Romero, John. Masters among us. 6 October 2010

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Romero, Masters among us, 6 October 2010

Contents 1 Nasir Gebelli 2 Bill Budge 3 Mark Turmell 4 Larry Miller 5 James Nitchaelo 6 Bill Williams 7 Gunpei Yokoi 8 Gary Gygax, Dave Arneson 9 Sid Sackson 10 Dan Bunten 11 "Genre-fication" 12 APIs 13 Sid Meier 14 Noah Falstein 15 Don Daglow 16 Bob Bates 17 Robert, Norman Sirotek 18 Romero Archives

Nasir Gebelli

Sirius software

• Gorgon
• Space eggs
• Phantoms five
• Defender port
• 9 games in one year
• Model for id

Early home computer programmer

• Apple II
• Using mini assembler
  • No source for 13 yrs
  • No existing documentation
  • Only "master disks"

Platform affected his designs

• Short dev cycle, small games
• Arcade style
• Wrote FFI, Secret of Mana, at Square in Japan

Bill Budge

"First rock star", 1982

• In an EA ad, "we see farther"
• Raster blaster
• Pinball construction set
• Emphasis on graphics
  • 3-d
  • Physics sim

Still in the industry

• Was working at sony
• Now working at google

Mark Turmell

Started on Apple II in 1981

• Fast Eddie, Sirius
• Later: NBA Jam, Wrestlemania

Referring exising games

• Modifying, changing familiar concept
• Playfulness

Larry Miller

Also worked at Sirius

• Epoch, Minotaur, Hadron, Spider Fighter

Another strange process

• Dictating code to a secretary
• Pioneer in fast 3D graphics

Where are they now?

• http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/95821-looking-for-larry-miller/
• http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ja&u=http://www4.airnet.ne.jp/mor/olion/history.html&ei=zSGtTOOUF4KosQOz7KXBDA&sa=X&oi=translate&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CCIQ7gEwAw&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dsirius%2B%2522larry%2Bmiller%2522%2Bepoch%26num%3D10%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26hs%3D3yf%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26prmd%3Divo

James Nitchaelo

• Bug Attack, Cavalier Computer
• Simultaneous music, sound, graphics

Bill Williams

Broderbund Software

• Alleycats, first mini games

Gunpei Yokoi

Influence on Shiguro Miyamoto

• Created d-pad
• Gaming watch, game boy
• Talking about the "feel" of the game
• Hoped everyone could play games

Gary Gygax, Dave Arneson

Dungeons & Dragons

• Missing archives from wargames to Chainmail to D&D?

Sid Sackson

Boardgame designer

• Acquire
• Family didn't know what to do with his stuff so they auctioned it off
• Including prototypes of unfinished games
• Museum of play in rochester has been collecting some of the materials

Dan Bunten

Wanted to make multiplayer games

• Speakeasy Software
• Wheeler Dealers
• Game came on a cassette with adapter for 4 paddles
• Shipping custom controllers

"Genre-fication"

Contrasting today's genre constraints to 70s arcade culture

Thinking about FPS origins: wolf3d, doom, clones, quake

• Modding
• Releasing software on BBSes

Quake as turning point

• End of semi-3d / modem
• Start of full-3d / internet
• Enabled modding with QuakeC

Genres becoming fixed

• FPS, RTS, __ Tycoon, etc.
• Not entirely different from Farmville, FB games

For people who want to "live off of games"

• Constraints by publishers, distributors

APIs

Enabling + constraining

New graphics primitives?

• Ecstatica
  • http://www.oldgames.sk/en/game/ecstatica/
  • ellipsoid
• voxels
• Twinsen's

Sid Meier

• Creates "black box" of logic
• Rest of team accesses via API

Noah Falstein

• Cinestar
• Used to work at Milton Bradley

Don Daglow

• Started on Intellivision
• Was teaching k12

Bob Bates

• Infocom
• Legend entertainment
  • Unreal 2, Shinara

Robert, Norman Sirotek

• Started Sir Tech
• Wizardry
• Jagged Alliance

Romero Archives

• IGDA foundation, non profit
• http://twitter.com/romeroarchives
• http://planetromero.com/romeroarchives/wordpress/