Mark Iuzzolino is, like, the biggest nerd.

No, really!

On saturday the title of 1996 New Mexico Computer Nerd Champion was bestowed upon him at the annual Computer Expo at the Albuquerque Convention Center. He won computer software and a video documentary about the birth and growth of the computer industry.

Despite the title, the 21 year-old University of New Mexico student wants to make it perfectly clear: "I'm not really a nerd. I'm more of a geek."

Splitting hairs, you say? Au contraire!

"Nerds are people who wear tape on their eye glasses and a plastic pocket protector," Iuzzolino explained. "My father is a nerd. Geeks are people who use a computer a lot for non-work reasons."

Iuzzolino said he won the nerd title because most of the audience, which voted via applause, didn't appreciate the subtle nuances that separate a nerd from a geek -- and because his father, Harold, a nuclear physicist contracted to Sandia National Laboratories, didn't enter the competition.

Instead, Iuzzolino beat out a field of contenders, including one misguided soul sporting a "Star Trek" uniform. "I dressed the same way I always do," he said. "Black slacks, black button up shirt, black Doc Marten wing tip shoes, black blazer, white tie, gray vest and black fedora."

Think of the Federal Witness Protection Program going on line.

Of course, looking like a computer nerd is meaningless, unless you know your RAMs from your ROMs. Iuzzolino is no slacker here, either.

His first exposure to computers was at age 7. His mother, a computer scientist then working on her master's degree, brought home a VT100 terminal and a 300 BAUD modum [sic].

"We dialed up the University of New Mexico VAX computer. For the first couple of years I played 'Rogue', a text-based computer game, laughably simple by today's standards." Still, he said, "just this year I finally beat it; it took me 13 years because people kept re-writing it."

By the time he was in high school, Iuzzolino had begun exploring the Internet, logging into other systems through guest accounts. He also began "mudding," playing on-line multi-user dungeon and dimension games that unfold in real time.

"I stopped doing it because it was too addictive. One week when my parents were out of town, I took the whole week off from school in order to sit at my computer trying to make 'wizard,' when you go from playing the game to writing the game."

Though he didn't attain wizard, he realized that writing computer games is where his primary interest lies and what he wants to eventually do for a living. In 1993, just before his 18th birthday, Iuzzolino published his first computer game, Nuclear Insanity, which he describes as "Tetris with a twist." The game was sold locally for $20 and gave birth to an underground group of Nuclear Insanity fans in Albuquerque.

Iuzzolino is currently majoring in computer science, business, and Asian Studies/Japan at UNM.

"When I turned 21 in April I just said 'screw it!' and I decided to get a life." He began honing his billiards skills at local bars, and he met his current girlfriend at a barbecue.

"She knows a little about computers but she's pretty much not interested," he said. "She didn't see all the geeky things I was doing, like spending 18 hours a day or more on-line, or holed up in my bedroom for six months writing a computer game. I'm not sure what she'd make of all that."

Don't worry, nerd. We won't tell.