Industry Guests

---

     Edwin "IRONPINKY" Huang is a Professional comic artist, illustrator and storyboard artist with 15+ years of professional experience. Edwin is well known for his work at UDON Entertainment penciling Street Fighter 6, Street Fighter Unlimited and Street Fighter vs Darkstalkers. Edwin worked on Archie Comics' Sonic the Hedgehog comic book series and its spin-offs, as well as the Mega Man comic book series and has also contributed to the Sonic the Hedgehog comic series published by IDW Publishing. Edwin has also done work in the video game industry, as he contributed 8 different character designs for Ultra Street Fighter IV DLC and also did the promotional and cover art for TMNT: Shredder's Revenge. Edwin is also a concept artist at Premium Collectibles Studio and has done statue designs for Street Fighter, TMNT, Mortal Kombat, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Marvel, & WWE.

  Garry Kitchen is a video game designer, creator, and programmer who is best known for his work at Activision during the early years of the company's history. His career in interactive entertainment spans over 30 years, initially as a toy designer and quickly transitioning into a pioneer in the launch of the video game industry. From 1981-1995, Garry was an industry leader in the development of home video games. He has developed games for the Atari 2600, Commodore 64, Nintendo Entertainment System, and Super Nintendo Entertainment System. His port of Donkey Kong for the Atari 2600 was a major hit for Coleco, selling over 4 million copies. His other 2600 work includes Keystone Kapers and Pressure Cooker for Activision and Space Jockey for U.S. Games. He also wrote Garry Kitchen's GameMaker and The Designer's Pencil for the Commodore 64.

Kitchen co-founded Absolute Entertainment, Inc. with ex-Activision developers, building it into one of the leading video game developers in North America. Under his leadership, Absolute created more than 120 software titles while working with such leading entertainment companies as Nintendo, Sega, Sony, 3DO, Paramount Pictures, MCA, 20th Century Fox, and Acclaim.

Garry Kitchen, along with his brother Dan Kitchen and David Crane, founded Audacity Games in November 2020 to develop Atari 2600 games to be played on retro consoles. They plan to release these games as both physical copies alongside digital versions that are emulator-friendly. Their first title released is Circus Convoy, a collaboration between Garry Kitchen and David Crane. 

     David Crane is one of the most successful designers of entertainment software in the world. His award-winning video games, led by Pitfall!, Ghostbusters, A Boy and His Blob, and Amazing Tennis are acknowledged as some of the most innovative and popular in the interactive entertainment industry. Crane, a founder of Activision in 1979 & Absolute Entertainment in 1986, has consistently produced superb products, as evidenced by his worldwide sales of over 10 million games and wholesale revenues near 200 million dollars. Prior to his days at Activision, Crane was employed at Atari, where he wrote such hits as Outlaw, Slot Machine and Canyon Bomber. He was also instrumental in the design of the Atari 800 computer's operating system.

Crane's industry awards continue to mount with each new product. Pitfall! maintained the top slot on the Billboard charts for 64 weeks and was named video game of the year in 1982. Pitfall II: Lost Caverns was also the number one rated game in the country for over six months and won the 1984 Golden Floppy award for best game and the Video Adventure Game of the Year award for 1984. The Activision Decathlon was in the top 20 video games for more than one year and won several sports game awards. Other Activision hits written by Crane include Dragster, Fishing Derby, Laser Blast, Freeway, Grand Prix, Skateboardin' and Super Skateboardin' (the last one was for the Atari 7800).

Ghostbusters, Crane's 9th release for Activision achieved unprecedented sales in the United States, throughout Europe, and Japan. Crane's Little Computer People was awarded the 1985 award for the most innovative program of the year. A Boy and His Blob received the best of show award at its introduction and was the video game of the year for 1989. Crane was named designer of the year in 1983 and 1984 and his works have been called "beyond belief" and "offering the most remarkable breadth of any videogame(s) yet produced”.

David Crane, along with Dan & Garry Kitchen, founded Audacity Games in November 2020 to develop Atari 2600 games to be played on retro consoles. They plan to release these games as both physical copies alongside digital versions that are emulator-friendly.

      A.J. Kirsch has carved out quite the career for himself both in and out of gaming. Within the world of gaming, he's most recognized for providing the voice and motion-capture for "Buzz," the main character in MyCAREER mode of WWE2K19, WWE's flagship video game. His voice can also be found in WWE2K25 and Mafia: Definitive Edition. Outside of gaming, A.J. has a decorated history with pro wrestling, having won Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's "Rock the Promo" competition and making it to the final four contestants in reality show "WWE Tough Enough." A.J. is also an actor in dozens of commercials, movies, and several TV shows, but is busiest as a host, MC, hype man, presenter, and announcer for live and televised events of all kinds including conventions, fundraisers, conferences, combat sports, festivals, and nightlife events. He has hosted events leading up to and at the past three Super Bowls, he's host and PA announcer at other NorCal conventions including StocktonCon and Sac Gamers Expo, and more recently, he became the new in-game host for the social media sensation baseball team, the Savannah Bananas, and their arch-rivals, the Party Animals. Fire and Ice RGX is thrilled to have A.J. as our official host!

     Grayson Wendell joined the games industry in 2007 as a programmer at id Software and has since worked at Zynga, GREE, EA, Unity, & Activision.  He has worked on Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, Doom II RPG, RAGE, Words with Friends, Battlestone, Project Blackbird (cancelled game), Command and Conquer: Rivals, Star Wars: Rise to Power (cancelled game), Unity Engine, & Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile. A few years ago, he formed Sleepy Bits Games with his wife for Android & NES projects, and has just recently released their second original homebrew title, Old Oak Lane.  They have already announced their third NES game, The Halls of Talamh Domhain, which is their most ambitious yet.

 Grayson will be hosting a panel at Fire & Ice RGX about programing NES games in assembly!

Panel name: NES Code Crash Course

Panel description: 

Travel back to the 80s and learn how to program your own NES games in 6502 assembly! We'll run through available resources and an open source example project to let you hit the ground running. No prior experience, notebook, or laptop required!