Welcome to Nerdly Dan's Page!

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My background.

Well, on the nerdly side of things, I'm a game developer. I published my first game, ZANTHON for the TRS-80 in 1983. I worked for EPYX, for two years on a few titles, California Games being the most popular. Epyx doesn't exist anymore. In 1989 I started my own development company call C0DE TO G0 (More on that later). Tired of the self-employed life, yet not wealthy enough to retire, I went to work for Sierra, On-Line at the Dynamix division, to start-up an R&D group. I just finished working on Outpost II. Interested in some Outpost II Easter Eggs?

Pipeworks Software, Inc.

I've finally added this small paragraph to my code section. I've started a new software company called Pipeworks Software, Inc. with Dan White. Our first game that has come out is for the Palm. Click on the banner ad below to see the game. It really is very addicting. Seen an XBox. Pipeworks did the boot screen for it. We have now shipped Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters -- Melee on both the GameCube, and the Xbox. Critics have said its the best Godzilla game to date. We were nominated for three seperate awards. Best fighting game of E3. AIAS Best fighting game. And the GameDevelopers rookie studio award. We didn't win in any catagory, but considering all the startups, we have been very succesful.

C0DE TO G0...

did many titles, the most popular were After Dark for Dos, Turbo Outrun, and Coaster, and a couple of versions of the Ford Driving Simulator. Coaster has recently had the dubious distiction of being in the top 50 Worst games of all times. Why? Coaster wasn't a game, (Neither was After Dark for Dos), but it was marketed as such. It was a program to allow people to design their own Roller Coasters, and then see what they looked like. CTG Established myself as a specialist in doing 3D on the PC.

CODE

I'm known as a bit of an assembly freak. Well, I have to admit that over the course of time, my co-workers have me programming in C++. I could do without the ++ part, but here are a few of my complaints about 'C' and 'C++'.

True code jocks, will know that -1 is the answer to Shakespear's eternal question. Think about it.Why isn't their a logical XOR operator in C? IE. (a^^b) would be better than (!(!a) ^ !(!b))

Why can't you specify WHAT register you want the register directive to use? (ie. register ESI int *pObject;)

Why isn't the 'C' pre-processor better! Every assembler known to man, has more powerful macro commands then the most up to date C++ compiler.

Why isn't their an easy (official) way to get the Virtual Table Ptr, for any class that has virtual functions?

Why isn't their some keyword like "inherited" to go along with virtual function declarations, to make sure that you are not adding a NEW virtual function, but simply trying to copy one from an inherited class?

GREAT CODE BOOKS

The Intel Pentium Processor Reference Manual.

Principles in Computer Graphics, by Foley and vanDam

Graphics Gems (I and II), edited by Andrew Glassner. Save your money, on III & up unless your a pro.

Algorithms, by Sedgewick.

Code Complete, by Steve McConnell.

The Dilbert Principle, by Scott Adams. ;)

GREAT CODE LINKS

"Gamasutra! The ultimate game developer reference site."

Makegames So, you want to be a game developer huh, read this.

N-tel Secrets home page.

Back to my home page!

As most home pages, this one is constantly under construction.

If you have any comments, complaints, etc... Please send them to me!