Computer Game Developer

Jordan Mechner (born 1964) is a game programmer, game designer, and movie director. Mechner was born in New York City and graduated from Yale University in 1985. Mechner's first hit game was Karateka (1984), written while he was still an undergraduate. Prince of Persia, released in 1989, was noted for its fluid animation of human figures. Both titles were published by Brøderbund. For the animations used in Prince of Persia, Mechner spent days studying video and photographs of his brother...

Jordan Mechner founded Smoking Car Productions to create the computer game The Last Express. The company was located in San Francisco from 1993 - 1997 and at its peak had sixty full-time employees The principals included:

Robert Cook is a co-founder of Metaweb. He was a software programmer at Brøderbund in the 1980s and was the model for one of the characters in Jordan Mechner's game Prince of Persia. He designed and created the computer game D/Generation and was technical director for the computer game The Last Express.

Maxis Software is an American company that was founded as a video game developer and is now a brand name of Electronic Arts (EA). Maxis' second software title was the seminal SimCity, a city simulation and planning game. Maxis is also the creator of the best-selling computer game of all time, The Sims and its sequel The Sims 2. These three titles and their related products are the brand's most popular and successful lines. Most Maxis titles are simulation-based, though none are considered...

Chris Crawford is a noted computer game designer and writer, responsible for a number of important games in the 1980s, for founding The Journal of Computer Game Design and for organizing the Computer Game Developers' Conference. After receiving a B.S. in physics from UC Davis in 1972 and an M.S. in physics from University of Missouri - Columbia in 1975, Crawford taught at a community college and the University of California, then turned his game design hobby into a profession at Atari in 1979,...

Nintendo Company Ltd. (任天堂株式会社 Nintendō Kabushiki-kaisha; , , ) is a Japan multinational corporation founded on September 23 1889 in Kyoto, Japan by Fusajiro Yamauchi to produce handmade hanafuda cards. In the mid-twentieth century, the company tried several small niche businesses, such as a love hotel and a taxi company. Over time, it became a video game company, growing into one of the most powerful in the industry and Japan’s third most valuable listed company with a market value of more...

Looking Glass Studios was a computer game development company during the 1990s. The company originally formed as Looking Glass Technologies, when Blue Sky Productions and Lerner Research merged. Their games were regarded for demonstrating innovative gameplay, pioneering physics simulation, and well-written, engaging stories. However, many of their games, despite wide critical acclaim, sold poorly in comparison to contemporary rivals. Their best known games series were Ultima Underworld,...

Atomic Games is a video game developer, specializing mostly in wargames. The company has developed titles such as the Close Combat series, the World at War series, as well as the V for Victory series. Atomic Games was acquired by Destineer Games on May 6, 2005 while collaborating on Close Combat: Red Phoenix and Close Combat: First to Fight.

989 Studios was a division of Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) that developed games for the PlayStation consoles and Windows personal computer. Their titles include Twisted Metal III and 4, Syphon Filter and Syphon Filter 2, Jet Moto 3, Bust a Groove, EverQuest and others. It now exists as the 989 Sports brand owned by SCEA that produces sports titles. The 989 Sports title evolved from a long history of name changes and corporate shuffling within Sony centered around operations in...

Gearbox Software, LLC is an American video game development company based in Plano, Texas, USA. They are best known for a number of high-profile PC and console games such as Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30, Brothers in Arms: Earned in Blood, Halo: Combat Evolved for PC, and the Half-Life expansion pack Opposing Force and Blue Shift. Gearbox is currently developing original titles for next generation video game consoles, portable systems, and Windows Vista, including: Brothers in Arms: Hell...

New World Computing, Inc. was an American computer game developer and publisher founded in 1984 by Jon Van Caneghem and Mark Caldwell. It was best known for its work on the Might and Magic RPG series and its spin-offs, especially Heroes of Might and Magic. The company was bought by The 3DO Company in 1996. In 2003, with 3DO falling into bankruptcy, New World Computing disappeared as well. Ubisoft bought the rights to Might and Magic in 2003. Originally, New World Computing was created to...

Stu Megan, now semi-retired, has been a computer software professional since 1968, having worked on everything from early core memory computers using only switches for control to recent internet technology products such as Directory Server, [in use by over 80% of internet sites globally as their directory server of choice]. He now discovers asteroids, when he can, and runs several websites. By analyzing online images, he discovered amongst others, the close-approaching asteroids 2004 BV...