The advent of th e Apple II in the late '70's gave designers th e freedom to work on dedi- cated machines wher e no one could tell us that gaming was forbidden . Apple Trek, Wumpus, Eliza, Adventure, Rogue and Zork all came from mainframe games tha t The Changing Role of Computer made the transition to micros . It should be Game Designers noted that only in the By Don L. Daglow case of Zork did the designers have the foresight to maintai n control of their brainchild and successful- ly exploit it creatively and commercially .

Page 42 Computer Gaming Worl d

spread by word of mouth, and had to absorb huge losses on returns . Score (I'm sure you've noticed that I'v e Over The River one for quality. made no reference to the Nintendo (Continued from page 18) craze that has repeated the Atari and Ironically, it was during the third era, a Phenomenon of 8 years ago. brief time in 1982-83, that game desig- That's because for American gam e ners finally began to get some of their designers the Nintendo is a non-event: each other and whomever we could talk just rewards . There is a story (perhaps virtually all the work to date has been to in local stores . It was not a good way apocryphal) that Pac-Man was finished at done in Japan . Only the future will tell to keep a finger on the pulse of the all only because of a special mid-projec t if the design process ever crosses th e market. "arrangement" for programmer royalties . Pacific as efficiently as the container Senior executives made periodic forays The success of after being ships and the letters of credit now do .) to check on our progress, wanderin g founded by four former Atari game desig- from cubicle to cubicle to look at ners (including Alan Miller and Bo b How Deep are the Woods? games . Some were pleasant and made Whitehead, who later left to found Ac- reasonable comments . Others were colade) led Atari, Mattel and Coleco to While the big companies publishing petty and dictatorial ("That background take a second look at how they handled Coin-Op Conversions and sports game s ought to be blue . Change it."). In the their creative staffs . were dominating the cartridge world , end the dictator types had less impact Royalties of the time were in mos t small companies like Sirius, Broder- than the others, since they never played cases minuscule, but they nonetheless bund, Infocom, Automated Simula- the games anyway and thus, had no began being paid. Names of designers tions, SSI, On-Line Systems and idea whether their orders had been car- began to appear in small print on the others were quietly building the home ried out . Nevertheless, I spent a grea t backs of packages and in manuals . In computer game market . deal of time talking my best designers fact, the companies began working over - Instead of large in-house staffs, thes e out of quitting after being the targets o f time to recruit the best ones away fro m such visits. companies usually combined a few their competitors. game designers who were employee s The cartridge era had four distinct Nevertheless, before the industry coul d (often the founders themselves) with a periods, each with its implications fo r really mature, new voices sounded th e group of external programmers . These game designers. The first period, from coming in 1983-84 of the fourth era— independent designers had the same 1978-1981, was the time of the Obvious and the cartridges' death knell . Dazzled relationship with the game companie s Design of the Obvious Product. The by the success of Atari, Mattel, Coleco that book authors have with traditiona l proper route for a design was a straight and Activision, hordes of imitators publishers: they submitted their games one: show the action, tally the score . jumped into the market . Quaker Oat s for consideration, the publisher chose Sports games were the biggest sellers , even founded a subsidiary ! the good ones, and the authors were largely because buyers knew what the y In late 1982, the number of cartridges paid a royalty . were getting before they opened th e manufactured by all these companies far package. Authors' names appeared prominently outstripped the demand . Many of th e on these game packages long befor e Game designers of the time worked fo r games were absolutely awful, but the practice infiltrated the cartridg e big companies (Atari, Mattel), drew retailers, riding a 3-year sales burst, kept world. Names of that early era like Bill average programmer salaries (but no t ordering everything anyway. Budge (Raster Blaster), Dan Bunten royalties), and didn't have their name s Christmas, 1982 was a disappointmen t (Computer Quarterback), Chris Crawfor d on the products . Management regarde d and by early 1983, the game-playing (Eastern Front 1941), Jon Freeman their programming skills as the source public had made the choices which the (Temple ofApshai), Dan Gorlin of their value and game design was manufacturers had refused to make . (Choplifter) and Doug Smith (Lode Run- often snorted at as an illusory talent: Many of the games still sat on store shel- ner) became familiar to gamers and "Anybody coulda made that basebal l ves. Returns started rolling back in to were associated with quality products . game, but I was the one who said we the publishers. Several companies wen t Many of those same designers continue oughta do it." under rapidly: Games by Apollo, Fox as leaders of our industry today . Videogames, U .S. Games and others. The second era, which ran from 1981 - From 1978-82 most of the notoriety 82, centered on the conversion of the Further, once they were bankrupt, they outside the computer game world wen t latest coin-op hits to the hom e could no longer take returns from the to the cartridge games . Yet, today's in- machines . The speed of developmen t stores. Retailers cut their losses by cut- dustry is directly based on the structure now became absolutely critical, so a ting their prices and the $4 .95 specials that was evolving in the disk-base d game would be ready for the home we still see today appeared in a world at the same time, the world which while it was still hot in the arcades . marketplace where normal prices had Computer Gaming World chose to averaged $35. Surviving publishers with cover when it first appeared in 1981 . The most visible symptom of that rus h large inventories started selling bette was the VCS version of r Pac Man, a games at bargain prices to cut their los- The small publishers succeeded wher e cartridge awaited with such passion and ses. The $35 carts looked overpriced b Atari, Mattel and Coleco had failed, and rushed to market so hurriedly that ove y r comparison, and even the best games ' a key element in that success was, and 1,000,000 copies were sold in the first sales slowed to a crawl as the $5 spe- is, their view of "Computer Game Desig- few months of its life . Unfortunately, the cials swallowed all remaining demand. ners" as special individuals with uniqu e game was released before its time and More bankruptcies followed, and Atari , talents who are worthy of all our featured ghosts and a Pac Man that flick- Mattel and Coleco disbanded their game respect . I can think of no more ap- ered irritatingly and game play tha t design staffs. propriate conclusion to reach in an ar- didn't feel balanced. The game's sales ticle to honor the fiftieth issue of Com- ground to a halt as its bad reputation The first Cartridge Wars were over. puter Gaming World.

Circle Reader Service #48 ,