Oscar M. Martinez Lazalde

Since I was child I have been interested in videogames. I didn't throw away a game until I finished it. I finished hundreds of games. I use to like any kind of games. Moon Patrol (Atari 2600) was one of my favourite games in those times. Battletoads (NES), Mega Man (NES), Double Dragon (Arcade), Actrisers 1 and 2 (SNES), Metroid 3 (SNES), Super Castlevania 4 (SNES), Strider (Sega Genesis), Golden Axe (Arcade), Street Fighter 2 (Arcade), The Legend of Zelda OOT(N64) and TP(GCN), War Craft 1 and 2 (PC), Daytona USA (Arcade), GTA Vice City and San Andreas were some of my favourite games.

As in my country (Mexico) there were not directly related degrees to computer graphics /video-games I studied the closest thing to this in that moment, Computer Science. First I finished a B.S and then a master were my final project was on artificial intelligence. As at that moment still there was nothing directly related I decided to go abroad (UK). I self studied English for 6 months 12hrs a day using a video language course my parents had on the bookshelf before getting a grant and leaving my country. With support of a National Science Council I finished another master were my final project was on physics simulation. Then a Ph.D. on visual speech synthesis.

Another of my interests is playing guitar, I was introduced to guitar thanks to my sister. I remember in that time I wanted as a Christmas gift a few video-game cartridges but instead I got an electric guitar, she told my parents I wanted a guitar and later I realised she just wanted to get a boyfriend in a band. I don't blame her, guitar is one of the best things I've ever done. When I started my Computer Science career I also started studying Music. It was a busy time as in the morning had to go to Computer Science and in the afternoon to Music, this means I used to leave home at around 8am and arrive late at 8pm. In the middle stage of the degrees I took the really hard decision to leave Music. I just didn't have enough time to keep studying both but with the promise I'd never stop playing guitar. Since then I've been self studying it.