User`s guide

Another interesting tidbit: remember Threshold? It was THE COOLEST Space
Invaders clone ever to grace an Apple // screen (actually it was more of an
Astro-Blaster clone). It was created by Warren Schwader (he also did that
Cribbage game that had a bad bug in it.) Well, back in March 1992, we of id
Software travelled to Sierra (Online) to show them a pre-alpha version of
Wolfenstein 3D. Sierra was interested in buying id Software back then (for a
very, very CHEAP price!) and we wanted to show them our n
ew 3D technology to get them all juicy. Well, i was asking Ken Williams if he
knew where any old Apple // guys were and he said he had ONE still working at
Sierra. He brought us into a room with an older guy and said, "This is Warren
Schwader." Instantly, i was saying, "We're not worthy! We're not worthy!
Threshold was a KICK ASS game! You created a legend!"
Sierra balked at our asking for a $100K advance payment on the buyout, so the
deal died and we released Wolfenstein 3D.
That summer of 1992, just after Wolf3D was released, John Carmack and i drove to
Kansas City for one of the last A2-Central conferences. We brought a laptop and
a copy of Wolf3d with us because, lo and behold, Tom Weishaar got ahold of Silas
Warner (creator of the original Castle Wolfenstein) and had Silas give a
seminar. What a night. Carmack and i sat out in the hallway for hours talking
to Silas and Bill Heineman about all kinds of old A2 stuff. We have an original
Wolf3D manual with Silas' signatur
e on it. It's framed. :)
Am i on a roll or what? I have even more info....
As soon as The Secret of Mana was released, i bought it because i absolutely
LOVE Squaresoft's games. I worship at the altar of Squaresoft. :) As soon as i
plugged the SNES cart in, I just sat to watch the demo. (BTW: always, ALWAYS sit
and watch game demos. Lots of work goes into them and sometimes there's very
useful stuff there.) I was reveling in the beautiful music and unfolding Mana
Tree graphic when the first line of the credits scrolled up. "PROGRAMMED BY
NASIR."
OH MY GOD! THE ULTIMATE DEITY OF THE APPLE // GAME IS STILL PRODUCING SOME OF
THE BEST GAME SOFTWARE AVAILABLE! (sorry 'bout the caps.)
I was blown away. If you want to experience the epitome of 65816 game
programming after 15 years of practice (5 of that being 6502), get The Secret of
Mana for SNES and luxuriate in the masterful codesmithing of Nasir once again.
Nasir is one of the Old Ones, alongside Bill Budge, Bob Bishop, Olaf Lubeck, Don
Fudge, etc, etc. I could go on and on. I remember every game and every name.
And here's another one... :)
In 1995, i went to the Computer Game Developer's Conference in Santa Clara. It
was fun seeing and talking to other game designers. Well, at the CGDC there was
a Job Fair, which is where people go to get information on various companies so
they can try to get a job there. There were many companies represented at the
Job Fair. This is so funny: Dan Gorlin was at the Job Fair and he walked over
to the Broderbund booth and talked to them. He even had a name tag on, but the
Broderbund people HAD NO IDEA WHO
HE WAS!!! The creator of one of Broderbund's biggest titles (okay, a while
ago. :) was TREATED LIKE A WANNABE GAME PROGRAMMER!!! I mean, we're talking
about the guy that created Choplifter and Airheart! Amazing! I mean, how many
other games of Broderbund's have been ported to a stand-up coin-op? NONE!