And I always liked it better than Adobe Photoshop, which I got to use during a few summer jobs. The experience set me up to be a career website and web app builder (see PC World, September 2006, page 37). (Version 6 was my favorite!) I made websites on top of lawn mowing to earn cash throughout high school and college, which helped pay for school. I quickly taught myself HTML and continued to use PSP as my image editor–even later paying for upgraded versions.

The limitations of Game-Maker were quite real, and something bigger had arrived: The World Wide Web. Only a year or two later, Jesse and I stopped making our games. It’s still one of my favorite childhood memories to this day. I couldn’t have been more surprised or excited. You included a boxed version of PSP with your letter. To my shock and surprise, you sent me the following reply: The best that could happen is that you would say “yes” and we would be back in business. I figured, the worst that could happen is that you could say “no” and I would have to save up to buy the full version.

I sent JASC a brief letter explaining how we were using PSP and asking for permission to continue using it. But, my conscience didn’t feel good about my discovery. I discovered that if I simply uninstalled and reinstalled PSP, we would get another 30-days of free use.

I had purchased the shareware version of PSP, which came with a 30-day trial period. We used PSP to design our title screens mostly. I discovered both in a software mail order catalog and purchased them with my lawn mowing cash. Our tools were Recreational Software Designs Game-Maker 2.0 and your creation JASC Paint Shop Pro (PSP). In the early to mid-90s my hobby was making video games of various sorts with my friend Jesse.

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