Shelley was the co-creator of both the hit game Sid Meier's Civilization and the business simulation Railroad Tycoon.

To help come up with a solid concept, Tony brought in Rick and their friend Bruce Shelley, who lived up in Chicago but periodically travelled down to Dallas for short stays. Still, the demo solidified the idea that they could make a game. You could drive it around and shoot palm trees-that was about it. Tony and programmer Angelo Laudon put together a simple tech demo with a tank. The cabal started to experiment with building an engine, its isometric perspective inspired by SimCity. Tony then set about organizing a small gaming cabal at the company. 'I think there was a strange reaction in the room because people didn't know quite how to perceive that,' Rick continued. Tony addressed the engineering team: 'Hey, would any of you rather be programming games than databases?' 'He just came in one day, out of the blue, to my recollection,' Rick Goodman told Ars. He didn't know what it would be yet-only that it would be fun to make something and see if it goes anywhere.

One day, in 1994, thinking that Microsoft's release of WinG, a DirectX predecessor, had presented a great new opportunity, Tony struck on the idea to do a game as a side project. He and his brother Rick had been avid board gamers since they were kids.

Age of empires 1 vs 2