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Peter Hirschberg

Welcome! My name is Peter Hirschberg, and this is my website.

Please visit my Portfolio Page to see some of the stuff I've done!

I currently work for AOL in Dulles Virginia as a Software Engineer working on UI and as a developer of the UI toolkit that AOL uses, called Boxely. I would like to one day work for a movie studio doing computer modeling and animation. I still enjoy playing with the toys I had when I was a kid and I have a basement full of full-sized vintage arcade games.

Me playing Pong on a Gameboy Micro

Back in the mid-nineties I authored the program Vector Dream, an arcade emulator that emulated several classic 'vector' arcade games. Vector Dream was the first emulator to have an authentic transluscent vector effect - a technique I invented - and the first emulator to have backdrops (artwork that appears behind the game image). Other emulators have since included these ideas. I also did an emulator for Marble Madness, and contributed to the now defunct Retrocade emulator. Some of my artwork and sound effects from my previous projects have found their way into the ubiquitous MAME emulator, as well as other programs I have seen on the web. I sure wish I'd patented at least the translucent vector idea when I had the chance.

I provided 3D animations and artwork for the independant film "Chasing Ghosts: Beyond the Arcade". You can see some of the work I did for the film on my Portfolio Page.

Influences:
Meco, Tron, Space 1999, Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica (the 1978 series), E.T. The Extra Terrestrial, An American Tail, Don Bluth, Atari, Man Parrish, Wendy Carlos, A Clockwork Orange, John Carpenter's "The Thing", Handheld LED Games, Vertibird, Ultraman, Speed Racer, Time-Out Family Amusement Center, Video Arcade from the 70s and early 80s, Star Trek (the original series and the first two movies)


There's a time for compromise...it's called "later"