Adrian Carmack
Adrian Carmack (born May 5, 1969) is an artist who worked extensively in the gaming industry from 1990 to the mid-2000s. He has created various forms of art for the video game industry including pixel art, sculpture, and various forms of traditional art. Some of Adrian's most famous work is from the Commander Keen series, Wolfenstein series, Doom series, and Quake series
He began his professional career working at Softdisk in 1990 at the age of 21, but left before long to co-found id Software in 1991 with Tom Hall, John Romero, and John Carmack (no relation). Over the next couple years, John Carmack fired the other co-founders (and many other talented employees), until Adrian was the only other co-founder left, but Carmack forced him to resign in 2005 because Adrian wouldn't sell his share in the company at a severely undervalued amount to Activision. The lawsuit was eventually dropped because the Activision sale fell through. In 2014, Carmack formed another company with John Romero. So far, their only project has yet to materialize.
Personal
Growing up with a lot of shareware id games, I spent a lot of my youth looking at Adrian's pixel art. Carmack has some pretty good CGA and EGA skills, but my favorite art of his was the VGA graphics in Doom.
Titles
| Released | Title | Contribution |
|---|---|---|
| 1990-??-?? | Shadow Knights | Art and graphics. |
| 1990-??-?? | Catacomb (DOS port) | Art and graphics. |
| 1990-??-?? | Commander Keen 1: Marooned On Mars | Art and graphics. |
| 1990-??-?? | Commander Keen 2: The Earth Explodes | Art and graphics. |
| 1990-??-?? | Commander Keen 3: Keen Must Die! | Art and graphics. |
| 1991-??-?? | Slordax: The Unknown Enemy | Art and graphics. |
| 1991-??-?? | Catacomb II | Art and graphics. |
| 1991-??-?? | Rescue Rover | Art and graphics. |
| 1991-??-?? | Rescue Rover 2 | Art and graphics. |
| 1991-??-?? | Paragon (DOS port) | Art and graphics. |
| 1991-??-?? | Hovertank One | Art and graphics. |
| 1991-??-?? | Dangerous Dave In the Haunted Mansion | Art and graphics. |
| 1991-??-?? | Commander Keen: Keen Dreams | Art and graphics. |
| 1991-??-?? | Catacomb 3-D | Art and graphics. |
| 1991-??-?? | Commander Keen 4: Secret of the Oracle | Art and graphics. |
| 1991-??-?? | Commander Keen 5: The Armageddon Machine | Art and graphics. |
| 1991-??-?? | Commander Keen 6: Aliens Ate My Baby Sitter! | Art and graphics. |
| 1992-??-?? | The Catacomb Abyss | Art and graphics. |
| 1992-05-05 | Wolfenstein 3-D | Art and graphics. |
| 1992-??-?? | Spear of Destiny | Art and graphics. |
| 1993-??-?? | Curse of the Catacombs | Art and graphics. |
| 1993-??-?? | Tiles of the Dragon | Art and graphics. |
| 1993-12-10 | Doom | Art and graphics. |
| 1994-??-?? | Wolfenstein 3-D (SNES port) | Art and graphics. |
| 1994-10-10 | Doom II: Hell on Earth | Art and graphics. |
| 1995-10-30 | Hexen: Beyond Heretic | Art and graphics. |
| 1996-??-?? | Final Doom | Art and graphics. |
| 1996-06-22 | Quake | Art and graphics. |
| 1997-12-09 | Quake II | Art and graphics. |
| 1999-12-03 | Quake III: Arena | Art and graphics. |
| 2004-08-03 | Doom 3 | Art and graphics. |
Media
Selected Works
Title graphic of Slordax: The Unknown Enemy, 1991.
Title graphic of Commander Keen 4: Secret of the Oracle, 1991.
Title graphic of Commander Keen 5: The Armageddon Machine, 1991.
Title graphic of Commander Keen 6: Aliens Ate My Babysitter, 1991.
Title graphic of Wolfenstein 3-D, 1992.
Wall textures of Wolfenstein 3-D, 1992.
Boss sprites of Wolfenstein 3-D, 1992.
Warped bones texture from Doom.
Higher-res, but less of the image.
Demon face texture from Doom.
Alien face texture from Doom.
Warped faces texture from Doom.
Photos
Adrian Carmack and John Romero in 2014.
John Romero and Adrian Carmack in 2014.
Sculpting the model of the Baron of Hell from Doom in 1993.
John Carmack, Adrian Carmack, and John Romero in 1993.
Links
