In December 1995, Carmack wanted to move everyone into that area, call it the War Room, and enter crunch mode to finish Quake there: that’s seven days a week, twelve hours a day minimum. We never had mandatory crunch mode at id before this, but we wanted to finish the game, and we knew being together in the same room would allow us to finish the game faster, so we agreed. In a sense, the War Room was a reflection of the team it housed. It worked, it did what it needed to do—but it was frayed and, well, wasn’t what it used to be.
