Mark Allen is a software engineer, game programmer and game designer. As a student at the University of California, San Diego, Allen used UCSD Pascal

UCSD Pascal

UCSD Pascal was a Pascal programming language system that ran on the UCSD p-System, a portable, highly machine-independent operating system. UCSD Pascal was first released in 1978...

 to develop a 6502 interpreter for the Pascal language in 1978, along with Richard Gleaves. This work later became the basis for Apple Pascal

Apple Pascal

Apple Pascal was a language and operating system based on the UCSD Pascal system.Apple Pascal refers to an operating system for the Apple II family of computers released in August 1979 between the Apple DOS 3.2 and 3.3 versions. The system was included as part of a software/hardware package adding...

 in 1979.

Later, Allen developed a number of well-received computer games for the Apple II, including Stellar Invaders, Sabotage

Sabotage (computer game)

Sabotage is a 1981 computer game for the Apple II family of computers, written by Mark Allen and published by On-Line Systems.-Description:...

 and Pest Patrol. Sabotage, In particular, became a classic Apple II game and sparked numerous clones.

One such clone of Sabotage was shipped as a standard piece of software on early iPod

IPod

iPod is a line of portable media players created and marketed by Apple Inc. The product line-up currently consists of the hard drive-based iPod Classic, the touchscreen iPod Touch, the compact iPod Nano, and the ultra-compact iPod Shuffle...

s that had displays. It was called Parachute

Parachute (iPod game)

Parachute is an iPod game released by Apple Inc. for various iPod models. The game is installed in the firmware. It is very similar to the Apple II game Sabotage.-Gameplay:...

.