Tim Sweeney

Yeah, that was a very interesting time. Epic had, after my first couple of games, had recruited developers, you know, usually college students, high school students who are just working on their own, had real skills, but didn't have an outlet for their work. Epic had been matchmaking the best artists and programmers together from all over the world.

Like Chaz Jackrabbit was Cliff Belusinski, a high school kid in California who'd made a really cool adventure game together with Ariane Brucey, a demo coder from Holland who'd make amazing graphical stuff and had built a 2D game engine. And it connected them together and a musician, Robert Allen in California.

Like Chaz Jackrabbit was Cliff Belusinski, a high school kid in California who'd made a really cool adventure game together with Ariane Brucey, a demo coder from Holland who'd make amazing graphical stuff and had built a 2D game engine. And it connected them together and a musician, Robert Allen in California.

Like Chaz Jackrabbit was Cliff Belusinski, a high school kid in California who'd made a really cool adventure game together with Ariane Brucey, a demo coder from Holland who'd make amazing graphical stuff and had built a 2D game engine. And it connected them together and a musician, Robert Allen in California.

And by telephone and modem and so on, we were building these little 2D games and having quite a lot of success. There were a bunch of people making thousands of dollars a month while they were still students in royalties from the games that Epic was producing by coordinating with people and publishing through shareware. And that was all going great.

And by telephone and modem and so on, we were building these little 2D games and having quite a lot of success. There were a bunch of people making thousands of dollars a month while they were still students in royalties from the games that Epic was producing by coordinating with people and publishing through shareware. And that was all going great.

And by telephone and modem and so on, we were building these little 2D games and having quite a lot of success. There were a bunch of people making thousands of dollars a month while they were still students in royalties from the games that Epic was producing by coordinating with people and publishing through shareware. And that was all going great.

The company had a little office, and we were copying floppy disks and mailing them out. But when Wolfenstein came out, we realized the future of gaming is going to be 3D. there had been a lot of experiments in 3D before that hadn't been great. There were 3D renderings of mazes that were not in real time, and you were always looking north, south, east, or west.

The company had a little office, and we were copying floppy disks and mailing them out. But when Wolfenstein came out, we realized the future of gaming is going to be 3D. there had been a lot of experiments in 3D before that hadn't been great. There were 3D renderings of mazes that were not in real time, and you were always looking north, south, east, or west.

The company had a little office, and we were copying floppy disks and mailing them out. But when Wolfenstein came out, we realized the future of gaming is going to be 3D. there had been a lot of experiments in 3D before that hadn't been great. There were 3D renderings of mazes that were not in real time, and you were always looking north, south, east, or west.

And then there were vector graphics with little wireframes moving around and things, but... You know, Wolfenstein was the first game that was fast enough, you know, running at 30 frames per second. It really felt immersive. It felt like you were there, like you were in this castle of Wolfenstein fighting Nazis. And that was a really amazing and immersive experience.

And then there were vector graphics with little wireframes moving around and things, but... You know, Wolfenstein was the first game that was fast enough, you know, running at 30 frames per second. It really felt immersive. It felt like you were there, like you were in this castle of Wolfenstein fighting Nazis. And that was a really amazing and immersive experience.

And then there were vector graphics with little wireframes moving around and things, but... You know, Wolfenstein was the first game that was fast enough, you know, running at 30 frames per second. It really felt immersive. It felt like you were there, like you were in this castle of Wolfenstein fighting Nazis. And that was a really amazing and immersive experience.

3D graphics were pretty primitive then. It software followed shockingly fast with Doom, which was a much, much more capable 3D engine, which had, you know, stairs and...

3D graphics were pretty primitive then. It software followed shockingly fast with Doom, which was a much, much more capable 3D engine, which had, you know, stairs and...

3D graphics were pretty primitive then. It software followed shockingly fast with Doom, which was a much, much more capable 3D engine, which had, you know, stairs and...

Though it was still what we call two-and-a-half-D, it was environments that were very realistic, textures that were very realistic, a form of lighting that was approximate but incredibly realistic, and just such great artistry and sound effects. It fueled completely visceral and real. You might look at it today from the point of view of a modern...

Though it was still what we call two-and-a-half-D, it was environments that were very realistic, textures that were very realistic, a form of lighting that was approximate but incredibly realistic, and just such great artistry and sound effects. It fueled completely visceral and real. You might look at it today from the point of view of a modern...

Though it was still what we call two-and-a-half-D, it was environments that were very realistic, textures that were very realistic, a form of lighting that was approximate but incredibly realistic, and just such great artistry and sound effects. It fueled completely visceral and real. You might look at it today from the point of view of a modern...

a game player with 20 teraflops of computing power in your device and say, oh, that's not very impressive. But it was amazing at the time.