When You Have an Amazing History... Share it!
Anyone following Apogee's social accounts, especially twitter, has seen a TON of recent posts relating to our history going back to the late 80's. Posts showing original art and illustrations and ads for Commander Keen, Wolfenstein 3D, Duke Nukem, Shadow Warrior, Blood, Prey and Max Payne, and even a 5-pg concept doc Scott Miller wrote for Duke Nukem Forever in 1998.
A lot of this has never been seen before, and a lot of it hasn't been seen for 20 years or longer.
History-focused posts have become our mission the past few months with both my twitter and with Apogee's twitter & social feeds. I decided a few months ago to show some of the hidden legacy I have in my files and on my shelves, and it seems to have really caught on because these posts are getting a lot of likes.
One post that was a true highlight was the letter sent to Scott Miller in 1990 by the original founders of Id Software.
This letter described the original concept for Commander Keen, and signed by all four Id founders (known as Ideas From the Deep at the time): John Romero, Tom Hall, Adrian Carmack & John Carmack (not related to each other).
Another was a letter sent to me by Tim Sweeney, where he's stating that Epic is now in competition with Apogee with their release of Jill of the Jungle. But more important, Tim and I had sent several letters back and forth starting late in 1990, and we were always friendly and supportive to each other, which is how it should be even today. When we're in a position to do so, we should always be helpful to other developers and indies on the rise.
Imagine seeing the actual agreement for Wolfenstein 3D that kicked off the entire FPS genre. We have it, because Apogee was a key part of that history. We've also posted the original Commander Keen agreement, the one that truly launched both Id and Apogee into the world spotlight at the end of 1990. This is truly historic stuff for the game industry, and one day much of the stuff we're posting will be donated to a gaming museum.
Not many game studios can do what Apogee (aka 3D Realms back then) can do because their founders are no longer at their original studios. And most of the game studios from the 80's and 90's are no longer even around. Apogee is truly in a unique situation where we have all of this legacy and history still in our records, and now we can share it. And we will continue to do so!
I've wondered why Id Software hasn't retweeted any of these really cool historic posts that involve their company's history. My guess is that since Id's founders are no longer there, and Id is now run by newer people who weren't there at the start, that these historic posts simply don't mean much to them. The origin stories and lore of the company left when the founders left, and now no one there has any first-hand memory or personal passion for those early years when Id was changing the game industry.
(Quake concept sketches by Id Software co-founder, Adrian Carmack)
Likewise, I've wondered the same thing about 3D Realms, which used to be a label that Apogee created in 1994, but is now owned by the Embracer Group. Why hasn't 3D Realms even once retweeted any of the rich history that Apogee and I've been posting the past few months? Again I think it's because they simply have no first-hand experience with Apogee's and 3D Realms' hit games like Duke, Max and Prey, and therefore my guess is that this history isn't important to them.
Bottom-line: Apogee has a history that we're super proud of and now that all of this time has passed, we think it's really cool to share this history.
Epic Games might be the only other company who can do what Apogee is doing with these history-revealing posts. And that's because Tim Sweeney, like me, has been around since the 90's and he is still leading his original company. Once a company has changed hands to new owners/leader, it's not really the same company anymore because when the founders are gone, the culture changes, new methods are put in place, quality levels change, passions change, and the new people usually have no experience from the original years because they weren't there.
Why did I save all of this stuff? I had it in my mind that a few decades in the future I would use all of the 1000's of things I saved to help write a book. But back then I didn't foresee social media which has become a super convenient way to share the stuff I saved.
Either way, Apogee will continue to post about our long and rich legacy as a pivotal player in the game industry. A lot more is coming for all the games we were involved with, like Max Payne, Descent, Prey, Commander Keen, Blood, Duke Nukem, Wolfenstein 3D, Raptor, Shadow Warrior, and many more.
Follow Scott Miller on Twitter.
