id's Carmack: iPhone nearly as powerful as Xbox, PS2

83 Comments by Randy Nelson Aug 1st 2008 9:55PM
Filed under: Portable, Wireless, Adventure

When he isn't dabbling in rocket science, id Software's John Carmack is one of the world authorities on 3D graphics programming. Carmack, who recently revealed that he is turning his talents to Apple's iPhone (the graphics ones, not the rocketry smarts) for a "graphical tour de force," has provided his two cents on just how powerful the ~~cell phone~~ personal media device really is.

During an on-stage appearance at QuakeCon 2008, the man who's tinkered with every graphics tech under the sun likened the polygon-pushing capabilities of iPhone to that of Sega's late, great Dreamcast. Taking the comparison to more current game hardware, he stated that iPhone is "more powerful than a Nintendo DS and Sony PSP combined," perhaps even nearing the capabilities of the PS2 and original Xbox. Given his statements, we're even more eager to see the two projects id is developing for the device, a "conventional mobile game" and the aforementioned visual show stopper.

[Via Engadget]

Tags: id-software, iphone, john-carmack, quakecon-2008

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(Page 1) Reader Comments

giantenemycrab: Aug 1st 2008; 10:00PM

How is that possible?

Tiptup300: Aug 1st 2008; 11:14PM

"more powerful than a Nintendo DS and Sony PSP combined [with duct tape]"

Hope that makes sense now.

Haggard: Aug 2nd 2008; 5:34PM

Well, the PSP is 'almost as powerful as a PS2' and that thing is old.

Phantom: Aug 3rd 2008; 9:47PM

10 bucks says Sony start's using the cell proccesor everywhere . First the PSPhone will have a quad-core cell . Then the Sony-Ericsonns will have them , then laptops , PC's EVERYTHING . (cell cammera's , cell GPS etc) ,

LaughingTarget: Aug 1st 2008; 10:01PM

Yet it still can't post to Joystiq on a regular basis and runs slow as hell since the 2.0 revision came out. I call shenanigans.

Shaq-Fu: Aug 1st 2008; 10:01PM

I love how people try to point this out. What they don't realize is that a lot of the "power" goes towards the phone/online/email aspects of the iPhone and the data storage to hold contacts and whatnot.. I'll believe it when I see it

LaughingTarget: Aug 1st 2008; 10:03PM

+1 your your bad-ass Dr. McNinja avatar.

iofthestorm: Aug 1st 2008; 11:07PM

Well, I hate the iPhone hype with a vengeance but John Carmack is one of the first and foremost experts of 3D graphics engines, and when he says something I tend to believe him. Now, he might be exaggerating but it's probably not too far from the truth. The processor's speed itself is much faster than the DS and a fair bit faster than the PSP, although I don't know what kind of dedicated graphics chip it's got. I'd guess it's probably closest to the PSP's graphics, but that's just me, a random internet commenter, guessing. Carmack's probably closer to the truth than you or I am.

jynxycat: Aug 2nd 2008; 11:04AM

Like when he said Doom3 would look as good on Xbox as PC ?

I tend to take his comments with a truck load of salt.

rv: Aug 1st 2008; 10:01PM

Again, like I posted on engadget, I would like to see an iphone run splinter cell 3.

Obie: Aug 1st 2008; 10:02PM

Carmack needs to stop jerkin' off over horsepower and start making games that offer better gameplay.

LaughingTarget: Aug 1st 2008; 10:04PM

Why when spitting out engines makes a bundle?

Obie: Aug 1st 2008; 10:05PM

I guess, but him new Rage engine is lookin' more like the Unreal engine.

LaughingTarget: Aug 1st 2008; 10:07PM

When the only goal of the two engines is to mimic reality as close as possible, they're eventually going to converge.

theturtle363: Aug 1st 2008; 10:14PM

dude, that's like, deep n stuff

Obie: Aug 1st 2008; 10:36PM

Nice points, LT. You nailed it.

chaonatic: Aug 1st 2008; 10:45PM

How is the Doom 3 engine making bundles? Seems to me that almost no one's licensing the engine except those inhouse devs...

Microswirl (MKWii:1676- 4270-3674): Aug 1st 2008; 10:54PM

But can the RAGE engine even mimic reality better than UE3? I'm not seeing much of a difference... in fact I'd have to give a slight nod to Gears 2.

brokenscope: Aug 2nd 2008; 9:31AM

For fucks sake, he writes game engines. That is what he does, that is all he does, he has never claimed to do anything more than that.

He has never been anything but a programmer or a technical director. As ID has grown in size, his contribution to game play has decreased towards zero.

Masterchafed: Aug 5th 2008; 3:04PM

he doesnt make the games dipshit, he makes graphics/engines for the games. Grow a brain and tell me when you decide to use it.

Superstar90: Aug 1st 2008; 10:13PM

If the iPhone is as strong as all those systems it still won't be able to half of what they could because of the lack of buttons. Apple should create some addon that has a d-pad and face buttons so that it can show off its graphics and have fun and deep games too.

Also, the batteries will die out in like 3 seconds on whatever dreamcast level ultra graphics game carmack is working on.

Obie: Aug 1st 2008; 10:23PM

Agreed, the iPod has no decent input device other than the screen.

Chase: Aug 1st 2008; 10:31PM

It'll get to to the title screen and the battery will die.

FSK405K: Aug 2nd 2008; 9:47AM

If the iphone is so graphically capable, why are people already complaining about frame rate drops in the games that have already come out?

Jacksons: Aug 2nd 2008; 6:27PM

That's the main problem for me. Without good, tactile input it is nothing to me (in a gaming sense.)

Roddie: Aug 1st 2008; 10:14PM

The iPhone can't even run 2 apps at the same time.

dfnj123: Aug 1st 2008; 10:42PM

I surf the load up a webpage, my email all while listening to music on my iPhone. I don't know what device you are talking about.

Apple made so you couldn't run THIRD PART apps in the background because it would waste battery power.

kavendano14: Aug 1st 2008; 10:49PM

Yet it still has a shitty battery life.

Giroro: Aug 1st 2008; 10:36PM

PS2 and Xbox1 are pretty far apart as far as graphics go, and both are significantly better than the Dreamcast.

Carmack's vague descriptions manages to mention 5 different gaming platforms, Which definitely hurts his credibility on the matter.

dfnj123: Aug 1st 2008; 10:49PM

He says nothing about Graphics. He only talks about power.

cranium: Aug 2nd 2008; 1:09AM

though shalt not question Carmack!

Kye - Me_DF: Aug 2nd 2008; 5:27AM

Sorry to burst your bubble, but,

Dreamcast > PS2

Maverick Saturn: Aug 2nd 2008; 9:03AM

Dreamcast sucked, biggest waste of my money ¬_¬

jmood88: Aug 2nd 2008; 12:52PM

You must be talking about a different ps2 because the real one was never significantly better or even just better, graphically, than the dreamcast.

Extinction: Aug 2nd 2008; 1:11PM

Sorry DC fanboys, PS2 was indeed better graphically than the Dreamcast.

The Fatass of Kickassness: Aug 2nd 2008; 7:19PM

Extinction, do some research. In a lot of fields, the PS2 has the upper hand, but same goes for the Dreamcast, and it can easily be argued that the Dreamcast is more powerful than the Playstation 2.

Mr.ESC: Aug 2nd 2008; 10:36PM

"Dreamcast sucked, biggest waste of my money".

*Does the Bob and Cedric look.

Who?!,Who doesn't loves the Dreamcast?!!

(WTF are you talking about? the dreamcast was f*cking awesome but if you don't want it you can sell it to me,I'll find a good use.The DC was great).

Questworld: Aug 1st 2008; 10:49PM

I guess I'll raise the obvious...

Wii is a "no" but the iPhone is a "hell ya"?

Mr Khan: Aug 1st 2008; 10:54PM

Nintendo consoles are a no. For some reason they are anethema to iD.

Noshino: Aug 1st 2008; 11:26PM

uh, once again I have to estate the same, the iPhone is considered one of the most powerful devices when it comes to cellphones, can the same be said about the Wii on the videogame scene?

Evan: Aug 2nd 2008; 2:53AM

id has had a long history with Nintendo. Nintendo usually pissed them off on everything they tried to bring to their consoles. Wolfenstein, Doom, you name it. It actually started when id offered to port Super Mario Brothers III to the PC and Nintendo gave them more than just a "no".

Wiinterfang: Aug 1st 2008; 10:53PM

The Iphone can't touch the Dreamcast.

Superstar90: Aug 1st 2008; 11:23PM

Agreed! However, if the iPhone gets Skies of Arcadia AND Jet Grind Radio....

it still won't be close to Dreamcast. :P

syrik zero: Aug 2nd 2008; 12:32PM

If Skies of Arcadia was released on the iPhone I would cancel my current plan today and way what ever it takes to get that. That's one of the best RPGs ever!

AttilaButurla: Aug 1st 2008; 10:57PM

I saw someone playing a kart racing game on one today and the graphics were way better then a PSOne. A PS2 may be a bit of a stretch but I was impressed.

iofthestorm: Aug 1st 2008; 11:11PM

Hmm, I think I saw the same game (some Crash Team Racing offshoot) and it seemed like PS1 quality to me.

Nate: Aug 1st 2008; 11:00PM

I like the way he says it's far more powerful than a PSP but "almost" as powerful as a PS2, when the PSP and PS2 are fairly close in power.

Spec wise, it looks like it's a bit more powerful than the PSP, but it has to run Apple's OS, and who knows how much that takes to run behind the scenes.

Plus, you know, no buttons.

Ihavepants: Aug 1st 2008; 11:17PM

The PSP is nowhere near as powerful as a PS2, the only reason that it looks like it is, is because of the tiny resolution that the PSP renders at. Get them both running at the same resolution and the PSP can't have nearly as much detail.

Extinction: Aug 2nd 2008; 1:31AM

PSP is said to be more powerful than PS2 in some ways. It uses the same speed processor, plus another same speed processor. And it's many times easier to program for, something Carmack holds above processing power. Devs have said anything PS2 can do, PSP can do.

caramelzappa: Aug 1st 2008; 11:03PM

Like others have said, the lack of buttons completely ruins the point of making games on it. SOME DS games can be ported to it but others won't work because of the thickness of a finger both not being precise and blocking the screen.

I like the idea of having a shell that the iphone slides into, that has conventional buttons on it. it could also hold some more battery power to take care of the huge ammount of power gaming on the iphone would suck up.

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