Derek Smart is one of the best known internet personas in the world. This is mostly due to some of the notoriously protracted flamewars he has taken part in over time. These flamewars have for the most part been started by Derek defending his games, which has earned him a reputation of being (over)zealous. At the very least, it's clear that he's very proud of his games, and won't back down from defending them.

The first game he ever designed was Battlecrusier 3000AD, which was extremely overhyped, promising many features which didn't make it into the game. Shortly after the game was released in 1996, Derek Smart revealed that the game had been rushed by the publisher, Take Two Interactive, in order to be on the shelves for christmas, and that indeed the game hadn't been finished.

Derek Smart and his team spent the following year on making and releasing patches, while at the same time fighting a legal battle against Take Two, which ended with 3000AD Inc. re-acquiring the rights for the game.

Derek Smart has a commendable tradition of releasing his earlier games as freeware, to promote new games.