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CURRICULUM
VITAE
PERSONAL INFORMATION
Name : Peter James Baron Address :
Age : 40
Nationality : British Auckland
Resident in : New Zealand New Zealand
email : sibaroni@hotmail.com
CAREER EXPERIENCE
Programming Languages Used:
C#, C++, C, Java, Pascal, Basic, Visual Basic, Delphi,
Lisp, Forth, Cobol,80x86, 680x0, 65816, 6502.
Computer Systems Used:
iTV Set Top Box (various), PSX, PC, VM Labs Nuon,
Nintendo 64, SuperNintendo, Sega Genesis, Nintendo Entertainment System,
Commodore Amiga, AtariST, Commodore 64, Apple II, BBC Master System, Sun SPARC,
VAX VMS, AppleMacintosh, PDP11, Pillar.
Completed Projects list:
(title, company, [duties],
platform, description)
Pirates of the Caribbean : Dead Man's Chest,Disney WDIG, Sky STB. The first sequel in this
trilogy, Jack Sparrow is called to account by Davy Jones and must collect 100
souls in 3 days or lose his own!
Pirates of the
Caribbean : Curse of the Black Pearl,Disney WDIG, Sky STB. A top-view adventure/puzzle
with the player taking control of Jack Sparrow as he tries to collect the
Cursed Gold coins and save Elizabeth Swann.
Peter Pan : Lost
Boy Rescue,Disney WDIG, Sky STB. A
platform adventure with Peter Pan running, flying and fighting across 6 levels
to rescue his Lost Boys and Tinkerbell from the evil Captain Hook.
Narnia: The Lion
the Witch and the Wardrobe, Disney
WDIG, Sky STB, based on Disney's massively successful movie. A role-playing game
where you develop the group of four children to combat ever more dangerous foes
and bosses, to eventually save the land of Narnia from the evil Witch.
Winnie the Pooh
in Funny Hunny, Disney WDIG, Sky STB,
Disney's popular children's character in an action puzzle game. Winnie must
rotate and release pairs of balloons to make groups of matching colours before
the play area gets too full.
Top Trumps :
Gumball 3000, Minds Eye, Sky STB, reskin
of Dragon Boosters to reflect an alternative theme.
Top Trumps :
Dragon Boosters, Minds Eye, Sky STB, the
popular card-game 'Top Trumps' themed to match the childrens television series
'Dragon Boosters'. Includes believable AI which plays from partial knowledge of
the deck of cards.
Gone To The Dogs, Minds Eye, Sky STB, an online gambling game which
emulates a multi-reel slot-machine. Includes back-end communications with a
remote XML service.
Monopoly, Minds Eye, Sky STB, a set top box version of the
classic board game withall new AI to accomodate the reduced processing power
available on this platform.
Who Wants To Be
A Millionaire? Picture-in-Picture, Minds Eye, Sky STB, a picture-in-picture version of WWTBAM with new
graphics, menus and layout to accommodate the video stream window.
Who Wants To Be
A Millionaire? Themed Versions, Minds
Eye, Sky STB, reskinned the WWTBAM engine to produce Football, Showbiz, Sports
and 2003 themed versions of the popular quiz.
Sky Sports
DailyQuizMinds Eye, programmer, Sky
STB, reskinnable quiz engine (first incarnation was ‘Football Quiz’) utilising picture-in-picture
to show the channel feed while the player enjoys the quiz.
Who Wants To Be
A Millionaire?, Minds Eye, programmer,
SkySTB, highly successful quiz game based on the TV show, currently live on
SkyGamestar.
LLG Pinball, converted Empire’s pinball game to run on the
Leisure Link Games touch screen system for use in Pubs and Clubs around the
country.
LLG PipeMania, Minds Eye, wrote a new version of this classic
game to run on the touch screen system from Leisure Link Games.
LLG FlipIt, Minds Eye, adapted this in-house designed puzzle
game to play on the touch screen system.
Starsky and Hutch,Minds Eye, AI programmer, PC PS2&XBox, designed
and coded the original AI system for the felon vehicles, the ‘ambient’ vehicles
and the pedestrians in the city.
Sheep,Minds Eye, lead programmer PSX, a 3D isometric view
‘herd-em-up’ game featuring artificial stupidity.
Monopoly,Minds Eye, lead programmer, N64, a cartoon-style fully
animated 3D rendition of the popular board game with particularly effective AI
players.
Stratego,Minds Eye, lead programmer, IBM PC, a 3D sprite based
computer conversion of the famous strategy board game for Hasbro Interactive.
The AI was a hybrid of template matching, probability calculations and a complex
set of 'production rules'.
TheGolf Pro,Empire,consultant
programmer, IBM PC, designed and coded the intelligent commentary system for
this successful golf game. I (re??)invented a modified version of
reverse-polish notation (which can be parsed without recursion) to make the rule
parser extremely fast.
LiveAds,Integrated
Sensor Systems, senior programmer, IBM PC, developed a ‘dynamic replacement’
advertising system capable of seamlessly inserting new images into broadcast
quality video streams (promotional video available).
MaximumRoad Kill,BITS,
lead programmer, IBM PC, an FMV based 3D motorbike racing and fighting game.
Wolverine- Adamantium Rage,BITS, lead programmer, co-designer, SNES, 2D platformer
based on the famous X-Men cartoon character.
Spiderman:Return of The Sinister Six,BITS, lead programmer and co-designer, NES, 2D platform
beat-em-up.
DeviousDesigns,Mirrorsoft,Commodore
64, Commodore Amiga, Atari ST, lead programmer, conceived andco-designed with
Bob Stevenson, 2D puzzler with quirky physical laws.
Myth,System
3, Commodore 64, lead programmer,co-designer. 2D platform game which became a
hit on three platforms. Won the 1989 Indin awards for originality and graphics.
TheHunt for Red October,Commodore 64,contract programmer, strategy game based
on the book.
Salamander(aka
Lifeforce - USA),Ocean,
leadprogrammer, Commodore 64, extremely successful shoot-em-up conversion
from Konami’s arcade sequel to Nemesis.
Bitsfor Bizmo,Melbourne
House,lead programmer, Commodore 64, 2D scrolling platformer based on an AD2000 character
in a Judge Dredd story.
Lordof the Rings trilogy, Melbourne
House, assistant programmer, Commodore 64,graphic adventure follow-up to their
acclaimed ‘The Hobbit’.
EDUCATION
1994-1997
Edinburgh University: "Knowledge Based Systems"Master's Degree in
Artificial Intelligence
1986
Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology: "ComputerScience" Bachelor's
Degree second year
1985
Bendigo College of Advanced Education: "ComputerScience" Bachelor's
Degree first year
1984
Australian Higher School Certificates: Computer Science, Physics, Pure
Mathematics, Applied Mathematics, English.
GENERAL INFORMATION
I learned how to program BASIC on an Apple II at High
School and taught myself 6502 assembler language on my Commodore 64 at home. At
17 I won a national programming competition hosted by Warrnambul Institute of
Technology in Victoria, Australia and achieved an ‘A’ grade High School Certificate
in Computer Science. Enthusiasm and increasing ability led to my securing full-time
employment as a games programmer at Melbourne House. Following my return to the UK
I became a self-employed contracting games programmer for ten years, before starting
full-time for Minds Eye Productions which was eventually purchased by Walt
Disney Ltd. Following a life-long interest, I returned to university part-time
and gained an MSc in Artificial Intelligence from Edinburgh University
in 1997. My master's thesis focused on the implementation, design and optimisation of
Evolutionary Algorithms. The diversity of the platforms and languages I have worked with has
resulted in my gaining the ability to learn new languages and machine
specifications extremely quickly. My many years of experience as an out-of-house
and contract programmer have given me the ability to work efficiently and effectively
to schedule.
OTHER INTERESTS
I’m a keen reader of many types of literature from the
classics through to Sci-Fi. I love to fly and have taken lessons in Hang-Gliding,
Para-Gliding and flying a light airplane. I also love biking, my first bike was
a Harley Davidson RoadKing. I emigrated to New Zealand
in November 2006 and I'm loving it here!.
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