Here's a strange bit of long-forgotten computer industry trivia.... Roberta and I were watching an old movie on TV last night called "Weekend At Bernie's." It's not a great movie, but we were in the mood for something funny. One of the stars of the movie was an actress named Catherine Mary Stewart. When I saw her name in the credits I thought I recognized the name. I didn't know why I remembered it, but when I saw her the memory flooded back. I stopped the movie and said to Roberta, "I met her!" Forty years ago, when videogaming was in its infancy, I was invited to participate in the world's first televised videogame show. The producer's idea was to film videogame programmers playing each other's games in a game show format. I was one of the 12 game programmers selected, and Catherine Mary Stewart was the host. I had serious doubts anyone would ever want to watch someone playing a videogame, but who turns down a chance to fly to Las Vegas and hang out with other game developers playing games, while a Hollywood starlet cheers us on? I don't know if the show was ever televised, but it was a lot of fun to do the shoot. I'm a better game developer than game player. I remember coming in dead last in the competition. The competitors and games we played were: Jim Nitchals: Microwave, Bug Attack, Asteroid Field, Star Thief, Teleport, Ring Raiders (Cavalier) Dan Thompson: Repton, Twerps (Sirius) Mark Turmell: Turmoil, Sneakers, Beer Run, Free Fall. Fast Freddie (Sirius/Fox) Bob Flanagan: Spectre, Thief, Speedway etc. (Datamost) Jay Zipnick: Pig Pen (Datamost) Peter Filberti: Night Raiders (Datamost) Steve Bjork: Canyon Climber (Datamost) Gerry Humphrey: Clowns and Balloons (Datasoft) Russ Wetmore: Preppie, Preppie II, Sea Dragon, Savage Island Pt 2 (Adventure International) Chuck “Chuckles” Bueche: Jawbreaker II, Pacific Coast Freeway, Lunar Leeper, Laff Pak, Caverns of Calisto, Autoduel, 24000 AD (California Pacific, Sierra On-Line, Origin) Ken Williams: Threshold (Sierra On-Line) Joe Hellesen: Wizard of Wor (Roklan)