Bill Budge | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Budge in 2012 | |
| Born | (1954-08-11)August 11, 1954 (age 71)[1][2] |
| Occupation(s) | video game programmer,designer |
| Known for | Raster Blaster (1981) Pinball Construction Set (1983). |
Bill Budge (born August 11, 1954[1]) is a retired Americanvideo game programmer anddesigner. He is best known for theApple II gamesRaster Blaster (1981) andPinball Construction Set (1983).
Budge says he became interested in computers while obtaining aPhD atUC Berkeley. He purchased an Apple II and began writing games. He enjoyed it so much that he dropped out of school and became a game programmer.[1] Budge's first game was aPong clone, calledPenny Arcade, which he wrote using his own custom graphics routines. He traded the completed game toApple Computer for aCentronicsprinter.[3]California Pacific published a collection of four of Budge's Apple II games in 1980 asBill Budge's Space Album.
An audience applauded with "audible gasps of astonishment"Raster Blaster and other uses of hisgraphicslibraries at the 1981 National Computer Graphics Association conference.[4]By then Budge's reputation was such thatBYTE wrote in its review of hisTranquility Base, aLunar Lander clone, that "Consistently excellent graphics are a trademark of Bill Budge's games",[5] andInfoWorld described him as "graphics programmer extraordinaire".[4] Budge marketed his games commercially with afloppy disk drive salesman who traveled from store to store; he and the salesman agreed to split profits of selling his games 50/50. Budge was shocked when he got his first check forUSD$7,000.
Budge does not enjoy playing video games, and described having to play pinball for months while developingPinball Construction Set as "sheer torture."[6] He more enjoyed writing fast graphics libraries for game programmers. Budge said "I wasn't that interested in playing or designing games. My real love was in writing fast graphics code. It occurred to me that creating tools for others to make games was a way for me to indulge my interest in programming without having to make games."[3] and "The way I got started was by not trying to do anything original at all. I wanted to learn how to write videogames. I ... just went to arcades and copied the games that I saw."[6]
He created the3-D Game Tool, a program allowing rudimentary creation of wireframe images on the Apple II for use in games or other applications. It was published in 1981 byCalifornia Pacific.
Budge first became interested in writing apinball game while working for Apple in 1981. There was a pinball craze among the engineers there and it occurred to him that a pinball game would be a fun programming challenge. At that point he wroteRaster Blaster for theApple II. Things likephysics and collision detection were difficult on the Apple II's 1MHz6502 processor.
Budge formed his own company, BudgeCo to distributeRaster Blaster. He realized he could do what the big distributors were doing: putting the games in packaging—Ziploc bags—and delivering them to software stores. Budge and his sister, who also handled theaccounting, would assemble the game packages in one of the rooms of his house and deliver them to local software stores.[3]
He followedRaster Blaster withPinball Construction Set, a more general tool which allows users to create arbitrary pinball tables, including how the components are wired together. The project required him to write a mini-paint program, a mini sound editor and save/load systems. Some of the components he already had, which he developed forRaster Blaster.
By 1983, however, the computer game publishing arena had become too complex for Budge, who did not really want to be anentrepreneur. When he was approached byElectronic Arts (EA) founderTrip Hawkins (whom he had met when they both worked at Apple) to publish his games, he discussed the idea withSteve Wozniak[citation needed] and signed on. With EA's distribution,Pinball Construction Set eventually sold 300,000 copies over all platforms. EA marketed Budge and other early EA developers with publicity photographs byNorman Seeff, an appearance by Budge onComputer Chronicles with Hawkins, and author tours to computer and department stores.[7]
Shortly after this, Budge disbanded BudgeCo, which he says was something of a relief for him, since he was really just a programmer and was not interested in being an entrepreneur.[3]
AfterPinball Construction Set, Budge attempted to create a "construction set construction set,"[6] but abandoned the idea after determining that it was too complex a concept. Royalties meant that he did not have to work, and EA eventually gave up asking Budge for another project.[7]
Budge wrote MousePaint, which was a program for the Apple II similar to theMacintosh programMacPaint. MousePaint was bundled with anApple Mouse II andinterface card for the Apple II.[8] Apple Computer released the mouse and software in May 1984.[9]
BYTE's reviewer stated in December 1984 that he made far fewer errors when using anApple Mouse with MousePaint than with aKoalaPad and its software. He found that MousePaint was easier to use and more efficient, and predicted that the mouse would receive more software support than the pad.[10]
Budge portedPinball Construction Set to theSega Genesis, which was published by Electronic Arts in 1993 asVirtual Pinball. Ten tables can be saved, but they cannot be shared with other players.
Shortly afterward, Budge worked for3DO, creating a3Dengine forBlade Force. He remained with the company for nine years until its demise in 2003. Budge returned to EA but stayed for less than two years. He joinedSony Computer Entertainment in 2004 as Lead Tools Programmer. Budge left Sony after six years forGoogle in 2010.[11] Budge retired from Google in January 2022.[12][13]
Budge and his wife live in theSan Francisco Bay Area and have two children, Natalie and Andrew.
In 2008,Pinball Construction Set was honored at the 59th AnnualTechnology & Engineering Emmy Awards for "User Generated Content/Game Modification". Budge accepted the award.[14]
On February 10, 2011, Budge was the second recipient of the Pioneer Award from theAcademy of Interactive Arts & Sciences.[15]
Pinball Construction Set is an inductee inGameSpy's Hall of Fame.[16]
Yesterday was my last day at Google. Instead of working from home, now retired at home.
Media related toBill Budge at Wikimedia Commons
