The Under-Appreciated History of Videogames

Saturday, February 23rd, 2008 | Editorial

The problem with history is we are constantly living it. In order to prevent a travelogue of history from taking as long to read as it did to live the first time people and situations have to necessarily be excluded. But some of those exclusions I cite as my inspiration. Many of my inspirations didn’t make as big an impact in history as others, but they made a change in at least one person’s life.

Warren Robinett is often credited in video game annals as the first person to put an Easter egg in a video game. And while it is true that he snuck his name into a hidden room of the 1978 game Adventure for the Atari 2600, what often isn’t mentioned is that he then went on to form The Learning Company in 1978. Here the engine he used for Adventure would be applied to a series of educational games; Rocky’s Boots, Robot Odyssey and Gertrude’s Secrets. Rocky’s Boots and Robot Odyssey, despite being targeted towards a younger audience, almost required a master’s degree in engineering. However they were the very definition of open ended in their play. In middle school I played these games on the (then) state of the art Apple][e lab there and was impressed by them, even tho I could never get past the second level of Robot Odyssey until a recently discovered remake of the game and gratuitous tips from online websites.

David H Ahl’s is a military officer, a video game hobbyist, and author who from 1974 to 1985 published and edited the magazine Creative Computing. In that publication any aspect of the computers of the day were fair game; reviews of video games, hardware upgrading and modding, as well as AI theory. The discussions and articles in Creative Computing about topics that are now largely academic were at the time the cutting edge in computer science. Also featured in Creative Computing were BASIC code that if typed in by the reader would play games. These programs were eventually compiled into books. It was these type-in programs that inspired many young would be programmers to their future careers or hobbies.

Doug Smith’s homely nomenclature may not be widely recognized, but it’s likely you know his work. Doug Smith wrote Lode Runner in 1983. Doug Smith was working in a computer lab and made Lode Runner while he worked there. Lode Runner was very successful, in no small part due to the decision to include with the game the level designer used to make the game. For many the point of the game ceased to be beating the game and became the level creation. The user generated content base became so extensive that a sequel was release entirely of user generated levels.

Paul Riech III is hardly mentioned at all in chronicles of video games, but it is he who designed the incomparable Archon: Dark and Light. The concept of Archon is the realization of a board game as can only be played on a computer. Like chess you have a board and pieces that vie for position and control Unlike chess you do not simply capture pieces by moving in on their space but must combat you opponents for possession of squares. The synthesis of strategy and action game play developed in Archon would further mature in sequels but would not fully ripen until he joined with Fred Ford and together they added a bit of Space Wars type game play. What was created was Archon in space or Star Control. Fred Ford and Paul Reich III then took the Space Wars aspect of the game, added an exportable map and inspired storyline and created what many people herald as the greatest game of all time; Star Control 2. Since that time they have continued to support themselves making computer games, forming their own company which was later acquired by Activision.

These underdogs of video game history, while not as notable as the Nolen Bushnells or John Romeros in the Video Game world are never the less an important part in the development of many’s individual video game histories.