Jeffrey 'Aztec' Barnes

The self-proclaimed Mother of All Games! Did you play this back in the day with your friends? Scorched Earth, by Wendell Hicken, was released as shareware in 1991. It wasn't going to win awards for groundbreaking graphics, yet it's one of the best multiplayer games ever - highly addictive with endless replay value. It let you customize a huge range of settings, from gravity, wind, and meteor showers to many others. Building on earlier games like QBasic Gorillas, it took the concept to a much higher level, supporting up to 10 players with far greater complexity and variety. You set angle and power to aim, with a wide choice of weapons (unlike the banana in QBasic Gorillas). Computer-controlled enemies ranged from difficulty 1 (Moron) to 10 (Cyborg). No other game has named its lowest difficulty level so perfectly! Wendell Hicken, the Quentin Tarantino of game developers!