Michael Abrash, a veteran game programmer, wrote his first commercial game in 1982, Space Strike, for the IBM PC.
Though Abrash has contributed immensely to the computer gaming industry, he is best known as one of the top optimization and assembly programmers. His prolific writings have made their way to numerous publications such as Dr. Dobb's column of graphics programming and code optimization, The Zen and Art of Code Optimization (a must read for all assembly language programmers), and his Black Book, all of which were immensely influential during their time.
Abrash is a gifted technical writer, owing a lot of his success to his unique ability to liven even the stuffiest technical lesson by relating it to a clever anecdote concerning his family, friends, or an awkward social situation. Readers familiar with both authors find that Abrash's flair is similar to Dave Barry's. This is probably not a coincidence as Abrash admits to being a fan of Barry's in his Zen of Graphics Programming.
Michael Abrash's career spans more than two decades. He is credited for helping to develop the XBox along with programming and support roles for games such as Quake, Half-Life, Motorcross Madness, and many more. He currently works for Microsoft.
