Who's behind the curtain? There are, of course, many people involved in the creation of great games who never make it into the public eye. Maybe you know the name Bruce Shelley, but you probably don't know who spearheaded the amazing detailed art work in Age of Empires (Tony Goodman) or who created the game's artificial intelligence (Dave Pottinger).

We've talked to them in order to bring you a more in depth look at Age of Empires, and also because more people should know who these talented and creative people are.

History does nothing; it does not possess immense riches, it does not fight battles. It is men, real, living, who do all this. . . . It is not "history" which uses men as a means of achieving-as if it were an individual person-its own ends. History is nothing but the activity of men in pursuit of their ends.
-- Karl Marx (1818-83) and Friedrich Engels (1820-95), German social philosophers, revolutionaries. The Holy Family (1844-45). From The Columbia Dictionary of Quotations: Copyright (c) 1993, 1995 by Columbia University Press.