Scott Miller first got into PC gaming with the original IBM PC, having been writing games since 1975 for machines like the Wang 2200 and the Commodore PET. “I don’t really know what got me playing games on the IBM PC, I was probably looking at games that were free or whatever on the internet”, he says. “That’s eventually what led me to start making games and releasing them on the internet too.”
Founding Apogee Software in 1987, Miller pioneered the shareware model of releasing a game’s first episode for free online, with customers able to purchase the remaining episodes. Through this model, Apogee published the Commander Keen series and Wolfenstein 3D. When Apogee became 3D Realms, Miller went on to produce games like Max Payne and 2006’s Prey.
Scott Miller
Scott Miller has been working in gaming for more than 50 years, writing his own games starting in 1975, before going on to found Apogee Software in 1987. He’s worn a lot of hats over that time, including programming, game design, running Apogee and serving as a producer.
Miller is still at the renamed Apogee Entertainment today, handling its publishing operations. “We have like 12 projects that we’re currently working on,” he says. “One of the games I’m really fond of playtesting here is Vexlands. It’s a little like Forager, but you’re opening up little spots of land constantly, and each time you open up a spot of land, it’s almost like pulling the handle on a slot machine. You don’t know what you’re gonna get.”
Miller took a break from testing Vexlands to share the wares currently installed on his PC. Together we drifted from the golden years of the MMO into the far, far west.
What game are you currently playing?
The current game that I’m really diving into is Far Far West. I’m only about an hour into it, but I’m really, really liking it. It’s a fun game. It’s in early access and it’s kind of a futuristic, robotic western-themed game.
It just does a lot of things right. You can level up your weapons, your character, your spells. It feels like an open-world game, but it’s not. But it gives you that feeling you can jump around and do whatever kind of quests or side quests that you want to do in whatever order you want to do it. There’s fun bosses, there’s fun puzzles. It’s just a fun game.
I’ve only played it singleplayer so far. You can play up to four people, so I’m looking forward to giving that a try too.
What was the previous game you played, and is it still installed?
It was a point-and-click game called The Drifter. And maybe the best one I’ve honestly ever played. This goes back to the Sierra games, you know. I love games like Space Quest and King’s Quest and those games. But this is gritty. It’s [got] a great story, great atmosphere, lots of twists and turns, good puzzles. I’m about halfway into it and it’s really sucked me in.
Before that, I was playing Stray. A little late to the party on that one; that’s a really impressive game too. I just liked the whole atmosphere that they set up. I thought the cat movement was really well done. And yeah, I fully enjoyed that game.
That’s my recent list. I do play a lot of our games that are in development. I probably play our games way more than other games, because there’s always new builds of games, and you’ve got to play through them and provide feedback to the team. So there’s a lot of that going on too.
What is the oldest game (by release date) currently installed on your PC?
Path of Exile. That’s what, 15 years old at least? [He’s close—it launched in 2013.]
I played the first five big chapters. I think there have been nine chapters now. I decided to restart the game, just to get refamiliarized with the whole thing, because I know there’s new chapters that are out now, and I know there’s a Path of Exile 2 that’s coming out. So I really want to get caught up on Path of Exile 1 before I dive into number two.
I’m always playing warrior style characters. I’m all about the melee. I like to get right in their face and pound away.
What is the highest number of hours you have in any given game, according to Steam?
I don’t know where to look that up, but I do know that the highest number of hours I’ve got in any game ever is World of Warcraft. I was such a fan of that game when it first came out. For the first two years [after it] came out I was totally into it every day, practically. So I imagine there’s at least 1,000 or more hours in that game … I played all the original expansion packs that came out. I think it was around level 80 when I stopped playing.
EverQuest was big before WoW and I had friends who played it, and I watched them play. It just seemed really difficult. You were heavily penalised when you died. It just seemed like too hard of a game. So when WoW came out, I had friends who were playing it in the company, and they were playing it as a singleplayer game, just having a ton of fun, making great progress.
And I thought ‘Well, you know, looks like they did this game to accommodate single players. I don’t really team up with other people when I play. So that’s the game I dove into, and it just immediately hooked me because it was a very fair game as a single player.
Then at times later down the road, you know, I was teaming up with friends and stuff, and we would go on quests and adventures together. But for the most part, you could just play that game as a singleplayer game and just keep levelling up. So that’s how I like to play games.
And that game really did scratch that itch. Just the whole vastness of the world, unlocking new areas. It was a very eye-opening experience for me.
What game will you never, ever uninstall?
I don’t know if I have a game like that. For the most part, when I finish a game, that’s usually it. I always feel like if I’m going to play a game, I’d rather play something I haven’t done before. Try something new.
There are certain iPhone games, which are my go-to little quick-fix games. I’m a real fan of minigolf games and stuff. And I’ve got several of those on my phone that I’ll put five or 10 minutes into every day, just for a quick little break. So those kinds of games, those kinds of long-term games, are really more on my phone.
What’s a piece of non-gaming software installed on your PC that you simply couldn’t live without?
I don’t really use [many tools] on my PC. I’ve got my browser. I’ve got Discord. And what else do I use? I’ll use Word once in a while.
I’ve got a snipping tool, I’ll use that three to four times a week. But I honestly try to keep things super simple on my PC, because when I load up my PC with stuff, it seems to always cause problems. So for the most part, I just use a browser and I have Discord, and those are the two things I’m in 99% of the time during the day.
How tidy is your desktop screen?
It’s pretty well organised. I don’t know if you’d look at it and say it’s tidy. I’ve got a huge 5k screen that’s I think 40-inches across. I’ve never been one of these people with two monitors. I just prefer having the biggest monitor I can get. And so I’ve got Discord on [one] side, I’ve got the browser on [the other] side, and I’ve got an area in between that relates to things I’m currently working on.
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