Home | Forums | Article Search | Subscribe & Shop | Contact Us | Log Out Bill Gates vs. Doom Email This Print This View My Personal Library Frontside February 2004 • Vol.4 Issue 2 Page(s) 14 in print issue Add To My Personal Library Bill Gates vs. Doom The Saint by Alex St. John Alex St. John was one of the founding creators of Microsoft's DirectX technology. His exploits in the creation of the modern PC game industry are chronicled in books like "Renegades Of The Empire," "Opening The Xbox," and "Masters Of Doom." Today Alex is CEO of WildTangent, a technology company funded by investors such as Sony and ATI, devoted to online game publishing. WildTangent's online gaming platform has more than 45 million users across the Internet. WildTangent is also Microsoft's chosen developer for the Xbox Music Mixer, an Xbox Live-enabled, next-generation media player. In September 1995, DirectX 1.0 was released to the game development community. I had spent many months working with leading game developers to get their support for our powerful new gaming platform. By Christmas the first DirectX games would be on the market. I was planning a special launch event for the game community in a Microsoft parking garage which, consistent with DirectX 1.0's nuclear theme, was called "Judgment Day." I had arranged with id Software to have the Doom tournament finalists flown to Redmond to compete in the final rounds at Judgment Day. Amid the planning for the event, I had sent a request through Microsoft's PR channels for Bill Gates to make an appearance at the event. I was informed that Bill had a prior engagement and would be unable to attend. Disappointed but determined, I suggested that Bill film a video for the event. Bill's staff politely declined this. I finally emailed Bill directly and told him about the size of the event and the number of game developers who had bet their winter holiday titles on DirectX 1.0 and how important it was for him to make an appearance. He said he hadn't heard about it, but would be happy to participate in a video. Microsoft's PR folks were unhappy at being bypassed and embarked on an aggressive effort to smother the project. It was fruitless however—Bill wanted to do it. On the day of the shoot I arrived at the studio to find a cadre of PR and event coordinators surrounding Bill trying to explain the script I had written for him. Bill dismissed them and turned to me saying, "What am I supposed to be doing here, Alex?" To which I replied, "Well Bill, we're going to blue screen you into a famous video game. I need you to wear this black trench coat, carry this shotgun, and make some funny faces for the camera." I coached him on the message we wanted to convey and tried to get him to hold the shotgun as though he knew how to use it. He did the shot in one take and hit all of the points without a script or prompting. It wasn't an Oscar performance, but it was pretty amusing watching Bill make faces for the camera. When the final video came back from editing, the PR folks, witnessing it with horror, declared, "We can't show this publicly!" and took possession of the tape and all of its copies. I fought a long battle over it culminating in a compromise whereby it would be played once at the Judgment Day event and then lost forever. On the day of the party, 3,000 game developers and more than 300 press showed up at Microsoft and packed the parking garage and adjoining Microsoft cafeteria. A three-story volcano had been erected in the middle of the cafeteria where the Doom tournament finalists would battle it out on two giant screens while the volcano belched smoke. Just before the final contest began, a game of Doom began playing on the screens. The space marine's face was replaced with Bill making contorted faces as he ran through the level slaying monsters and taking hits. Finally, after clearing out the level, the camera stopped and Bill walked straight into the game from behind the camera carrying his shotgun. He turned around and made a little speech welcoming everyone to Judgment Day, and talking about how pleased he is to be working with the game industry to make Windows a leading gaming platform. As he talked, a zombie ran onto the screen to attack him. Bill turned nonchalantly, and blew off its head with the shotgun. "Don't interrupt me while I'm talking!" he said and finished his speech with, "While you're enjoying the party try not to lose your heads." (A reference to the dozen guillotines set up to "execute" people leaving the haunted house.) With that the screen went black and the Windows logo appeared with the quote "Windows. Who do you want to execute today?" followed by a shotgun blast and a spray of blood against the text. The tape has not been seen since. Send your giblets to TheSaint@cpumag.com. Want more information about a topic you found of interest while reading this article? Type a word or phrase that identifies the topic and click "Search" to find relevant articles from within our editorial database. Enter A Subject (key words or a phrase): ALL Words (‘digital’ AND ‘photography’) ANY Words (‘digital’ OR ‘photography’) Exact Match ('digital photography'- all words MUST appear together) Home      Copyright & Legal Information      Privacy Policy      Site Map      Contact Us Copyright © 2010 Sandhills Publishing Company U.S.A. All rights reserved.