Looking for Larry Miller

[Evil Plant]

Hello everyone!

 

For those of you who might be interested in the "where are they nows" of classic game programming, one prominent figure has remained illusive for many... a man by the name of Larry Miller.

 

Here are the games he is credited with from the Classic List of Game Programmers:

 

Miller, Larry

Epoch (1981, AP2, Sirius)

Hadron (AP2, Sirius)

Minotaur (AP2, Sirius)

Spider Fighter (1982?, 2600, ACT)

Enduro (1983?, 2600, ACT)

 

While his Atari 2600 games are certainly well-done and well-known, his Apple II games are just as impressive from a technical standpoint. Epoch was a Star Raiders type game that involved a scaleing effect which was never used before or since, and baffled the best game programmers of the day.

 

Legends abound about the guy, too. He is said to be a mathimatician, and is also said to be able to code assembly by hand with pencil and paper. According to one story, he wrote an entire game lineraly on paper, and asked his secretary to type it in. Boom... it worked first try.

 

So... anyone have any info on this lost figure?

[PressureCooker2600]

Thats awesome. I don't know about Miller but I went to Garry Kitchens site to see what hes up to and emailed him to tell him to keep up the good work. He was responsible for two of my fav games Keystone Kapers and 'ahem' PRESSURE COOKER

[Klove]

Larry currently lives up here in Foster City, CA and does quite a bit of contract programming work. When I spoke with him alst, he was doing some computerized securities trading work based on statistical models and computer software that he himself had developed.

 

I spoke with him sometime ago. He's a really nice guy and is incredibly humble.

 

He kinda' thinks it's funny that so many people dwell on his old games 'n' what not. :-)

 

He's out of the game business all-together and has been for quite sometime..

 

The guy is absitively positlutely SMART.

 

Since leaving the Big A a long time ago, he also practiced Medicine.

 

- Ken

[jaybird3rd]

Larry currently lives up here in Foster City, CA and does quite a bit of contract programming work. When I spoke with him alst, he was doing some computerized securities trading work based on statistical models and computer software that he himself had developed.

 

I spoke with him sometime ago. He's a really nice guy and is incredibly humble.

 

He kinda' thinks it's funny that so many people dwell on his old games 'n' what not. :-)

 

He's out of the game business all-together and has been for quite sometime..

 

The guy is absitively positlutely SMART.

 

Since leaving the Big A a long time ago, he also practiced Medicine.

 

- Ken

Wow, thanks for that update! I too have been curious about Larry Miller for quite some time; even as far back as Activision's first 2600 Action Pack compilation, his biography section in the help menus didn't have much more information than "his whereabouts are presently unknown."

 

It's always fascinating to hear about the classic game programmers and what they're up to these days, and I'm especially glad he's aware that his games have a fan following even today. Developers like him deserve to know that their work is still appreciated after all these years and continues to bring many hours of entertainment to people around the world.

[Evil Plant]

Wow! It's certainly amazing to know that he's around and alive. Foster City? That's like 3 minutes from my house. Astounding!

 

It was only recently that I played Endure (I had Activision's Grand Prix for my racing 2600 fix when I was, um... 6), but those Apple games he wrote, particularly Epoch, I enjoyed to the extreme. For the longest time I thought "Epoch" was just about the coolest name for a game ever. Heh.

 

Thanks for helping solve the mystery! This is good news, there are many fans of his work in the Apple II community that will be glad to know he's still alive and kicking.

Edited October 31, 2006 by Evil Plant

[horsie]

I thought some might appreciate this fascinating anecdote from John Romero about Larry Miller. Was just googling around to find info on some of the games he wrote. Almost nothing, however, even on Youtube.

 

KansasFest 2012 - John Romero Q&A

(jump to 44:00)

 

Check out the whole thing, plus his keynote presentation. I learned A LOT about the Apple II and gaming history in general.

[Naiwon]

I visited Larry Miller in Connecticut in 2018 and he came to visit me in January 2019 before the pandemic. He has been working with a company developing portable ultrasound machine called Butterfly. He said that that company was moving to Boston in July sometime. I will continue to post . 

[p1FqO3]

@Naiwon Can you contact him and ask if in Enduro you need to get to the 5th day or through the 5th day to get the patch? The wording in the manual and when the trophy appears conflict.

Edited September 15, 2021 by p1FqO3

[4ever2600]

Ask him if he still has a copy of Minotaur laying around!  Assuming that's the Tarmin AD&D cart that was only a proto...

[toiletunes]

12 hours ago, p1FqO3 said:

@Naiwon Can you contact him and ask if in Enduro you need to get to the 5th day or through the 5th day to get the patch? The wording in the manual and when the trophy appears conflict.

If you get to the 5th day, you earn the patch.

[Rodney Hester]

On 9/15/2021 at 12:00 PM, toiletunes said:

If you get to the 5th day, you earn the patch.

Something I too didn't truly understand until only a few months ago, missing the cutoff for getting the patch by some 36-odd years.  *sigh*