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My name is Scott. I've been playing video games since my hands were big enough to hold a joystick. I started with the Atari 2600, and graduated to the Atari 800 computer where I taught myself how to program in BASIC. I eventually got a NES, and later a Game Boy. The first summer I ever worked, I was a CIT at the day camp I attended. I worked all summer long to save up enough money to buy the SNES the very day it came out.
I attended college at the University of Pennsylvania. I was introduced to the internet my freshman year in 1993, and I fast became a console pirate, purchasing a copier and downloading ROMs off of IRC channels. Good times. In my senior year, I purchased the N64 as soon as the street date was broken, and skipped classes for the next three days to play Mario 64. I also bought a used PSX the same year.
After I graduated with a degree in Computer Science and a degree in Psychology, I was accepted to Digipen. I was part of the very last class that attended the school in Vancouver, before they moved the campus to Nintendo of America's HQ in Redmond Washington (across the street from Microsoft). After completing the program, I got my very first job as a programmer at Ubisoft.
I lucked out with Ubisoft because they were actually opening a studio near my hometown in NYC, so I actually landed my dream job and got to live on the east coast near my family. I worked on Batman: Vengence. I met a number of cool people, but the only one I still keep in touch with happens to be a buddy of mine who was the lead designer on "Army of Two." He is without a doubt, the greatest game designer I have ever had the privilege of working with.
The studio in NYC didn't pan out for Ubisoft, and they decided to fold the team up to Montreal. After living in Vancouver for a year and a half, I decided I had enough of Canada, so I stayed in the NYC office, which transformed into GameLoft. I stayed there until me and the buddy I mentioned landed a job at 3DO. We both moved out to Redwood City and started working there.
3DO wasn't a great company, but it wasn't terrible, and I met a crew of people who became some of the greatest friends that I have ever had. I worked on Dragon Rage, which was being led by Kudo Tsunoda. He told the execs that it was going to be an Army Men game with an art asset swap, and it would take 6 months to complete. The truth was we were building a new engine from scratch, and it would really take a year to get it done right. When the six months were up, the execs asked for the game, and we weren't even close to finished, so we had to do 12 hours days, 6 days a week until the game was finished. 3 months later, nobody cared about it anymore, and it went straight to the budget bin.
3DO closed down very shortly after. While I was at 3DO, I got to know two people who amazed me: Howard Scott Warshaw and Tod Frye, two of the original Atari 2600 programmers. Getting to meet them and talk with them about "the good old days" at Atari was an amazing thing to me. (I totally recommend visiting Howard's site, Once Upon Atari and ordering his DVD about what those days were like.) I still run in to Howard infrequently at retrogaming conventions and it's always a delight.
After 3DO, I worked for a THQ studio that used to be called (oddly enough) Pacific Coast Power & Light. It's known as Locomotive games today. I was put on the WWE Crush Hour game, the game that was designed to mix the WWE up with Twisted Metal. I created the game's shell and character selection screen. It was actually a pretty cool game, but THQ's love for WWE had cooled down when the game was close to finishing (right after WWF became WWE, the ratings started to tank), so they rushed it and laid off the whole team.
Wishing to return to the east coast, I applied for jobs that I could find there, and actually lucked out with a job opening at Firaxis Games in Hunt Valley, Maryland, home to Sid Meier. When I got there, they were toying with the idea of remaking Pirates, and were prototyping a lot. The results were mixed, and Sid decided to get involved with the development personally. They knew they wanted to make a console version, and they put me on the small team responsible for porting the game to the Xbox. I had doubts about the game, and I wasn't enjoying the tasks I was being given (such as working on the in-game glossary), and things didn't work out. I made a lot of good friends there who I miss working with.
By this time, I had been with four companies in six years, and my girlfriend at the time was in the middle of going to school to get her degree, so I did something drastic: I grew up. I ended up looking for any available programming job, and accepted a position with a UPS owned software company as an algorithm designer. I've been there since 2005, I get paid more money, and work fewer hours than I ever did as a game programmer. But I really miss the creative environment and working with people that I have a lot in common with, i.e. a love and passion for video games.
I am currently own and operate StrategyWiki, which strives to become the best online source of video game guides and walkthroughs anywhere in the world. I am now living in northern Maryland. Welcome to my blog.
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Gamertag: ProcyonSJJ
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Seeing as how I now have a phone capable of taking pictures (albeit not great ones apparently) I figured I'd test it out by snapping my game room, and upping the shots here. I've seen a lot of cool gaming setups in the C-blogs, but not a lot of game room decor. So I went for the whole shebang. I'll be using the "o'clock" notation here, so for reference, my TV is at 12 o'clock. Starting at 2 o'clock, we have some Nintendo goodness:
[img]http://home.comcast.net/~plotor/Game room/SJJGR1.jpg[/img] Here you can see the ridiculous amount that I invested in GameCube software. Plus a couple of Wii cases on the top. Of note, we have one of two original R.O.B.s that I own. That poor R.O.B. is broken, and hence has earn his final resting place on top of the rack. Behind the rack, I taped up a bunch of Atari 2600 artwork that I took from an old 1983 calander I had back when I was kid. Moving on two a low shot at 12 o'clock. [img]http://home.comcast.net/~plotor/Game room/SJJGR2.jpg[/img] Here is the focus of my game room. It's not quite a MAME cab, more like a MAME "pedestal." I modeled it after those Showcase 33 cabinets where the joystick is slightly apart from the screen. It rests on a vintage Pac-Man throw rug. Peeking out from the lower right is a still working Vectrex (also featured at the Baltimore NARP), and on the ledge below the TV are a set of small imported Pac-Man plushes. For a higher shot, we have: [img]http://home.comcast.net/~plotor/Game room/SJJGR3.jpg[/img] Here you get a better view of the MAME control panel. You can read more about how I set it up here. The computer is hooked up to the 32" Smasung LCD HDTV via the VGA port. No more need for crazy component adapters like I used to use. Above the TV, I arranged the 10th, 11th, and 12th issue wrap-around covers of the Udon Street Fighter comic book into a nice poster. Above the poster are some reissue transformers. To the left is the Dragon Quest slime controller, and to the left of that is a Anniversary edition Voltron in its box. Hanging from the ceiling, you can see some imported Pac-Man beanies that I fashioned into a mobile. And a large Pooka from Dig Dug is lying sadly on its side, and a face down Pac-Man... [img]http://home.comcast.net/~plotor/Game room/SJJGR4.jpg[/img] For a better shot on the setup at 11 o'clock, you can see the MAME computer sitting inside the pedistal (with them fancy lights and what not). Below the TV lies my newly purchased (one month ago) Xbox 360 Elite, and below that sit the Dreamcast and Saturn which still see occasional use. (I moved my PS2 in to my bedroom.) [img]http://home.comcast.net/~plotor/Game room/SJJGR5.jpg[/img] One more cleaned up shot at 11 o'clock, you can see the Chun-Li wallscroll that I hung to decorate that corner of the room. To understand what's going on in the lower left corner, have a look at: [img]http://home.comcast.net/~plotor/Game room/SJJGR6.jpg[/img] My game room has the distinction of being shared with my ferrets. At 10 o'clock, we have the three story monstrosity that I built with my own hands for the luxury of the three ferrets that I have, all ancient little guys. But the ferrets are NVGR, so let's move on to 9 o'clock. [img]http://home.comcast.net/~plotor/Game room/SJJGR7.jpg[/img] Also not quite video game related, here we have all of my Classic and Masterpiece Transformers setup (that's Masterpiece Megatron being washed out by the window light), below the Pokémon wall scroll, and a bunch of comics beneath them. Actual on the lowest shelf, to the left, are a bunch of Japanese Famicom guides, none of which I can read, but are still fun to look at. (I went on a bit of a bender when I discovered http://www.japanauctioncenter.com/...) [img]http://home.comcast.net/~plotor/Game room/SJJGR8.jpg[/img] At 8 o'clock, we have my big bookshelf. From top to bottom, there are: Large imported Pac-Man plushes (actually, the orange one is a pink one that I painted... they never made a Clyde plush); A crap load of Poké Dolls (don't ask); All of the reissue Transformers that they made for the Transformer Collection series in Japan; All of the Transformers Binaltechs (the Japanese version of the Alternators made with more die-cast metal than plastic) from 1 to 15; And finally a bunch of gaming books. Actually on the left side below the Binaltechs is a pretty complete collection of vintage video game magazines like Atari Age, Electronic Games, Video Games, Videogaming Illustrated, etc. On the right side of the shelf below that, I have a complete collection of Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, Super Pac-Man, and Donkey Kong trading cards in one of the three ring binders. [img]http://home.comcast.net/~plotor/Game room/SJJGR9.jpg[/img] At roughly 6 o'clock, we have my comfy couch, complete with Pac-Man and Pokémon pillows and plushes. Two small rear speakers surround the couch, and Transformer posters decorate the walls behind. That would be it for the game room, except for one small item at 3 o'clock... [img]http://home.comcast.net/~plotor/Game room/GRClock.jpg[/img] Here is the Pac-Man clock that I have hanging in the room. It's a neon light clock, but I had a horrible time trying to take a picture with the light on, so I just took two pictures, with and without the flash. I designed the face, and then purchased the clock on eBay. That's it for the game room. The only other aspect worth showing is the bookcase that I have downstairs in my basement. Here is where I keep all of my current gaming mags, including every issue ever made of Nintendo Power, and 99% of every EGM ever published. Sprinkle in a couple of NextGens, some EDGE mags which I finally had to stop subscribing to because it's over $100 for one year, and some other various mags, and you have a nearly full bookshelf. On top of it is where I keep all of my Coleco Tabletop arcade games and Nintendo Game & Watches that I wish I could say I've owned since childhood, but the truth is, most of them were purchase over eBay when I graduated college and started working. Anyway, thanks for looking. [img]http://home.comcast.net/~plotor/Game room/Bookshelf1.jpg[/img] [img]http://home.comcast.net/~plotor/Game room/Bookshelf2.jpg[/img] Update: Here is the current Desktop background that I have on my computer. I made it using this awesome icon artist's work. You can download a fullsized copy of it for yourself right here. [img]http://home.comcast.net/~plotor/Game room/Desktop.jpg[/img]
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Living the dream since March 16, 2006
Living the dream since March 16, 2006
Also that Dig Dug Pooka.. I'll battle you to the Death for it. Name the time and location plus weapon of choice.
lol, I wish that I could say that the Pooka plush was rare, but it's not. You can grab your own from Club Namco for a cool $30. If we were to duel, my weapon of choice would have had to be Rat-Flail.
Loving the Pac-Man and the Ghosts plush guys. And that Dig Dug is A-mazing! The Transformers posters are insane! Where do you live and when are you not home?
Holy toledo!
And yeah that's a shit load of stuff
Helluva collection there, son!
Especially the old video game mags... How cool!
I actually have, almost, every issue of Nintendo Power and EGM, from 1989-1996. I've been meaning to do something with them...
Any of you Dtoid robots interested?