Content deleted Content added
IceBergYYC (talk | contribs) Added reference for 1996 sudbury move, see WP:PRIMARY for justification on use of primary source for direct source of fact. See talk page for why attempt at election has been re-added Tags: Visual edit Mobile edit Mobile web edit Advanced mobile edit |
IceBergYYC (talk | contribs) Expanded |
||
Line 23:
| known_for = ''[[Zork]]'', co-founder of [[Infocom]]
}}
'''Tim Anderson''' is an American [[computer programmer]] best known for co-creating the [[adventure game]] ''[[Zork]]'',<ref>{{Cite news |last=Woyke |first=Elizabeth |date=August 22, 2017 |title=The Enduring Legacy of Zork |work=MIT Technology Review |url=https://www.technologyreview.com/2017/08/22/149560/the-enduring-legacy-of-zork/}}</ref> one of the first works of [[interactive fiction]] and an early descendant of ''[[Colossal Cave Adventure|ADVENT]]'' (also known as ''Colossal Cave Adventure'').<ref>{{Cite web |date=May 2, 2014 |title=GDC 2014 - Zork Post-Mortem |url=https://adventuregamers.com/articles/view/26224 |website=Adventure Gamers}}</ref>
==Personal life==▼
Anderson obtained his bachelors degree from MIT in 1975, and his masters in 1977, both in Computer science.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Marcott |first=Amy |date=July 15, 2009 |title=Five MIT-Developed Video Games that Revolutionized the Industry |url=https://alum.mit.edu/slice/five-mit-developed-video-games-revolutionized-industry |website=Slice of MIT}}</ref> Since 1996 Anderson has lived in [[Sudbury, Massachusetts]],<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-02-20 |title=About Tim |url=https://anderson4goodnow.org/about-tim/ |access-date=2023-06-28 |website=Tim Anderson for Goodnow Library |language=en-US}}</ref> and has been active in local politics, seeking election on more than one occasion.<ref>{{Cite web |last=McNamara |first=Neal |date=2023-03-22 |title=Sudbury 2023 Candidate Profile: Timothy Anderson, Goodnow Board |url=https://patch.com/massachusetts/sudbury/sudbury-2023-candidate-profile-timothy-anderson-goodnow-board |access-date= |website=Sudbury Patch |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Razzaq |first=Zane |date=March 10, 2022 |title=Friends again? Four vie for two seats on Sudbury Board of Library Trustees |url=https://www.metrowestdailynews.com/story/news/2022/03/10/four-vie-two-seats-board-library-trustees-sudbury-ma/9319752002/ |access-date= |website=MetroWest Daily News |language=en-US}}</ref>▼
==Career==
While attending [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology|MIT]], Anderson got his start in game development by developing the game ''Trivia'' (1976) alongside future collaborator [[Marc Blank]] for the [[Digital Equipment Corporation|DEC]] [[PDP-10]], the school's mainframe, playable over [[ARPANET]].<ref name=zorkhist>{{Cite web |last=Anderson |first=Tim |last2=Galley |first2=Stu |title=The History of Zork |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090116035446/http://www.csd.uwo.ca/Infocom/Articles/NZT/zorkhist.html |access-date=June 27, 2023}}</ref> ''Trivia'' found populalarity on ARPANET, leading Anderson and Blank, as well as [[Bruce Daniels]] and [[Dave Lebling]] to collaborate on a new game: ''Zork''. All four were members of the Dynamic Modeling Group at the MIT Laboratory for Computer Science.<ref name=zorkhist/> Originally developed from 1977 to 1979 in the [[MDL programming language]] for the PDP-10, ''Zork'' would prove immensely popular on ARPANET.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Lammle |first=Rob |date=June 15, 2014 |title=A Brief History of Zork |url=https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/29885/eaten-grue-brief-history-zork}}</ref> After the success of ''Zork'' on it's limited platform, Anderson and the other members of the team founded [[Infocom]], initially with no actual business plans, but settling on porting ''Zork'' to home computers.<ref name=zorkhist/><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Nooney |first=Laine |date=Fall 2017 |title=Let's Begin Again |journal=American Journal of Play |volume=10}}</ref><ref name=down>{{cite journal |last1=Briceno |first1=Hector |last2=Chao |first2=Wesley |last3=Glenn |first3=Andrew |last4=Hu |first4=Stanley |last5=Krishnamurthy |first5=Ashwin |last6=Tsuchida |first6=Bruce |title=Down From the Top of Its Game: The Story of Infocom, Inc. |date=December 15, 2000}}</ref>
The home computer ports of ''Zork'' would prove immensely successful, and Infocom grew rapidly, focusing on producing new text adventures, as well as branching out into business software.<ref name=down/> The company's expansion into business software ultimately caused them to de-emphasize game production, which lead to their eventual demise in 1989.<ref name=down/><ref>{{cite web |title=Stick to What You Know: Infocom and the Perils of Expansion |url=https://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/computer-games/16/196 |website=The Computer History Museum}}</ref>
After Infocom shut down, Anderson held a variety of positions in the defense and business sectors, including serving as the [[Chief technology officer|CTO]] of Offroad Capital, an internet startup for investing in private equity.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Waldrop |first1=Mitchell |title=Computing’s Johnny Appleseed |url=https://www.technologyreview.com/2000/01/01/236431/computings-johnny-appleseed/ |work=MIT Technology Review |date=January 1, 2000}}</ref><ref name=patch>{{Cite web |last=McNamara |first=Neal |date=2023-03-22 |title=Sudbury 2023 Candidate Profile: Timothy Anderson, Goodnow Board |url=https://patch.com/massachusetts/sudbury/sudbury-2023-candidate-profile-timothy-anderson-goodnow-board |access-date= |website=Sudbury Patch |language=en}}</ref>
▲==Personal life==
▲Anderson obtained his bachelors degree from MIT in 1975, and his masters in 1977, both in Computer science.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Marcott |first=Amy |date=July 15, 2009 |title=Five MIT-Developed Video Games that Revolutionized the Industry |url=https://alum.mit.edu/slice/five-mit-developed-video-games-revolutionized-industry |website=Slice of MIT}}</ref> Since 1996 Anderson has lived in [[Sudbury, Massachusetts]],<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-02-20 |title=About Tim |url=https://anderson4goodnow.org/about-tim/ |access-date=2023-06-28 |website=Tim Anderson for Goodnow Library |language=en-US}}</ref> and has been active in local politics, seeking election on more than one occasion.<ref
==References==
| |||