Talk:Fred Ford

The SC1 manual says the following, but I'm not sure if it's still copyrighted by Accolade:

When Fred Ford left high school, he aspired to be a science fiction writer. He also wanted to eat regularly. Fred’s first programming job was developing neat games of which you’ve never heard for neat Japanese computers of which you’ve never heard.

Then, Fred unpacked his box of office stuff. This may not sound threatening to the uninitiated, but within a month Fred’s employers had gone out of business. Fred packed up his box and moved on. Each time that Fred and his box arrived at a new office, things went well until he unpacked his box. Then a Gypsy curse was activated, and the company and Fred soon parted ways. Sometimes the company survived, and sometimes it did not. About the time Fred unpacked his box at Island Graphics Corporation (where he authored award-winning UNIX software), Paul Reiche III signed with Accolade to develop several original games. Paul had previously authored Archon, Archon II — Adept, World Tour Golf, and other games for Electronic Arts.

Perhaps the curse of the box of office stuff is caused by the flat dead lizard-on-a-stick which Fred keeps in his box. It might be something deeper in the box, something more sinister... or it could be related to Fred’s tendency to breathe through his eye.

One week after Fred had unpacked his box at Island Graphics, the dreaded Gypsy curse returned. So he joined Paul Reiche at “Toys for Bob”, a software cooperative located in Marin County, California, bringing the box with him. In the eighteen months of development of Star Control, Paul has checked daily to be sure that nothing — not one thing — has left that box.

Arrkie 02:37, 11 Apr 2005 (CEST)