Rob O'Hara
Born	(1973-08-22) August 22, 1973 Oklahoma City, OK, United States
Nationality	American
Occupation(s)	Author, blogger, podcaster
Years active	1991–present
Website	robohara.com

Rob O'Hara (born August 22, 1973) is an American author, blogger,^[1] and podcaster.^[2]

Books

In 2006, O'Hara published Commodork: Sordid Tales from a BBS Junkie.^[3] Jason Scott, director of the BBS Documentary, dubbed Commodork "the world's first BBS memoir," stating the book "does what my film couldn't; go front to end on one boy's story to turning into a man online. And for that, I thank him, and I think a lot of others will too." Brett Weiss, author of the popular Classic Home Video Games book series, says he "recommends the book without reservation. Initially I wasn't sure what to expect, but it's obvious that (O'Hara) is a writer and a gamer, not just a gamer who happens to write. His style is clear and unpretentious, and the hilarious anecdotes alone are worth the price of admission."^[4]

O'Hara's second book, Invading Spaces: A Beginner's Guide to Collecting Arcade Games,^[5] is a beginner's introduction to the arcade collecting hobby. Earl Green from The Log Book stated "Rob O'Hara knows a couple of things about collecting arcade machines. Invading Spaces is where he shares that obvious wealth of knowledge with coin-op newbies like myself."^[6] Antique Week called the book an "amusing and informative tome."^[7]

In 2018, O'Hara published his first feature length fiction novel, The Human Library.^[8] The story was O'Hara's graduate project for his Master of Professional Writing degree at the University of Oklahoma.^[9] The Human Library currently has a 4.5 star rating on Amazon.^[8]

Published Articles, Essays, and Writing Positions

O'Hara began his career writing music, movie, and video game) reviews on websites such as Review to a Kill^[10] and Review-o-Matic.com.^[11] In 2000, O'Hara was paid to write several DVD reviews for IGN.^{[12][13][14][15]} Recently, O'Hara has expanded into writing and submitting fiction.

• 2600: The Hacker Quarterly (Contributor)
• The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature (Contributor)
• Digital Press E-Zine and Website (Staff Writer)^[16]
• El Reno Light (Intern/Reporter)
• El Reno Tribune (Intern/Reporter)
• IGN.com (Paid Contributor, DVD Reviews)
• Forever Retro (Paid Contributor)
• Memoirs of a Virtual Caveman (Foreword and Article Contributor)^[17]
• Minco Millennium (Columnist)
• Retro Gaming Hacks (O'Reilly Books) (Paid Contributor)
• Retroist.com (Staff Writer)^[18]
• TheLogBook.com (Staff Writer)^[19]
• Video Game Collector Magazine (Staff Writer)
• Video Game Trader Magazine (Staff Writer)

Podcasts

O'Hara has hosted and currently hosts multiple podcasts. His first podcast, You Don't Know Flack,^[20] began in 2008 and currently has a 5-star rating on iTunes.^[21] In 2013, O'Hara co-founded the retro-themed podcast network Throwback Network^[22] with his Throwback Reviews co-host Sean Johnson. The network currently hosts more than two dozen retro-themed podcasts.

Presentations

O'Hara is a subject matter expert on Commodore computers, vintage video and arcade games, and self-publishing, and has spoken at multiple conventions on these topics.

• Def Con (2007): Self-Publishing in the Underground^[32]
• Notacon (2009): The World of Free Book Publishing^[33]
• Oklahoma Electronic Gaming Expo (2009): Collecting Arcade Machines^[34][35]
• Oklahoma City Community College (2009): A History of Computer Games

Software

O'Hara has written and released several freeware programs, including:

• GP32 Renamer: a Windows utilitiy that converts long filenames to 8.3 filenames for the GamePark 32 handheld console.^[36]
• ShadowPrint: a Windows utility for getting text directory listings.^[37]
• Batch-O-Matic: a Windows utility for processing batch files with external variable lists.^[38]
• eCoder Ring: a Windows message encryption utility.^[39]
  • eCoder Ring included a coded message that users were challenged to crack.^[39] In 2008, O'Hara offered a cash reward of $100 to anyone who could crack the code.^[40] In the weeks following leaked information about the NSA's practices, eCoder Ring was downloaded an additional 3,000 times.^[41] The code remains unbroken. In her abstract titled A Summary of Hacking Organizations, Conferences, Publications, and Effects on Society, Alisha Cecil called eCoder Ring a "fun, friendly, easy to use program that allows two people to send secret messages to one another" that "is capable of producing nearly unbreakable ciphers."^[42]

Personal life

O'Hara currently resides in Yukon, Oklahoma with his wife, two children, and collection of vintage electronics.^[43]

References