and remove tedious paperwork from gameplay. While between his undergraduate and graduate education, Billings met an IBM programmer and discussed computers. Billings suggested starting a software company with him, but the programmer was not interested in war games, stating that they were too difficult and complicated to be popular. Billings posted flyers at hobby shops in the Santa Clara, California area to attract war-game enthusiasts with a background in programming. John Lyons was the first to reply and joined Billings after quickly developing a good rapport. Billings chose the Bismarcks last battle because he felt it would be easier to develop than other war games. Computer Bismarck was written in BASIC and compiled to increase its processing speed. In August 1979, Billings provided Lyons with access to a computer to write the program. Lyons began programming a simplified version similar to a fox and hounds game—he had "hounds" search a playing field for a "fox". At the time, the two were working full-time and programmed at Billings' apartment during the night. Lyons did the bulk of the programming, while Billings focused on design and assisted with data entry and minor programming tasks. The game was originally developed for the Tandy Corporation's TRS-80. Two months into development, Billings met with Trip Hawkins, then a marketing manager at Apple Computer, via a venture capitalist, who convinced Billings to develop the game for the ; he commented that the computer's capacity for color graphics made it the best platform for strategy games. In October 1979, Billings' uncle gave him an . Billings and Lyons then converted their existing code to work on the and used a graphics software package to generate the game's map. After Lyons began programming, Billings started to study the video games market. He visited local game stores and attended a San Francisco gaming convention. Billings approached Tom Shaw from Avalon Hill—the company produced many war games that Billings played as a child—and one of the founders of Automated Simulations to share market data, but aroused no interest. The lukewarm responses made Billings believe he would have to publish SSI's games. After Computer Bismarck was finished in January 1980, he searched for a graphic designer to handle the game's packaging. Billings met Louis Saekow through a string of friends but was hesitant to hire him. Inspired by Avalon Hill's games, Billings wanted SSI's games to look professional and include maps,