Family & Friends

I don't really think this page needs an introduction: the title says it all. I only list family members and friends who have websites. Some of them start web sites, but then abandom them, so this list may prove to be fairly dynamic. Be patient with any dead links.

Family

Emily

Emily is ardent about showing her rabbits. Right now, she even has a few for sale. These rabbits make great pets. All of her bunnies have been hand-raised and are accustomed to being held and handled. They're great if you're into calm pets.

Friends

Josh Jensen

I met Josh while working at EAI. Josh, in all honesty, is probably the greatest programmer I've ever met. He's done everything and has opinions and advice about anything you could hope to encounter. Really, I rarely venture into anything new without asking for his input first. I worked with him on every project I did for EAI, though, despite what the credits on MobyGames may suggest, I was never "over" him. He, in fact, oversaw a couple of small projects I worked on. Working for Disney right now, Josh also sells a great Visual Studio add-in, Workspace Whiz. Josh's most abitious project right now, however, is running his own development company, Cavebug Games. With one title released so far (Pathstorm), they have some projects in the wings. Keep an eye on them, they're going places!

Dave Ellis

I met Dave while working for Hasbro Interactve on X-COM: Genesis. While that company ended up in the dustbin of history, after I started my original website, Dave and I got to be pretty good friends. We mainly keep in touch via email, commenting on each other's websites. Dave is something of a celebrity in the X-COM community and even has an entry in Wikipedia! Dave is happily designing next-generation games, working for Vicious Cycle Software now, a company he played a pivotal role in getting off the ground.

Dave is also an avid arcade video game collector and has a collection I've coveted for some time. Dave's Classic Arcade has the details of all his games, results of auctions, and game restoration logs. Dave is also the author of one of the most comprehensive and interesting books on classic video game collecting, The Official Price Guide to Classic Video Games: Console, Arcade, and Handheld Games . The book not only covers classic arcade video games in exhaustive detail, but also all the classic video game consoles (remember the Atari 2600, Intellivision, ColecoVision?)! You really should buy several hundred copies.

Paul Kwinn

I worked with Paul back at Accolade. Paul has a long and distinguished career in the game industry. Before Accolade, he worked for the coin-op giant Atari games where he worked on 720º, as well as some other titles. I started out testing Bubsy II which he was programming for the Sega Genesis and the SNES. Apart from some unofficial beta testing of Deadlock, that was the first and last project on which I worked directly with him. But later in groups, we played a few games of RoboRally and had lunch together from time to time. Paul was always a lot of fun to work around since he has a casual and easy-going attitude. I actually link to his filk groups’“Puzzling Page”.

Jarred Staffen

I met Jarrod while serving in the Florida Fort Lauderdale Mission. Jarrod was never my companion, but we were still thrown together often. I think the closest we got to being companions was being in the same district. The principle artist behind The Bride of Foo-Foo, he eventually married one of the sister missionaries, Shauna. They now have several children. They live in the Seattle area and Jarrod currently works for the Evil Empire Microsoft and supports Xbox and Zune.

Gary Strawn

Gary was my mentor at Accolade. He's a great programmer and a great guy. We had a lot of fun developing Jack Nicklaus 4 together. After switching careers and becomming an Internet programmer, Gary switched back to games after a few years. After some tumultuous years back in games, Gary decided he loved the outdoors too much to spend the day cooped up indoors, and switched careers once again to become... a coffee farmer. Yes, really. Gary admits he is insane for doing this. Now Gary owns Kona Earth on the beautiful big island of Hawaii. Gary's farm is located on the edge of a volcano, where the best coffee in the world is grown. Gary is an attentive husbandman and grows some of the most coveted coffee in the world. I don't drink coffee, but I hear his is something else. As you can probably imagine, swithching from programming to farming can be quite a life-changing experience. As such, Gary started a blog documenting his and his family's experience. He makes a new post every week or so (and it is RSS enabled). It's worth reading from the beginning. Gary keeps asking me to visit, but I know it is just so he can rope me into doing some of his chores, so I haven't made it out yet. If you're a coffee drinker, head on over to his website and order some. I'm sure you'll be glad you did.