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Where are They Now?

The ROTT design team was usually reffered to as "The Developers of Incredible Power" or "DIP's". Why the strange name? Well, Tom Hall sent out a memo about ROTT, and at the end he said, "If we do this, we will be the Developers of Incredible Power." It stuck. On ROTT's final DOS screen, it says "Thank you for playing the first release of Apogee's Developers of Incredible Power! We will return". But this was the only "DIP" release. Prey could have been the second DIP game, but the team is almost completely dissolved now. So where did they all end up?

Tom Hall - Designer \ Producer

Tom Hall, a founding member of id Software left during the development of Doom to work at Apogee. ROTT was his first finished project there, the second being Terminal Velocity (as producer). He also started work on Prey. Tom Hall left Apogee to co-found ION Storm with John Romero. After shipping Anachronox, Romero and Hall formed a company called MonkeyStone and produced some handheld/cell phone games before moving to San Diego to work at Midway in late 2003. Hall moved back to San Antonio in the Summer of 2005 and is now at KingsIsle Entertainment.

For ROTT, Tom did most of the level design (over 30 levels) and overall design and production. He played the role of El Oscuro and did the voices for the Monks. He also designed a bunch of levels for ROTT Extreme, the now discontinued ROTT expansion pack.

Lee Jackson adds: "Tom Hall did most of [the sound effects], either by recording them in his office (where I performed the Doug Wendt voice) or by pulling them off of CD sound effects collections (mainly Sound Ideas' "The General 6000" collection)."

A complete list of who did what levels can be found here.

Mark Dochtermann - Lead Programmer

After working on ROTT (his first professional project), Mark did some programming for Duke Nukem 3D and started work on Prey. Shortly after Tom Hall left Apogee, Mark quit and started up Hipnotic Interactive (now Ritual Entertainment), becoming its President \ Lead Programmer. Ritual has since produced Quake Mission Pack #1: Scourge of Armagon, SiN, and FAKK2. After leaving Ritual, Mark bounced around a bit and worked at a company called United Developers with a former Ritual CEO. He also spent time at Mumbo Jumbo software before going to work at EA.

For ROTT, Mark wrote the engine and communications \ networking code (among other things). He also did the voices for General Darian and played the role of the Alternate DeathFire Monk, which didn't make it into the game. He also did a few comm-bat levels.

Jim Dose - Programmer

Like Mark, Jim worked on ROTT, then Duke 3D, then started work on Prey. Jim left Apogee with Mark Dochtermann & company to start Ritual. He is currently Ritual's Vice President \ Programmer. Besides SiN, Jim worked on the GLDoom project in his spare time for awhile. Jim left Ritual after FAKK2 to go work at id Software and be a programmer on Doom 3. In September of 2005, Jim Dose left id Software to take a job with Valve in Seattle.

For ROTT, Jim wrote the sound engine and RANDROTT. He also was the voice of Ian Paul Freeley and designed one comm-bat level.

William Scarboro - Programmer

William stuck around 3DRealms and worked on Prey before leaving in 1999. He left the game industry totally, and was working at a financial company when he died of an asthma attack at the age of 31 on August 9, 2002.

For ROTT, William did most of the actor coding. He also was the voice of the Lightning Guard and was the Alternate Lightning Guard character (which didn't make it into the actual game).

Nolan Martin - Programmer

"Nolan Martin got a "normal" programming job, and is alive and well." (Tom Hall)

For ROTT, Nolan did menu, setup, and sound setup code. He also played the role of the Overpatrol Guard.

Stephen Hornback - Artist

Stephen stayed around awhile to work on Duke 4, then briefly worked at Ritual before moving to Rogue Entertainment. He's currently back working at Ritual.

For ROTT, Stephen did most of the actor art (ex. items), textures and the cool explosions. He also played the Alternate High Guard, which didn't make it into the game.>

Chuck Jones - Artist

After ROTT, Chuck worked on Duke Nukem 3D (and the Plutonium Pack) and Shadow Warrior. After a long stint at Valve Software working on Half-Life, Team Fortress 2, and Half-Life 2, Chuck left Valve at some point during Half Life 2 development, and is now working for Midway Chicago on their NFL Blitz franchise.

For ROTT, Chuck did the "game over" cinematics and wide door art, as well as some 3D art (ex. the Triads).

Susan Singer - Artist

Out of the industry, but still alive and well ;)

For ROTT, Susan did wall textures, player pictures, and the female characters. She was also the voice of Thi Barrett.

Tim Neveu - Artist

"Tim Neveu, last seen at Sony Development, he left to form his own development company...and that's the last heard about him." (Tom Hall)

For ROTT, Tim did the weapon art and intro and ending cinematics. He also is "The Hand of God".

Lee Jackson - Lead Composer

After ROTT, he went on to work on Duke Nukem 3D, Duke Nukem 3D Atomic Edition, Stargunner, Balls of Steel, and Shadow Warrior, and Duke Nukem Forever. As of 2005, works for a company in Dallas that does traffic reports for various local radio stations, as well as Sirius Satellite Radio.

For ROTT, Lee wrote all but 4 of the 30+ songs. He also played the role of the Death Monk and did the voice of Doug Wendt.

Bobby Prince - Sound

Bobby Prince, best known for doing sounds for Doom, has his own company, bobby prince music. But these days he's pretty much retired from doing music for games.

For ROTT, Bobby probably did some sound effects and he was also responsible for composing all the tracks Lee Jackson didn't do, including the final ROTT Registered Theme (Lee Jackson notes that the very first shareware released used one of his songs as the Theme Song, but it was later changed). He also did the "gas attack" and "dog mode" music.

Joe Siegler - Level Design

As of 2005, Joe still works at Apogee \ 3DRealms as the Webmaster \ Online Support Manager \ Projects Guy.

For ROTT, Joe did a ton of levels, including levels for ROTT Extreme, the now discontinued ROTT expansion pack. He also played Sebastian "Doyle" Krist.

A complete list of who did what levels can be found here.

Joseph Selinske - Level Design

After ROTT, Joe did a little work with Shadow Warrior and then moved over to Terminal Reality Inc. as a level designer for Terminal Velocity and later worked on Fury 3, FZone! and Hellbender (as co-producer). He's also done design on Monster Truck Madness and CART Precision Racing. After a short stint at Ritual as the Producer \ Coordinator of SiN, he worked for Westwood as producer for Command & Conquer: Renegade. After EA shut down the studio, he ended up at Black Label games where he worked on the Xbox Battlestar Galactica and Chronicles of Riddick games. As of 2005, he's still there.

For ROTT, Joseph did some of the comm-bat levels and was the voice of Taradino Cassatt.

A complete list of who did what levels can be found here.

Marianna Vayntrub - Level Design

After ROTT, Marianna eventually married Mark Dochtermann and retired from the whole gaming biz. She and Mark had a couple of kids, one of whom was named "Replay" (for real - no joke)!

For ROTT, Marianna did levels and designed Krist's chair. She also played the role of the Alternate Low Guard, which never made it into the game.

A complete list of who did what levels can be found here.

Robert M. Atkins - Manual Design

Robert left with Mark Dochtermann and became Ritual's Art Director. As of 2005, he's still at Ritual.

For ROTT, Robert did most of the cool manual design.

Steve Maines - Asst. Manual Design

Steve was Apogee's Print Art Director, but left during the ROTT project. He went to Cygnus Multimedia, which evolved into Rogue. After Rogue went under, Steve went to work at Ritual.

For ROTT, Steve did some early manual and box design work, and played the role of General Darian.

Gregor Punchatz- Models

"Gregor Punchatz moved to 3D Computer Modeling and now works at Janimation." (Tom Hall) Gregor previously worked on Doom, modeling the CyberDemon (among other monsters).

For ROTT, Gregor did the Robot, Gun, other Models.


All Stuff © 1997 Fragmaster. Rise of the Triad is a Copyright of 3DRealms\Apogee and is used with permission.