You're probably talking about *Aliens!* released in January 1980?
Q: Can you tell us about your early experiences with computers?
A: I was introduced to BASIC early on in elementary school on these clunky school-maintained terminals with printed text on paper rolls (no monitor). This would have been in the early 1970s.
Q: How did you continue learning and experimenting with computers in school?
A: In middle school again we had access to the same clunky terminals. This time you could sign up for your own account and create/store BASIC programs of your own making.
Q: What led to your decision to buy a Commodore PET, and how did that influence your work?
A: In 1978, I talked my dad into getting me a PET from Mr. Calculator in Town & Country Village. I remember it was $795, and the wait time was insanely long due to high demand. After looking over materials for the PET and the TRS-80, I decided on the PET because I thought the graphic characters looked pretty cool.
Q: Did you have any experiences with machine language before writing *Aliens*?
A: I acquired a third-party game – Seawolf, I think it was – and being written entirely in machine language really impressed me. My curiosity led me to purchase the CMOS 6502 reference manual listing all the various commands and status flags used by the processor.
Q: How did you go about creating *Aliens*? Did you start in BASIC or machine language?
A: If memory serves, I probably wrote the game first in BASIC and then replaced parts of BASIC with machine language (using SYS calls) until eventually, the entire game was in ML. To do this, I used the monitor program available on cassette tape that allowed you to enter hex codes directly into memory. Coding this way would be seen as insane by today's standards, but heck, I was still in high school and worked with the tools and knowledge I had.
Q: What was the reception like for the game, and did you get paid for it?
A: I submitted the game to *Cursor Magazine* in 1979 and I think got a check for $135. That was a pretty big deal at the time!