My late friend, Steve Bjork, had quite an interesting life. While I do not know anything about his childhood an upbringing, he did share tidbits about his later years. In the 1970s, he worked for Magic Mountain (known as Six Flags Magic Mountain after 1979) in Valencia, California.
A number of movies have been filmed at Magic Moutain over the years, including National Lampoon’s Vacation which used the park as a stand-in for the fictional Wally World. It was also used in one of the Beverly Hills Cop movies.
But long before those 1980s classic was: Rollercoaster.
Filming on this epic 1977 disaster (?) movie began in 1976, according to the wikipedia entry on the film. Steve had mentioned he was an extra in this movie, and I had thought maybe he just went down and lined up to audition. (That is how it worked when me and some friends “auditioned” in high school for a movie that was filmed in East Texas.)
Steve mentioned he was in a scene loading a roller coaster. I wondered if we could find him. Thanks to the help of Eric, who was able to locate where I could watch this movie, I began scrubbing through the film looking for any scenes showing a roller coaster load area.
Finally, at around the 1:44 mark near the end of the film, we found him. Ladie’s and gentlemen, a young Steve Bjork!
Steve Bjork in Rollercoaster (1977) at about the 1:44 mark.
As the coaster car pulls back into the station, several costumed park workers quickly go to the car to start unlocking the lap bars so the riders can get out. At the far back of the room is Steve. The movie stars are riding in the back and you get to see Steve in two different clips of this scene.
For comparison, here is the earliest public photo of Steve I could find, which appeared in the January 1983 issue of SOFTLINE magazine:
Steve Bjork in SOFTLINE, January 1983, p54.
I have not checked to see if he can be spotted elsewhere in the film, so if you decide to look for him, let me know if you find something new.
From “The Big List of TRS-80 Software” I found two early Steve Bjork programs. These appear to be the two programs that appeared on the People’s Software tape:
PeoplesSoftware-TRS80-Model1
The first is a Bio-Rhythm program listed as biortsb.bas (which I assume the “sb” at the end is Steve Bjork):
10 REM BIO-RHYTHM ------ BY STEVE BJORK 20 DIMA(150) 30 FORX=1TO20 40 READA(X) 50 RESTORE 60 FORX=1TO20 70 READA(X) 80 NEXTX:A=0 90 FORX=9TO20 100 A=A+A(X):A(X+11)=A 110 NEXTX 120 CLS:PRINT" B I O - R H Y T H M" 130 PRINT:PRINT" BY STEVE BJORK":PRINT 140 INPUT"WHO ARE YOU";A$ 150 INPUT"WHAT IS YOUR BIRTHDATE (M,D,Y)";M,D,Y 160 INPUT"AND THE DATE FOR CHART (M,Y)";B,C 170 Z=((C-Y)*365)-D-A(M+20)+A(B+20)+INT((C-Y)/4) 180 IF(Y/4=INT(Y/4))*(M<3) Z=Z+1 190 IF(C/4=INT(C/4))*(B>2) Z=Z+1 200 CLS 210 PRINT@960,"" 220 FORX=1TO31 230 SET(17,X):SET(18,X):SET(49,X):SET(50,X):SET(81,X):SET(82,X) 240 SET(113,X):SET(114,X) 250 SET(33,X):SET(65,X):SET(97,X) 260 NEXTX 270 FORX=17TO114 280 SET(X,0):SET(X,32) 290 NEXTX 300 FORX=0TO30STEP5 310 SET(16,X):SET(19,X):SET(48,X):SET(51,X):SET(80,X):SET(83,X) 320 SET(112,X):SET(115,X) 330 NEXTX 340 FORX=5TO30STEP5 350 PRINT@INT(X/3)*64+3,X;:PRINT@INT(X/3)*64+58,X;: 360 NEXTX 370 PRINT@713,"LOW";:PRINT@729,"LOW";:PRINT@745,"LOW"; 380 PRINT@720,"C";:PRINT@736,"C";:PRINT@752,"C" 390 PRINT@ 724,"HIGH";:PRINT@740,"HIGH";:PRINT@756,"HIGH" 400 PRINT@781,"PHYSICAL"; 410 PRINT@796,"EMOTIONAL"; 420 PRINT@813,"MENTAL"; 430 PRINT@857,"NAME------------";A$ 440 PRINT@921,"BIRTHDATE-------";M;"/";D;"/";Y 450 PRINT@985,"CHART DATE------";B;"/";C; 460 IF(C/4=INT(C/Y))*(B=2) A(10)=29 470 FORX=1TOA(B+8) 480 P=Z-INT(Z/23)*23:E=Z-INT(Z/28)*28:I=Z-INT(Z/33)*33 490 S=6.28319*(P/23) 500 GOSUB660 510 SET(INT(S*13)+34,X) 520 S=6.28319*(E/28) 530 GOSUB660 540 SET(INT(S*13)+66,X) 550 S=6.28319*(I/33) 560 GOSUB660 570 SET(INT(S*13)+98,X) 580 Z=Z+1 590 NEXTX:A(10)=28 600 PRINT@832,"FOR A NEW CHART"; 610 PRINT@896,;"ENTER A '1'"; 620 INPUTA 630 IFA=1GOTO140 640 CLS 650 STOP 660 T=S:U=S 670 FORW=1TO7STEP2 680 U=U*T*T 690 S=S-(U/A(W))+((U*T*T)/A(W+1)) 700 U=U*T*T 710 NEXTW 720 RETURN 730 DATA6,120,5040,362880,39916800,6.22702E09 740 DATA1.30767E12,3.55687E14 750 DATA31,28,31,30,31,30,31,31,30,31,30,31
The second is a Perpetual Calendar program listed as percalsb.bas:
5 REM....PERPETUAL CALENDAR PROGRAM 6 REM....FOR RADIO SHACKS TRS-80 7 REM....BY STEVE BJORK 8 DIMA(150) 9 CLS:PRINT@400,"PERPETUAL CALENDER BY STEVE BJORK" 10 PRINT@ 448,"ENTER MONTH AND YEAR (MM,YY)";:INPUT M,Y 11 IF (M>12)+(M<1)THEN10 17 IF Y<100 THENY=Y+1900 18 RESTORE:FOR I=1 TO 12:READ V:NEXT I 19 FOR I=1 TO M:READ A$:NEXT I 20 B$=" ":L=0:IF INT(Y/4)<>(Y/4)THEN50 30 IF INT(Y/100)=(Y/100) THEN50 40 B$="LEAP-YEAR":L=1 50 T=INT((Y-1893)/4) 60 C=(Y-1893+T)/7:C=INT((C-INT(C))*7+.5) 90 RESTORE:FOR I=1 TO 12:READA(I):NEXTI:A(2)=A(2)+L 91 D=0:IF M=1 THEN 100 92 FOR I=1 TO M-1:D=D+A(I):NEXT I 100 D=(D+C)/7 110 D=INT((D-INT(D))*7+.5) 111 IF D=0THEND=7 120 CLS:PRINT@ 22,A$;" ";Y;" ";B$ 150 T=0:FOR I=(D-2) TO 0 STEP-1:T=T+1:A(T+12)=(-I):NEXTI 160 P=1:FOR J=D TO 7:A(J+12)=P:P=P+1:NEXT J 164 RESTORE 165 W=0:FOR I=1 TO 12:READ X:NEXTI:FORI=1TO12:READB$:NEXTI 166 FOR J=8 TO 56 STEP 8:READ B$:PRINT@64+J,B$:NEXTJ 167 A$=" ":H=0:READ A,A$:IF A=0 THEN 170 168 IF INT(A)<>M THEN167 169 H=INT((A-INT(A))*100+.5) 170 FOR I=128 TO 832 STEP 128 180 P=0:FOR J=8 TO 56 STEP 8:S=I+J 190 P=P+1:Q=A(P+12)+(W*7) 191 Z=0:IF Q<10 THENZ=1 200 IF (Q<=0)+(Q>A(M))THEN220 210 PRINT@ S+Z,Q 211 IF H<>Q THEN 220 212 PRINT@ S+63,A$ 220 NEXT J:W=W+1:NEXT I 270 END 1000 DATA31,28,31,30,31,30,31,31,30,31,30,31 1100 DATAJANUARY,FEBRUARY,MARCH,APRIL,MAY,JUNE,JULY,AUGUST 1200 DATASEPTEMBER,OCTOBER,NOVEMBER,DECeMBER 1300 DATASUN,MON,TUE,WED,THU,FRI,SAT 1400 REM...HOLIDAYS (M.D) 1500 DATA1.01,NEW YR,12.25,XMAS,2.14,VAL,7.04, 4TH,4.01,FOOL 1510 DATA10.31,HAL'WN 1800 DATA0,END
I have so far been unable to locate additional information on People’s Software, but it was produced by:
Steven Robert Bork (SRB Software) was such an iconic name in the Tandy/Radio Shack TRS-80 Color Computer community. Seeing his name on title screens of games etched it into my memory more than any other game author I can recall.
Recently, Roger Taylor spent over $6700 to acquire some of Bjorks software source code (disks and printouts) from an auction house. He has been discovering some interesting things, such as internal development tools Steve used as well as unfinished and unreleased programs. The archive goes back to Steve’s TRS-80 Model 1 days in the late 1970s.
One year before Steve wrote Popcorn for the CoCo, he had Space Ball for the Model 1:
I had also heard mentions of some multi-voice software music program he wrote. This was Soft Music:
I do not know how to use it, but when I figure it out, I will make a longer video of it. There appears to be several disks of songs available on a TRS-80 archive site, but I do not know how to get them in to the emulator yet.
There is also a Space Balls 2 which seems to be the same except for a countdown before the next ball drops.
Still a mystery is Galactic Fighter (not to be confused with a completely different game by that name released for the CoCo in 1984 by a different author). In a 2007 interview, Bjork described his Galatic Fighter game as similar to Galaxian, but predating it by three months. I see Galaxian listed as a September/November 1979 game, but I do not know when it was released in the USA. Wikipedia says Galaxian was the highest grossing game of 1980. I did manage to find this screenshot:
Roger Taylor has disks for this game, but is still working on safely getting them preserved and, hopefully, in a form that can run in an emulator.
Also during my research were two BASIC programs by Bjork – Perpetual Calendar and Bio-Rhythm. These appeared in a cassette tape collection called People’s Software./
Here is a link to the source of Perpetual Calendar that is supposed to be runnable in a web emulator, but I could not figure out how to start it:
I do not know the date these were published, and do not see a date in the source listing. There may be a date in one of the other programs in the collection that might give us a clue.
Steve also created PEN BASIC, a program that added commands to the TRS-80 Model 1 for using a light pen device. I have heard him mention that he worked on a light pen, but never knew anything about it. Here is an ad mentioning it:
I also found a magazine article that goes in to details on the commands that PEN BASIC provides, and discusses how to use it.
And there is more to still be located… I see references to other things he created in the TRS-80 Model 1 days that I have yet to go searching for.
But one thing I have discovered is that Steve was known outside the pages of Color Computer magazines such as Rainbow. I find him referenced in articles in magazines of the day I had heard of (such as K-Power) and plenty I had never heard of (such as Softline and Today). There are some interviews, quotes, and a number of game reviews that mention his name as the author.
I now have a list of questions I wish I could ask Steve. When we were hanging out in Southern California, the subject of CoCo stuff would inevitably come up from time to time, but I wish I had dug deeper and learned more about some of his other works.
SPECULATIVE UPDATE: Zaxxon ran on the PMODE 4 2-color screen, and used artifact colors. Those did not display on the CoCo 3’s RGB CM-8 monitor. Perhaps this was just a way to make a CM-8 compatible version of the game? Though, changing the title screen and adding the logo (as well as updating the font) does make it appear it was more than just that.
Unreleased CoCo 3 update to the 1983 CoCo Zaxxon???
Though us CoCo folks knew Steve Bjork from Zaxxon and other games he wrote, in his later years he was very active in the haunted house industry.
He was part of Haunt Hackers which made haunted house electroincs. His partner, Steve Koci, passed away in recent years, and with Bjork’s passing, the website went aware.
Here is the last image of the Haunt Hackers website that the Intennet Archive has a copy of:
Legendary Color Computer game programmer, Steve Bjork, is no longer with us.
I have much to say about Steve. I considered him good friend, and alwauys enjoyed meeting up with him when I would visit Southern California. I had not been in touch since the Covid-era, and I wish I had. This news comes as quite a shock.
I hope to share some fun stories about hanging out with Steve. Though many know him from his video games on TRS-80, the Color Computer, Gameboy, Genesis, Super Nintendo, and I think even something on Playstation, I knew him as my Disneyland/theme park friend.
As a local, Steve grew up around Disneyland, and even worked there in the 1970s as a Jungle Cruise skipper.
I spent many days hanging out with him at Disneyland, and early on he would tell me, “there’s more to see in California than Disneyland.” He would become my tour guide during these trips — taking me to Magic Mountain (where he worked in the 1970s), Knott’s Berry Farms, and places like Fry’s Electronics and In and Out Burger. Many of the things I love about visiting California are directly traced back to Steve suggestions.
My finances prevented me for visiting for many years, but I did meet up with him again in 2017. Then he introduced us to Rock and Brews – a restaurant connected to KISS members Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley.
There was always a new experience I would never have discovered on my own as an ignorant tourist ;-)
There are fun trivia things about Steve… He was an extra in The Goonies (if I have the movie correct), as a reporter. He was an extra in the movie Rollercoaster, I believe loading folks on a coaster. He has an Internet Movie Database entry through his work on One On One (basketball) and The Mask (Super Nintendo). He was a magician at some point — a tidbit that came up during an early theme park visit, complete with him presenting a “Hot Rod” trick he had with him (a trick I knew well from my younger days as an amateur magician).
There are many tales about his time in the software industry – such as a story about folks working on the TRON movie visiting computer places to ask questions. I think he worked for Datasoft at the time, which was “just down the road” from the Disney Studios.
If you look at the startup screen for The Rocketeer on Super Nintendo, I believe I heard Steve was the one wearing the suit for the photo (1992). Apparently props and such were loaned out so they could be used for reference for the game.
Steve also had a haunted house effects company — creating custom hardware and software to do things like make animated skulls talk to audio. An article about one of his products (“Wee Little Talker”) was featured in Nuts and Volts magazine (September 2017). You can see a photo of a circuit board with “Copyright 2017 Steve Bjork” on it. The article was co-written by his haunt partner, Steve Koci, who also passed away in recent years. Their business, Haunt Hackers, last updated in 2021 with a “closed due to Covid” message on the now-defunct website.
And people knew him. Once I was at Disneyland with him for some special opening event. A Disneyland manager type walked up to him and said “Steve Bjork, you’re my hero!” This person had known him through computer clubs back in the 80s. And that wasn’t the only time I saw something like that happen.
So while he popped up in CoCo discussions frequently (and got re-engaged in later years via the CoCoTalk YouTube show), it was also no surprise to see him pop up in an electronics publication or a haunted house message forum. I even remember reading a Disneyland fan site report about some event out there, and Steve Bjork was there presenting some kind of plaque to someone involved with a restaurant.
He did so much, and was still designing and programming new things right up to his final years.
