The birth of id Software

John Romero recounts how, in September 1990 while working at Softdisk, he saw a demo by John Carmack that showed smooth horizontal side-scrolling on a PC, which he considered a turning point for PC gaming. The demo, a Super Mario Bros. 3-style program with Romero's character Dangerous Dave, was made by Carmack and Tom, a colleague. Romero says Jay Wilbur suggested pitching it to Nintendo, which turned down the request three weeks later. Romero then describes how fan letters from Scott Miller, who was using multiple names, led to contact with Miller and his company Apogee.