Carmack considers developing for Wii

Clever-clogs John Carmack has revealed that id Software is considering a Wii project based loosely on existing IP.

"We've been pitched and talked about a project that would fit well on the Wii, and it's actually related to an iPhone title that we're doing. But that's still kind of up in the air as to what other developer we would partner with on there," Carmack told MTV Multiplayer.

"I'd like to do something there, because I love a lot of what Nintendo has done with the Wii and the DS, but it's just out of sync with the developments that are currently going on at id.

"It would have to be a completely different game," he added. "We would use one of our existing IPs where we have a little bit of leverage. It's not something that really any of our titles under development currently would be appropriate for."

Carmack said he spends far more time playing Wii with his son than on any other console, which makes him "sympathetic" to the platform.

As for the iPhone, id Software has a "spiffed-up" version of mobile game Wolfenstein RPG about a month away from launch. This has high-res graphics, better sound and 3D acceleration, but is still far from a specifically-built iPhone title.

"We have another title, which isn't announced formally - we've been working with a partner company here locally in Dallas - that is designed from scratch for the iPhone using some existing id assets. And it's very graphically impressive, but we don't have an official release date for it yet," said Carmack.

He added that this game will share the same concept, or a "very similar" concept to the potential Wii title.

"And I know that's very cryptic, but we haven't made any official announcements about it because we've had some difficulties during the development. And we don't want to announce something and then retract it. We want to make sure it turns out good before we actually talk about it," he said.

Carmack went on to say that he had been rifling through old id Software titles and is "really looking forward" to establishing an "id Classics" portfolio for the iPhone.

This, he explained, would start with Wolfenstein 3D and then go through Doom and Quake and so on and so forth.

"I'm a really big booster of the platform, and it frustrates me to no end that here we are without product shipping on the iPhone. We've had a couple of thwarted attempts at different things; I'm frustrated about it and trying to do something about it!" Carmack explained.

Excitingly, he added: "We have Quake III up and running on the iPhone. It needs a new redesign of the render to make it fast enough to be really good playing on the iPhone.

"We may go back and take all the changes that the Quake Live team has done from the original code base and make more of a modern Quake III Arena based on the Quake Live work, which would be pretty cool."

In closing, Carmack said we would probably hear more about id Software project Doom 4 over the next 12 months as the developer polishes to pitch to publishers.

Glimpses of Rage will be more immediate, as will those of Wolfenstein - although the latter will be bossed by Raven and Activision and not so much id.