posted 03-25-99 03:03 AM ET        

During a telephone press conference this morning, Meier said he was excited and thrilled about the award. However, the 45-year-old designer jokingly voiced concern that the Hall of Fame Award carried a connotation that he was over the hill.

"I really don't see myself as winding down," he said. Meier is currently the director of creative development at Firaxis Games, a Maryland-based development studio he cofounded with other MicroProse veterans.

He will receive the award at the Interactive Achievement Awards on May 13, the first evening of the Electronic Entertainment Expo, in Los Angeles. Meier is the second recipient of the Academy's Hall of Fame Award. Last year, legendary Nintendo designer Shigeru Miyamoto was the inaugural recipient.

As a cofounder of MicroProse in 1982, Meier has been involved in the computer game industry since its infancy. In fact, he recalled how in the early days they would ship games in plastic sandwich bags with three-page manuals.

While at MicroProse, he was instrumental in establishing several major genres. His F-15 Strike Eagle was the seminal combat flight simulator, and a best-seller than spawned two sequels. Meier created the first submarine simulation with Silent Service. With F-19 Stealth Fighter, he successfully melded strategy with flight simulation. And with Pirates, he blended action, strategy, and arcade gameplay into a potent mix.

However, he is most likely known for his god games, Sid Meier's Railroad Tycoon and Sid Meier's Civilization, both of which spawned sequels made by other companies. PopTop Software developed Railroad Tycoon II last year (winner of Gamecenter's 1998 Strategy Game of the Year Award) while Activision recently completed work on Civilization: Call to Power.

Asked how he felt about other companies working on his games, he said he was all for it. "I think that's a positive development," Meier said. "Each product, even Civilization, builds on some of the ideas floating in the past."

What about his next project? According to Meier, the Firaxis team is winding down after recently finishing Alpha Centauri. However, he did say that there were a lot of ideas in his head.

"There are so many things that haven't really been done in computer games," he said. "The beauty of computer games is you can pretty much tackle any topic...With a creative approach, almost anything can be turned into a game."

Meier credited the secret of his success to his love of games. "I'm very much a gamer myself," he said, "and I think that comes through...The games that I try and do are based on things that I think are kind of cool."