"My name is Ken and I'm a programmaholic. It all started so innocently with my parents buying an Atari 800. Then I started typing BASIC programs from Compute Magazine. Then I started making changes to the code as I typed it in. Then I started writing my own programs from scratch. Then I learned about PEEK, POKE, USR, and string tricks-oh, I had such POWER! Then I got an Amiga 500, but was unsatisfied with AmigaBASIC. I tried AREXX, and it was good, but then I got a C compiler, and it was better. Soon after that I was writing my own C programs and poking around with the hardware. Soon after that I learned 68000-assembly language and my addiction was complete. I would write a program as fast and tight as C would let me, and yet I was not satisfied. I would disassemble the executable into assembly code and then edit it by hand. I would spend hour after hour squeezing out a few more bytes and a few more cycles. Oh, the shame!"

I soon found suitable employment in the game industry where my affliction was understood and accepted. And surprisingly enough, my affliction has been cured by working on an unfamiliar (nay, even despised) x86 computer system, and through the dedicated support of my peers and supervisors. My urge to wring every last cycle out of a program, no matter what the cost in time and energy has been successfully purged. By devoting my effort to architectural and algorithmic sophistication instead of low-level bit twiddling, I am now on my way to becoming a lead programmer.

If I were to follow you to lunch today, where would we end up?

I happen to like Eat Panini, a gourmet sandwich place on Main Street, though the Cha Cha Chicken right out back is also really good (but only takes cash). If I'm feeling especially uninspired, there's always a peanut butter protein bar and a pint of orange juice from the grocery store across the street.

Now if I ask you what your favorite game is, I know you're gonna say 'Battlezone'. So what's the best game you didn't work on?

Considering that Battlezone is the only game I ever worked on, wouldn't that make every other game the best game I didn't work on? It might have been fun to work on Quake II because I think the weapons could have been designed a little better, and the animation system should have used interpolation and hierarchical models.

And what about favorite web sites?

Ooh, I've got plenty, but I don't think anyone wants to see the entire contents of my bookmark file. Here's a selection of five web links that I use fairly frequently:

Classic arcade, console, and computer games: http://www.classicgaming.com

The Lurker's Guide to Babylon 5: http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/lurker.html

Yerf, G/PG rated anthropomorphic art: http://www.yerf.com

AltaVista, The Manly Man's Search Engine: http://www.altavista.com

TechWeb Technology News: http://www.techweb.com/wire/allstories.html

And lastly, is it true that you surf to work? I not, how do you get here?