about a year behind
the curve. If he was going to be a Future Rich Person and Ace Programmer, he was going
to have to master the PC before it was too late.
“You can’t keep programming into the future on the same machines,” Romero told Al.
“I want you to know that I do not know the PC but I’ll learn it really fast.”
“That’s fine by me,” Al said. “Do whatever you want.”
What Romero wanted to do was learn a hot new programming language called C. But he
was told he couldn’t pursue it because the other programmers in the department didn’t
know it. Romero felt limited by the others’ lack of skills. Instead, while polishing
his game Zappa Roids, he hit the books, consuming everything he could about the PC
programming languages Pascal and 8086 assembly. He soon knew enough to port one of
his old Apple II games called Pyramids of Egypt to the PC. Within the first month,
he had published something on Softdisk’s main PC software product, the Big Blue Disk.
The problem was that his work on the Big Blue Disk started going
too
well. The PC department, overtaxed and unenergetic, started to rely more and more
heavily on Romero’s skills. By the end of his first month, he was spending more time
rewriting other people’s PC programs than working on his own games. Before he knew
it, the Special Projects division was kaput.
Al needed Romero instead to work on utility programs on the PC disk. Though Lane had
the option to join Romero at Softdisk, he stuck with the Apple II division. It was
the first sign, Romero thought, that his friend didn’t share his vision of the future,
the sense of opportunity that awaited in PC, not Apple, games. Since Romero still
wanted to learn the PC, he agreed to join that team for the time being. But, he told
Al, he wanted to make games when the time was right.
That time began to feel like it was never going to come. Romero grew unhappy. He spent
nearly a year working on PC utilities programs. He did manage to refine his skills
on the PC by porting more of his old Apple II games over to this platform. But PCs
were still largely thought of as having only business applications. After all, they
displayed just a handful of colors and squeaked out sounds through tiny, tinny speakers.
Romero was nowhere near making games full-time.
To make matters worse, Romero’s home life was bearing down. In order to save money,
he moved his wife and kids into a house with Lane and Jay in nearby Haughton, Louisiana.
It was tense, with the kids running around and Romero’s wife growing frustrated by
his long hours and her lack of a social life. He would try to assure her, but she
would just sit on the couch and mope. She was starting to lose hope that anything
would become more important to him than his games.
The bad vibes didn’t let up at work either. Romero’s initial impression of the beaten-down
Softdisk crew only turned worse. Al was feeling the pains of running an increasingly
big business and, to keep things in order, began to crack down. Romero and Lane were
reprimanded for turning off the fluorescent lights in their office, a move they pulled
because they hated the glare on their machines. Romero was also chastised for playing
his music too loud. Grudgingly, he wore headphones.
The employees were getting on his nerves too. No one seemed to be motivated. A narcoleptic
technical support worker kept falling asleep on the job—even while being asked a question.
Romero got in the habit of cranking up the heavy metal music in his office just to
wake the guy up. Then there was Mountain Man, the guy running the Apple II department.
He had been a buttoned-down engineer at Hewlett-Packard when one day he had something
of a breakdown and went off to live in the mountains for a year. He came back in a
cut-off denim jacket with a long, scraggly beard and took over the Apple II department
at Softdisk. But his Zen-like
the curve. If he was going to be a Future Rich Person and Ace Programmer, he was going
to have to master the PC before it was too late.
“You can’t keep programming into the future on the same machines,” Romero told Al.
“I want you to know that I do not know the PC but I’ll learn it really fast.”
“That’s fine by me,” Al said. “Do whatever you want.”
What Romero wanted to do was learn a hot new programming language called C. But he
was told he couldn’t pursue it because the other programmers in the department didn’t
know it. Romero felt limited by the others’ lack of skills. Instead, while polishing
his game Zappa Roids, he hit the books, consuming everything he could about the PC
programming languages Pascal and 8086 assembly. He soon knew enough to port one of
his old Apple II games called Pyramids of Egypt to the PC. Within the first month,
he had published something on Softdisk’s main PC software product, the Big Blue Disk.
The problem was that his work on the Big Blue Disk started going
too
well. The PC department, overtaxed and unenergetic, started to rely more and more
heavily on Romero’s skills. By the end of his first month, he was spending more time
rewriting other people’s PC programs than working on his own games. Before he knew
it, the Special Projects division was kaput.
Al needed Romero instead to work on utility programs on the PC disk. Though Lane had
the option to join Romero at Softdisk, he stuck with the Apple II division. It was
the first sign, Romero thought, that his friend didn’t share his vision of the future,
the sense of opportunity that awaited in PC, not Apple, games. Since Romero still
wanted to learn the PC, he agreed to join that team for the time being. But, he told
Al, he wanted to make games when the time was right.
That time began to feel like it was never going to come. Romero grew unhappy. He spent
nearly a year working on PC utilities programs. He did manage to refine his skills
on the PC by porting more of his old Apple II games over to this platform. But PCs
were still largely thought of as having only business applications. After all, they
displayed just a handful of colors and squeaked out sounds through tiny, tinny speakers.
Romero was nowhere near making games full-time.
To make matters worse, Romero’s home life was bearing down. In order to save money,
he moved his wife and kids into a house with Lane and Jay in nearby Haughton, Louisiana.
It was tense, with the kids running around and Romero’s wife growing frustrated by
his long hours and her lack of a social life. He would try to assure her, but she
would just sit on the couch and mope. She was starting to lose hope that anything
would become more important to him than his games.
The bad vibes didn’t let up at work either. Romero’s initial impression of the beaten-down
Softdisk crew only turned worse. Al was feeling the pains of running an increasingly
big business and, to keep things in order, began to crack down. Romero and Lane were
reprimanded for turning off the fluorescent lights in their office, a move they pulled
because they hated the glare on their machines. Romero was also chastised for playing
his music too loud. Grudgingly, he wore headphones.
The employees were getting on his nerves too. No one seemed to be motivated. A narcoleptic
technical support worker kept falling asleep on the job—even while being asked a question.
Romero got in the habit of cranking up the heavy metal music in his office just to
wake the guy up. Then there was Mountain Man, the guy running the Apple II department.
He had been a buttoned-down engineer at Hewlett-Packard when one day he had something
of a breakdown and went off to live in the mountains for a year. He came back in a
cut-off denim jacket with a long, scraggly beard and took over the Apple II department
at Softdisk. But his Zen-like
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