id Software’s John Carmack excited by Apple iPhone possibilities

"While he's best known for creating graphics engines that push systems to their limits, game designer John Carmack is spending a lot of time with mobile gaming these days," Chris Morris reports for Forbes.

"The co-founder of id Software is considered one of the creators of the first-person shooter genre, and his technical influence has kept hardware companies rushing to keep up. So it's a bit surprising that he hasn't yet taken advantage of the most powerful mobile device on the market," Morris reports. "'We wanted to do something for the iPhone, but we just didn't have the scheduling or the resources available,' he says. 'I really regret not having something at launch. We have a title we want to develop exclusively for iPhone. I'm not announcing anything specifically, but it would be a graphical tour de force.'"

"One of the biggest appeals of the iPhone, says Carmack, is that it can handle big games that are 10 megabytes or more. By contrast, the sweet spot for traditional cellphone games was around 300 kilobytes," Morris reports. "That makes the iPhone look like a big open field. The hard part, Carmack concedes, will be reigning himself in. 'The iPhone, as a device, is in the same generation power-wise as the PS2 or Xbox,' he says. "'The graphics are a little lower but the RAM is a lot higher… You could easily spend $10 million on an iPhone game, but the market just can't support that yet.'"

Morris reports, "The company wasn’t quite fast enough to make the iPhone launch, but with a re-energized Carmack leading the charge, it hopes to make up for lost ground in a hurry."
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