John Romero to keynote KansasFest 2012

[Ken Gagne <kgagne@gamebits.net>]

SEPTEMBER 30, 2011 -- KansasFest 2012, the Apple II convention
scheduled for July 17–22 in Kansas City, Missouri, comes just two
months after the twentieth anniversary of Wolfenstein 3D, the first-
person shooter that, when released for MS-DOS in 1992, defined a genre
that is still popular today. Not only did the game, which was later
ported to the Apple IIGS, use as its inspiration the Apple II game
Castle Wolfenstein; Wolfenstein 3D's creators got their start working
at Apple II disk magazine Softdisk.

To commemorate that anniversary and heritage, KansasFest 2012's
keynote speech will be delivered by none other than Wolfenstein 3D co-
creator John Romero.

Romero, whose Apple II credits include Dangerous Dave and Dark Castle,
has been a pillar of the electronic entertainment industry for nearly
as long as the Apple II has existed. Popular Apple II magazine inCider
published Romero's first program in 1984, with many more of his titles
to appear in both inCider and Nibble. Romero later joined Origin
Systems, publisher of the Ultima and Wing Commander games, as a
programmer, after which he co-founded Inside Out Software. At both
companies, he ported software to and from the Apple II and Commodore
64. With KansasFest 2008 keynote speaker Lane Roathe, Romero also co-
founded software company Ideas From the Deep, where he developed the
Apple II game Zappa Roidz as well as the InfoDOS operating system for
Infocom's Apple II games.

In 1989, Romero joined Softdisk, a stint that introduced him to three
important people: John Carmack, Tom Hall, and Adrian Carmack. The four
co-workers left Softdisk in 1991 to co-found id Software, which a year
later revolutionized electronic gaming and demonstrated the potential
of the shareware distribution model when they released Wolfenstein 3D,
which sold 100,000 units in its first 18 months. Later id Software
blockbusters, including DOOM and Quake, further cemented the company
as an industry powerhouse. Romero has since been involved with many
additional high-profile games, including Deus Ex, Daikatana, and
Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows. He most recently co-founded social games
company Loot Drop, developer of the popular Facebook game Ravenwood
Fair, which currently has nearly five million users.

Despite such overwhelming success and a storied résumé, Romero has
long celebrated his roots as an Apple II programmer. In 1998, he
reunited forty Apple II programmersin celebration of the Apple II
turning 20 the year before. So prestigious were Romero's invitations
that in attendance was Apple II inventor Steve Wozniak, KansasFest
2003's keynote speaker. It was this event that later inspired Jason
Scott, keynote speaker at KansasFest 2009, to begin production on a
documentary of the 6502 processor, which powers the Apple II. Romero
appeared in Scott's text-adventure documentary, Get Lamp, and will
support Scott's upcoming 6502 film as well.