Mataga designed the game Shamus in 1982,[2] credited under the name William for the Atari 8-bit computers.[1] Much of the game's appeal was said to come from Mataga's sense of humor, such as creating a "grand rendition" of the Alfred Hitchcock theme song in the game's introduction.[6] Mataga followed it with a sequel Shamus: Case II and scrolling shooter Zeppelin.
Mataga developed an interactive fiction programming language known as BtZ (Better than Zork) for Broderbund, in the early 1980s.[3] Mataga worked with Hales and poet Robert Pinsky on the interactive fiction game Mindwheel (1984).[3]
Mataga was one of the programmers working at Stormfront Studios on the original Neverwinter Nights MMORPG.[8]Don Daglow credits Mataga as one of the programmers who proved Daglow's assertion that he could make Neverwinter Nights a success.[9]
^Kosek, Steven (July 21, 1985). "Poet Robert Pinsky goes hi-tech to give electronic novel a whirl", Chicago Tribune, p. 33.
^"Pinsky, Robert (Neal)." Contemporary Poets. Gale. 2001. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2014-06-29. Retrieved 2014-05-21.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
