Called the "Mozart of computer coding" by a contributor for CNN Online, John Carmack is "widely viewed as the most brilliant mind and one of the most influential developers in the gaming industry today," according to the same writer. Along with fellow designer, John Romero, Carmack is responsible for the immensely popular games Wolfenstein 3-D, Doom, and Quake. "Love it or hate it," another CNN Online contributor noted, "the 'Doom' franchise is one of the most successful in the gaming industry's history." Credited with development of what is known as "first-person shooter" technology which allows the player to actually be the protagonist on the computer screen, Carmack blended this point-of-view shift with radical new three-dimensional effects and highly detailed graphics that stretched the capability of state-of-the-art hardware. In fact, Carmack's sophisticated programming is in part credited with pushing both PC producers and Apple forward to develop ever more...