Bill Budge (born August 11, 1954 California Pacific published a collection of four of Budge's Apple II games in 1980 as Bill Budge's Space Album.

An audience applauded with "audible gasps of astonishment" Raster Blaster and other uses of his graphics libraries at the 1981 National Computer Graphics Association conference.

By then Budge's reputation was such that BYTE wrote in its review of his Tranquility Base, a Lunar Lander clone, that "Consistently excellent graphics are a trademark of Bill Budge's games", and InfoWorld described him as "graphics programmer extraordinaire". Budge marketed his games commercially with a floppy 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 for USD$7,000.

Budge does not enjoy playing video games, and described having to play pinball for months while developing Pinball Construction Set as "sheer torture." 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."

MousePaint

Budge wrote MousePaint, which was a program for the Apple II similar to the Macintosh program MacPaint. MousePaint was bundled with an Apple Mouse II and interface card for the Apple II. Apple Computer released the mouse and software in May 1984.

BYTEs reviewer stated in December 1984 that he made far fewer errors when using an Apple Mouse with MousePaint than with a KoalaPad 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.

After EA

Budge ported Pinball Construction Set to the Sega Genesis, which was published by Electronic Arts in 1993 as Virtual Pinball. Ten tables can be saved, but they cannot be shared with other players.

Shortly afterward, Budge worked for 3DO, creating a 3D engine for Blade 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 joined Sony Computer Entertainment in 2004 as Lead Tools Programmer. Budge left Sony after six years for Google in 2010. Budge retired from Google in January 2022.

Personal life

Budge and his wife live in the San Francisco Bay Area and have two children, Natalie and Andrew.

Awards

In 2008, Pinball Construction Set was honored at the 59th Annual Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards for "User Generated Content/Game Modification". Budge accepted the award.

On February 10, 2011, Budge was the second recipient of the Pioneer Award from the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences.

Pinball Construction Set is an inductee in GameSpys Hall of Fame.

References

  • Budge on a show on video games from 1984
  • Excerpts from a Nov 1998 interview, with link to complete text