Sandy Petersen 🪔@SandyofCthulhu
My friend worked at Origin Systems. Now, my friend loved loved loved Gauntlet. To the point that he would often talk in Gauntlet-speak.
For example, he'd stand up from his cubicle to go to lunch and announce it, "Fred needs food badly." Or when a co-worker gave him something he needed, he'd say, "I've not seen such bravery." Or if the co-worker had bungled something, he'd say, "Exit the room please." If a deadline was coming up, he'd say "Your life force is running out." That sort of thing.
Anyway one day a new worker, an experienced coder who'd been in the industry, came to Origin Systems, and settled into the cubicle right next to my friend. Seemed like a nice guy, if a little quiet. Anyway, Fred continued his Gauntlet-speak hijinks for a few weeks. Then, one day Fred spilled his coffee or something and said, "Someone shot the food!" and the new guy cracked. He stood up in his cubic and started violently denouncing Fred, ranting about how Fred was constantly mocking him and he wasn't going to sit down for it any more and Fred better watch himself in the parking lot and and and ...
During the rant, Fred came to realize that the new guy was ONE OF THE ORIGINAL PROGRAMMERS OF GAUNTLET! He though Fred was making fun of his game! Fred managed to calm him down, and convinced him that he, Fred, practically worshiped the guy and had no idea he'd been on the game. If he had he would have been quizzing him non-stop about his tasks, buying him coffee, etc.
So they became friends. This kind of thing happened more often than you might think in the gaming world back in the day. There weren't that many professional developers so we'd see each other at conventions, or when we switched jobs. And there was usually no more than two degrees of separation. For instance, I only met Lord British himself once, but I knew two men pretty closely who later on went to work for Origins Systems and became top guys there (Fred mentioned above and Andy Hollis).
Ask me anything.
