Hatfire is a nickname I picked up in the 1980s while spending too much time playing video games at the Bagdad Theater in Portland, Oregon. At that time, one was only allowed three characters to mark their high scores. I usually wore a fedora, because I thought it was cool - so, I put HAT in my high scores. Later, in looking for an anonymous pseudonym on the Internets, I added FIRE to the name, for reasons that will remain personal at this time.