As part of a special broadcast by id Software to commemorate the first anniversary of Doom: The Dark Ages, four guests for the upcoming QuakeCon 2026, the studio’s annual fan event, have been announced. This year’s event holds particular significance as it marks the 30th anniversary of QuakeCon, and to celebrate, the four founders of id Software – John Romero, John Carmack, Adrian Carmack, and Tom Hall – will gather in Texas.
These four figures require little introduction; in the first half of the 1990s, they revolutionized the video game industry on multiple fronts. While Romero and John Carmack are relatively well-known, the stories of Tom Hall and Adrian Carmack (who, surprisingly, is not related to John Carmack despite sharing a distinctive surname) are less publicly documented. They are featured in Masters of Doom, of course, but their presence is clearly secondary compared to the more prominent figures of Romero and Carmack.
Romero himself explains the historical significance of this reunion: it is the first time all four will attend the same QuakeCon, and indeed, the first time they have been together since 1993. Full details about their activities at the event are yet to be revealed, but the studio has indicated that more information will be released soon. Given that QuakeCon is scheduled from August 6th to 9th, this information should be forthcoming.
It’s understandable that they haven’t been together much, considering their somewhat acrimonious departure from id Software. While the success of Doom was undeniable, Tom Hall experienced creative differences with his colleagues during the game’s development and subsequently moved to Apogee/3D Realms. Adrian Carmack departed later, in 2005, holding 41% of the studio’s shares. At that time, id Software was already a dominant force. Those shares became the subject of an unfortunate lawsuit that same year, stemming from the financial damages incurred due to his partners’ refusal to sell id Software to Activision in 2004.
There have been some attempts at reconciliation over the years. In the late 1990s, John Romero and Tom Hall founded Ion Storm, the studio initially intended to make a massive impact with Daikatana but ultimately found salvation with the masterful Deus Ex, developed hundreds of miles away from the ex-id Software employees, in a separate office founded by Warren Spector. In 2016, Romero and Adrian Carmack briefly collaborated on a Kickstarter project called Blackroom, which did not achieve its funding goals, and the campaign was abruptly canceled.
John Carmack, meanwhile, has been largely absent from the video game industry for years. Since leaving id Software in 2013 to join Oculus, he has divided his time between virtual reality and artificial intelligence. He departed Oculus in 2022 to found a company focused on developing artificial general intelligence. This company is named Keen Technologies, though confirmation is elusive regarding whether the name is a deliberate nod to the first game he programmed for id Software, the iconic Commander Keen.
