QuakeCon 2026 reunites four id Software founders after 33 years
QuakeCon, North America’s bring-your-own-computer LAN party and gaming convention, began in 1996 and, in 2026, feels more like a family reunion. id Software celebrates Doom and Quake at the convention, and things got even more surprising when legendary programmer John Carmack also turned up in Grapevine, Texas, for the convention’s 30th anniversary.
John Carmack took a break from the retrospective interviews and festivities, hopped on an Evercade port of the original Doom, and found himself a bit rustier than he anticipated. Carmack posted on X about his delightful QuakeCon experience and the nostalgic mood around the convention and Doom, writing, “Still a great game after all these years!”
He further mentioned that he lost track of time trying to hunt down keycards on the fourth level of the game and was happy that this year marked “the first time all four of us have been together since 1993,” as fellow co-founder John Romero put it, referring to Carmack, himself, Adrian Carmack, and Tom Hall all being at one convention to celebrate QuakeCon for the first time ever.
Part of Doom’s enduring charm in this case can be attributed to Carmack being out of practice. Levels E1M4 and E1M5 were the ones he struggled with the most, and they’ve long been known to have par times of 1:30 and 2:45, respectively, even for the highest-skilled speedrunners. As for Carmack, it took him nearly 15 minutes per level to clear them.
He admitted that he’d forgotten where all the keycards were placed. It’s a small, relatable moment from a programmer who wrote the legendary engine the game runs on, and a reminder that the developers who built these levels and worlds still don’t necessarily remember every nook and cranny of their games decades later.
A symbolic reunion of game development giants
The reunion also carries symbolic weight because Sandy Petersen, another id Software veteran, recently revisited the past, stating on X that Quake “ruined id Software.”
John Carmack addressed the comment directly on X, saying that “Quake was overly ambitious technically” and that “I had pushed everyone too hard. The studio could have done all the great multiplayer and modding work inside a Doom++ engine, allowing the designers to work with a more stable base instead of a rug pulling everything out from underneath them a couple of times.”
Romero didn’t say much about it. Quake’s inception ended an era for id Software, as Romero, American McGee, Michael Abrash, Sandy Petersen, and other key developers left the company after the game was finished.
Whatever tension existed between id Software’s co-founders during id’s heyday seems to have smoothed over the years, and their simultaneous appearance at QuakeCon is the clearest sign that old wounds have healed for the most part.
Add as a preferred source on Google
