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Dave 'Zoid' Kirsch Leaving id Software
Posted by
Hemos
on Sat Feb 26, 2000 10:25 AM
from the depature-of-good-people dept.
from the depature-of-good-people dept.
Digital_Fiend writes, "Dave 'Zoid' Kirsch (creator of Capture the Flag, among other things) made a plan update saying he's leaving id. Zoid will be working at Retro Studios to make games for Nintendo's Dolphin. We'll miss you, Dave. "
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Dave 'Zoid' Kirsch Leaving id Software
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How did this happen? (Score:4)
Dave: I don't know, I kind of like reinventing the same game over and over, year after year. I really have a great rythm going.
Retro Studios: You get to work with top of the line technology, stuff you PC boys only dream of!
Dave: Hmm, I really don't....
Retro Studios: All the donuts you can eat!
Dave: WOOHOO!
Not just CTF.. (Score:5)
Carmack - Make him come back! (Score:4)
Zoid's CTF made Quake worthwhile (Score:3)
Zoid was the best thing that ever happened to Quake. I remember downloading Quake 1 for the first time, playing a bit, and thinking, "Hey, what a cool 3D engine. Somebody should make a game out of it." Zoid did.
Zoid's Quake 1 CTF took a horrible mess of a game and turned it into an amazing, addictive team event that kept the program on my machine longer than anything else before it. I always thought that the grappling hook was kinda stupid, particularly when you could latch onto someone with it and drain their health down to nothing, but it didn't prevent Q1 CTF from being extremely fun.
Then Quake 2 CTF came along and looked beautiful, but didn't play quite as well. The wide-open spaces allowed low-ping grapplers to fly around ceilings like tarzan and team assaults were replaced by the single LPB monkey-swinging around and running away at high speed. But again, the useful life of the game was extended tenfold by the CTF mod -- without it, Q2 was maps full of brain-dead monsters or mindless deathmatch.
Now we have Quake 3 CTF. The grapple is thankfully history, but the magic is almost gone. I usually find myself playing Unreal Tournament's CTF instead -- let me shoot cool weapons at other soldiers in gritty settings instead of plugging away at big mechanical eyeballs in shiny, brightly-coloured funhouses.
Maybe Quake 3 Arena is too much of a goofy cartoon for even Zoid to save, or maybe he's run out of steam at last. Whatever the case:
Speaking of Dolphin... (Score:3)
This really sucks, because Dolphin would have had the ability to really compete with PS2 (better hardware, better 1st/2nd party developers, lower cost), but now PS2 will truly reign with no competition for over a whole year. Now I know I will definitely be getting a PS2. Nintendo is going to really need something up their sleeves now, and I say this as a long-time Nintendo supporter.
specs (Score:3)
Some more specs can be found here [the-nextlevel.com]. The gist is:
Needless to say, no boxes have been unveiled so it's all still vapor in that sense.
Re:What the hell is ID doing? (Score:5)
It wasn't always clear from the outside, but Zoid was a remote contractor, not an employee. It was a low key relationship that worked out well for all of us. He stayed in canada and basically worked on whatever he liked, because I thought he had pretty good judgement. He had responsibility for the linux ports and the CTF code, but much of his time was his to allocate as he wanted.
With Loki now picking up the maintenance of the linux port (as well as my steadily increasing involvement with linux), and a new game design starting at Id, his choice was basically to either go develop a brand new Q3 mod by himself, or go work for one of the many gaming companies that had been trying to hire him.
We weren't interested in bringin on another core programmer at id, especially another one with immigration hassles (we have had enough issues with that for a small company). We would have been happy to continue the current arrangement indefinately, but he wanted to get out of the holding pattern.
Another thing he mentioned that I am sympathetic to is the desire to get a bit out of the community limelight. Being a public figure of some note isn't always all it is cracked up to be.
We are parting on the best of terms (leaving right AFTER a project completes is the considerate way to go). He is going to finish up the Quake2 linux updates (better X/GLX support), even if he has to complete the work from his new job.
John Carmack