"I'm really kind of sad about... how things played out outside of our real control on that," said Carmack when asked about id iPhone development. "I'm really bullish on the iPhone market. I think that what they're doing with iTunes, cutting the carriers out of there... it's a great hardware platform.

"It's a market I really want to be in, we just didn't have the resources to go do something for the initial launch."

Carmack then revealed that he and id programmer Robert Duffy have been quietly experimenting with the iPhone's 3D engine.

"Robert Duffy and I actually hacked together a kind of a port of some of the Orcs and Elves stuff using the 3D engine, but we just didn't have the manpower to do something that would be what we would consider our best foot forward," he said.

"We still have a lot of effort going on in the Java and BREW stuff. Wolfenstein RPG is gonna be coming out later this year, and that's really great in a lot of ways."

id Mobile was founded in November of last year, and is being headed up by Anna Kang, founder of Orcs & Elves series and Doom RPG developer Fountainhead Entertainment. The company's first release will be Wolfenstein RPG, the turn-based follow-up to Doom RPG.

Check back this weekend for our full interview with id's John Carmack and Marty Stratton.