Sid Meier, John Carmack walk the Walk

  • By Staff, GameSpot
  • Posted Nov 16, 2005 5:35 pm PT

Walk of Game picks '06 inductees; joining Meier and Carmack are Lara Croft, Starcraft, Final Fantasy, and EverQuest.

In an attempt to build awareness, buzz, and maybe even a few incremental sales at retail, the Sony Metreon, the San Francisco entertainment center owned by Sony Corp., backed the creation of the now 2-year-old Walk of Game. This Bay Area version of Hollywood's Walk of Fame was designed to bring some star power to the game industry, recognizing its accomplished creators and most enduring games and game characters.

Last year's celebrity-packed inaugural Walk of Game induction ceremony saw Shigeru Miyamoto and Nolan Bushnell receive Lifetime Achievement awards (Bushnell was in attendance, Miyamoto was not).

On the game and game character front, Halo, Link, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Mario were also inducted into the Walk last year. All six winners were memorialized with their own permanent star, embedded into the Metreon floor.

This week, 2006's inductees were announced. After the public votes were tallied, Civilization creator Sid Meier and id Software cofounder John Carmack came up winners, beating out Sims designer Will Wright, Black & White's Peter Molyneux, and Pac-Man creator Toru Iwatani at the polls.

Accompanying the two designers into the Walk will be games Starcraft and EverQuest, the Final Fantasy franchise, and game character Lara Croft. Those winners trumped Castlevania, Civilization, Donkey Kong, Doom, Fox McCloud (Star Fox), Frogger, Grand Theft Auto, Half-Life, Madden NFL, Mortal Kombat, Myst, Pac-Man, Pitfall Harry (Pitfall), Pong, Quake, Resident Evil, Samus Aran (Metroid), Space Invaders, Street Fighter II, Tetris, and The Sims.

All six inductees will get their own 24-by-24-inch brushed steel star in a ceremony to take place in early 2006.

20 Comments

  • meganintendoguy

    Posted Nov 17, 2005 9:22 pm PT

    *posting for the fun of it*
    but i don't get this

  • decebal

    Posted Nov 17, 2005 8:40 pm PT

    Tomb Raider games were not great for the most part. However, when they were, they trully were great. I won't get an argument with anybody in wether or not they diserve to be there. As a close follower of the genre I can totally see why they are there. There was something clasic about them since the first game. It all went downhill from there.

  • linkdragon642

    Posted Nov 17, 2005 7:23 pm PT

    They beat all those?
    But didn't every Tomb Raider game suck?

  • JinxBoy

    Posted Nov 17, 2005 5:58 pm PT

    Oh, I totally agree. I don't credit John Carmack with sole responsibility for the success of those games, nor do I feel that he's even necessarily the MOST qualified game maker to get this award. I was solely responding to the claim that he shouldn't get this because of someone's misgivings with Quake 4 and mutli-player Quake 3.

    Oh, and one more response to a claim made above: John Carmack ISN'T CEO of id software; Todd Hollenshead has been the CEO since 1996.

  • Puto_PT

    Posted Nov 17, 2005 5:02 pm PT

    Since this is focusing on John Carmack and ID software:
    Lets just not forget the role of John Romero as leading designer of the Doom 1 / 2 and Quake. Engines are great, but if they dont fuel great ideas ingame they are just...great engines. Map design from Quake is fantastic, and since we're remembering, lets not forget the game Soundtrack: cant compete with strogg nailing powered by Trenr Reznor ( Nine Inch Nails) music

  • JinxBoy

    Posted Nov 17, 2005 3:30 pm PT

    Sorry, Matt, but saying John Carmack doesn't deserve this is just ignorance. First of all, as was pointed out, Carmack had nothing to do with Quake 4. But not only was the Quake series groundbreaking, Carmack was the lead programmer for Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, and Doom II...probably the 3 biggest games that led the 3D shooter industry to where it is today. And the graphics techniques he used in these games were pioneering methods that no one else used at that the time, but adopted shortly thereafter.

    Not only that, but it was Carmack who pushed to get Doom's and Quake's source released to the public, which led to countless mods and influenced other game franchises to do the same.

    Whether or not you like his games or his policies, Carmack has had a HUGE impact on the gaming industry as we know it today.

  • syxpack

    Posted Nov 17, 2005 1:54 pm PT

    amazing, can't wait, zzzzzzzz

  • decebal

    Posted Nov 17, 2005 1:48 pm PT

    To mattcake

    O4 was originally anounced as a single player only. People started complaining and the designers decided to implement the basic Q3 multiplayer (just as an option.). The game should be therefore judged as what it is: a single player. So I dont' see the point of the bitterness.

    Second, Q4 is implemented by Raven, not Id. Different companies... John Carmack had nothing to do with it. So your bitterness it's even more pointless.

    Third, Doom 3 was slow in multiplayer because it was not meant to be a multiplayer game. Doom 3 it's not even a game that much as it is an engine show off. (A lot of the crazy stuff in the engine are still commented out, since today's cards cannot suport it yet.). So your bittterness again is missplaced.

    Bottom line John got his award for pusing the edge of tech in games, for more than a decade. And he diserves that.

    P.S. I am not, and I never was an Id fan, nor a John Carmak fan. I

  • veratronator

    Posted Nov 17, 2005 12:32 pm PT

    ^Hideo kojima sould be on the list and half life sould have made it also and Iam a noble steed^

  • Sagacious_Tien

    Posted Nov 17, 2005 12:31 pm PT

    There is some pinnacles of the Idustry in that list - and I hope those that missed out will be given another shot next year. I'm a little shocked to note that MGS creator Hideo Kojima and character Solid Snake are not part of that list.

  • MasterMarcus

    Posted Nov 17, 2005 8:54 am PT

    Heh, heh, another occasion for Sid Meier and perhaps Brian Reynolds ( if he attend to ) to discuss something ''Alpha''........

  • mattcake

    Posted Nov 17, 2005 7:41 am PT

    The Doom 3 engine is great for single player, but the multiplayer experience with the hideously slow and unnecessary lighting, dire maps, copy-pasted quake3 weapon stats and abysmal netcode leaves a lot to be desired unfortunately While I agree Quake1 was a huge landmark and is no doubt his main reason for being included, he has long since fallen from grace imo. He may just code the engine, but hes also CEO - I cant believe he is satisfied himself with the [lack of] quality of Quake4. (Yes I'm a bitter Quaker

  • ElMaestro_basic

    Posted Nov 17, 2005 7:31 am PT

    To Mattcake

    Carmack doesn't design games, he creates (codes) game engines. I believe you'd concur that the Doom 3 engine is gorgeous.

  • mattcake

    Posted Nov 17, 2005 7:23 am PT

    After the way Carmack has sold off his game franchises and subjected us to rubbish like Quake 4 Multiplayer, he should be taken back out of that list

  • doc_tonic

    Posted Nov 17, 2005 5:33 am PT

    Not this again why are they trying too do this .Stars will come too the game when they like it or not .

  • Puto_PT

    Posted Nov 17, 2005 5:01 am PT

    quote
    *In an attempt to build awareness, buzz, and maybe even a few incremental sales at retail*

    Are their profits going low to promote events and direct spotlights to well know games, wich gamers already know ?

    maybe...

    Maybe they are after a whole new market, trying to catch and seduce a new generation of gamers. With the announced clash of new Generation console, promoting more buzz about the techs surround it, than more about the games that we will actually play on them its not a bad idea to promote games, designers and their icons to go after a new whole tech generation.

    If the event is geting to where its aimed..that can be a whole new question..

  • Goze

    Posted Nov 16, 2005 11:57 pm PT

    The controversies surrounding this whole event really ruin the significance of this program... The whole Everquest in-game vote function, and reports of vote flooding... More disgraceful than anything for the game industry, in my opinion.

  • PrezKennedy

    Posted Nov 16, 2005 11:06 pm PT

    Yet another awards ceremony. We already know who the best, brightest and most visible games/designers are in the industry, how about some recognition for new ideas and up and coming game designers?

    Sid Meiers and Will Wright both probably have an entire room dedicated to all the awards and certificates they've gotten and StarCraft and the like have 50+ awards and already stand out. Is it really necessary to do that all over again?

  • LotusboyRock

    Posted Nov 16, 2005 10:14 pm PT

    who???

  • _LEGIONS_

    Posted Nov 16, 2005 9:40 pm PT

    I tried to care.....

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