Boredom Leads to Great Things 48
I mailed it in and they bought it. They didn’t know I was
twelve years old.”^451
It seems probable the name of his game wasBlastar,
though some sources said it wasBlast Starand some said
it wasBlaster. The game was a combination of the popular
arcade gamesAsteroidsandSpaceInvaders.^20 “In this game
you have to destroy an alien space freighter, which is
carrying deadly Hydrogen Bombs and Status Beam Ma-
chines,” the description said.^327 Whatever the name of the
game was, don’t confuse it with the gameBlastar, released
by Core Design in 1993. Elon would later sell another
computer game to the same magazine.
Maye and Errol divorced when Elon was nine years old,
and the siblings began living mostly with their mother.^4
“By my late twenties, my marriage had deteriorated so
badly that every day was miserable,” Maye said. “I had
all my confidence driven out of me. I began buying and
reading self-help books. These inspired me to make a
change. So, with my children, I left my marriage in search
of a better life. Once this had happened, I felt as if a dark
cloud had been lifted and there was hope. The changes were
scary and risky: a new city, a new business and no self-
confidence. But slowly, I grew stronger and became much
happier.”^82 After the divorce, Maye and the siblings moved
to live in Durban and Johannesburg. Elon and his father
have only been in limited touch since the divorce.^324