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September 3, 1996
INI students don’t play games, they design them
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DENTON, Texas (AP) — Some University of
rthTexas students doTt play games — they
iign them.
UNT computer scieice professor Ian Par
ry, who oversees tit; school’s Laboratory
Recreational Confuting, is teaching an
usual class called Omputer Game Design
i Programming. Sudents insist it isn't all
and games.
This class is a let of work,” said Byron
odman, a senior vho administers the lab.
'salot more workthan a typical computer
ence class.”
Goodman says h« spends between 10 and
hours a week in tie lab, but it’s helping him
tieve a lifelong deam. He’s been interested
programming ganes since he was a kid.
"It’s kind of an ultimate reality,” Good
in said.
About 22 studerts have enrolled in the class
It was first jffered in 1993, on an exper-
ental basis. At tie time, it was the only one of
kind in the courtry, Parberry said,
wanted sonething that would motivate
l idents, get then excited about computer
ence, and it stemed to me that the games
lustry was onemarketplace that the univer-
was not addessing,” Parberry said.
http://hercule.csci.unt.edu/ian
Ian Parberry’s website
UNT professor who teaches a computer
game design and programming class
Next year, it’ll be a regularly scheduled course.
In class, Parberry teaches students about
computer graphics, game engineering and
other aspects of the game industry. They work
in groups to complete projects, creating
everything from puzzle games to clones of the
popular game "Doom.”
There’s already been a payoff: The rights to
one student-designed puzzle game have been
sold to IBM for $30,000. Proceeds went to
UNT’s program, paying for new computers,
parts, and accessories.
Parberry knows why game programming
classes haven’t caught on at other schools.
“Academics tend to be a bit stuffy,” Parber
ry said. “They don’t want to necessarily do the
latest and the greatest.”
If it weren’t for the lab, Goodman said, he
would have been struggling to figure it all out
on his own.
“It would have been a lot more difficult if
this program wasn’t here,” he said.
Jeff Wofford, a UNT graduate who now
works for Austin-based Origin Systems, Inc.,
said most programmers in the game industry
have to teach themselves.
Wofford said learning how to program and
how to work in a group were invaluable skills
when he was looking for work.
“I was able to say, T’ve actually worked on
games before. I’ve actually worked on game
projects with other people before,’ ” he said.
Wofford said when he was at UNT, he spent
about 20 hours a week in the lab and many
more hours outside. The students, he said,
lacked social lives and were willing to stay up
all night working on projects.
“It’s really kind of a cauldron of nerds,”
he said.
Those so-called nerds, however, face bright
futures. Parberry says he gets weekly phone
calls from companies looking for prospective
hires from his program. The starting salary for
any of his students could be $35,000 to
$40,000 a year. For a recent grad starting out,
that’s a great deal, the professor said.
“Plus, they’re doing cool stuff,” he added.
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ustin police hear suspect’s confession
o “exceUend
hristopher Ted Dye remains in custody at the Travis County
prog™)//on $1 million bail for a charge of aggravated assault.
most 10 pef ° 00
However, Travis County Dis
trict Attorney Ronnie Earle said
prosecutors will ask a grand jury
mountedtlrapes in tie Austin area dat- for ‘‘multiple indictments”
total return ;to 1993, plice say.
t and 11 p«
xpenditura
AUSTIN (iP) — An unem-
lyed auto mechanic with a
omeflowiis minal recod has confessed to
dj ust menu
ent have con
’ to the
mance. (Cai
her state syi
110.)
s request, Ik
a measurei
Police Sgt Bruce Boardman
1 paidoffi! id Christo|her Ted Dye, 33, of
onlySHi istin, is supected of commit-
one-sixtha igl5 rape, the most by a sin-
left for iki tperson ii the city’s history.
Boardm n said Dye wasn’t
complainelepared tc confess to the 15th
operating! xual as.ault because he
uldn’t renemher enough de-
ils to corroborate the evi
nce polie had.
'He sau he would have to go
t to the partment and look at
’ Boardnan said.
jDyewa initially charged with
to beunk* aggrauted sexual assault of
it manager, plyone voman on July 2.
against Dye, who is being held in
the Travis County Jail on $1 mil
lion bail.
Many of the rapes occurred
near a heavily-traveled highway
known as MoPac, or Loop 1.
Investigators said Dye told
them, “I am the MoPac rapist,”
after being arrested without in
cident while driving near the
University of Texas early Satur
day morning.
It wasn’t immediately known
Monday who would serve as
Dye’s attorney.
A sexual assault is catego
rized as aggravated when a
deadly weapon is used. Police
say the victims were threatened
with a knife. /
Dye’s arrest was the result of
three weeks of work by officer
Joanna Gerbrands, who combed
the department’s computer
database, linking locations of
thefts and burglaries that Dye
had been convicted of to sites
where rapes occurred.
According to police, Dye was
convicted of stealing property
from homes near MoPac in De
cember 1993 and July 1994.
He was sentenced to 10 years
probation.
Investigators said the burglar
ies occurred in the same areas
where several rapes occurred.
They said there were several
unique elements in the thefts
that helped link Dye to the
to 14 rapes
rapes, but officers wouldn’t
elaborate.
“It wasn’t until recently in this
investigation that we had the re
sources to commit one officer to
doing this computer search,”
Boardman said. “This arrest is a
big relief for all of us.”
Police Detective Mary Ann
Heske said officers had kept
Dye’s arrest secret until most of
the rape victims were told by
telephone Sunday that a suspect
was in jail.
Dye was under surveillance
since Wednesday. Police said
Dye had recently failed a drug
test, a violation of his probation.
All the sexual assaults for
which Dye is suspected hap
pened between 1 a.m. and sun
rise, police said.
In most of the 15 cases, the
women were raped by an attack
er who entered through an un
locked door or window.
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