He has survived involvements with the Republican Party (alternate delegate to the 1972 convention, but he got better - he now considers himself a Libertarian), the SCA (former landed baron and National Chronicler) and law school (escaping before the bar exam; game design was more fun).
Steve's first professional design work was for Metagaming, which published his Ogre, G.E.V., Melee, Wizard, and several other games. In 1980, Steve bought The Space Gamer magazine from Metagaming and started his own company. One of his first games, Raid on Iran, was a critical and sales success. The next year, Steve Jackson Games released its first big hit, Car Wars . . . followed shortly by Illuminati, and later by GURPS, the "Generic Universal Roleplaying System."
In 1983, Steve was elected to the Adventure Gaming Hall of Fame - the youngest person ever so honored. He now spends far too much time helping to manage Steve Jackson Games Incorporated, which at the moment employs 15 people.
The company made national news in 1990 after the disastrous Secret Service intrusion, which nearly forced the company out of business by seizing hardware and data files. SJ Games filed suit against the Secret Service and the US government, and won more than $50,000 in damages. Steve remains occasionally active with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which works to prevent similar miscarriages of law enforcement. The local group he helped to found, EFF-Austin, has now been subsumed into Electronic Frontiers Texas.
He still writes, when he finds the time. In the 1980s, he tried his hand at interactive books or "game novels" (his first, Scorpion Swamp, was published by Penguin and spent six months on the British children's bestseller list). In 1994, he reworked the old faithful Illuminati to jump on the trading-card bandwagon. INWO (Illuminati: New World Order) became the company's biggest hit yet, and its first million-dollar ship.
In addition to gaming, Steve is a dedicated SF reader and fan, and enjoys attending both gaming and SF conventions. He writes filksongs (adequately) and sings (very badly). He still claims to be working on an interactive computer game about running the Worldcon; the beta-test version has been due Real Soon Now for several years. He is a confirmed computerphile and net addict. His other interests include gardening (especially water gardening), beekeeping, dinosaurs and tropical fish. In his copious free time, he reads, eats and sleeps.