Photo Gallery
The vaunted Infocom softball team, in it's
trademark Hawaiian shirt uniforms.
I believe that this is from the
summer of 1984.
Steve & Betty toasting during Infocom's Fifth
Anniversary Party, June 1984.
Steve with Douglas Adams, in Steve's office at 55
Wheeler Street. This is an obvious
PR photo setup; we never used a Macintosh
for any Hitchhiker's-related development.
That would have occurred
on the VT-100 terminal which you can see in the background.
Steve speaking at the Hitchhiker's Press
Conference. This was held in
the NBC Building at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New
York City.
The industry's premier bestseller list of the time, the Softsel Hot List
from
Autumn 1984. As was typical of Infocom's heyday, Infocom games
held
10 of the top 30 slots. Hitchhiker's, in its second week on the
chart, is
at #7; it would soon rise to #1 and stay there for nearly a
year.
Steve and Betty in Infocom's booth at Comdex, November
1984.
In 1987, Infocom hired the Second City troupe to write skits and perform
at
Infocom's annual CES party, at Chicago's Field Museum, to promote our
two
newest games, Dave Lebling's The Lurking Horror and Steve's
Stationfall.
Along with Steve (center rear) and Dave (far right),
you'll notice troupe
members Richard Kind (far left) and Bonnie Hunt (second
from left).
The Infocom Trophy Case, circa 1987. No silver chalice or
jewel-encrusted
egg, but plenty of other treasures...
Those of you who played Superhero League of Hoboken will
appreciate this pizza with its
toppings of pepperoni, mushroom, penknife,
letter opener, safety goggles, and plasma raygun.
When Boffo
Games moved into its new headquarters in Concord, Massachusetts,
Steve
painted this oversize Boffo logo at the main entrance, opposite the
elevator
doors, so that it would be the first thing a visitor would see as
the doors opened.
A boffo Boffo
Games staff photo, taken during the celebration of signing the
company's
first contract (with MediaVision, to publish Hodj 'n'
Podj).
To promote The Space Bar, Segasoft wangled me a spot as a
presenter at the Universe magazine's
1986 award ceremony,
and also set up a demo station for the game in the theatre's lobby. It was quite
cool,
as I got to meet stars like Julie Newmar (Catwoman), Armin
Shimerman (Quark), Walter Koenig (Chekhov),
Majel Barrett (Nurse Chapel), and
Peter Boyle. Unfortunately, I also gpt to meet Pauly Shore.
Steve was priveleged to collaborate with Ron Cobb as conceptual
artist for The Space
Bar. Ron was an underground cartoonist in the
60's before become one of Hollywood's
most successful concept artists,
working on Back to the Future, Aliens, Raiders of
the
Lost Ark, and (of special relevance to his work on The Space
Bar) designing many of
the creatures from the cantina scene in Star
Wars. Here are Steve and Ron (and Thud
the Salivraster) at the release
party for the game, at the Mars Cafe in San Francisco.
In June of 1999, a
weekend-long Infocom reunion was held -- 20 years from the founding of
the
company, and 10 years after it's shutdown by Activision. This group photo was
taken in
the roof garden of the University Park Hotel at MIT.
When
the Red Sox were down 0-3 to the Yankees in the 2004 ALCS, Steve vowed that
if
they came back and won, he'd shave his head. A group of WorldWinnerites
went to a bar and
pool hall in Cambridge called Flattop Johnny's to watch
Game 7, and as the game progressed,
word spread throughout the bar about The
Vow. At the successful conclusion of the game, once the
delirium had died
down, the crowd began to chant, "Shave your head! Shave your head!" We
went
to the courtyard outside the bar and the WorldWinnerites all took turns
shaving part of Steve's head,
as the rest of the patrons stood in a circle
cheering (and in some cases filming with their cell phones).
In 2005, when
Steve returned with the BAFTA for the 20th Anniversary release
of
Hitchhiker's Guide, the folks at WorldWinner threw him a surprise
party, featuring
this Photoshopped photo iced onto the cake. The writing on
the cake (not pictured)
read, "Congratulations, Steve -- a legend on both
sides of The Pond!"
The
Hitchhiker's movie opened a couple of days before Steve's birthday in
2005, so we had
a big group outing to see it, at the Waltham Embassy (with
towels in hand, of course)...
...and then we headed to a pub around the corner to fortify ourselves
with beer in case the world
ended. Steve's son and daughter made birthday
cakes, one decorated as the Don't Panic
button from the
Hitchhiker's game package, and one decorated as the green
eyeless
creature from the cover of the U.S. book editions and game box. And
the BAFTA
award (for the 20th Anniversary edition of the game) came along for
the ride.
In this rare photo of Steve actually working (circa 2006), he is in his
office at
WorldWinner, working on a Diplomacy-like game that was never
completed.
Steve with SF
author Vernor Vinge, at the 2006 Austin Game Conference.
Vernor was one of
the converence's keynoters.
The 2006 Game Designers Workshop opening dinner at Quark's Bar in Las
Vegas.
The Gorn and the Salt Monster are not typically attendees of the
Workshop.
MIT Enterprise Forum on "Tomorrow's Games",
November 2006. From left: Curt
Schilling (Red Sox pitcher and founder of 38
Studios), Jason Booth (Harmonix),
Mark Pover (Utix), Matthew Bellows
(Floodgate), Steve, and Mark Duggan (Nephin
Games). The panel was moderated
by Dan Scherlis (Etherplay) (not pictured)
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