Pop Rocket is a publisher and developer of interactive media. It was founded in the hills of San Francisco way back in December of 1991, by three experienced multimedia professionals: Joe Sparks, Maura Sparks, and Kent Carmical. The three of them are the inspiration behind the eagerly awaited and infamous Music Video Adventure Game known as Total Distortion.
The company has received significant press coverage since its inception, and is viewed falsely by some to be a very large conglomerate with hundreds of employees, but in fact, it is a rather small bunch of ordinary people that simply never sleep. At last count, there were 8 and a half people working at Pop Rocket.
Some people wonder why they spend so much time on one title while other companies are cranking out 13 titles a month, but the philosophy at Pop Rocket is simply that Quality is better than Quantity. And if 600 megabytes of carefully crafted, extremely non-linear, interactive media on one CD-ROM is less favorable to you than 600 megabytes of rapidly shoveled, click and watch, not so interactive media on 13 CD-ROM's, then they recommend you by their competitor's 13 boring CD-ROM's at $13 each.
Of course, they couldn't do all this without the help of numerous people around the world. Please take a look at their Special Thanks Page, to see some of the many to whom they are grateful for patience and support.
You can find out more about their history by looking through the Press Releases that have been cranked out over the years to keep the press occupied. And if you are self-motivated, talented, and like to work for the fun of it, take a look at our Want-Ads for info on positions that are currently available, or might become available some day in the near future.
Joe Sparks is president and
development
leader. Before the words "interactive" and "multimedia" were even coined,
Joe made a big splash as the
co-developer of
the best-selling CD-ROM title, Spaceship WarlockΓΌ,
and is internationally
recognized in the industry as a leading producer of interactive media.
Previously, he was principal of Artificial Works, a
multimedia production company, where he led major projects in multimedia
and virtual reality for Apple Computer, NASA, Paracomp, Macromedia, and
VPL Research, and many others.
Maura Sparks is director, creative business executive and multimedia artist for the company. She has a background in marketing, graphic design, and computer arts. Maura was partner in Artificial Works, where she managed multimedia projects, corporate videos, game graphics and promotions for VPL Research, Electronic Arts, Apple Computer, NASA and Reactor. At Paracomp, Maura helped bring to market the company's flagship product, Swivel 3D. She also managed advertising, co-marketing, and trade shows.
Kent Carmical is director, lead musician, and sound designer for Pop Rocket. Kent is also an accomplished guitarist, songwriter, and vocalist. Kent brings creative musical talents and strong recording skills to Pop Rocket's creative team. Prior to Pop Rocket, Kent created, produced, and engineered music and sound for SF/Bay Area music groups, Apple Computer, Atari, and Passport Designs.
Andrea Luskin joined Pop Rocket in September of 1994 as the Vice President of Sales. Previously, she worked for 4 plus years, most recently as Director of Channel Sales & Marketing for T/Maker company, a leading developer and publisher of software for the business and consumer marketplace. Andrea has considerable experience in building a sales and marketing team from the ground-up. Prior to T/Maker, she worked as an associate analyst at the investment banking firm of Comman, Howard & Flamen. Andrea has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from UC Berkeley.
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