History
Interplay Entertainment – Interplay Entertainment Corporation is an American video game developer and publisher, founded in 1983 as Interplay Productions by Brian Fargo, Troy Worrell, Jay Patel and Bill Heineman. As a developer, Interplay is best known as the creator of the original Fallout series and as a publisher, for the Baldur’s Gate and Descent series. Wiki
I started programming at age 11 using the Newport Mesa School District’s DEC PDP-8. At age 16 I became the Student Director of Computer Systems for all of Newport Mesa School District’s High Schools student programs. I was responsible for maintaining and managing access for all student projects.
My first programming job was at a startup company, Armonk, in Newport Beach at age 19. The company developed one of the first games for the, what was new then, IBM PC. The game was billed as an edutainment program to help people learn problem solving in corporate America.
At age 20, I moved to another startup company to build games for the then hot home gaming consoles and for the IBM PC. The first, and only published game, was a golf game called Pebble Beach Golf; a licensed property from the Pebble Beach Golf Course. It used fractals to accurately render the golf course, a first for the time.
At age 21, I left Boone Corporation to form Interplay Productions along with Brian Fargo, Jay Patel and Bill Heineman. At interplay Productions, I was a programmer (producing over 20 published projects), project director managing over 10 produced projects, VP of Product Development managing over 15 producers and VP of Operations. The initial team grew the company from the initial 4 people to over 500 people with offices in 2 countries and worldwide sales in excess of $500 million. I was in charge of building the Programming, Art, Audio, Quality Control, Customer Service, IT and Operations departments.
Personal
For fun, I am a certified Scuba Diver with multiple certifications, a Private Pilot, Sail Boat Race Crew, Sail Boat Delivery Crew, Hobby Sailor sailing my boat for 4 years from Puerto Vallarta to San Francisco and all the islands in between, Amateur Race Car Driver (Porsche 928’s) and Honey-Do Expert.