Pittsburgh
March 26

Distance traveled today:  280

Total distance traveled:  2315

Great day trip today to see my friend Randy in Pittsburgh.  For eleven years, I have written about computer games on Randy’s website, www.justadventure.com.  Randy is a passionate enthusiast of games in general, but most particuarly of that most maligned genre, the adventure game.

After having a brief heyday in the late 80s and early 90s (until The Sims came along, Myst was the biggest-selling PC game), adventure games have been in a long, slow, sad decline.  But at least partially thanks to Randy, the genre is still hanging on.

Through these years I’ve met many interesting people in the gaming industry through Randy.  My involvement with JustAdventure also led to a couple of actual paying gigs in the industry.  I was the puzzle design consultant for the second and third Law and Order pc games. 

I used to see Randy once a year, when he’d come to Los Angeles to attend the Electronic Entertianment Expo with me.  But for the last several years, Randy’s been fighting life-threatening d so he hasn’t traveled as much.  It’s been ages since I’ve seen him, so I’m awfully glad I had this opportunity.

I finally got to meet his other two sons (I’d met Randy, Jr. before once when he also came out for E3), as well as Randy’s wife Sandy.  After a tour of the city, they cooked me a fabulous Polish dinner before I hit the road back to Cleveland.