Forum archive

Conflicting quotes from Carmack...?

Return to forum index

• Redeemer at 2010-04-07 05:43
  Not too long ago, I got through reading David Kushner's book "Masters of Doom". It's a good book, but there's something weird I noticed. On Ken's website, you can find a few quotes from John Carmack, praising Ken's work on the BUILD engine:
  
  "If I had to pick who I think is just the most talented, it would probably be Ken Silverman, the guy that did the BUILD engine. He does engines and tools. He's great as an editor. He writes all the code for everything, and he's just extremely talented."
  
  But in the book I just mentioned, David wrote:
  
  "Though Carmack hated [Duke Nukem 3D], feeling that its engine was 'held together with bubble gum' the gamers bought it in droves..."
  
  What gives? It seems that Carmack didn't originally like your work at all, Ken.
• CaimX86 at 2010-04-07 09:55

  Re: Conflicting quotes from Carmack...?

  I "think" it was a compliment.
  
  And I "think" he hated the fact of Duke Nukem 3D had been a great sucess and been launched in the same time that Quake.
  
  Well it's my opinion.
• psychorosti at 2010-04-07 10:30
  Even if he don't like the the Game or says the engine was patchwork what probably Ken said already about it too ( i think in a interview he told that he had to implement features such as looking up/down on the fly while he was still fixing bugs in the engine), he is not judging the talent of Ken.
  
  You can have extreme talent and still nobody likes what you do. i think popularity and talent are two different things.
• hark at 2010-04-07 12:18
  He likes Ken's ability to stick things together with bubblegum. :D
• Redeemer at 2010-04-07 13:24

  And I "think" he hated the fact of Duke Nukem 3D had been a great sucess and been launched in the same time that Quake.

  Quake was launched after Duke Nukem 3D, so Duke Nukem must have been capitalizing more on Doom than on Quake.

  You can have extreme talent and still nobody likes what you do. i think popularity and talent are two different things.

  Hmm, you may be right. I think Carmack recognized Ken's talent, but he was not happy with how "unelegant" the BUILD engine was. BUILD pushed the limits of a conventional 4-dof engine: features like room-over-room and looking up and down were achieved through hacks, and didn't yield perfect results.
• Jinroh at 2010-04-07 14:09
  It must be a play on words hehe, "It's time to kick ass and chew bubblegum..." ^o^ He may have been praising it sarcastically since it was superior feature-wise in ways to Quake as was mentioned.
• Stroggos at 2010-04-07 17:53
  Carmack hated Duke 3D yes. But you also missed the fact that he hated working on Quake. Also he attacks the game not the engine. He is essentially praising Ken's programming skills while hating a game built on it.
• chandler55 at 2010-04-07 20:47
  i have a weird feeling it was made up, author probably just wrote that thinking it was true
• Redeemer at 2010-04-08 00:54

  Also he attacks the game not the engine. He is essentially praising Ken's programming skills while hating a game built on it.

  That's not what the quote says:

  "Though Carmack hated [Duke Nukem 3D], feeling that its engine was 'held together with bubble gum' the gamers bought it in droves..."

  Also:

  i have a weird feeling it was made up, author probably just wrote that thinking it was true

  I doubt it. The book was supposedly in the research phase for six years before the author finally had it published. Also, both Carmack and Romero gave the book a complete thumbs up. If the author misquoted Carmack, then somebody (probably Carmack) would've caught it, I'm sure.
• ConsistentCallsign at 2010-04-08 02:11
  Carmack hated duke's cheesy one-liners :(
  
  

  duke3d SUCKS, duke is ghey he is evil racist from hell