If you have been a fan of video games for a while you probably know who John Carmack is, but if you don't know who he is, well you should :)
He is basically the creator, father, god, of the first person shooter genre and three dimensional gaming. He is mostly responsible for the 3 most influential and best first person shooter games ever made.
Wolfenstein 3D (Released in 1992)
I had a lot of fun playing this game when I was a kid, it was one of the original first person shooters, it was not really truly 3 dimensional, it just simulated the 3 dimensional look.
Doom (Released in 1993)
Another great game, similar to Wolfenstein just much better graphics and much better game play. Again not really 3 dimensional, it was 2 dimensional it just simulated a 3 dimensional look.
Quake (Released in 1996)
This is my favorite video game and this is essentially the start of 3 dimensional first person shooter games. This is the first video game ever made that was fully 3 dimensional, it used 3 dimensional objects for all props and characters. Also the entire soundtrack for this game was made by the band Nine Inch Nails, which is a nice bonus :)
Fundamentally John Carmack is responsible for these games and somewhat responsible for the many sequels that spawned from these games. He primarily coded the 3d engines for all these games and he not only made money from selling these games, but also made money by leasing his 3d engine to other game developers to use for their games.
You can also make an argument that he is kind of accountable for starting the competitive gaming phenomenon that exists today. In 1997 he started the first ever competitive eSport event called Red Annihilation ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Annihilation ). Where people played Quake, and the winner of the tournament was given John Carmack's 1987 Ferrari 328 GTS as the grand prize :)
These 3 games are just a tip of the iceberg of his programming career, he is now working with Oculus and developing virtual reality software. What I am saying is, John Carmack is a coding genius, he recently had an awesome interview with Joe Rogan, the way he speaks, you can tell his mind works on another level. It is a great interview that covers the many things he has accomplished in his life and definitely worth a watch :)
