AppleII Reunion
GameSpot's Starstruck Executive Editor Mingles with the Legends of Computer Gaming

by Ron Dulin
designed by James Cheung

 
My nametag
The chance to meet the pioneers of the computer game industry doesn't come along every day, even for an editor at a computer games magazine. Sure, some of the old-timers are still making games: Jon Van Caneghem, Jordan Mechner, and Roberta Williams are all still active in the games industry, to name just a few. But how often does the opportunity arise to meet the man behind Choplifter? Or the original Wizardry? Or Gruds in Space?

So when John Romero gave us the chance to do just that, it wasn't something we were going to pass up. Romero, an old Apple II programmer and fan himself, decided to, in a sense, get the old gang together for a little reminiscing at the lavish ION Storm offices in Dallas. The goal was to bring together the people who helped to establish the industry in an era when it was not just possible, but even acceptable to sell a game in a Zip-Loc bag with a Xeroxed manual. The reunion party promised to be both extremely nostalgic and more than a little surreal.

"Is Chuckles here?"
"Yeah, I just saw him talking to The Fat Man."
"How about Lord British?"
"No, but I heard The Woz is in the back room."

You get the point.

Chuckles designed Origin's Autoduel and many other seminal 8-bit games; The Fat Man (who scored the early Wing Commander games) is one of the most respected game music composers around; Lord British is the nom de game of Origin founder and Ultima creator Richard Garriott; and The Woz is actually Steve Wozniak, cofounder of Apple Computers and codesigner of the Apple II. In fact, the whole guest list read like a who's who of the computer games industry.

Next: Let the party begin