Alan Emrich is best known as a writer about and designer of
video games, who coined the term "
4X", contributed to the design of
Master of Orion and
Master of Orion 3, and wrote
strategy guides for
video games. Before the rise of video games Emrich wrote about and designed
board games and organized
conventions about them. He currently runs a small game publishing company and lectures in game design and project management. In 2001 Emrich received the Blomgren / Hamilton Memorial Award for Lifetime Achievement from ConsimWorld.COM.