Defender: Acknowledgments

Many people have helped me with this book, in many different ways. I would especially like to thank Larry Demar and Eugene Jarvis for being so generous with their time and their observations about the games that are their pride and joy. My family, who provided me with inspiration and support, also deserve a special mention. They made this book not only possible, but a reality.

In any endeavor, there are certain people who stand out for their spirit of innovation and creativity. Defender is no exception, and I have benefitted greatly from these players. I would like to thank Steve Marshall, Matt Lieu, Mark Gold, and Al Pearcy for their ideas, particularly Mark’s observations about Stargate. Tad Perry pointed out many things in the game that had passed me by but didn’t escape his attentive eyes. And Dave Schanen showed me how to have fun while playing and learning. Finally, I would like to thank the players who by their competitive spirit and exceptional abilities forced me to constantly expand my view of the possibilities of the game of Defender: Craig Pfarr, Tom Doenitz, and, much later, Mike Munoz.

Added 30 years later, January 2013:

It’s hard to believe that 30 years have passed and I’m only now getting around to making this entire project publicly available. I had the opportunity to publish much of the Free Space chapter in a Winning Edge column in JoyStik Magazine in 1982, but the remainder of my Defender manuscript has lived in a dusty 3-ring binder that I’ve managed to hang onto through so many moves and life changes over the years.

I long ago lost the 8″ CP/M floppy disks containing the original WordStar manuscript, but my wife Megan took the time to re-type most of the text from a faded dot-matrix printout. I would never ask anyone to do such a tedious task, she just decided to do it on her own. Thanks, Babe.