I'm Tom Sloper. This is an old photo of me that I still like. A designer and producer of computer and video games, I am perhaps best known for my work on the Shanghai series of games for Activision. I am an expert on the classic Chinese game of mah-jongg. (And I'm humble, too.) (^_^)

An engineering designer and modelmaker/draftsman by training, I began my entertainment career as a theater set and lighting designer before becoming a game designer and modelmaker in Southern California in the late 1970s. I designed games for the legendary Vectrex game system (Spike, Bedlam) and other platforms at Western Technologies and Sega Enterprises before joining Atari Corp. in 1986 as Director of Product Development, where I was involved in the revitalization of the 2600 and 7800 game systems after the Atari Crash of 1983. Then I worked at Activision for 12 years, 1988-2000. Then I freelanced and contributed to books, and spoke at numerous game conferences. You can see a complete list of my released games (from the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s) here.

For 15 years, I taught video game and business information technologies courses at the University of Southern California and received a Master's degree in Social Entrepreneurship. I'm interested in helping develop games for social impact.


HOBBIES & INTERESTS:

o Music - My SoundCloud page
o The American Civil War - Visit my Civil War site, BloodAndEarth.com, to read about my Civil War ancestors!
o Astronomy and Cosmology - Click here to read my Wacky Theory Of Black Holes, Big Bangs, Universes, & Everything)
o Genealogy (especially as regards my Civil War ancestors
o I don't have a cat now, but I did have two cats, Bob & John - Click here to see pictures.
o Japan - Click here to see pictures.
o Mah-jongg - After 9 years of making Shanghai games, I learned a lot about mah-jongg. I wrote a book, and participated in mah-jongg tournaments in Japan, Europe, China, and the US.