Russ Wetmore is an American

computer programmer A computer programmer, sometimes referred to as a software developer, a software engineer, a programmer or a coder, is a person who creates computer programs — often for larger computer software. A programmer is someone who writes/creates ...

and

video game designer Video game design is the process of designing the content and rules of video games in the pre-production stage and designing the gameplay, environment, storyline and characters in the production stage. Some common video game design subdiscipline ...

best known for writing commercial games and applications for the

Atari 8-bit family The Atari 8-bit family is a series of 8-bit home computers introduced by Atari, Inc. in 1979 as the Atari 400 and Atari 800. The series was successively upgraded to Atari 1200XL , Atari 600XL, Atari 800XL, Atari 65XE, Atari 130XE, Atari 800XE, ...

in the early to mid 1980s. His ''

Frogger is a 1981 arcade action game developed by Konami and manufactured by Sega. In North America, it was released by Sega/Gremlin. The object of the game is to direct a series of frogs to their homes by crossing a busy road and a hazardous rive ...

''-inspired '' Preppie!'' was published by

Adventure International Adventure International was an American video game publishing company that existed from 1979 until 1986. It was started by Scott and Alexis Adams. Their games were notable for being the first implementation of the adventure genre to run on a ...

as well as its sequel. He stopped writing games after the

video game crash of 1983 The video game crash of 1983 (known as the Atari shock in Japan) was a large-scale recession in the video game industry that occurred from 1983 to 1985, primarily in the United States. The crash was attributed to several factors, including ma ...

and developed the integrated '' HomePak'' productivity suite for Batteries Included.

Education

Interested in classical music, Wetmore majored in music composition at

Morehead State University Morehead State University (MSU) is a public university in Morehead, Kentucky. The university began as Morehead Normal School, which opened its doors in 1887. The Craft Academy for Excellence in Science and Mathematics, a two-year residential ea ...

, from 1973–1975, until running out of money.

Game development

Wetmore met

Scott Adams Scott Raymond Adams (born June 8, 1957) is an American author and cartoonist. He is the creator of the syndicated ''Dilbert'' comic strip, and the author of several nonfiction works of satire, commentary, and business. ''Dilbert'' gained nation ...

in 1981 and was hired to work for

as a liaison for external game authors. When he became interested in developing his own games, Adams loaned him an Atari 800. Wetmore's first commercial game was '' Preppie!'' (1982) for the Atari 8-bit computers, which merges the design of ''

'' with the

preppy Preppy (also spelled preppie) or prep (all abbreviations of the word ''preparatory'') is a subculture in the United States associated with the alumni of old private Northeastern college preparatory schools. The terms are used to denote a perso ...

fad of the early 1980s. He designed and programmed its maze-game sequel, ''

Preppie! II ''Preppie! II '' is a video game written by Russ Wetmore for the Atari 8-bit family and published by Adventure International in 1983. Subtitled "The continuing saga of Wadsworth Overcash," it is a sequel to 1982's ''Frogger''-inspired ''Preppie! ( ...

'' (1983), and ported '' Sea Dragon'' from the

TRS-80 The TRS-80 Micro Computer System (TRS-80, later renamed the Model I to distinguish it from successors) is a desktop microcomputer launched in 1977 and sold by Tandy Corporation through their Radio Shack stores. The name is an abbreviation of '' ...

(1982). All three games were developed under the name Star Systems Software and published by

. "By Russ Wetmore" was prominently displayed on the box cover for ''Preppie!'' and ''Preppie! II'', resulting in Wetmore becoming a recognized name in Atari game programming. Following his appearance on the ANTIC Podcast in January 2016, Wetmore released the Atari 8-bit

source code In computing, source code, or simply code, is any collection of code, with or without comments, written using a human-readable programming language, usually as plain text. The source code of a program is specially designed to facilitate the wo ...

for ''Preppie'', ''Preppie II'', and ''Sea Dragon'' to the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

. Also made available was a demo for an unfinished Atari 8-bit game, ''Lulu''.

After games

As a result of the

, Wetmore stopped writing games and created the integrated application suite HomePak (1984) for the Atari 8-bit computers. It contains a word processor (HomeText), database (HomeFind), and terminal communications program (HomeTerm). HomePak was published by Batteries Included. It is one of the few commercial products written in the Action! programming language from

Optimized Systems Software Optimized Systems Software (OSS) was a company that produced disk operating systems, programming languages with integrated development environments, and applications primarily for the Atari 8-bit family of home computers. OSS was best known f ...

. With Sparky Starks, Wetmore co-authored HomeCard, an Atari 8-bit application advertised as an "electronic filing box" and "intelligent

Rolodex A Rolodex is a rotating card file device used to store business contact information. Its name, a portmanteau of the words ''rolling'' and ''index'', has become somewhat genericized (usually as ''rolodex'') for any personal organizer performing thi ...

." It was published by

Antic Software Antic Software was a software company associated with ''Antic'', a magazine for the Atari 8-bit family of computers. Bound into issues of the magazine, the Antic Software catalog initially sold Atari 8-bit games, applications, and utilities from t ...

in 1985. Wetmore wrote a short-lived column for Atari computer magazine ''

ANALOG Computing ''ANALOG Computing'' (an acronym for Atari Newsletter And Lots Of Games) was an American computer magazine devoted to the Atari 8-bit family of home computers. It was published from 1981 until 1989. In addition to reviews and tutorials, ''ANAL ...

'' called "On-Line" which first appeared in the May 1985 issue. He has since worked as a software architect and director of software development for a variety of companies, including

Apple Computer Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, United States. Apple is the largest technology company by revenue (totaling in 2021) and, as of June 2022, is the world's biggest company b ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wetmore, Russ American computer programmers Video game designers Video game programmers Living people 1956 births