Introduction

The first video game I ever played (at age 13) was Pong. It was a very simple ping-pong simulation. During my teenage years, a few, more advanced games appeared on the market. Most notable were the Atari games such as Missile Command, a nuclear warfare simulator. When I was 19, I went to live for a couple of years in Japan. There I discovered a whole new worldseveral, in fact.

Around the time I arrived in Japan, the game Space Invaders had just crested its phenomenal wave of popularity. I had never seen anything so cool. By the time I returned to the United States, video games were everywhere.

In the fall of 1981, I started college. Keith, a longtime friend and roommate, pointed to a class in the university's catalog and told me, "You have to take this programming class. I know you'll love it." He was right. By the time two weeks had passed, I knew I would be working with computers for the rest of my life.

And what did I specialize in? Graphics and games, of course.

When I started writing games in college, it was a long and difficult task. The only people who had a prayer of writing decent games were complete geeks (like me).

A lot has changed since then. With the tools available now, nearly anyone can write an original and inventive game.