The Bruce Artwick Organization Ltd.
| Bruce Artwick | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1953 (age 63–64) Norridge, Illinois, United States |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | University of Illinois |
Bruce Artwick is the creator of the first consumer flight simulator software. He founded subLOGIC after graduating from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign in 1977, and released the first version of Flight Simulator for the Apple II the following year. The name subLOGIC came from logic circuits he built for the PDP-11 in the University of Illinois' Digital Computer Laboratory (DCL). His original Apple II software was purchased by Microsoft in 1982 and became Microsoft Flight Simulator.
After subLOGIC, Bruce founded the Bruce Artwick Organization which continued development of flight simulator products which was eventually bought out by Microsoft.
Artwick was born and raised in Norridge, Illinois and attended Triton Junior College before going to University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign to study computer engineering in 1973. When he got there, Artwick switched his focus at first to electrical engineering because he believed that the degree would be more acceptable to the public eye. As a student at U of I, Artwick expressed his enthusiasm for aviation by doing research at the Aviation Research Lab holding a technician position in DCL. Between 1975-1976 Artwick and his graphic group in the University designed graphic terminals for DCL. During this time, Artwick found himself the time to become a pilot. The amount of hours spent doing graphics accumulated to a rich understanding for the topic which according to Bruce, he said, "I learned more working in the basement of DCL than in classes." Artwick graduated with a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering in 1975 and obtained a master's degree in electrical Engineering in the following year.
In his thesis of May 1976, called “A versatile computer generated dynamic light display” he displayed a model of the flight of an aircraft on a computer screen. With this, Artwick proved that it was possible to use the 6800 microprocessor which was the first available microcomputer to handle the graphics and calculations of the specifications needed to produce real-time flight simulation. After creating the SubLogic Company, Artwick took his thesis one step further by developing the first flight simulator program for the Apple II which was based on the 6502 microprocessor. He followed up his product with a Radio Shack TRS-80 version. By the year 1981, Flight Simulator became so popular that it was reportedly the best-selling title for Apple.
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