An early interview about the DOM Notation project from THE COMPUTER CHRONICLES (1987… interview begins at 5:15)
NBA Dynasty is out!
Working on several projects
As the school year starts, several projects are heating up on the work front. I’m pitching as an advisor on several stealth projects, MeetingWave.com and the just launched ALPHA version of Classroomparents.org. Please check these sites out and let me know what you think.
2nd half of 2009
It sure seems like things are starting to turn around in the e-Commerce world. I’m personally advising on several different projects and, as I keep an eye out for the next big thing to work on, there are lots of projects that are under way.. some even with revenue already!
I’m spending most of my time juggling EWB Baseball development and 2 stealth start up projects. Fortunately, the hard-core EWB fans are rallying around the iPhone project… especially with downloadable stats. Season play and an exciting new feature or two are next.
About Green.com
It was with a surprising amount of sadness that I heard the news that IAC will likely pull the plug on Green.com … for those of you who didn’t get the chance to see it or hear about it, it was a site a group of us started for IAC aimed at pre-teens… providing them an unbelievably cool virtual world, a safe social network, a kid-oriented wikipedia-like research tool called the Gno and all wrapped around the theme of making kids more environmentally literate and motivated towards creating a better future for our planet.
I’ve been away from the company about 6 months, there was still a crew there trying everything they could to make it happen.
There were some really, really talented people who worked on Green.com and I’m grateful to them for the chance to create what we did. (in no particular order)… Ed, Ray, Kirk, JP, Lee, Kristin, Jim, Kevin, Rita, Arthur, Greg, Graeme, Nick, Jen, Rachel, Allison, Christina, Connie, Margaret, Chris… and many others. I also am grateful to Kiele for her dedication and terrific contributions both when I was running the shop and since she took over the reins.
I’m not sure what will happen with the team or the property, but it is my hope to be able to work with everyone again in the future… it isn’t sad because the business didn’t make it, it is sad because there was such a wonderful family of people working on creating an interactive work of art. And, the Art we created will live on.
My Latest Projects
As some of you may know, I’ve returned (involuntarily, but now happily) to working for/running the Dombrower Corporation as an independent Consultant, Developer, Creative Director, Product Designer, Freelance Web Executive, whatever. I’m having a great time and get to work my own hours and spend lots of time with my kids.
When I left IAC (see Projects History Page to see what I was doing there) in December, a dear friend pointed out there was no baseball simulator for the iPhone. So, both as a labor of love as well as a much needed catharsis, I spent 4 months porting the Earl Weaver Baseball II engine over to the iPhone as EWB BASEBALL.
EWB Baseball for iPhone
Also, I feel very fortunate that several start ups have reached out to me for my help, advice and, in some cases, time. Currently, I’m helping out at Big Green Company
Charlie, the Big Green Rabbit
(the makers of Big Green Rabbit which can be seen country-wide on PBS or on the web) and several other Boulder-based companies.
I Got It Baseball update
For those looking for news about I Got it Baseball (or igiBall).. here’s an update.
For the past several years I’ve had an incredible job with IAC building new products for them and so haven’t been able to make any updates to igiBall. With the just started (March 2009) release of my baseball game (EWB BASEBALL) for the iPhone, I’ve been making improvements to the underlying engine in both EWBB and igiBall.
IF (and that’s a pretty big if), there’s enough interest in EWBB (i.e. actual sales), I will have the time and resources to move those improvements over to igiBall.
However, part of the EWB Baseball project is to consider how to make over-the-Internet play work. So, should that pan out, I will make an update to igiBall to connect users that want to play one another over the Internet.
The first step will be to provide a method for uploading/downloading stats/league files that users create (both games use the exact same file format). Files can be created using igiBall for EWBB so the two projects will become closer and closer over time.
Stay tuned. Best to follow the EWBB blog or ewbbaseball on twitter.
EWB Baseball – for iPhone
The latest iteration of my baseball games is now available for the iPhone… Called EWB Baseball, the first version was released in the App store in late March. Several updates have been made as I’m continually unlocking the features that are in the legacy program.
I’ll also be creating some new features. Initial sales were promising and, when I’ve got enough of the new features in, I’ll create a free version to try to really move sales… Probably in the next month or two.
Follow what’s going on with EWB Baseball (and igiBall) at ewbbaseball.com or on ewbbaseball on twitter.
Earl Weaver Baseball – Still get questions
I still get questions about Earl Weaver Baseball after all these years (EA stopped distribution in 1994 or so).
I don’t officially support Earl Weaver Baseball, but I’ve had enough requests that I still help out when I can.
If you’re looking for information, stats files, etc. about Earl Weaver Baseball, go to my Unofficial Earl Weaver Baseball Support Site.
Or send me a note using the CONTACT US on the right.
Earl Weaver Baseball Unofficial Support
Contents:
These zipped stats files are free to download (they range from 15K to 40K in size). After each file name is a description of which format the stats are in. If you have some stats that you have entered and would like to make available to other players, please use the Contact Us form.
| Old Timers | In EWB II format |
| AL Greats* | In EWB II format |
| NL Greats* | In EWB II format |
| AL Greats* | In EWB 1.1/1.5 format. To use with Amiga versions, rename Players.dat file to Players.s |
| NL Greats* | In EWB 1.1/1.5 format. To use with Amiga versions, rename Players.dat file to Players.s |
* Thanks to Rick Teverbaugh for providing these stats at no charge.
User Supplied Stats – These stats are provided by users of EWB and/or igiBall baseball products. They are provided here only as a convenience to other users. Dombrower Corporation makes no warranty as to the quality of the stats OR any copyright or trademark clearances which are the responsibilities of the providers.
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In EWB II format. |
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In EWB II format. |
These files were created to provide compatibility between EWB formatted stats and other formats. igiBall will import stats in EWB II format and/or CSV format.
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Converts files |
EWB Unofficial Support Site FAQ
Q: Are any of the EWB products available for sale or distribution?
A: No. Electronic Arts’ deal to distribute EWB products has concluded. Eddie Dombrower owns all the
copyrights in the code and data that went into creating the EWB game engines and is currently developing new products based on this software and data. Earl Weaver’s permission to allow
Electronic Arts to use his name and likeness in products has also expired and so there is currently no way to distribute the Earl Weaver Baseball products.
Q: So, why can you distribute the stats disks and other EWB utilities?
A: As long as we do not use Earl Weaver’s name and likeness in any products, the Dombrower Corporation has been granted the rights to distribute products, code, and data owned by Eddie Dombrower.
Q: Why did Eddie stop working on baseball games/leave the computer games business?
A: After working on baseball games for 10 years (2 at Mattel, and 8 creating EWB), he had a desire to work on other types of products. Eddie designed one more baseball game for Electronic Arts to program internally based on the EWB engine. With the working title “Baseball ’93,” for unknown reasons, this title was never produced. In 1991, Eddie also consulted on the product “Baseball Live” for Electronic Arts with BitWise software to use the EWB engine and EWB II graphics to play back MLB games in progress using the Internet (pre-web) tosupply game data (from Stats Inc.) with a 15 minute lag time.
In this way, users could log on and “watch” a game from anywhere in the country. There was actually had a working prototype of this functioning quite well before the project mysteriously shut down by EA.
After these two experiences, Eddie decided to move on and took a job with Activision where he produced Return to Zork and became the executive producer for Activision’s “Interactive Stories” (i.e. adventure games) group. In 1994, Eddie joined the Jim Henson Company to help envision and start an interactive effort with the Muppets and other Henson properties.
After Henson, Eddie helped create “convergence” properties including “Kindle Park” which can be found at www.thinkboxmedia.com. He was then hired as Vice President of “Digital Financial Media” at E*TRADE Financial managing many of the in-house creative and product design teams as well as the web design and development team. From there Eddie went on to help AT&T Wireless with their final site redesign (before merging with Cingular) and connecting their web sales experience in their 1000+ retail outlets.
From there, Eddie joined Match.com (part of IAC) where he led the creation of the Chemistry.com business, incorporated Dr. Phil into Match.com’s product offering and led the 2007 site redesign. While still at Match, Eddie became the Managing Director of “designIAC” a small team he led that helped many of the IAC companies with site design/redesign issues, evaluation of their web sites, and the creation of several new businesses. His last effort at IAC was as President of the “emerging business” Green.com which launched in late 2008.
Eddie is currently consulting through the Dombrower Corporation for several start ups focusing on Boulder companies including Big Green Company, the creators of Big Green Rabbit.
In March of 2009, Eddie released the first version of EWB Baseball for the iPhone based on the legacy baseball software he began creating in 1985.
Q: Is there ever going to be a sequel to Earl Weaver
Baseball?
A: Not technically BUT, I Got It Baseball (or igiBall) is Eddie’s
latest project and is based extensively on the EWB game engines.
The Dombrower Corporation is the exclusive distributor for this
shareware baseball simulator/fantasy game. igiBall can
be downloaded at www.bangbangplay.com
Please feel free to contact Eddie Dombrower
with your comments, questions, and requests by using the Contact Us form on this site or by clicking here: Contact Eddie