the onda

I so enjoyed reading John Carmack's notes on porting Wolf 3D (id software's 1992 remake of the classic Apple ][ game Castle Wolfenstein) that I was eagerly anticipating the release of the $5 commercial version on the AppStore. While I never played Wolf 3D when it came out, I did spend countless hours in the original— bumping into the SSs with the bulletproof vests and making them hold their hands up while you liberated them of their gear.

What struck me most about the port/release notes though was Carmack's direct style for describing the challenges of the port, and more significantly, the differences between the iPhone and the 286 DOS machines that were the game's first target platform (hint: the iPhone is a much much more powerful piece of hardware).

In fact I so enjoyed it that I went looking for more background of this famous video game legend and found David Kushner's awesome book, "Masters of Doom," which traces the development of id from the beginnings of the Carmack-Romero relationship, through the drama of their break-up and seeming implosion of what made the company great.

In some ways, the book is a classic startup tale: young hotshot programmers hacking 24x7 to take control of their own destinies. But it also covers plenty of details about the constant technical leaps that Carmack kept making in succeeding generations of his game engines as well as the innovative tricks that the company played with the then emerging distribution channel of "shareware" to get really viral before the term was applied anywhere outside of hospitals.

It's a great read for anyone interested in the history of the computer industry, and a particularly great one for all of the folks looking to make their fortunes on iPhone games and casual applications.