Category Archives: Door game creators

A collection of all Josh Renaud’s interviews with the creators of BBS door games.

Door game creators

Paul Witte and Herb Flower, creators of Thieves’ Guild

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Paul Witte and Herb Flower were friends who collaborated from 1988-93 to create the BBS door game Thieves’ Guild and its graphical front-end client for the Atari ST under the “Mythyn Software” banner.

Paul Witte, left, and Herb Flower collaborated to create Thieves’ Guild for the Atari ST.

Flower went on to found the Rewolf Entertainment studio, which produced Gunman Chronicles. Witte and Flower teamed up again in 2001 as “Mythyn Interactive” to develop the MMORPG Linkrealms.

Few folks are likely to remember Thieves’ Guild because it was released for the ST in the 1990s, just as that platform was dying out — and that’s a shame. It’s a fun game with interesting ideas, and its front-end client has pretty much the best pixel art of any BBS game that I’ve come across.

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Door game creators

Gary Martin, creator of “TradeWars 2002”

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Gary Martin created TradeWars 2002, “the granddaddy of all BBS games” which has been played by tens of thousands of enthusiasts around the world.

Gary Martin

In this interview, Martin discusses rocking the University of Kansas campus as a DJ, founding Martech Software, and running one of the biggest bulletin board systems. He also describes two tantalizing projects that never came to fruition: “TradeWars 2112” and “Draconis”.

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Door game creators

Jon Radoff, creator of “Space Empire Elite” and “Final Frontier”

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Jon Radoff is an internet entrepreneur whose career has gone from dial-up to “Beam me up.”

Jon Radoff Headshot

Radoff broke into the gaming business as a teen, writing the BBS door games Space Empire Elite and Final Frontier for the Atari ST in the late 1980s. He built one of the original commercial games on the internet, and founded several gaming and net-related companies since then.

These days he’s the CEO of Disruptor Beam. The company’s latest game, Star Trek Timelines was released for Android and iOS on Jan. 16.

Space Empire Elite is probably the first BBS door game I played as a kid. Did you ever play? Share your memories in the comments. Want to try these old games today? I’ve included links to BBSes at the end.

This interview was conducted by Skype on Jan. 29. It has been edited for length and clarity.

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Door game creators

Shooter Jennings, creator of “From Here to Eternity”

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Not many folks are developing new BBS door games these days. But one of the few is Shooter Jennings, who is currently beta testing his game, “From Here to Eternity” on his BBS, Bit Sunrise (Web, Telnet). Make sure you visit his board and try the game!

Jennings is best known for his musical career. The only son of Waylon Jennings and Jessi Colter, Shooter began his musical career with the rock band Stargunn in 2001, then released his first solo record, “Put the ‘O’ Back in Country” in 2005.

As he explains during our discussion, Jennings worked with computers from a young age. Later in life, he even developed a point-and-click adventure game in Flash to accompany his album ‘Black Ribbons.’

This interview was conducted by Skype on Sept. 16, 2015. It has been edited for length and clarity.

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Door game creators

Hollie Satterfield, creator of “Space Dynasty”

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What does it take to get published? How about a deranged TRS-80 Model I that has taken over a lunar colony? That did the trick for Hollie Satterfield in 1983, when 80 Micro magazine published his computer program “Attack of the TRS-80.” Afterward, he embarked on a career as a programmer analyst — and along the way, he created a popular BBS door game: Space Dynasty.

I shared some thoughts about Space Dynasty yesterday. This interview was conducted by email Feb. 16 through Oct. 18, 2013.

You can follow Hollie Satterfield on Twitter: @thathollie

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Door game creators

Kevin MacFarland, creator of “Assassin”

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From writing tic-tac-toe in BASIC as kid to creating the classic BBS door game Assassin, computer engineer Kevin MacFarland remembers his past life as the “C Monster.”

Assassin was of one my favorite role-playing games as a teen, so it was exciting to get in touch with MacFarland and discuss his game. This interview was conducted by email Mar. 2 through May 14, 2013.

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