Twenty years ago, on December 10, 1993, John Carmack, John Romero and the rest of the team at upstart id Software unleashed a game called Doom upon the world. Twenty years later, both men have written about their favorite memories of the game for you and all fans of Doom to read. Here they are, in their own words…
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Much has been said and done about Oculus Rift, where the most recent project involved the Oculus Rift working alongside Kinect in order to create a “Paperboy” game, which is definitely one creative way of approaching the situation. Well, we have reliable word that the legendary John Carmack is set to join Oculus VR as the Chief Technical Officer, and to see him come on board the company behind the Oculus Rift headset would definitely send chills down the spine of those who know just how Carmack is a genius when it comes to introducing new technology or a different, revolutionary way of doing things in the world of gaming.
Fret not though, John Carmack will still remain at id Software, but he will be moving over to Oculus VR’s Dallas office in order to assist them in staffing the relatively new company with developers. Carmack shared, “I have fond memories of the development work that led to a lot of great things in modern gaming — the intensity of the first person experience, LAN and internet play, game mods, and so on. Duct taping a strap and hot gluing sensors onto Palmer’s early prototype Rift and writing the code to drive it ranks right up there. Now is a special time. I believe that VR will have a huge impact in the coming years, but everyone working today is a pioneer. The paradigms that everyone will take for granted in the future are being figured out today; probably by people reading this message. It’s certainly not there yet. There is a lot more work to do, and there are problems we don’t even know about that will need to be solved, but I am eager to work on them. It’s going to be awesome!”
Yes sir, it is definitely going to be awesome, and we cannot wait to see the result of your handiwork.
DOOM Creator John Carmack To Join Oculus VR As CTO original content from Ubergizmo. 
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Legendary game programmer and Doom co-creator John Carmack is getting a new "full-time" job. He’s going to be working as the head of technology at Oculus VR, the company behind the upstart Rift virtual reality goggles.
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“This is the latest prototype,” the Oculus guys tell us. That’s great, now strap us in. The team decided to make a sudden stop in Germany ahead of appearances back in the US over the next few weeks — and we’re glad, because it meant we got to call in on them and grab some time with the Oculus Rift. If you didn’t know, the Rift is a Kickstarter-funded VR gaming headset (stay with us) that’s caught the attention of several games developers — most notably John Carmack. He liked it so much, in fact, that he developed a special Rift-ready version of Doom 3 for the headset and Doom 4 will also be heading to the VR peripheral too. We got to play with the earlier game and while there’s a video after the break, we reckon you’ll really need to try this in person to fully grasp how the Oculus Rift plays. Check out our impressions after the break.
Gallery: Oculus Rift prototype hands-on
Oculus Rift’s latest VR headset prototype gets a showing at Gamescom 2012 (hands-on) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 16 Aug 2012 10:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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We heard late last month that the John Carmack-endorsed Oculus Rift VR headset would be hitting Kickstarter any day now, and it turns out today is that day. The project has just launched on the crowd-funding site with a goal of $250,000. To reach that, the team (led by company founder Palmer Lucky) is offering a variety pledge options, starting with posters and t-shirts for $15 and $25 (or $10 for a simple thanks), and of course the headset itself that is initially only being offered as a developer kit. It will set you back $300, which also includes a copy of Doom 3 BFG, and is expected to start shipping in December (signed kits and a complete bundle are available as well). Those that act fast can also snag one of 100 unassembled prototype kits, which run $275 and ship a month earlier in November. Despite that developer-only status, though, the project is already off to an impressive start — it’s raised over $50,000 as of this writing. You can find the usual video overview of the project after the break.
Update: The 100 prototype kits are now sold out, and the project itself has already sailed past the $100,000 $150,000 mark. John Carmack also clarified on Twitter that he’s not “backing” the project in any official capacity, only endorsing it as a “wonderful advancement in VR tech.”
Update 2: And the project has now easily met its goal on the first day. Those interested are still able to make a pledge any time over the next 30 days.
Filed under: Peripherals, Wearables
John Carmack-endorsed Oculus Rift VR project hits Kickstarter, developer kits start at $300 (update: $250k goal met) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Aug 2012 11:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Star Trek: The Next Generation may be coming to your living rooms soon courtesy of some hot new Blu-ray pressing, but one of the most compelling pieces of the technology shown on that series still remains elusive: the holodeck. Don’t get down, sunshine, because we might soon be making our first, tentative steps into a virtual courtesy of Project Holodeck. It’s underway at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts as well as the Viterbi School of Engineering and starts out with a pair of Project Oculus glasses. These glasses, which were shown off at E3 by none other than John Carmack, cram a 1,280 x 800 display into a pair of glasses that present a wide, truly immersive field of view. Pair that with a PlayStation Move for head tracking and a Razer Hydra controller and you have the beginnings of a proper virtual reality environment.
An early concept of what the complete system might feel like can be found after the break, a couple of people acting out a sequence from Skies of Arcadia, which could be called a spiritual inspiration for the first game designed for Project Holodeck: Wild Skies. In it, two people “pilot a massive airship through a exotic world of floating islands” — though whether they look as kawaii as their Dreamcast predecessors remains to be seen. When you might actually get your hands on the system is also unknown, but one piece of the puzzle, the Oculus Rift glasses, are said to be hitting Kickstarter any day now — for an anticipated price of just $500. Bat’leth and copy of Workin’ out with Worf not included.
Filed under: Gaming
Project Holodeck and Oculus Rift hope to kickstart every gamers’ VR dream for $500 (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 Jul 2012 20:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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