Philip Price
Encyclopedia
Philip Price is best known for computer game designs and creative programming done using the Atari 8-bit family
of home computers, and was one of the founders of Paradise Programming. Along with Gary Gilbertson
, he created Alternate Reality
.
He started programming in the 1970s using an IBM System/370
mainframe to create multiplayer computer games and to learn programming.
At age 16, he went to Virginia Tech. The university acquired a new mainframe system from Honeywell
that used Multics
. At Virginia Tech, he created a multiplayer nuclear wargame and the game's popularity among students led Virginia Tech to ban games on campus mainframes. This ban was still in effect twenty years later for campus mainframes.(a graduate of Virginia Tech from the late 1990s attested to this fact).
Price joined the US Navy, and operated a United States Naval reactor
. By 1983, he was out of the Navy
, living in a shack with no running water and writing computer games using an Atari
400 with a membrane keyboard
and cassette drive using a Jeep for power. His first commercial game The Tail of Beta Lyrae
was a side scroller loosely based on Scramble (arcade game)
. It used real-time continuous terrain generation, a novel musical language (AMP, for Advanced Music Processor). This game actually evolved once the player had played it for a few weeks by automatically remembering the number of times the game was played on the original floppy disk and then changing and adding new game elements.
The musical language allowed the composer to define variance in the composition, so that a repetition of a verse might vary as a whole or just in one of the voices with each replay. It included the ability for the music to drive events in the game, as well as the game to drive events in the music. The sounds generated with the AMP music processor software was unique at that time for Atari computer hardware.
Price created the first 3D textured map RPG which was named Alternate Reality
, inventing algorithms needed. He implemented software protection in the game that included: block chain ciphers, weak-bit anti-copy technology (invention of the publisher Datasoft
), real-time code creation using data folding to prevent static analysis, and memory bank detection which, if it detected a pirate code insertion, would use a self-relocating viral code to perform a memory wipe.
He left the game industry and worked for Computer Sciences Corporation
for ten years as a Computer Scientist on the mission control rooms systems used to test the B-2 Spirit
Stealth Bomber. He advocated, designed, and helped implement the system with more distributed processing, a new object oriented design, and written in a new language called C++
. He was also a voting member of the ANSI C++ standards committee (X3J16) for a number of years.
After leaving CSC he worked for a few companies, including Creative Labs and Monolith Productions
. Jason Hall, who was CEO of Monolith Productions
at the time, had planned on remaking Alternate Reality (computer game)
as a MMORPG
in 1997. Funding did not come through and Monolith looked to other publishers for funding for development. Publishers who looked at it at the time felt it had too many innovations. These innovative concepts included: grid computing
based architecture with tiers, procedurally generated trees, emotive player interaction, 5.1 sound (downmix to stereo), a living world that persisted and changed, and suggested release on newer DVD-ROM media (as well as CD). The risk seen by publishers at that time for a new market was too high to spend the millions of dollars that development would have cost. Later, games such as World of Warcraft
have come to dominate the billion dollar MMORPG
field that became extremely popular years later.
Later he worked on telephony systems (Nortel
), the stock market (Instinet
) (where he created new algorithms and data formats for a company to reduce their network bandwidth usage by 45%) and Trilogy
.
In 2006, Price worked for Raytheon
as a Principal Software Engineer. That work included Systems and Software work on future combat systems, next generation navy ships, strategic command and staff training simulators and other systems. Some of those tasks included spending time in Iraq in 2005.
Atari 8-bit family
The Atari 8-bit family is a series of 8-bit home computers manufactured from 1979 to 1992. All are based on the MOS Technology 6502 CPU and were the first home computers designed with custom coprocessor chips...
of home computers, and was one of the founders of Paradise Programming. Along with Gary Gilbertson
Gary Gilbertson
Gary Gilbertson was a music composer for the Atari 8-bit family of home computers. His music made use of the AMP engine for the Atari POKEY chip which was programmed by Philip Price...
, he created Alternate Reality
Alternate Reality (computer game)
Alternate Reality is an unfinished computer role-playing game series that has achieved cult status among many fans of RPGs. It was created by Philip Price, who formed a development company called Paradise Programming. Published by Datasoft AR: The City was released in 1985 and AR: The Dungeon was...
.
He started programming in the 1970s using an IBM System/370
System/370
The IBM System/370 was a model range of IBM mainframes announced on June 30, 1970 as the successors to the System/360 family. The series maintained backward compatibility with the S/360, allowing an easy migration path for customers; this, plus improved performance, were the dominant themes of the...
mainframe to create multiplayer computer games and to learn programming.
At age 16, he went to Virginia Tech. The university acquired a new mainframe system from Honeywell
Honeywell
Honeywell International, Inc. is a major conglomerate company that produces a variety of consumer products, engineering services, and aerospace systems for a wide variety of customers, from private consumers to major corporations and governments....
that used Multics
Multics
Multics was an influential early time-sharing operating system. The project was started in 1964 in Cambridge, Massachusetts...
. At Virginia Tech, he created a multiplayer nuclear wargame and the game's popularity among students led Virginia Tech to ban games on campus mainframes. This ban was still in effect twenty years later for campus mainframes.(a graduate of Virginia Tech from the late 1990s attested to this fact).
Price joined the US Navy, and operated a United States Naval reactor
United States Naval reactor
United States Naval reactor refers to nuclear reactors used by the United States Navy aboard certain ships to produce power for propulsion, electric power, catapulting airplanes in aircraft carriers, and a few more minor uses. Such Naval nuclear reactors have a complete power plant associated with...
. By 1983, he was out of the Navy
Navy
A navy is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake- or ocean-borne combat operations and related functions...
, living in a shack with no running water and writing computer games using an Atari
Atari
Atari is a corporate and brand name owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by Atari Interactive, a wholly owned subsidiary of the French publisher Atari, SA . The original Atari, Inc. was founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. It was a pioneer in...
400 with a membrane keyboard
Membrane keyboard
A membrane keyboard is a computer keyboard whose "keys" are not separate, moving parts, as with the majority of other keyboards, but rather are pressure pads that have only outlines and symbols printed on a flat, flexible surface...
and cassette drive using a Jeep for power. His first commercial game The Tail of Beta Lyrae
The Tail of Beta Lyrae
The Tail of Beta Lyrae is a 1983 computer game for the Atari family of computers, created by Philip Price with music by Gary Gilbertson, and published by Datamost.-Premise:...
was a side scroller loosely based on Scramble (arcade game)
Scramble (arcade game)
Scramble is a 1981 horizontally scrolling shoot 'em up, arcade game. It was developed by Konami, and manufactured and distributed by Stern in North America. It was the first side-scrolling shooter with forced scrolling and multiple distinct levels...
. It used real-time continuous terrain generation, a novel musical language (AMP, for Advanced Music Processor). This game actually evolved once the player had played it for a few weeks by automatically remembering the number of times the game was played on the original floppy disk and then changing and adding new game elements.
The musical language allowed the composer to define variance in the composition, so that a repetition of a verse might vary as a whole or just in one of the voices with each replay. It included the ability for the music to drive events in the game, as well as the game to drive events in the music. The sounds generated with the AMP music processor software was unique at that time for Atari computer hardware.
Price created the first 3D textured map RPG which was named Alternate Reality
Alternate Reality (computer game)
Alternate Reality is an unfinished computer role-playing game series that has achieved cult status among many fans of RPGs. It was created by Philip Price, who formed a development company called Paradise Programming. Published by Datasoft AR: The City was released in 1985 and AR: The Dungeon was...
, inventing algorithms needed. He implemented software protection in the game that included: block chain ciphers, weak-bit anti-copy technology (invention of the publisher Datasoft
Datasoft
Datasoft, Inc. was a video game developer and publisher founded in 1980 by Pat Ketchum. Based out of Chatsworth, California, Datasoft ported games from arcade systems to personal computers and acquired licenses for games from famous movies and TV shows....
), real-time code creation using data folding to prevent static analysis, and memory bank detection which, if it detected a pirate code insertion, would use a self-relocating viral code to perform a memory wipe.
He left the game industry and worked for Computer Sciences Corporation
Computer Sciences Corporation
Computer Sciences Corporation is an American information technology and business services company headquartered in Falls Church, Virginia, USA...
for ten years as a Computer Scientist on the mission control rooms systems used to test the B-2 Spirit
B-2 Spirit
The Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit is an American heavy bomber with low observable stealth technology designed to penetrate dense anti-aircraft defenses and deploy both conventional and nuclear weapons. The bomber has a crew of two and can drop up to eighty -class JDAM GPS-guided bombs, or sixteen ...
Stealth Bomber. He advocated, designed, and helped implement the system with more distributed processing, a new object oriented design, and written in a new language called C++
C++
C++ is a statically typed, free-form, multi-paradigm, compiled, general-purpose programming language. It is regarded as an intermediate-level language, as it comprises a combination of both high-level and low-level language features. It was developed by Bjarne Stroustrup starting in 1979 at Bell...
. He was also a voting member of the ANSI C++ standards committee (X3J16) for a number of years.
After leaving CSC he worked for a few companies, including Creative Labs and Monolith Productions
Monolith Productions
Monolith Productions is a Kirkland, Washington-based computer game developer. Monolith is also known for the development of the graphical game engine Lithtech, which has been used for most of their games...
. Jason Hall, who was CEO of Monolith Productions
Monolith Productions
Monolith Productions is a Kirkland, Washington-based computer game developer. Monolith is also known for the development of the graphical game engine Lithtech, which has been used for most of their games...
at the time, had planned on remaking Alternate Reality (computer game)
Alternate Reality (computer game)
Alternate Reality is an unfinished computer role-playing game series that has achieved cult status among many fans of RPGs. It was created by Philip Price, who formed a development company called Paradise Programming. Published by Datasoft AR: The City was released in 1985 and AR: The Dungeon was...
as a MMORPG
MMORPG
Massively multiplayer online role-playing game is a genre of role-playing video games in which a very large number of players interact with one another within a virtual game world....
in 1997. Funding did not come through and Monolith looked to other publishers for funding for development. Publishers who looked at it at the time felt it had too many innovations. These innovative concepts included: grid computing
Grid computing
Grid computing is a term referring to the combination of computer resources from multiple administrative domains to reach a common goal. The grid can be thought of as a distributed system with non-interactive workloads that involve a large number of files...
based architecture with tiers, procedurally generated trees, emotive player interaction, 5.1 sound (downmix to stereo), a living world that persisted and changed, and suggested release on newer DVD-ROM media (as well as CD). The risk seen by publishers at that time for a new market was too high to spend the millions of dollars that development would have cost. Later, games such as World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game by Blizzard Entertainment. It is the fourth released game set in the fantasy Warcraft universe, which was first introduced by Warcraft: Orcs & Humans in 1994...
have come to dominate the billion dollar MMORPG
MMORPG
Massively multiplayer online role-playing game is a genre of role-playing video games in which a very large number of players interact with one another within a virtual game world....
field that became extremely popular years later.
Later he worked on telephony systems (Nortel
Nortel
Nortel Networks Corporation, formerly known as Northern Telecom Limited and sometimes known simply as Nortel, was a multinational telecommunications equipment manufacturer headquartered in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada...
), the stock market (Instinet
Instinet
Instinet is an institutional, agency-only broker. As such, it executes trades for roughly 1,500 “buyside” clients such as asset management firms, hedge funds, insurance companies, mutual funds and pension funds...
) (where he created new algorithms and data formats for a company to reduce their network bandwidth usage by 45%) and Trilogy
Trilogy (company)
Trilogy is a software company based in Austin, Texas. It specializes in software services to Global 1000 companies, especially in the automotive, consumer electronics, and insurance agencies. It was founded by Stanford dropout Joe Liemandt....
.
In 2006, Price worked for Raytheon
Raytheon
Raytheon Company is a major American defense contractor and industrial corporation with core manufacturing concentrations in weapons and military and commercial electronics. It was previously involved in corporate and special-mission aircraft until early 2007...
as a Principal Software Engineer. That work included Systems and Software work on future combat systems, next generation navy ships, strategic command and staff training simulators and other systems. Some of those tasks included spending time in Iraq in 2005.