Eric Engstrom, a Microsoft engineer, died on December 1, at the age of 55. He, Alex St. John, and Craig Eisler played a significant role in the development of DirectX, the programming interface that powered major Windows games and paved the way for Xbox.
In accordance with Engadget, St. John turned to Engstrom in 1994, with the aim of making games in the upcoming Windows 95 operating system practical. Developers preferred the low overhead and greater control that DOS offered over Windows 3.1
In that context, Engstrom helped St. John advocate for the eventual DirectX platform, despite the lack of support from Microsoft.
Thus, despite all the inconveniences that arose, the platform helped turn Windows into the benchmark for PC games. It also gave Microsoft the foundation for Xbox.
Microsoft DirectX is described as a collection of application programming interface (API) that enables a computer to recognize and run games that can take advantage of the graphics capabilities of that machine. It was a critical technology during the boom of the hardware of 3D graphics in the 90s, unifying a dispersed market.
Engadget adds that Engstrom was involved in the mobile phone industry through its startup Wildseed and made contributions to Windows Mobile.
Engstrom, St. John and Eisler were known as the “Beastie Boys”, the trio that paved the way for Microsoft’s expansion into games in the late 1990s and early 2000s. That adventure was described in the book “Renegades of the Empire, ”by author Michael Drummond.
Engstrom died at the Swedish Medical Center in Seattle. He is survived by his wife Cindy and their four young children.
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