After the 1982 "Crash" Where Did the "Talent" Go?

[wiseguyusa]

Before the infamous "crash" of 1982, there were dozens (if not hundreds) of labels making titles for the 2600.

 

Not that all of them were national treasures, but programming a 2600 game in 1982 was a fairly specialized skillset.

That said, most serious programmers that I have known could fairly easily adapt to new protocols and programming languages, so I do not offend any sensitive codewriters as I have inadvertently in the past, let me state: I have no doubt that they were able to find new employment, but given the condition of the console market, I am guessing it wasn't writing video games for home consoles.

 

So where did the famous and not so famous game programmers go to put food on their families after the console crash of 1982?

[accousticguitar]

I think the general consensus at that time was that video game consoles were dead and that computers were the wave of the future. My guess is a lot of them started programming video games and software for one of the many computers that were available at the time.

[wiseguyusa]

Hahah did you see my other thread? in 8bits?

[+KaeruYojimbo]

Howard Scott Warshaw became a psychiatrist, but a most of the big names stayed in programming in one way or another. David Crane did A Boy and His Blob for the NES among other games and still does some programming but now mainly makes his living as an expert witness in video game related lawsuits. Bob Polaro is making Android games. Those are the ones I know right off hand. A lot of them go around and speak at classic gaming shows and talk about their careers both before and after Atari. Poke around YouTube a little and you can find a lot of them. The Portland Retro Gaming Expo has links to videos of the panels from last year on their front page (www.retrogamingexpo.com).

[BydoEmpire]

Many went on to do computer games. Being able to write good, tight 6502 assembler was a very portable skill as the computer game market bloomed.

[DanOliver]

My track was:

Games By Apollo -Space Cavern

Left to start Venturevision - Rescue Terra I, Inner Space

When the crash happened I went to CA to interview at various game companies, almost all Apple II, and sold Inner Space to Imagic who sold it as Laser Gates.

Got hired at Atari and got to work on the 800 and did Final Legacy. Did a Mindlink game Telepathy.

The Tramiels bought Atari Corp and we started on the ST. I worked with Digital Research to do some BS, horrible glue code between CPM (I think) while DR worked on a new OS in secret. But we also had Lisa development systems, my first bitmap machine and I started writing writing a UI type system just because I liked to. Wrote ST Writer.

We didn't have much to do so I started writing a Mac rip off for the ST just to show the ST could do way better than GEM.

Was in Jim Eisenstein, Matt Householder, David Staugas and Jerome Domurat who'd gotten a call from someone at Apple (Eagle Burns I think) looking for someone to do a UI.

Got hired to work at Apple on the IIGS and did the Finder, UI toolbox. Did some work on Desert Falcon for Atari.

Move to the Mac group but didn't really have anything to do.

Left Apple to work at lots of different startups.

I've always written code, lots of different apps. Went back to games at Digital Pictures and ported Night Trap and did What's My Story.

 

To me programming is programming but I do like to be moving pixels, being as close to users as possible.. Languages don't really matter, they're mostly all the same. Smalltalk was pretty strange. Games are cool that when they're done they're done. Other apps have new versions so you keep working on basically the same code. On the next game you really want to start all over using the next great scheme which is freeing.

 

Most of the programmers I knew kind o took the path from games into computers. A few bounced back and forth. A few got out of programming. Most game programmers love programming so stayed with in. We always look for the next cool machine or project to work on. I was pretty lucky to have started at the cross road of games and home computers.

Edited April 18, 2016 by DanOliver

[The Eyeball Mural]

According to Warren Robinett's website, the creator of Adventure for the Atari 2600 has spent the last decade-and-a-half largely working on memristor-based logic circuits and other technologies at HP Labs.

 

Carla Meninsky, who programmed Dodge 'Em and Warlords, is now an intellectual property lawyer. See this forum link for more: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/190172-carla-meninsky-the-lost-interview/

 

David Crane, of Pitfall! fame, has stayed in the industry as a video game creator and programmer.

 

As noted above, Howard Scott Warshaw (Yar's Revenge, Raiders of the Lost Ark) is now a psychotherapist.

 

Tom Loughry (AD&D: Treasure of Tarmin for Intellivision) stayed in the industry, as a developer for EA until he developed a disabling repetitive-use injury that made keyboard work for him a thing of the past.

 

Eugene Jarvis (Defender and Robotron: 2084 coin-ops) owns a wine company and is a video game development studio head as well as Game Designer in Residence at DePaul University, according to the Wikipedia entry about him.

 

Carol Shaw (3D Tic-Tac-Toe and River Raid) retired early thanks to her success with River Raid and Activision's more generous and sympathetic compensation of its talent, according to Wikipedia.

 

Dan Oliver has kindly related his tale above.

 

 

A little searching on the AtariAge forums and on Google will lead to many interviews, articles and wiki pages that will offer further insight. Stories about folks like Jeff Minter (Gridrunner), Bill Hogue (Miner 2049er), Doug Smith (Lode Runner) and others make for very interesting reading.