Joe Siegler
Webmaster

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[ See my IMDB Page ]

3D Realms Duties

• Creation/Maintenance of the Apogee/3D Realms Web Site
• Moderator of the 3D Realms Web Forums
• Author of all Tech Support Files for our games
• Responsible for creating installation programs for all our games
• Responsible for making disk and CD-ROM masters for mass duplication
• Responsible for making sure the office doesn't run out of coffee or soda
• Responsible for refilling the Coke machine
• Responsible for maintenance on our pinball machine and video games.
• I Used used to SysOp our areas on CompuServe and America Online when we had them.
• Anything else Scott & George need me to do (I guess you could say I'm their "gofer").
• Oh yeah - and playing games. ;)

Projects Worked on 

Duke Nukem II (voice of Duke Nukem), Wacky Wheels (voice of Dopefish), Rise of the Triad (level designer), and Extreme Rise of the Triad as one of the two level designers.

You could say I work on every project, as I'm the person who prepares and uploads the shareware episodes of our games, as well as makes disk and CD-ROM masters, as well as writing the disc based documentation. But as a "traditional developer", I've only worked on one game, Rise of the Triad (as well as it's add-on; Extreme ROTT).

Education / Career Highlights

Joe says, "I was born in Norfolk Virginia in Aug 1965, lived in Virginia and New Jersey until the age of 4. Moved to Philadelphia and lived there until December 1992, when I moved to Garland, Texas to take this job with Apogee. After one year of college (getting dismissed with a GPA that would have made the guys from Animal House proud), I bounced around for a few years at auto parts warehouses in Philadelphia and New Jersey, and a job at a microfiche company as well as Bell Atlantic until coming to Texas. Overall, I've had a really good life so far, and I thank my mother a lot for the guidance she's given me over the years (even if I didn't agree all the time). I'd also like to thank the love of God and Jesus Christ, as I wouldn't have had the good life I've had so far if it wasn't for them. More recently, I would like to thank my wife Lynn for being there for me. She's as good as they come, and I wouldn't be much of anything anymore without her.

My career highlight would be getting this job with Apogee. I'm one of the lucky few in the world who actually genuinely loves his job, and looks forward to Mondays. I'm fortunate that I figured out a way to get someone to pay me to do what I already did as a hobby. :) One other highlight was seeing work I had done actually published in the market. I designed 5 levels for the original Rise of the Triad. For shareware, I did two levels, those being Ride 'em Cowboy and Wall to Wall. I did three levels for ROTT: Darkwar, those being Eight Ways to Hell, The Vomitorium, and Cross Purposes (a Comm-Bat Level). For the Extreme ROTT pack, I designed the pack with Tom Hall. I did 15 levels, he did 27 of them. For people who liked my old ROTT levels, fear not. In Extreme ROTT I designed The Grand Vomitorium."

On October 26, 1996, I got married to Lynn Pykus, my best friend for about 13 years now. Best thing I ever did with my life.  I named a level in Extreme ROTT after her (Pykus Peak).

Other Interests / Hobbies 

"Since a lot of my job is my hobby, I don't know where to go with this. I'm a big fan of heavy metal, and I also maintain a page for my favorite band, Black Sabbath, as well as doing official sites for Bill Ward (the original drummer in Black Sabbath) as well as the late Cozy Powell. I've also done a web page for the illustrious Dopefish from Keen 4. Some of my other passions are collecting CD's, DVD's, playing computer games (Duh), videotaping things. I'm a big Star Trek fan, as well as liking British Television. I'm a huge fan of Red Dwarf and Doctor Who. Here's a list of all the web sites I've done:

3D Realms Stuff:

• http://www.3drealms.com (The 3D Realms site - some design aspects by Brian Cozzens)
• http://www.maxpayne.com (Although Remedy designed it - I just update it)

Other Stuff:

• http://www.dopefish.com (The Official Dopefish page - All my creation)
• http://www.black-sabbath.com (The best Black Sabbath page on the net - All my creation)
• http://www.billward.com (The Official Bill Ward site - All my creation)
• http://www.cozypowell.com (The Official Cozy Powell site - All my creation)
• http://rangers.siegler.net (My own site for the Texas Rangers baseball club)
• http://www.siegler.net/chef/ (My site for the BBC sitcom Chef)
• http://www.siegler.net/gromit/ (My site for the BBC toons Wallace & Gromit)
• http://cowboys.siegler.net (My Anti-Dallas Cowboys Page)

What He Drives 

2004 Dodge Dakota Quad Cab Pickup Truck

Favorite Musician/Band 

Black Sabbath - nothing else comes close.  Unless you're talking comedy, in which case I have to go with the masters - George Carlin and Weird Al Yankovic.

Favorite Sports Team 

My favorite professional sport is baseball.  The others I like, but baseball is by far and away my favorite.  I am more a fan of the sport than any individual team, but I have an affinity for the Texas Rangers and the Philadelphia Phillies.  As I've lived around both of these teams, and get more coverage of the local team, I tend to pay more attention to them, but I can watch any team play baseball - I love the sport.  My wife and I are season ticket holders for the Rangers.  I usually watch or listen to all 162 games the team plays (and as many pre-season games as I can get my hands on).  I love baseball.  Period.

I'm also partial to football - but not to the depths that I like baseball.  Again, here I'm far more a fan of the sport than any other, except that I don't like the Dallas Cowboys.  If you want proof, go look at my Cowboys page.  :)   I love watching football, I wish it lasted more than 16 weeks a year, and only once per week.

Hockey?  I'll watch that, but I usually only pay attention to hockey in the 6-8 weeks between the end of the NFL season and the start of baseball spring training.  Partial to the Dallas Stars and the Philadelphia Flyers (oh gee, there's a shock).

Favorite Computer Games 

There's been a lot. Rise of the Triad, Commander Keen, Balls of Steel, & Monster Bash from us. From others, I like High Heat Baseball, Hardball 6, NFL Fever 2000, & Unreal Tournament (although I suck and get killed all the time).  I'm partial to sports games and computer adaptations of board games (like Monopoly).

Favorite TV shows

There's been a lot.  Currently, I'm watching Enterprise, Whose Line is it Anyway, The Drew Carey Show, Let's Bowl, PBA Bowling Tour, Iron Chef, & Chef!.

Some ones I liked from the past: Dallas, Knight Rider, Alf, the previous Star Treks, Roc, Herman's Head, Married With Children, Monty Python's Flying Circus are amongst ones I liked.

Favorite Movies

There's been a lot.  Off the top of my head, I can say Shawshank Redemption, anything from Pixar, aw hell, just go check out my DVD collection, you'll get an idea.  :)

If I wasn't working at 3DR...

Good god - I don't know.  Probably still be at my last job at Bell Atlantic.

Quote

"You're about as useless as JPG's to Hellen Keller" - Weird Al, 1999

"I don't care what color you are, the phrase "You go girl" should probably go!" - George Carlin, 1999

"The ships hung in the sky much like bricks do not"

"Religion and sex are power plays
 Maniuplating people for the money they pay.
 Selling skin, selling God -
 The numbers look the same on the credit card"
                         (Spreading the Disease - Queensryche 1988)

Random Pictures

These are here because I find them silly, or they mean something to me.  :)