Dave Taylor

Who is Dave Taylor?

Dave D. Taylor is an American game programmer, best known as a former id Software employee and noted for his work promoting Linux gaming.

In 1993 he graduated from University of Texas at Austin with a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering.

He worked for id Software between 1993 and 1996, and was during the time involved with the development of Doom and Quake. He created ports of both games to IRIX, AIX, Solaris and Linux, and helped program the Atari Jaguar ports of Doom and Wolfenstein 3D. He also considers himself to have been the "spackle coder" on Doom, for adding things such as the status bar, sound library integration, the automap, level transitions, cheat codes, and the network chat system. On Quake, he wrote the original sound engine, the DOS TCP/IP network library, and added VESA 2.0 support. One of the musical themes in Doom II, "Dave D. Taylor Blues", was named after him by Robert Prince.

His work for id caused him to be mentioned several times in the book Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture. Specifically mentioned was his habit of passing out after prolonged playing of Doom, and how the other employees would, after such incidents, sketch a body outline of his unconscious form with masking tape. After the success of the game, they eventually bought him a couch to pass out on. His attempts to "talk up" Quake on-line, his purchase of an Acura NSX with Doom money, his friendship with American McGee, and his eventual departure from the company are also mentioned.