15th August 2010 - In our 11th developer profile, we look at the classic Doom and Quake PC developer id Software.
Developer Name: id Software
Subsidiary Of: ZeniMax Media
Founded: 1991
About: id Software, since founded in 1991, have becoming widely known and accepted as the godfather of First Person Shooters. Some may argue against this, but looking at their back catalogue and its hard to side with those Negative Nelly’s; id Software are responsible for the revolutionary Wolfenstien 3D, Doom and Quake series’. Since their inception, id hasn’t failed to continuously push boundaries and amaze gamers on every platform. id’s original Hovertank 3D is actually widely considered to be the first ever FPS.
Armed with the highly powerful and constantly changing id Tech (now at stage 5), id Software are one of the premier FPS developers today, and in such an overcrowded market, their games continue to impress. Although they haven’t released a new self-made game since 2004, id Software’s upcoming shooters look to change the genre for the best.
id were also actually one of the first big developers to cater their games towards the Linux market, which although small, shows just how dedicated these magnificent developers are to get their games to the gamers who want them. Its this type of dedication and love for their customers that shows just how far id Software are going to go with their games in the future. There is certainly no stopping the godfather of the most popular gaming genre on the planet. So the next time you boot up your favourite shooter into your console, just take a moment and think that if it wasn’t for id’s bold steps forward in game development history, would you be playing this game today?
Past Games:
- Commander Keen: Episodes 1 - 6 (PC, 1990-91)
- Dangerous Dave in the Haunted Mansion (PC, 1991)
- Rescue Rover (PC, 1991)
- Rescue Rover II (PC, 1991)
- Shadow Knights (PC, 1991)
- Hovertank 3D (PC, 1991)
- Catacomb 3D (PC, 1991)
- Wolfenstein 3D (PC, 1992)
- Spear of Destiny (PC, 1992)
- Doom (PC, 1993)
- Doom II: Hell on Earth (PC, 1994)
- Quake (PC, 1996)
- Quake II (PC, 1997)
- Quake III: Arena (PC, 1999)
- Doom 3 (PC/Mac/Xbox, 2004)
Note: only original id Software developed games were included in this list. The many ports, expansion, updates and editions of many of these games were excluded.
Upcoming Games:
- Rage (PC/Mac/Xbox 360/PS3, 2011)
- Doom 4 (TBA)
Article Written By John Elliott