Publication date: September, 1994
Publisher: Red Herring

My close friend and college roommate Randy Weems and I always loved the old Atari 2600 Combat game, so we decided to create our own souped up version of it for Windows. This was back in the Windows 3.1 days (1994) when no one thought it was possible to develop games solely for Windows. But we pursued it anyway, and ended up creating Combat Tanks, the first action game for Windows 3.1. Combat Tanks had a pretty successful run as a shareware game through the company Randy and I formed, Red Herring Software. Eventually we found a publisher who took on the game and published it for us. The game ended up selling over 30,000 copies through mass-market retailers. No one got rich off of it, but it was pretty neat to see our little idea materialize and find its way onto the shelves of large stores. Years later, I've seen people remark that the game is the "best ever ten-minute game for Windows." The original full retail version of the game is available for free download below.

My friend Randy was killed in a car wreck in 2001. He taught me virtually all I know about game programming, and he continues to live on in my work to this day.