All of science and technology and culture and learning and academics is built upon using the work that others have done before, Carmack thought. But to take a patenting approach and say it’s like, well, this idea is my idea, you cannot extend this idea in any way, because I own this idea—it just seems so fundamentally wrong. Patents were

But Romero wasn’t going to lie down and die. He had a dream to pursue, a family he loved. He could be the dad he’d never had himself, the kind of dad who would not just support his kids’ games but play them.

bit can be either on or off. Tom called Romero’s mood swings the bit flip.

He kept nothing from the past—no pictures, no records, no games, no computer disks. He didn’t even save copies of his first games, Wraith and Shadowforge. There was no yearbook to remind of his time at school, no magazine copies of his early publications. He kept nothing but what he needed at the time.

The computer game, he believed, was a unique medium into which he could incorporate those disciplines. He could invent a language for aliens in a game. He could program realistic physics. He could write stories, invent characters.

When assigned to write about his top five problems in life, he listed his parents’ high expectations—twice.

He approached the dilemma as he had in Keen: try the obvious approach first; if that fails, think outside the box.

I wind up catagorizing [sic] periods of my life by how rich my learning experiences were at the time.

While Carmack was exceptionally talented in programming, Romero was multitalented in art, sound, and design.