Eric
Red 5 - Thursday, 4 March 2010 01:40
Senior Programmer
Eric is employee number 42. Douglas Adams would be proud.
Born in France and raised in Canada, Eric’s resting his world-weary feet at Red 5 for a spell—and we’re thrilled to have him. Having worked on such titles as The Sims Online, EverQuest, and the cancelled Ultima X Odyssey, Eric’s programming chops are a welcome addition to the Tribe.
When he’s not in the office, Eric spends time with his family, who’s as well-traveled as he is: he met his wife Anne in Canada; had his first child in Montreal, Canada; his second in Palo Alto, California; and his youngest in Austin, Texas.
Q: What was your first computer?
A: My first computer was my own brain. The second one was my older brother’s brain that I used to hack with darts. The third one was a Sharp PC 1211 on which I wrote my first game in the Basic programming language in 1980.
Q: What’s one weird fact about yourself?
A: I studied Archaeology for three years. All the while I was programming on my own projects. Eventually I could no longer resist my passion for computing, and switched my degree to Computer Science.
Q: What’s the most important moment of your life?
A: Forrest Gump had his box of chocolates. I had my box of magazines.
Friends of my parents once brought home a box full of recent magazines. I can trace back my passion for programming and games to that box. I was exposed to my very first computer program listing in a scientific magazine called Science & Vie (French for “Science and Life”), and I started programming on paper that very moment. I also found my passion for games, puzzles, logic, and labyrinths in that box, in a publication called Jeux & Strategie (Games and Strategy).
Q: Did you ever skip classes at school?
A: Yes, but once I also went to see the principal of my school and told him that I was leaving for another primary school. He later learned that day from my angry mother that he should first have discussed that with her before letting me go with my academic dossier.
Q: Ever been in the back of a police car?
A: Very close to. They were wondering what I was doing in the middle of the night with a backpack containing a crowbar, a torch and a bottle of sulfuric acid. Fortunately, they were called away for a serious situation.