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6 - Morrisville and Preston Proeress. Wednesday. September 30. 1998 Interactive Magic hits mark with new CD-ROM game Continued from page 1 On July 31, Interactive Magic announced that BlueStone Capital Partners, L.P. and Royce Investment Group, Inc. had exercised in full their right to purchase an additional 390,000 shares of Interactive Magic Common Stock at the initial public offering price. The company com pleted its Initial Public Offering of 2.6 million shares at an initial offer ing price of $8 per share on July 27. The shares sold out. Interactive Magic is a publicly traded company on NASDAQ under the ticker IMGK. In other words. Interactive Magic (www.imagicgames.com) the com pany, based in the Research Triangle Park area of North Carolina, has hit its target. It did so by going to great lengths to make its games true to life. Example: The development team, headed by Stealey himself, traveled to the Patuxent River Naval Air Station in Maryland where US offi cials were conducting tests of the new F/A-18E and F models. Audio and video recordings were made during actual flight-testing. Non- classified information about the plane’s cockpit, avionics and flight models were received and detailed. The team took dozens of pho tographs on the deck of the USS Lincoln to accurately obtain details of the carrier, support aircraft and the aircrew. Depth and realism extends to ground terrain, rivers, valleys and hills encountered during flights, even transparent smoke and missile trail effects — all adding realism to the flights.. To meet Stealey is to understand Magic’s success. For him, the game’s still the thing. “I’m my best customer,” he says. “They don’t go out unless I like ‘em.” A graduate of the Air Force Academy, where he earned a bache lor of science degree in aeronautical engineering, and later an MBA in finance and strategic management from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, Stealey is a seasoned pilot. He still regularly flies his T-28 vintage WWII Warbird in and out of Raleigh-Durham Airport. More than a decade ago, Stealey and a partner founded a company in Baltimore called MicroProsc, which created militaristic sounding com puter games such as F-15 Strike Eagle, Civilization, and Silent Service. The success of those games raised MicroProse to a publicly - traded position and sales of more than $47 million a year and 425 employees. The company went pub lic in 1991 and merged with Spectrum HoloByte in 1993. After resigning from the board of directors in 1993, Stealey took a year and a half off to play golf, watch his professional indoor soccer team, the Baltimore Spirit, and fly his World War II vintage plane. Prior to joining the software indus try, Stealey was the group director of business development for General Instrument, where he was responsible for planning processes and strategic plans for the group that included four divisions. He also ini tiated merger and acquisition activi ties for the group. Interactive Magic’s President is Robert J. Pickens, the man who founded the company and is respon sible for the day-to-day business operations. Prior to joining Interactive Magic, Pickens was the president and CEO of Washington Aluminum Company. He was responsible for the operations and business admin istration of the company’s five divi sions. While in this position, the company tripled in sales over a five- year period. From 1970 to 1986, Pickens held various operations and sales positions at Kaiser Aluminum and Chemical Corporation, one of the world’s four largest aluminum companies. Pickens is a former member and former moderator of the Young President’s Organization and mem ber of the board of directors of the Washington Aluminum Company. Pickens holds a bachelor of arts degree in psychology from Davidson College in North Carolina and has completed MBA work at Gonzago University, West Virginia University, University of Toledo, and Tulane University. He is cur rently pursuing his MS in applied behavioral sciences from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Stealey admits Magic has a narrow f(x;us of simulators and strategy games. Three major interests encompasse his design philosophy. First, every strategy game should have some action, and every simulation should have some strategy. Second, every one of the games should offer some thing to the neophyte gamer as well as to the jaded old pro. Third, in the near future multi-player gaming will grow to become a major sector Of the market. Two Morrisville police officers receive training certificates Two Morrisville Police Officers have received certificates for advanced training this summer. Sgt. Allen Rushing, acting police chief of the Morrisville Police Department, was awarded the Advanced Certificate by the North Carolina Criminal Justice Education Standards Commission on May 22. The Advanced Certificate is the highest professional certificate awarded to law enforcement and criminal justice officers in North Carolina. To qualify, officers must If your child doesn't get math, get help. 8 out of 10 Sylvan students improve their math skills by one academic year in 5 months. Two Locations: CARY 467-8097 GARNER 779-2229 complete a cobination of profession al training and relevant education and meet minimum experience requirements. Rushing is one of 111 officers to receive the Advanced Certificate at the Commission’s quarterly meeting in Raleigh. Ira W. Jones graduated from the Grade Crossing Collision Investigation Training class held by the Governor’s Highway Safety Program and North Carolina Operation Lifesaver, Inc. in June. He was among 32 law enforcement officers across the state who was trained by Aberdeen and Rockfish Railroad Company employees, Norfolk Southern and CSX Transportation police officers, the NC Department of Transportation, Amtrak, NTSB, FRA, and other instructors on grade crossing colli sion investigations. Sylvan Learning "/t' Center' >s is leorned."’ www.edijcate.com if W STWfSnus The Morrisville & Preston Progress 616 West Chatham Street, P.O. Box 1539 Apex, NC 27502 Phone: (919) 362-8356 Fax: (919) 362-1369 Randy Lohrenz Publisher Thomas Melville Editor Published monthly by Community Newspaper Holdings, Inc., 616 West Chatham St.. Apex. NC 27.502. Periodicals postage paid at Apex, NC. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The Morrisville & Preston Progress, P.O. Box 1539, Apex, NC 27502. Committed! To Ediucetion Committedi To You Herb Council's Education Commitment to the Citizens of Wake County It's one thing to support quality education, and another to be willing to fund it. That's why I've given my Education Pledge to the citizens of Wake County: As your County Commissioner, you have my pledge to immediately work with the School Board and the Commissioners to jointly structure an education bond referendum to: • FULLY FUND the construction of new schools • FULLY FUND maintenance and repairs for existing schools • FULLY FUND a technology program to bring Wake County Schools into the 21 st century. But facilities and equipt. nt are only part of the equation. All the buildings and computers in the world can't take the place of first-rate teachers. As your County Commissioner, you'll have my pledge to support PROFESSIONAL PAY for our PROFESSIONAL TEACHERS. And how do we reach our goals? We equip our schools with the resources they need, then, we, as County Commissioners, get out of the way. We take off our political "hats" and build TRUST AND COOPERATION with the School Board. Then step back and rely on them to getthe job done. It is that simple. You have my pledge. On Nov. 3 VOTE It’s just a Hole in the Head By Roxanne Powers Staff Writer A few months ago, I was amused when my mother told me that she had discovered a disease called “Hole in the Head Disease” while shopping for fish to stock her water garden. As a person who takes her job as a know-it-all- daughter seriously, I said, “Mama, are you sure someone wasn’t just having fun with you?” Now, in my own defense, I will say that 41 years as a know-it-all- daughter, have taught me that I really don’t know it all...or even very much at all, so you may be happy to know that the question held not a hint of condescension. I just thought that perhaps some one was looking in that pond with Mama and seeing all those bug eyed, big mouthed fish swimming around pretending to act confused, while, really just looking for para sites, reminded them of Bill Clinton, which, in turn, caused them to comment on holes in the head- Some other fish-shopping person might then have inquired about that strange disease ^at’s being reported that causes fish to get holes in the head, and from there, that dear lady who is after ail, her daughters’ mother, put the two together and unwittingly came up with this cute little disease called “Hole in the Head Disease”. I envisioned a fish sales person patronizing my mother’s unusual lapse into gullibility. I foresaw cocky television broadcasters denouncing this “new disease” touted as “Hole in the Head Disease” with facetious smirks. I envisioned my mother shrugging as the world looked on, and responding with her cute little grin, while saying, “Well! I thought that was what the guy said!” 1 waited for the tingling to begin in my left hip bone...the one that often tells me if I’m truly having a premonition of things to come, or just suffering from an over active imagination. No tingling. I waited some more. Still, no tingling. Weeks passed, and every time I thought of this dread disease, I would pause and quietly wait for the tingling. Nothing. Finally, after a few months of this no tingling nonsense, I swal lowed my pride, and put a call in to fish pro, Todd Wenzel at Fish Pros Aquarium Shop in Raleigh. Tentatively, I queried, “Uh...is there really a disease called ‘Hole in the Head Disease’?” I fully expected the voice on the other end to loudly guffaw, and pronounce to everyone in the store, “Hey, Guys! There’s a lady on the phone that wants to know if there really is a disease called ‘Hole in the Head Disease!’ “ Of course, this would be fol lowed by much louder guffawing, which would then be followed by someone yelling, “Quick! Check the Caller ID! I’ve got some land I want to sell her in Iran!” Instead, Todd just calmly responded, “Yeah. It’s more com monly called, HLLE or ‘Head in lateral line erosion’. It can be caused by any number of things: voltage leaking, Hexamita, or other parasitic organisms.” “Oh.” I responded. “Then this does explain what happened to Clinton.” “Excuse me?” Todd asked with understandable caution. “Oh, never mind,” I sighed, “I’m just an attorney looking for an excuse for my newest client.” Now, understand that I’m a per son who is always coming up with creative ideas. Not necessarily great creative ideas, but, some are more feasible than others. Someday I’m going to get rich on one of those ideas, but, unfortu nately, it will probably be the one that has to do with a better design on caskets, and I’ll be the first ten ant to use that particular design theory. But, at least my new found wealth will allow my kids to have the opportunity to improve their education enough to come up with some corny little epitaph for my tombstone like: “Here lies Mom, in the best box ever. Usually, she would bomb, but, this time, was clever.” So, keeping this in mind, I thought, “Hey! Maybe I really do have something here! Maybe I could call up those ambulance chaser kind of attorneys and offer my idea that their clients ate too much seafood, and got “Hole in the Head Disease”, and that’s why their clients committed their par ticular crimes!” Don’t laugh now. Think of the numerous possibilities: First, you have Clinton, who, much of the American population judges inof fensive for lacking trustworthiness, but, finds him very offensive for lying about being untrustworthy. (I love this potential scenario where the public whines: “I for give him for selling our country to Sadam Hussein and allowing half our population to be killed, it’s the lying about it that bothers me!”) Also, don’t forget, there’s the proported normally responsible Daniel Rodbourn whose biggest crime was that he allowed his adrenalin to frighten him enough to kill a man in an effort to defend his employer from a robbery, only to have a grand jury indict him for involuntary manslaughter, while, at the same time, you have this Williamson guy who killed two Chapel Hill people seemingly for sport, and was awarded (or was it rewarded?) $500,000 from a psy chiatrist who...silly him...didn’t know that Williamson wouldn’t take the medicine he prescribed, which presumably, would have kept Williamson from getting bored enough to kill people for sport- So, again, think of the possibili ties! After I sell those ambulance chasing type of attorneys my hole in the head theory, I can go to the psychiatrists with my tingling leg phenomenon. If, on meeting their client, I have a tingling in my leg that says their client is lying, the good doctor can just go ahead and commit them for life, which is what any sensible doctor will be doing from now on, anyway; and if my leg tingles whenever I think of caskets, I can just go ahead and take that trip to Rome and charge it to the White House, ‘cause many of America’s taxpayers seem to be suffering from the dreaded“Hole in ±e Head Disease” and won’t know the difference anyway. Roxanne Powers is a Morrisville resident. Her column appears in The Progress monthly. SUNDAY, OCTOBER 4™. 3pm Mn Under a Bigtop Morrisville Town Hall Ti/iF Grounds • Morrisville - Carpenter Rd. Sponsored by: Morrisville Parks & Recreation Dept. TICKET PRICES ADVANCE CIRCUS DAY ADULT $ 6.00 $8.00 CHILD $4.00 $5.00 ADVANCE TICKET OUTLETS ' Morrisville Community Center, Chamber of Commerce Davis Family Barbecue
Morrisville and Preston Progress (Morrisville, N.C.)
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