While living in Los Angeles working for the RAND Corporation researching artificial intelligence, he borrowed an Apple II from his grandfather.
While trying to sell his house and sitting at home for six months, out of sheer boredom, he started writing a game that drew on his affinity for helicopters.
Being his own boss, Gorlin never felt pressure to finish anything, so a lot of concepts he abandoned, though he thought they would make good games.
Typhoon Thompson was an even further pursuit of this goal, but his full dream was too ambitious for production milestones and current technology.
[2] What became of that venture was never publicly disclosed, but in late 1997 it leaked to the press that Gorlin had founded a development team called Ariok Entertainment and was working on a 3D Choplifter game for PC.
Gorlin was a consultant for Choplifter HD in 2011, and was exploring the idea of developing games for the Android platform.