From my time at Microsoft

Another post from someone I used to work with at Microsoft.  Craig was my lead when I first started at Microsoft.  Here he gives the early history of DirectX.  I started in May of ’95 and was responsible for the Cirrus chips for DirectX 1.  I took the summer off to be with my wife and kids for the summer of ’96 and just barely had contact with DirectX 3.  But I was involved with 2 and 5. 

The “military coat” Craig talks about is a black M-65 field jacket.  I still have my DirectX jacket in my closet with the patches.  Ry and I now wear black M-65 jackets with Boomershoot embroidered on them.

Some of the patches for the various versions of DirectX had the project names on them.  Some of the project names were Manhattan (DirectX 1 was to “compete” with the Japanese game machines), Orion (reference to nuclear explosion powered space travel), and Orange (as in Agent Orange used in Vietnam to defoliate the jungle).  I think it was DirectX 6 that had the project name of “Diesel”.  This was a veiled reference to ammonium nitrate/diesel mixture which was believed (nitromethane was the actual fuel) to be used in the then recent bombing of the Federal building in Oklahoma City.  Another time I will tell you of the mementos I made of ammonium nitrate for people on the project and shipped to Raymond to distribute.

See also Renegades of the Empire for DirectX history and lots of stories about Alex, Craig, and Eric.

Update: Fixed the broken link to Craigs post on DirectX history.

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