Robert J. Woodhead (born 1958 or 1959) is an American

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value in ways that generally entail beyond the minimal amount of risk (assumed by a traditional business), and potentially involving values besides simply economic ones. An entreprene ...

software engineer Software engineering is a branch of both computer science and engineering focused on designing, developing, testing, and maintaining software applications. It involves applying engineering principles and computer programming expertise to develop ...

and former

game programmer A game programmer is a software engineer, programmer, or computer scientist who primarily develops codebases for video games or related software, such as game development tools. Game programming has many specialized disciplines, all of which fall ...

. He is the co-creator of the ''

Wizardry Wizardry may refer to: * ''Wizardry'' (video game series), role-playing video game series, originally published by Sir-Tech ** '' Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord'', the first game of the series, released in 1981 * ''Wizardry'' (The ...

'' franchise, and the co-founder of both the video game publishing company

Sir-Tech Sir-Tech Software, Inc. was a video game developer and video game publisher, publisher based in the United States and Canada. History In fall 1979, Sirotech Software was founded by Norman Sirotek, Robert Sirotek and Robert Woodhead. Sirotech Soft ...

and anime licensing company

AnimEigo AnimEigo is an American entertainment company that licenses and distributes anime, samurai films and Japanese cinema. Founded in 1988 by Robert Woodhead and Roe R. Adams III, the company was one of the first in North America dedicated to licens ...

. He claims that a common thread in his career is "doing weird things with computers".

Career

In 1979, he co-founded Sirotech (later known as

) with Norman Sirotek and Robert Sirotek. Along with Andrew C. Greenberg, he created the

Apple II Apple II ("apple Roman numerals, two", stylized as Apple ][) is a series of microcomputers manufactured by Apple Computer, Inc. from 1977 to 1993. The Apple II (original), original Apple II model, which gave the series its name, was designed ...

video game, game ''Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord'', one of the first role-playing video games written for a personal computer, as well as several of its sequels. Woodhead designed the 1982 Apple II arcade game '' Star Maze'', which was programmed by Gordon Eastman and sold through Sir-Tech. He told ''TODAY'' magazine in 1983, "I have loads of arcade game ideas, but lack the patience to do the actual coding. I'm sort of a big project person; I like the challenge of a program like ''Wizardry''." Later, he authored Interferon and Virex, two of the earliest anti-

virus A virus is a submicroscopic infectious agent that replicates only inside the living Cell (biology), cells of an organism. Viruses infect all life forms, from animals and plants to microorganisms, including bacteria and archaea. Viruses are ...

applications for the

Macintosh Mac is a brand of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 1984. The name is short for Macintosh (its official name until 1999), a reference to the McIntosh (apple), McIntosh apple. The current product lineup inclu ...

, and co-founded

, one of the first US

anime is a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, , in Japan and in Ja ...

releasing companies. As a result of this venture, while living in

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

, he married his

translator Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''trans ...

and

interpreter Interpreting is translation from a spoken or signed language into another language, usually in real time to facilitate live communication. It is distinguished from the translation of a written text, which can be more deliberative and make use o ...

, Natsumi Ueki, together with whom he has two children. He also ran a search engine promotion website called SelfPromotion.com. As a hobby, he builds combat robots, and his children, James Ueki and Alex Ueki, are the 2004 and 2005 Robot Fighting League National Champions in the 30 lb Featherweight class. Woodhead made a cameo appearance in the 1982 video game ''

Ultima II ''Ultima II: The Revenge of the Enchantress'', released on August 24, 1982, for the Apple II (United States Copyright Office, USCO# PA-317-502), is the second role-playing video game in the ''Ultima (series), Ultima'' series, and the second ins ...

'' as an NPC; when the player talked to him he would scream "Copy Protect!", a sarcastic reference to the extensive

copy protection Copy protection, also known as content protection, copy prevention and copy restriction, is any measure to enforce copyright by preventing the reproduction of software, films, music, and other media. Copy protection is most commonly found on vid ...

methods used in video games of the time. He also has a screen credit in the film ''

Real Genius ''Real Genius'' is a 1985 American science fiction comedy film directed by Martha Coolidge, written by Neal Israel, Pat Proft, and PJ Torokvei, and starring Val Kilmer and Gabriel Jarret. The film, set on the campus of Pacific Tech, a scie ...

'' as their "Hacking Consultant". Woodhead has created two successful

Kickstarter Kickstarter, PBC is an American Benefit corporation, public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York City, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative project ...

projects, "''

Bubblegum Crisis is a 1987-1991 Japanese cyberpunk original video animation (OVA) series produced by Youmex and animated by Anime International Company, AIC and Artmic. The series involves the adventures of the Knight Sabers, an all-female group of Mercenar ...

'' Ultimate Edition Blu-Ray Set" ($153,964 pledged on a $75,000 goal), and "BackerSupport" ($326 pledged on a $100 goal). Woodhead has also served on the Eve Online Council of Stellar Management with an in-game avatar name of Trebor Daehdoow. He was re-elected for 4 terms, serving in his last term as Chairman.

References

External links

Animeigo homepage

Family website

Campaign page for CSM 7 election

Robert Woodhead
at

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

Robert Woodhead
at

MobyGames MobyGames is a commercial website that catalogs information on video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controlle ...

Candidacy post for CSM 7 elections

Eve Online Profile page for Trebor Daehdoow

Eve Online Blog
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Woodhead, Robert 20th-century American businesspeople American businesspeople in retailing American video game designers American video game programmers Anime industry Cornell University alumni 1950s births Year of birth missing (living people) Living people