreed down.But others strenuously disagree.

Especially Kevin, Grammer, Adrian, they don't want to be Doom anymore. "It's like a band re-released their first album after many years, just because they think they can do better." Adrian said: "What's the point of this? Time should be used for meaningful things So, instead of spending two years re-doing something you've already done, why not try to expand in the area of ​​games we've pioneered?" In order to ease the problem, the company decided to start making Quake3's mission package: "Team Arena" (Team Arena). id is undoubtedly responding to the accusations that Quake3 does not have enough team mode, and of course it is against the success of "Unreal Tournament".However, the development of the task package gradually became procrastinated, and everyone was muttering—what should the company do next?The more Carmack watched "The Mission", the more he disliked it. He thought of a way. He wanted to solve this problem once and for all.

One night, Carmack walked into Paul's room: "Trent Rezzo would like to do the sound effects for Doom 3." "Doom3?" Paul was surprised: "We don't do Doom3, we want to do "Task"." "Well, I decided to do Doom3, will you come?" "Nonsense, of course!" Paul exclaimed happily.Tim agreed too. The next day, Carmack walked into Kevin and Adrian's room: "I want to do Doom3, Paul wants to do Doom3, Tim wants to do Doom3, if we don't do Doom3, I will leave the company." Just turned around and walked out the door.

It makes Kevin and Adrian unbelievable, but what can they do?Fire Carmack?Is id still id without Carmack?They discussed various options, including splitting the company into two divisions, or, Adrian thought, breaking up the partnership. Carmack repeatedly threatened to resign. Adrian felt that the day had come. Maybe, Carmack Just looking forward to it.He later asked Carmack how he could be kept if the company were starting a new project now instead of Doom3.Carmack's reply: "Nothing will keep me." That's all.The next day, Carmack told the world about his decision. ﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡

"How's that Hummer?" How's that Hummer?How about that Hummer?The little boy with a greasy face and a crew cut kept asking. He held several Mexican menus in his hand. This self-proclaimed "best" Mexican restaurant near Lake Tavacony is located 30 miles east of Dallas. In fact, It's the only Mexican restaurant here.It's the summer of 2001, and sitting in front of the little boy are Romero and Stevie.After hiding in the countryside a few months ago, they have become regular customers of this small restaurant. Although their star-like attires have attracted the attention of the neighbors, those high-end cars are what really make the villagers envious.After waking up from the nightmare of "Big Sword", the environment is very comfortable.

That nightmare made people feel lingering fears, no matter in terms of sales, or comments from the media and players: "Big Sword" only sold 41,000 copies in the United States.Except for a few reports giving it positive reviews, game fans and the media scolded it bloody. Entertainment Weekly likened it to a "Waterworld-like disaster"—a Kevin Costner movie blockbuster that, like Big Knife, was neither a hit nor a hit. PC Gamer thought it "just marked the end of an era of idolatry"; Computer Gaming World put it bluntly: "Yes, it's rubbish." Romero believes that it is almost impossible for people who have really invested in playing "Big Sword" to draw the above conclusions. In fact, it is almost impossible for most people to get involved: the game starts with dirty green ponds everywhere, and there are groups of Slippery frogs and buzzing gnats, many players can't bear it, so they have to quit.Romero was the first to express his love for Broadsword in an interview — despite the pain of development, he also insisted that the game could break through in terms of technology licensing and foreign markets.Meanwhile, Ion Storm Austin's Deus Ex, under the leadership of Warren Spector, was a huge success, being voted game of the year by several publishers.In Romero's view, regardless of what happened to "Big Sword", his original idea has proven to be effective: to build an empire of making multiple games at the same time. It's just that Romero's enthusiasm isn't helping matters now. After "Big Sword", he began to plan the initial framework of the sequel, and assisted Tom in completing "Dimensions". Many people in Tom's project team left out of dissatisfaction or disappointment. Dimensions, like Broadsword, will be as epic as it is, a sci-fi role-playing game in which players are a space detective who must destroy a plot of mysterious aliens.There are hundreds of creatures in the game, all kinds of weapons, and countless small games integrated into the big plot. In early 2001, the long development process of "Alien Dimension" was coming to an end. Some other things are coming to an end as well.One day, Romero heard that Eidos would lay off a group of employees after the release of "Alien Dimension". He walked into the financial office full of curiosity. He picked up the list on the table and looked at the names of everyone in the Ion Storm Dallas headquarters. It was there, including Tom and himself, while Warren's Austin branch was unscathed.Romero returned to his office. The highway outside the window was still busy with traffic. He picked up the phone and dialed Stevie: "It's over." Romero never worried about Nothing to lose, but this time, his heart was a little messed up.It's gone, he sighed, that design, that dream, didn't work out as he wanted, it's just... sad.But he's Romero, and Romero won't be haunted by grief.He picked up the phone again—times and stars have changed, this scene seems to be a few years ago, when Romero, who was still in id, picked up the phone—dialed Tom, leaving the past to the past, and tomorrow will have tomorrow's game. Romero, Tom, and Stevie plan to start a new company, and they even sketched out the next game: a ten-year-old child, not to save the galaxy like Commander Keen, he has to take care of various daily tasks Chores, rapport with the family; or a cowboy shooter, or something based on Madonna.They also discussed developing for mobile platforms, such as PDAs and cell phones, a huge potential market expected to reach $6 billion in sales by 2006.Romero also wanted to make a game based on the Quake brand.One afternoon, he drove to Mesquite to discuss the matter with id. In order to give employees more space, id moved out of the black cubic building a few years ago.The company's new location, in Romero's view, was even more prosaic than the original: a generic office building sandwiched between two restaurants. Five years have passed since the end of Quake. Although Romero and Carmack often meet on various occasions, this is the first time that Romero has talked to Carmack about a business matter, an idea, a games.When Romero walked into the room, Carmack sat in front of the monitor as usual, optimizing the next-generation graphics engine.His room was much larger and cleaner than before, but it was still very simple and unpretentious.His monitor sits next to a window on the wall, and out of the corner of his eye he can keep an eye on the Ferrari parked downstairs. "Hi," Romero said. "Hi," Carmack said. Romero talked about the purpose of the trip: "I want to use the Quake brand to make a new game, a timeless world, what do you think?" Carmack nodded: "Of course, no problem." He himself had thought about making a new version of "Commander Base" on Nintendo's handheld Game Boy with his earliest partners-Romero, Tom, and Adrian. Yep".Even though he and Romero are well aware that they will never be able to work together at the same company again, that doesn't mean they can't work together. Romero hits the road, with his throbbing bits, for a new scene, a new hope.The first problem he has to solve is the house.He knew what his new company would look like. It should be a big family—like id in the early years. For this, he had to choose the right environment, like a lake house in Shreveport, for example.Stevie saw a suitable mansion online.So they hopped in the Humvee and off they went, past id's office building, through Rockwall, and onto a country road.The scenery on both sides gradually became unfamiliar: empty shops, abandoned school buses, and a rusty flying saucer-like object in the middle of an open space. When they asked the locals about this car-sized flying saucer, people joked that it was The thing popped out of nowhere a few years ago, and now someone is going to clean it up and open a hot dog shop. The house surprised them.It's at the end of a gravel road, next to a pond with a twenty-hole fountain, a row of huts by the pond, atolls, waterfalls, hot spring baths, peacock garden..., all in all, perfect.They immediately decided to buy it.Romero then gave each peacock a game name—Ping Pong, Pooyan, Phoenix—and he turned this place into a kid's paradise: mountains of games, snacks at your fingertips , endless music, this was his childhood dream.Now, what his father couldn't do, he did, and when the boys came home, they sat down and played video games.Romero was even allowed to sit down and play video games with his biological father Alfonso Antonio Romero — After the old man expressed difficulties, Romero bought him a house nearby. On the way back from the Mexican restaurant, Romero and Stevie discussed the finishing touches for the new home: for example, setting up a wooden sign on the side of the gravel road, pointing to "Death Cabin" and "Haunted Manor" at the same time or, even worse, a stone tablet pointing to the nearby woods, with a letter saying "people we don't know or trust, please go along this way"; they also considered building a stone gate in the middle of the road with a banner "German Army Headquarters". But those were overly grandiose designs, and their new company, Monkeystone, isn't going down that road again.This time they don't want to be big, they just want to have a private space full of fun, "just some good friends," Romero said as he drove into the house, "good friends get together and play games." ﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡ Carmack's days of making games are also coming to an end.The day after splitting with Kevin and Adrian, he posted: "Shouldn't have said so sooner but, whatever - We plan to develop a new Doom, focusing on single player games, and using almost new graphics technology.That's all for now, we don't want to accept interviews in the near future, because we have nothing to disclose, and we will talk about it when things really get a little brighter, so as not to cause false wording.This decision was made without much hindrance and went better than expected, but just yesterday Kevin and Adrian fired Paul Steed in retaliation against my objections. " After plans for Doom 3 became public, speculation began to circulate in Silicon Castle that it would be Carmack's last game.There are more and more signs that this is not a coincidence, such as the feud between the id family members, and, more importantly, Carmack has a new goal: to build rockets - real rockets. Carmack picked up his love for rockets during the development of Quake 3.In an interview, Carmack was asked about his childhood, and he recounted stories about rockets, bombs, teenage homes, and, he recalls, what a "little kid" he was.After the interview, Carmack browsed the recent situation of amateur rocketry on the Internet, and what he saw was a colorful and competitive scene. Hackers, engineers, and enthusiasts were building large-scale high-energy rockets Manned rockets, they're going into outer space.Carmack was instantly interested. In the first few weeks, after Carmack bought some model rockets and watched them soar, he began to understand the world of amateur rocketers: people here think that NASA is just a company. Hobbyists are aiming for the $10 million "X Prize" - sending three passengers to outer space.Of course, it was the technical challenges that interested Carmack. And now is a good time.Although there are countless innovations in the Doom3 engine, as Carmack said, he feels that he has "almost reached the pinnacle of graphics programming". Improvements and optimizations.Carmack, who was new to the field of rocketry, was like returning to the original "Floppy Disk": he could make friends with people who were more knowledgeable than him, and he could learn more things.Building a rocket does not need to consider any market needs, and there are no established rules and regulations. He only needs to follow the rules of nature.The challenge Carmack faced was no longer computer performance, but gravity. Carmack got his hands on it. He bought thousands of dollars in books and articles, and he posted an ad on a local website asking for fellow builders to build a manned rocket ship, or, as he puts it, "a vertically upward sports car."A few novices happily hit the road, and they named themselves "Armadillo Aerospace" (Armadillo Aerospace).Carmack's longtime friend Bob Norwood contributed his Ferrari dealership as a workplace, and they soon began meeting once a week. While developing Doom 3, Carmack put more and more energy into rocketry.His house is full of parts, the trunk of his Ferrari is full of engines - rocket engines, now Carmack is Billy Blaze from id's first game ——The little genius who assembled the spaceship in his backyard.He used to spend 100 hours a week in front of the computer and now spends half his time working with motor oil and solder.He fitted the rocket with seats according to his physique, and he sometimes fired it in an abandoned parking lot, sometimes at parties attended by hundreds of rocket enthusiasts, and sometimes he brought a few small The model goes out and finds a deserted place, just like he did in childhood - just to have fun. On a breezy afternoon in November 2001, Carmack set off with his bright orange rocket model. He drove out of Mesquite, and all the way east, the houses gradually became scarce, and the vast pasture appeared in front of him. Stop at a place reserved for amateur wireless model airplanes and rocket enthusiasts to experiment.A few picnic tables are scattered across the brown dirt, a blue portable toilet is nearby, a flag flutters on a rusted flagpole, and the green trash cans are tattered—like something from Doom. level. "Some people think that reality can be simulated," Carmack said: "But I think it is necessary to come out and experience the feeling of this wind for yourself." Carmack set up the launch pad: a red-and-black stand with a slender pole pointing skyward.He took out his rocket, and now he had to estimate the strength and direction of the wind.When he was playing here before, the rocket was blown away by the strong wind, and then he thought of a way: the receiving end was composed of a portable computer and a wireless modem, and the rocket was equipped with a signal transmitter, and he had a very Practical positioning system.That's what hackers do —— Solve problems in a unique way.Now, when the rocket hits the ground, its old wireless navigation device reflects its current location on the computer screen next to Carmack. Carmack put the first little guy on the fixed pole and made some adjustments according to the wind direction, and then gently clamped the line hanging on the arrow body to the tail.He stepped back, pressed a small plastic button, and, whoosh, the rocket spiraled up in a trail of smoke.At three hundred feet, it began to fall in a parabola, the propellers made of plastic pipes burst, but the tops were still attached together, looking like the propellers of a helicopter.Carmack trotted to pick it up. "Okay, now let's try this." He unscrews the bottom of the orange rocket—a model he built himself, including assembling the main body, inserting the fins, sanding down the protective epoxy, and finally painting it with bright orange paint. .This time he used the G-80 engine, which was sixteen times more powerful than the previous little guy, and he stuffed the purple and white parachute and wireless signal transmitter into the arrow body, and then blocked them with three-foot long pins , and finally screw on the bottom cover. These engines are play toys. Carmack said that his high-energy rocket is completely different from this. The engine needs high-purity hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) as a combustion aid, and this dangerous chemical raw material is difficult to get. Well, security inspectors are going to come to see if you have a warehouse big enough to store it, and it's too expensive, $1,200 a barrel.Rather than being so troublesome, Carmack and his friends thought, we could buy some 70% pure and distill it up to 90%.This is a very dangerous process, and if you are not careful, it will cause an explosion. Carmack finally decided to put safety first and not take this unnecessary risk. "This time we have to take a few steps back." Carmack put the rocket in place, pulled out the lead wire to fix it on the base, and then pressed the launch button.Boom!Phew-boom!Instead of flying too high, it plunged into a nearby bush. "Oh man, hopefully we'll find it again." Carmack ran over and saw it hanging from the top of a tree, the black, smoking plastic pod looking like some robotic conduit.Carmack stood by and listened for a while, holding his breath, until he was sure it would stop scurrying around. The cold wind howled across the wilderness, but Carmack had no intention of going home. He was playing hard, and he was smiling and talking happily.There was also a double-power engine in the trunk, and he took the old one out and replaced it with this big one, then straightened the mounting bar on the launcher. Carmack loathes sage-like bombast, but if you insist, he'll talk about what he thinks. "In the information age, objective barriers no longer exist," he said. "The so-called barriers are all subjective. If you want to develop a new technology, you don't need millions of dollars. Filled with pizza and Coke, and a cheap computer, and the determination to die for it. We slept on floors, we waded in rivers." He pressed the button, and after a burst of smoke and explosions, the rocket soared high above the Autumn Meadow. Postscript More than ten years have passed since the two Johns met, and the game industry has grown from a seedling to a towering tree.In the United States, the sales of game software worth US$10.8 billion surpassed the box office revenue of the film industry once again. The mobile game market with unlimited potential is emerging, and the game industry will surely surpass the record industry. Players are also maturing.They are no longer just teenagers, their average age is twenty-eight.The diversity of the player base mirrors the diversity of the game itself: from baseball to bridge, from ancient Rome to space cities, from Mickey Mouse to David Bowie.An estimated 60% of Americans play video games as a daily pastime, that's 145 million people in total, 62 million of them women, including the President of the United States (who by his own admission plays several hands of solitaire every day).In Germany, South Korea, Japan and other places, games have become an indispensable part of national life. Fears about first-person shooters have gradually subsided as the game has gradually become accepted by mainstream society.Congressman Lieberman praised the efforts of game companies on the rating system.However, some people are still trying to resist violent games through legal procedures. In the lawsuits of the Padaka and Columbina incidents, the shooter was accused of being affected by Doom, and the game company was sued for millions of dollars. The court rejected the The plaintiff expressed his attitude: "In the face of these tragic tragedies, any rational analysis is pale and powerless, and the court can't seem to justify the blame on something." An era has also come to an end.Silicon Castle in Dallas, in particular: Many of the dozens of game companies that once set sail here with ambition, including Romero's Ion Storm and Mike's DevUnion, are now empty .The golden age of entrepreneurship has become history, and the story of starting from scratch to dominate the world is difficult to repeat, but some of its spirit is still continuing, and even the largest game companies are imitating id's practices (such as online battles, free trial versions) , encourage players to modify and expand the game), but they call this "viral marketing".The popularity of mobile devices is increasing, and perhaps, the next great game will be born from them. id refurbished several older titles, but they received mixed reviews from the outside world.The "Team Arena" used to counter "Unreal Tournament" was not accepted by the market and the media. Players thought it lacked new ideas and was unremarkable; came to the same end; Wolfenstein, meanwhile, was critically acclaimed and sold well — even though it bears little resemblance to the original, save for the chicken legs on the dinner table. Carmack is now an industry legend. "MITs Technology Review" once said: "Games are the driving force of computer evolution." Carmack's innovation in image technology is an example.And his rewards to players and society - such as free release of source code - have made him widely respected. In 2001, he was inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame (Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame), Carmack, who just turned 30, was the fourth gaming celebrity to receive this lifetime honor. young one.On the day of the awards ceremony, an introduction film about Carmack's life and achievements was first played at the venue. At the end of the film, Bill Gates congratulated Carmack and joked that his code was more elegant and compact than Carmack's.After the clip ended, Carmack walked onto the stage with a smile, and the audience burst into endless applause. He was not used to such occasions, and he looked embarrassed.The scene was comparable to the first awards ceremony, when the winner was Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto, whose Mario series was the game that Carmack copied on the night of "Floppy Disk" a few years ago. Players are speculating whether Carmack will bid farewell to the game field after Doom3, and he himself does not know. id's games and technology licensing have brought him enough wealth, he often donates to charity, he doesn't need that much money.In terms of technology, he has been immersed in image programming for many years and has almost reached a Zen-like state. In his eyes, the light spots on the bathroom wall are just the diffuse reflection effect produced by the mirror reflection on the faucet, but this way of understanding It didn't make him out of touch with the real world, on the contrary, it made him more grateful for the world: "These are breathtaking scenes, I don't need to go to the edge of the Grand Canyon to marvel at the magic of creation, I can just sit in the house Here, look at the way the light reflects." Carmack now threw himself into another technological challenge: rockets.Every weekend, he and his peers build what he calls a supercharged VTOL vehicle, a lunar module-style vehicle with just enough seats for him, or his wife, Anna.Next step?Maybe it's the $10 million X-Prize, which involves sending three people 100 kilometers into outer space, returning safely, and then doing it again in the same vehicle within two weeks.People who knew Carmack expected a good performance from him. Romero is willing to put all his thoughts at home, and he and Stevie happily enjoy the pastoral life.He's decided to start over, he says, back to what he did first: designing and making games.Although the outside world has good reviews for "Dimensions", after reading several traditional publishing orders, Romero, Stevie, and Tom decided to explore the unknown mobile market such as handheld computers and mobile phones.As the first gaming celebrity to venture into this nascent industry, Romero is undoubtedly the cheerleader again, only for the PC and now for the handheld. This time they just wanted to make a small game with a few people in a short period of time, and they did it. Monkeystone's first title, Hyperspace Delivery Boy, was released just a few months after the company was founded.Along with three employees, in the countryside near Dallas, Romero and Tom designed and programmed the entire game—it was like stepping back in time.In the game, the little protagonist Guy Carrington (Guy Carrington) shuttles between the stars. His job is to "deliver the most important package in the universe!" A game review praised it as one of the few handhelds worth buying game.Next step?Maybe it's the new Keene, they've bought the rights from id, and Tom is happy to be reunited with his little hero, Billy Blaze. For Romero, this isn't just a fresh start, it's a chance to say goodbye to the past.Shortly after his thirty-fourth birthday, he followed Tom's lead by cutting off the long hair he'd grown from 1991 and opting for a crisp cut that resembled his current crisp company.Never wasting his hair, he donated it to Locks of Love, a nonprofit that provides wigs to poor or sick children.It's not just his signature long hair that's parting ways, now he's living among trucks and country roads, and the Ferrari he's once been obsessed with, the one that Doom brought him, isn't much use anymore. He reluctantly snapped pictures of the car from every angle in his yard and posted it on auction site Ebay with the caption: "Amazing".The base price of 65,000 is not expensive at all. He explained that he spent no less than 100,000 on modifications such as the light engine and turbine. "The sound of this car is incredible," he wrote. "Driving through the streets, when you step on the gas, it feels like a formula car... You will be laughing from ear to ear, it is so good!" Romero also assured: "This is definitely the worst Testarossa you have ever seen." The buyer who finally bid 82,600 felt that Romero's words were true. The other Testarossa brought the two Johns together again.那是在麦斯奎特附近举行的一次Quake3锦标赛，往年，两位约翰彼此互不搭理，而这次不一样。游戏结束，比分定格，还是朋友。停车场里，卡马克的法拉利怎么也打不着火，隆隆声中，一辆黄色悍马停在他身边，手拿跳线的罗梅洛走出车门。 作者后记及致谢 和两位约翰以及许多年届三十的人一样，我也是在早期游戏文化中长大的。我最喜欢的生日礼物是装满街机币的袋子，我最爱去的地方是附近的街机厅：那昏暗封闭的房间就仿佛一个赌场，墙边摆满了喧闹闪烁的最新款游戏机，我做除草工挣来的钱很大一部分都花在了里面。我是《疯狂爬梯》（Crazy Climber）里的最高分，在一个喝了不少苹果酒的晚上，我甚至吐在了《极速拉力》（Omega Race）的屏幕上。那时的我只是个孩子，但我已体会到了什么是自由。 在那欢腾的年代里，游戏并不是惟一象征着希望和梦想、独立与叛逆的事物。我和朋友们曾把烟雾弹扔到小河里，只为看浓烟滚滚升起融入天际；我们玩《龙与地下城》；我们把小壁虎塞到火箭模型里放上天……我再没有过那样的好时光。我第一次扮演黒客是在八十年代早期，雅达利的诺兰·布什内尔开办了带街机的比萨连锁店，里面也有一些非常原始的计算机，用户投币并输入语句后，它就会用机器人般的声音把语句念出来。当然，我们马上试着输入脏话，但程序对此做了特殊处理，过滤了许多关键词，于是我们输入“草”，并把按钮夹住，然后计算机就反复朗诵起来。 我二十多岁时在纽约市为一家BBS运营商工作，某天晚上，我的一位朋友调出Doom叫我进去打一轮，几个小时后，我们头晕目眩地走出大楼，那是个怎样的游戏呵！几年后，我设法说服一名编辑让我去写篇关于Quake文化的稿子，接下来，我就站在了堪萨斯大学一间网线密布的房间里，“第九原力”和“无情野种”这两支顶尖战队马上要开始最后决战，为了虚拟的游戏，他们牺牲了现实中的一切。这已不只是一个游戏，这是一个世界，一个充满英雄与战斗、血泪与辉煌的世界，它的不为人知使它愈发神秘动人，它把我引向了两位约翰。 接下来，我花了六年时间来探究并记录游戏界的变迁和这其中一个个玩家们的人生。我渐渐发现，产值上亿的游戏业及其相关文化仍不为大众所知，甚至有许多误解和不实之词广为流传，这让我既惊讶又不安。在我看来，约翰·卡马克和约翰·罗梅洛的故事是传统美国梦的样板：两个青年抓住了一种新兴媒介诞生和成型的时机，经过不懈努力而获得成功。通过讲述这个故事，我希望能让玩家们获得他们应得的尊重和理解，同时，我也希望本书能陪伴读者度过一段愉快的时光。 ﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡ 衷心感谢（BFT: Big f**king Thanks，如果你想知道的话）所有我在达拉斯居住期间、在全国各地奔波中、或是从纽约市布鲁克林区通过电话或邮件等方式访问过的人们，是你们的回忆重现了历史。 我尤其要感谢两位约翰。我不知道他们在回答我那些问题时会作何感想，在那许多个夜里，他们一直无比耐心和宽容。卡马克毫无保留地托出了他的想法和回忆——就像他与世界分享他的代码一样，他还带我一起去放飞火箭，甚至让我亲手驾驶了一会改装过的法拉利。罗梅洛总是乐于去发掘他那包罗万象的收藏库：游戏、艺术品、漫画、汉堡王的收据、等等、等等、等等，他和斯狄薇甚至还让我在他们的乡间农庄里自行翻找，对此我至今心存感激。 感谢这些年来和我约稿的杂志编辑们。 感谢我的经纪人，Creative Culture 公司的Mary Ann Naples，以及我的编辑，Jonathan Karp和Timothy Farrell，还有Jon的助手Jake Greenberg ，我的制作编辑Benjamin Dreyer和Random House出版社的其他同仁。 感谢家人和朋友一直以来对我的帮助和鼓舞。