id software’s John Carmack promises “Rage” on the iPad

John Brownlee ()

id software’s John Carmack promises “Rage” on the iPad

Although most famously known for his system-crushing, next-gen 3D engines, id software’s John Carmack has been a passionate enthusiast of iPhone app development. He’s personally cited the platform as a return to the older school of game design, where a single enthusiast can turn out a great game in a matter of a couple months, and id software’s (excellent) iPhone ports of Wolfenstein 3D and Doom were basically pet projects of Carmack himself.

No surprise, then, that Carmack is interested in the iPad. Speaking to Kotaku, Carmack said: “”Apple doesn’t give us anything ahead of time either, so haven’t put hands on it ourselves, but we certainly are expecting to try to have our Rage title for the iPhone, iPad, whatever, working across there.”

Rage is id’s upcoming post-apocalyptic, Mad Max inspired FPS and racing game, the first title to be released running id’s bleeding edge id Tech 5 engine. I’m not buying that the iPad has the oomph to run Rage at all: rather, I imagine that he is talking about bringing a spin-off title to the iPhone and iPad, similarly to the way Doom Resurrection brought Doom 3 to the App Store.

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Either way, it’s exciting news, and Carmack remains as mouthbreathingly charming as an uber-dork as he could possibly be: the id software founder says that, given his druthers, he wants to budget a couple of months into every year where he can just disappear into his programming lair and code iPhone games.

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About the author

John BrownleeJohn Brownlee is news editor here at Cult of Mac, and has also written about a lot of things for a lot of different places, including Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, Gizmodo, Kotaku, Lifehacker, AMC, Geek and the Consumerist. He lives in Cambridge with his charming inamorata and a tiny budgerigar punningly christened after Nabokov's most famous pervert. You can follow him here on Twitter.

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Posted in Gaming, News |

  • CaryMG

    Can we OFFICIALLY declare a moritorium on the words “geek” & “nerd” ?

    PLEASE ?!?

    For the love of God ….

  • Nathan C.

    why does the thing on the right look like ballmer?!? LOL!

  • Nathan C.

    i meant LEFT***

  • SheiknetChris

    “I’m not buying that the iPad has the oomph to run Rage at all: rather, I imagine that he is talking about bringing a spin-off [similar to] Doom Resurrection…”

    I am not sure you’re 100% correct in that. While it is true that mobile platforms don’t have the ‘oomph’ of their desktop and console brethren, the id Tech 5 engine is designed to be multi-platform and scalable. I have every confidence that with reduced 3D assets, lighting and textures that id can create a very complete experience. With all the insight that John Carmack has provided it at least seems he is confident in being able to deliver such robust games on the platform. We just have to wait and see.

  • porkchop1234

    If he does really bring Rage to the iPad I just hope he throws in a few cool extra touch features that only the iPad can do. For example wouldn’t it be cool if you could interact with certain objects like say a door handle with a 2 finger rotating swipe or maybe move objects around to construct makeshift barriers. The extra goodies the touch capabilities that 10 inch screen can bring to gaming is limitless.

    Personally I think its about time Apple went out and made itself more of a force in the gaming industry. People can bitch all they want about the iPad being just a over glorified iPod Touch what these people fail to comprehend is if the iPads gaming titles are done right and exhibit some new innovations in gaming interaction the iPad can easily blow the PSP and Nintendo out of the water as a mobile gaming platform. Needless to say the mobile gaming community is very excited about what new titles may come to the iPad in the near future.

    P.S
    I think the thing in the picture on the left is Ballmer and the thing on the right is his bastard child LOL

    I couldn’t help it I had to throw that MS zinger in. :P