Thomas Hertzler - professional programmer

[Zak]

I found an old interview I kept I don´t know why. Maybe it´s a good idea to post it here. I hope the translation from German is understandable.

The Pro Programmer - Amiga Magazin 2/1989

Thomas Hertzler is the programmer of "Giana Sisters" on the Amiga. Without doubt he is one of the best programmers in Germany, but even he did start from scratch, not very long ago. We asked him how he became a top programmer?

AMIGA: How long were you engaged with computers?

Hertzler: My first computer was a C64, which I bought in 1983. The first two years I was busy with Basic and played a lot of games of course.

AMIGA: Did you already program games at that time?

Hertzler: No, I had too little experience. Furthermore, I did not learn Assembler before I bought my second computer in 1985, which was an Atari ST. In the beginning I also did not think about programming profesionally - I dreamed of it for sure, but I had no confidence I could.

AMIGA: How did you have your breakthrough?

Hertzler: At university, I programmed a game on the ST: "Sky-Fighter". I believe, it´s most important to hang on as far as software development is concerned. Even if nothing works for a rather long while,
it´s mostly because of small errors.

AMIGA: And with Sky-Fighter you did apply for a job at Rainbow-Arts, afterwards?

Hertzler: Exactly. The game was so felicitous as a debut feature that Rainbow Arts employed me permanently. That was in 1986. In early 1987 I accepted responsibility for the job of the development supervisor.

AMIGA: Giana Sisters is an Amiga program. You talk about programming on the ST all the time, how did you get in touch with the Amiga?

Hertzler: After I finished "Bad Cats" on the ST, Giana Sisters was next. It was planned to develop it on ST and Amiga at the same time. But because of being pressed for time, I programmed both versions.

AMIGA: You did not yet know the Amiga at that time?

Hertzler: No, I had exactly three months to acquaint myself with the programming of the Amiga. I could only succeed at all with the help of Armin Gessert, the programmer of the C64 version of Giana Sisters.

AMIGA: You do not work for Rainbow Arts anymore, what do you do instead?

Hertzler: Together with Lothar Schmitt, another programmer, I founded the company "Assage". Four people are members of the team all the time - besides of Lothar and me, there is a graphic designer and a sound programmer. We will publish the first two games in 1989. Lothar is programming a flight simulation with fractal landscape graphics, I realize an Idea I had when watching the movie "Silent Running". It´s the player´s task to control a robot which is supposed to guard a botanical complex and keep it funtioning. The player controls the robot fighting against other robots
which´s circuits are burnt.

AMIGA: How do you see the Amiga?

Hertzler: For me the Amiga is the successor of the C64. Although it has capabilities which even business computers do not have today, it is perfectly suitable as gaming machine. The Amiga is the computer I like the most to program games for. But I am not an Amiga-fanatic, there are three computers on my desk: a C64, an Atari ST and an Amiga, so far they agree together quite well.

AMIGA: Which computer language do you use?

Hertzler: In my opinion, action games can only be programmed in assembler. High level languages will only become interesting when there are computers with 10 MIPS (10 million instructions per second, editor´s note) for domestic use. By the way I don´t program the Amiga but *for* the Amiga. What I mean is that I write the programs on the ST with the Omikron-assembler and later transfer them to the Amiga. The Omikron assembler is much quicker than any Assembler on the Amiga.

AMIGA: Do you program in assembler exclusively?

Hertzler: No. I have also written a lot of programs in GFA-Basic, that´s why I am eager to get my hands on the GFA-Basic-compiler for the Amiga. Modula-2 will also be most important to me in future.

AMIGA: What do you think about viruses?

Hertzler: I hate viruses and people who program them.

AMIGA: Regarding the header "rich by programming", what comes into your mind on that?

Hertzler: Only a few programmers got rich by programming, I don´t count me to them by the way. Whoever really wants to get rich by programming does not only need to know the machine very well, but also needs to know about the market´s demands and the chain of distribution.

AMIGA: Does this mean programming does not pay off?

Hertzler: I did not say that. You can still make a fast buck with programming. Whoever writes a good program can still buy a car of it´s salaries.

AMIGA: How does one become a pro programmer?

Hertzler: That´s actually not difficult. When one has written a good program he turns it into a presentable version and sends it to a software company. If they like the program at the company they will get in touch with the programmer. That sounds easier than it is of course. First of all, one must have written a program which meets professional standards. Unfortunately, the ladies and gentlemen at the software houses take themselves a lot of time to answer. If one wants to be successfull he has to be insistent and phone them repeatedly. The person in charge must get a bad conscience when they hear the programmer´s name.

AMIGA: At the end: do you like caviar?

Hertzler: Well yes, but I can´t deny that I live on Hamburgers from time to time.

AMIGA: Thank you very much for this conversation.

The interview was held by our editor Michael Göckel

[prowler]

That's a good read, Zak. Thanks for sharing it.