About Monk James

Monk James is the name of a Dungeons & Dragons character I played in the 1980's. The name was actually a mistake but because it was a little odd I ended up keeping it. Obviously he was a monk and it was in the rewritten form that came out around 1985. I enjoyed taking a weaker class and manipulating it to turn it into something others didn't think was possible. As a result I created an impenetrable tank. Unfortunately, his character sheets are long gone along with all my monster manuals.

I chose him to symbolize the development of my flagship game Oberon and included him into the storyline. I took significant inspiration from the Ultima series from Richard Garriott, aka Lord British. Monk does make an appearance in the game in several different ways but the similarities end there when comparing him to how the character Lord British appeared in Ultima.

As for gaming inspiration, the list is fairly lengthy, here are a few of the highlights.
 * 1980's
 * Taipan!
 * Elite
 * Exodus Ultima III
 * Santa Paravia en Fiumaccio
 * Aztec
 * Odyssey, the Compleat Apventure (that is the correct spelling)

With the exception of Elite, I still play the above games on my original Apple 2e.


 * 1990's
 * Myst
 * SimCity
 * Civilization II


 * 2000's
 * Star Wars Galaxies

I would guess and say that collectively I spent about 4 years in front of a computer playing the above games.

Game Philosophy
Games should be challenging, thought provoking, story driven and unique.

Great games require good instructions, tutorials and several weeks just to understand what the hell is going on.

Incredible games piss you off so much the first time you play it that it takes a few weeks to come back, and when you do, you don't stop playing.

The truly best games influence your dreams, spare time, friends, work schedule and consume your conversations.

We hope Oberon falls into the truly best game category.

Other Links

 * MonkJames.com