In a latest episode of Nightdive Studios’ Deep Dive podcast, legendary developer John Romero casually revealed a shocking street not taken in each his personal profession, and gaming historical past writ massive: Looking Glass Studios (System Shock, Thief) founder Paul Neurath requested Romero to co-found the corporate with him, however Romero had a previous dedication.
Both builders labored for Origin Systems, the foundational PC gaming studio began by Ultima creator Richard Garriott. “I got my job there in 1987,’ said Romero. “My first job was porting 2400 AD from the Apple 2 to the Commodore 64.” Following the cancellation of this port, Romero was assigned to work on the game Space Rogue with Neurath, an ambitious combo of space sim and RPG that presaged the likes of Wing Commander.
Origin had places of work in Austin, Texas and Salem, New Hampshire, however would shut its Salem workplace and relocate workers to Texas in 1989, earlier than the discharge of Space Rogue. Neurath, reportedly not wanting to go away New England, parted methods with Origin and based a brand new sport firm in its outdated places of work: Blue Sky Productions, which later modified its title to Looking Glass. Romero, for his half, left the corporate to discovered a start-up with one other Origin coworker referred to as Inside Out Software.
“Paul had asked me before I left if I wanted to start a company with him, and I told him that I’d already promised the week before to found a company with my manager [at Origin],” mentioned Romero. “But he was starting Blue Sky Productions.”
As Nightdive VP of enterprise improvement Larry Kuperman identified within the interview, this might have been a serious divergence level in gaming historical past: Romero engaged on Ultima Underworld and System Shock as a substitute of Commander Keen, Wolfenstein, and Doom. Would the most important gamers of what would turn out to be id Software nonetheless type their very own firm collectively, or would they’ve discovered their fortunes elsewhere within the trade?
Instead, Romero would finally go away Inside Out for Shreveport, Louisiana-based software program firm Softdisk, the place the later founders of id Software would all work collectively. Looking Glass and id went on to be pleasant rivals within the improvement of early first particular person, 3D video games on PC, codifying design guidelines, mechanics, and tech that has influenced all the things from Half-Life to The Elder Scrolls.
The interview lined a variety of matters from Romero’s profession, together with why he thinks indies are the future of game development, the strange origins of the hunting sim, and how Wolfenstein’s four-month development was actually leisurely compared to id’s previous games.