Dallas Blog

A screenshot from Wolfenstein RPG for your cell phone

Mesquite-based id Software's but moments away from unleashing its browser-based Quake Live, and in advance of that momentous open-beta occasion, John Carmack talks to MTV Multiplayer today about everything happening at id these days (everything except Quake Live, which'll be covered in tomorrow's chat with the bossman). Chief among the topics of interest is a tidbit concerning id's foray into iPhone apps -- and, no, not Wolfenstein RPG, the mobile edition of which is available for most cell phones but not the iPhone (wait a month or two). Says Carmack, id's got another, not-yet-announced iPhone app in the works:

We've been working with a partner company here locally in Dallas that is designed from scratch for the iPhone but using some existing id assets on there. And it's very graphically impressive but we don't have an official release date for it yet. We're having various challenges with that development. But literally before I came in on this interview, I was going around poking with some of our old titles. I'm really looking forward to bringing over an id classics line -- start with Wolfenstein 3D and go through Doom and Quake and bring pretty much all of them over to the iPhone because I'm a really big booster of the platform. And it frustrates me to no end that here we are without product yet shipping in the iPhone. We've had a couple of thwarted attempts at different things. I'm frustrated about it and trying to do something about it.

Incidentally, that iPhone app that's frustrating Carmack may also serve as the foundation for id's first foray into the wonderful world of Wii.