Robert J. "RJ" Mical (born 26 January 1956) is an American computer programmer and hardware designer who has primarily worked in video games. He is best known for creating the user interface, Intuition, for Commodore's

Amiga Amiga is a family of personal computers introduced by Commodore in 1985. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16- or 32-bit processors, 256 KB or more of RAM, mouse-based GUIs, and significantly improved graphi ...

personal computer (1985), contributing to the design of the Amiga hardware, and co-designing, with

Dave Needle David Lewis Needle (December 17, 1947 – February 20, 2016) was an American computer engineer. He was a key engineer and co-chief architect in the creation of the Amiga 1000 computer with Jay Miner, Dave Morse, and R. J. Mical. He was one of ...

, the Atari Lynx color handheld (1989) and the

3DO Interactive Multiplayer The 3DO Interactive Multiplayer, also referred to as simply 3DO, is a home video game console developed by The 3DO Company. Conceived by entrepreneur and Electronic Arts founder Trip Hawkins, the 3DO was not a console manufactured by the company ...

(1993). He also worked on

arcade game An arcade game or coin-op game is a coin-operated entertainment machine typically installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are presented as primarily games of skill and include arcade v ...

s at Williams Electronics, was the chief architect of the

Fathammer Fathammer was a video game publisher and developer based in Finland. They have developed game cell phones, the Tapwave Zodiac, and also the Gizmondo. Fathammer was acquired by Telcogames in June 2006, and X-Forge game development environment deve ...

mobile game engine, and was at Sony Computer Entertainment from 2005 to 2011 as a senior manager on the

PlayStation is a video gaming brand that consists of five home video game consoles, two handhelds, a media center, and a smartphone, as well as an online service and multiple magazines. The brand is produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment, a divisi ...

product line. In 2012 he was hired by Google. A 1995 article in ''

Next Generation Next Generation or Next-Generation may refer to: Publications and literature * ''Next Generation'' (magazine), video game magazine that was made by the now defunct Imagine Media publishing company * Next Generation poets (2004), list of young ...

'' commented "It's true that of the machines that Mical and Needle have created, only the Amiga has been a true global mass market hit ... But it's only fair to put forward the argument that this is down to the marketing of the machines rather than the quality of the product."

Biography

Robert J. Mical graduated in 1979 from the University of Illinois with dual degrees in Computer Science and English and a minor in Philosophy. From 1983 to 1984, Mical was software engineer at arcade video game and pinball creator Williams Electronics. He worked on special effects for '' Sinistar'' (1983) and coordinated the ''

Star Rider ''Star Rider'' is a racing LaserDisc video game developed by Computer Creations and Williams Electronics, and released for arcades in 1983. The object of the game is to win a futuristic motorcycle race that takes place in surrealistic settings. ...

LaserDisc The LaserDisc (LD) is a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium, initially licensed, sold and marketed as DiscoVision, MCA DiscoVision (also known simply as "DiscoVision") in the United States in 1978. Its diam ...

racing project. From 1984 to 1986, Mical worked for

Amiga Corporation Amiga Corporation was a United States computer company formed in the early 1980s as Hi-Toro. It is most famous for having developed the Amiga computer, code named Lorraine. History In the early 1980s Jay Miner, along with other Atari staffers, ...

and then Commodore International on the development of the Amiga 1000 and later models. He created various development tools and the animation system software. He developed '' Intuition'', the Amiga user interface system software. From 1987 to 1989 he was vice-president of game technology at Epyx, reuniting with two ex-Amiga employees:

and Dave Morse. He co-developed the first color

handheld console A handheld game console, or simply handheld console, is a small, portable self-contained video game console with a built-in screen, game controls and speakers. Handheld game consoles are smaller than home video game consoles and contain the cons ...

, internally named "Handy." He was the co-designer of the hardware and put together run-time libraries, a debugger, art and audio tools, and an emulator. The system was acquired by Atari Corporation and brought to market as the Atari Lynx in 1989. He did some design for the launch titles '' Blue Lightning'' and '' Electrocop''. In 1990, Mical co-founded New Technologies Group (NTG), a company established to create a new game system, working again with Needle and Morse. Mical co-designed the hardware and headed the creation of the system's multitasking operating system, Portfolio. The company later merged with The 3DO Company and their technology became the base of the 32-bit console

. From 1996 to 2005, Mical worked on mobile and online projects. In 1996 and 1997, Mical was part of the creation of a joint company effort, joining Prolific and founding Glassworks, which developed

online game An online game is a video game that is either partially or primarily played through the Internet or any other computer network available. Online games are ubiquitous on modern gaming platforms, including PC game, PCs, Console game, consoles and ...

s. In 1998 and 1999, he was as consultant for Rjave. In 2000 and 2001, he was vice president of software at

Red Jade The Red Jade was Ericsson's unreleased handheld console, intended to compete with the Game Boy Advance. History Development Fredrik Liljegren founded Red Jade as a startup company in February 2000. The startup included other notable developers s ...

which was developing a handheld console. In 2001 and 2002, he was chief architect of Fathammer, a company which provided software development and runtime technology for the creation of 3D games on mobile phones. In 2003 and 2004, Mical was the vice president of software at

Global VR Global VR is company based in San Jose, California, that makes arcade games. The company once manufactured virtual reality stands as well. It has also developed electronic kiosks and offers development services for mobile platforms. History ...

, a company that created arcade versions of home games. From 2005 to 2011, he was employed by Sony Computer Entertainment working on developer tools for the PlayStation 3 and

PlayStation Vita The PlayStation Vita (PS Vita, or Vita) is a handheld video game console developed and marketed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on December 17, 2011, and in North America, Europe, and other international territo ...

. Since 2011 he has worked on software games and inventions with his own company, Arjinx. He was hired to be Director of Games at Google in 2012.

References

* Burnham, Van (2003) "Supercade: A Visual History of the Videogame Age 1971-1984" * DeMaria and Wilson (2003) ""High Score!: The Illustrated History of Electronic Games" * Kohler, Chris (2005) "Retro Gaming Hacks" * Interviewed in 2005 Documentary ''

Amiga Forever Amiga Forever is an Amiga preservation, emulation and support package published by Cloanto, which allows Amiga software to run on non-Amiga hardware legally and without complex configuration. The Windows version of Amiga Forever includes a "pl ...

'
imdb
* ''

Ars Technica ''Ars Technica'' is a website covering news and opinions in technology, science, politics, and society, created by Ken Fisher and Jon Stokes in 1998. It publishes news, reviews, and guides on issues such as computer hardware and software, sci ...

'' article o
the history of the amiga

Biography

References

External links