Jay Balakrishnan - HESWare, Radical, Dynamics, Solid State Software

In the earliest days of the gaming biz, Human Engineered Software was a trailblazer, bringing big names like Jeff Minter to the US.  The company's founder, Jay Balakrishnan, is a serial entrepreneur who not only would help create the mass market for software at retail but would also have a long and storied career in games beyond Hes ware with such companies as Radical Entertainment and Dynamics.  
I spoke to Jay in November and December of 2023, and after a few technical hiccups we finally got a connection going and we jump right into that today, so don't worry that I don't start things off with my traditional chronology obsessed focus, we'll wrap around and cover the whole story as we go along.  Enjoy!

Recorded: November-December 2023

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Links:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Engineered_Software
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Minter
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auto_Becker
https://archive.org/details/ArticleHESWARESignsNimoy
https://archive.org/details/HESWARESpokesmanLeonardNimoyAndJayBalakrishanAt1984CES
https://www.mobygames.com/game/76/shamus/
https://archive.org/details/HESWARENewInvestmentsPressRelease
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VisiCalc
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vizastar
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radical_Entertainment
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamix
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WildTangent
https://www.mobygames.com/person/27385/jay-balakrishnan/credits/
https://www.straight.com/article-87384/indies-may-just-take-over-the-gaming-world
https://www.straight.com/article/hollywood-touch-may-be-too-much-for-games
https://www.bcbusiness.ca/industries/general/vancouver-gaming-industry-digital-warfare/
https://ataripodcast.libsyn.com/antic-interview-285-jay-balakrishnan-hesware
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaybalakrishnan

Copyright Karl Kuras