Founders of id Software – Tom Hall, John Romero, and both Carmacks – gathered together for the first time in 30 years at QuakeCon and even met with the "mother of id"

QuakeCon 2026 went down in history not just as a celebration of the 30th anniversary of Quake, but as an event many are already calling one of the warmest moments in gaming industry history. For the first time in decades, all four id Software co-founders shared the stage: Adrian Carmack, John Carmack, Tom Hall, and John Romero.

In the lead-up to the event, plenty of people wondered how comfortable the reunion would actually be. The studio has plenty of painful history behind it: Adrian Carmack filed a lawsuit over his removal back in 2005, and several well-liked employees, including American McGee and Paul Steed, left under murky circumstances. The recent Xbox layoffs added even more reasons for concern.

None of that seemed to matter in the end – the reunion went off without any visible tension. John Carmack wrote on X:

QuakeCon was fantastic this year, especially reuniting with the original founders!

Adrian Carmack reposted the message and added his own thoughts:

This was one of the best times of my life. Truly. I haven't seen John Carmack in 20 years. I was so damn excited and it surpassed my expectations. We haven't all been together since 94. Damn.

Romero Games shared a photo on Bluesky. According to Brenda Romero, the disagreements between team members over the years were heavily overdramatized in the press.

Thank you so much for the best weekend ever.

One particularly nice touch was the appearance of Donna Jackson, known to fans of the studio as "id mom." Jackson joined the team back in January 1994 as an office manager and, as far as anyone can tell, never left: in the recently released Doom: The Dark Ages, she's credited as "office manager and id mom."

American McGee, who was fired back in 1998, also shared his thoughts on the reunion. He wrote that Carmack and Romero changed his life "beyond imagination," expressing genuine gratitude to both of them. McGee spoke warmly about the gathering despite not attending the event in person himself.