T. B. Trzepacz

I started my career in the game industry at Microprose in 1992 shortly after graduating from college. I joined their newly formed console games division to work on the Sega Genesis version of Pirates'!Gold.

My primary task on Pirates was initially to design and program an animation tool that would allow a user to easily create animations for the Sega Genesis using an MS-DOS PC. The program I implemented used a text-based windowing interface running on a dual-monitor PC. Later, I implemented all of the animations in the game using the system I created.

Part way through the Pirates project, the lead programmer left, and the rest of us rose to fill the void. I ended up implementing the fencing combat engine, the towns, and several other sections of the game.

After the project's completion and release, I worked on an international version of Pirates (which was cancelled), did post-production work on several of Microprose's other Sega Genesis and Gameboy titles, and worked on code and design in preparation for our next Sega Genesis titles Dynatack, and Top Gun, both of which were cancelled when Microprose decided to leave the console game market. I did accomplish some significant work during this time, including:

• Created various game engine prototypes for Top Gun, as well as a 4-window scrolling multiplayer game, and several others.

• Software to convert binary files into linkable COF files that could be easily included in the project and accessed by label.

• Reverse-engineered EA's multitap.

• Wrote low-level systems code to automate DMA calls and shadow system registers.

• Analyzed Sega's SVP chip and wrote documentation on it.

• Created game design documents for new game concepts.

Upon the disolution of the console games division, I was assigned to program the MS-DOS version of Magic: The Gathering. I wrote all of the user-interface code for that product. Some highlights include:

• Implemented all necessary low level code for displaying bitmaps in protected mode DOS using the XVM32 DOS extension.

• Wrote a full windowing interface with animated sliders, picture frame windows, push buttons, animated scaled cards, and a full non-modal dialog system.

• Created an animation player to play 256 color Autodesk Animator FLC files.

• Implemented data compression algorithms that allowed for instant "on-the-fly" decompression, allowing art to be stored in RAM compressed.

• Implemented a face-maker program to allow the player to create their online persona.

• Implemented the main game interface screens, menus, and outer game loop.

The Magic: The Gathering project for MS-DOS was cancelled in anticipation of the release of Windows '95, and my position was eliminated in August of 1995.