Nathan John Mates

[Resume last updated April 2005]

Objective:

To excel in all aspects of game programming, from efficient code design, implementation, documentation, and tools needed to facilitate production and final code. Portability and security of code are emphasized, without sacrificing speed and memory use.

Computer Experience:

• Programming experience: Fluent in Unix, C & C++, Lua, Perl, 6502/65816 Assembly, Pascal, HTML. Familiar with Basic, CGI.

• Platforms/libraries programmed for: Sony Playstation 2, Microsoft XBox, Sony Playstation, Windows/DirectX, Microsoft Foundation Classes (MFC), Winsock (Windows Sockets), Sega Saturn high level libs (SGL).

• System administration experience: Windows, OpenBSD, and Linux platforms.

• Documentation experience: written extended documentation for games worked on (Battlezone 2 Networking and Scrap management, Ten Pin Alley).

Summary of Shipped Titles

• Ten Pin Alley - Playstation 1 (1996), Windows (1997) Sega Saturn (1997)
• Brunswick Circuit Pro Bowling - Playstation 1 (1998), Windows (1998)
• Battlezone II - Windows (1999-2000, with patches)
• Triple Play 2002 - PS2 (2002), XBox (2002)
• Star Wars: The Clone Wars - Gamecube (2002), Playstation 2 (2002), XBox (2003)
• Star Wars: Battlefront - Playstation 2 (2004), XBox (2004), PC (2004)
• Star Wars: Battlefront II

Work Experience:

• Pandemic Studios, programmer, 1998-present. Headed Gamecube to PS2 conversion of Clonewars for Lucasarts, and frontend XBox Live coding, including session creation/mangement, front end screens, etc. Headed PS2 to XBox conversion of Triple Play 2002 for EA Sports. Adapted Fifa from standalone PC product to run in web browser for EA.com (never released in North America). Implemented networking code and other code for Battlezone 2, tracked down post-shipping crashes, and coordinated collecting bug reports, code/asset changes, and managed releases of 1.2 and 1.3 patches. On Star Wars: The Clone Wars, headed PS2 conversion from Gamecube, and implemented XBox Live setup code and user interface. On Star Wars: Battlefront, wrote crossplatform menuing system, XBox Live user interface and parts of the Gamespy user interface.

• Adrenalin Entertainment, Software Engineer. July 1996-1998. Ported Ten Pin Alley to Sega Saturn; additional programming for bowling AI and other platform-independent engine code for PSX and Windows95 versions of Ten Pin Alley and Brunswick Tournament of Champions Bowling. 3D art and animation translation and playback programs from AGFLI (3DS:Max Plugin) format to Playstation HMD and D3D DrawIndexedPrimitive for Brunswick Tournament of Champions and other art tools.

• Scalable Programming Laboratory, Caltech. Staff Programmer. February 1994 - April 1996. Developed large dataset manipulation tools for half-gigabyte files and scripts to automate lab work. Generated pictures and movies from results of all of the laboratory's scientific simulations with Alias|Wavefront's Data Visualizer and Composer; production quality video equipment used to create videos for publications and funding proposals.

• SoftDisk Publishing, Inc., Programming intern. Summer 1993. Wrote Apple IIGS utilities.

Education:

• Bachelor of Science in Engineering & Applied Science from California Institute of Technology, June 1996.

Activities and positions:

• President, Caltech Anime Society 1994-1995.
• National merit Finalist, 1992
• Boy Scouts 1986-1992. Earned Eagle Scout (highest Boy Scout) rank, May 1990.