# Robert Woodhead - Maker: Programmer - Houses: Sir-Tech Software - Canonical: https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/robert-woodhead/ > The Sir-Tech co-founder who co-created Wizardry with Andrew Greenberg, lent his reversed name to the Mad Overlord Trebor, then wrote early Mac antivirus software and co-founded the anime label AnimEigo. **Why it matters:** Woodhead co-designed and co-programmed Wizardry, the first true party-based computer RPG, and helped build Sir-Tech into the publisher that carried it around the world. ## Quick answers **Who is Robert Woodhead?** The Sir-Tech co-founder who co-created Wizardry with Andrew Greenberg, lent his reversed name to the Mad Overlord Trebor, then wrote early Mac antivirus software and co-founded the anime label AnimEigo. **What is Robert Woodhead known for?** Robert Woodhead is best known for Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord. **Why does Robert Woodhead matter to fantasy and games?** Woodhead co-designed and co-programmed Wizardry, the first true party-based computer RPG, and helped build Sir-Tech into the publisher that carried it around the world. ## Life Robert J. Woodhead's birth year is given only approximately in published sources, so this entry omits it. He has described the common thread in his career as "doing weird things with computers," and the list bears him out: computer RPGs, copy protection jokes, antivirus software, anime subtitling and combat robots. His great game grew from the currents of the late 1970s that also shaped his collaborator [Andrew C. Greenberg](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/andrew-greenberg/): [Dungeons & Dragons](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/original-dungeons-and-dragons/), the mainframe dungeon games of the [PLATO](https://www.lanternhall.org/culture/plato-system/) network, which *Wizardry* drew on, and the arrival of the Apple II. ## Work In the fall of 1979 Woodhead co-founded Sirotech Software, soon renamed [Sir-Tech Software](https://www.lanternhall.org/houses/sir-tech/), with Norman Sirotek and members of the Sirotek family. The young company published a database program and a game called *Galactic Attack*, but its future lay with Greenberg's dungeon project. Greenberg had begun the game at Cornell in 1978; Woodhead joined him, and together they turned it into [Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/wizardry/). When the Applesoft BASIC version proved too slow, they rewrote it in UCSD Pascal, which meant waiting until early 1981 for a run-time system that allowed commercial release. Sir-Tech showed a beta at the 1980 Boston Computer Convention and shipped *Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord* in September 1981, after nearly a year of playtesting and balancing, in professionally designed packaging that set it apart from the Ziploc-bag software of the day. The game let players build a [The party](https://www.lanternhall.org/lexicon/party/) of up to six characters and guide them through a ten-level maze beneath the castle of the Mad Overlord Trebor, Woodhead's first name reversed, to defeat the archmage Werdna, Greenberg's. It was the first true party-based computer RPG and was among the first such games with color graphics. Woodhead and Greenberg went on to develop sequels in the 1980s. Woodhead also designed the 1982 Apple II arcade game *Star Maze*, programmed by Gordon Eastman and sold through Sir-Tech. In a 1983 interview he explained that he had "loads of arcade game ideas" but lacked the patience for the coding: "I like the challenge of a program like Wizardry." He moved easily among the pioneers of the era. [Richard Garriott](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/richard-garriott/) put him into *Ultima II* (1982) as a non-player character who screams "Copy Protect!", a joke at the elaborate copy-protection schemes of the time. He later worked as the "Hacking Consultant" credited on the 1985 film *Real Genius*. After games, Woodhead's curiosity led elsewhere. He wrote Interferon and Virex, two of the earliest antivirus applications for the Macintosh. He then co-founded AnimEigo, one of the first companies to license and release Japanese anime in the United States; while living in Japan for the venture he married his translator and interpreter, Natsumi Ueki, with whom he has two children. AnimEigo later ran successful Kickstarter campaigns, including one for a *Bubblegum Crisis* Blu-ray set. He also ran a search-engine promotion site, built combat robots as a hobby (his sons won national championships in the 30-pound featherweight class in 2004 and 2005), and served four terms on EVE Online's player-elected Council of Stellar Management, the last as chairman, under the name Trebor Daehdoow. ## Legacy *Wizardry* is one of the pillars of the [Western Computer RPGs (CRPG)](https://www.lanternhall.org/atlas/computer-rpg/). Its first-person maze, graph-paper mapping and party of specialists defined the [First-Person Dungeon Crawlers ('Blobbers')](https://www.lanternhall.org/atlas/dungeon-crawler/) and inspired [The Bard's Tale](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/the-bards-tale/) and many later [blobbers](https://www.lanternhall.org/lexicon/blobber/). Its impact was greatest in Japan, where [Yuji Horii](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/yuji-horii/) and [Hironobu Sakaguchi](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/hironobu-sakaguchi/) both encountered it and built [Dragon Quest](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/dragon-quest/) and [Final Fantasy](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/final-fantasy/) partly in its image; the series enjoyed a long afterlife there on Japanese computers and consoles. After Greenberg's death in 2024, Woodhead was among those who reported the news, a last act of the partnership that had put Werdna and Trebor into the history of games. ## Facts - In 1979 he co-founded Sirotech Software, later Sir-Tech, with Norman Sirotek and members of the Sirotek family. - *Wizardry*'s Mad Overlord, Trebor, is "Robert" spelled backward; his EVE Online avatar was named Trebor Daehdoow. - He makes a cameo in *Ultima II* (1982) as a character who screams "Copy Protect!" when spoken to. - He wrote Interferon and Virex, two of the earliest antivirus programs for the Macintosh. - He is credited as "Hacking Consultant" on the 1985 film *Real Genius*. - He was elected four times to EVE Online's Council of Stellar Management, serving his last term as chairman. ## Sources and further reading - [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Woodhead) - [Wikipedia: Sir-Tech](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir-Tech) - [Wikipedia: Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wizardry:_Proving_Grounds_of_the_Mad_Overlord) --- From The Lantern Hall (https://www.lanternhall.org/), a museum of fantasy literature and roleplaying games.