This format has largely gone the way of the woolly mammoth.  But I had a lot of fun working with it. I wrote my first manual back in 1983, for Atari 5200 Baseball.  And my career highlight was, without question, working at Lucasfilm Games (later LucasArts).

There, the good folks believed that the documentation for their World War II flight combat simulation games could be more than just how-to-play instructions.  They asked me to write a detailed historical backgrounder, complete with photos, quotes, sidebars, and more. The result: a companion book that added to the role-playing atmosphere—and enriched the game-playing experience.

The final products were as close as I’ve ever come to writing history books.  And along the way, I got to fly a lot of “missions.” Interview World War II veterans and historians. Hang out with some interesting programmers and test/debug folks.  And even work at the Skywalker Ranch for a spell. 

Nice work if you can get it.  And, thankfully, I got it.