article on programmers Russ Lieblich and Peter Kaminski

[mr_me]

This article is in German so feel free to post an English translation. It's about the Commodore 64 game Master of the Lamps by Activision (aka "League of Light" for Intellivision, Intellivision Rocks CD, 2001). Prior to Activision, Russ Lieblich worked at Mattel and Peter Kanminski at APh. It's from the magazine Happy Computer October 1985 issue. I found it here (http://www.classic-consoles-center.at/forum/intellivision/activision-for-intellivision). Some more information on the c64 game here (

http://c64-games.blogspot.ca/2009/11/master-of-lamps-manual.html?m=1).

[Intymike]

I think I posted it here a few years ago.

The article is about the C64 game Master Of The Lamps and that the original concept of the game was made on the Intellivision as League Of Light.

They mentioned the the prototype cart of the game is in a safe and we could buy it for $500,000. We all know that this and other prototype carts found their way 10 years later on a public dump.

 

The Master Of The Lamps intro filmed from my SX64.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rdc_8t8GiRw&t=1s

Edited May 8, 2017 by Intymike

[mr_me]

A prototype found its way legally on the Intellivision Rocks CD in 2001, fully licensed by Intellivision Productions from Activision. So they were selling a League of Light prototype for $500000 in 1985? I guess Activision gave it to them. I wonder if its the same version as the Rocks CD.

 

Edit:

FYI. Russ Lieblich did the music for SNAFU and probably others. Peter Kaminski is credited with unreleased Air Strike and maybe Adventures of Tron, part of Frog Bog, and River Raid.

Edited May 8, 2017 by mr_me

[Intymike]

A prototype found its way legally on the Intellivision Rocks CD in 2001, fully licensed by Intellivision Productions from Activision. So they were selling a League of Light prototype for $500000 in 1985? I guess Activision gave it to them. I wonder if its the same version as the Rocks CD.

 

 

 

They worked both at that time at Activision. So the safe were the prototype was, was off course one of Activision. If there was ever a safe and it was not just a joke.

I don't think that Keith had to pay $500k in 2001 for the Activision and Imagic ROMs.

[mr_me]

I'm sure they were joking. I bet at the time, in 1985, they would have thought an unreleased Intellivision prototype was worthless. I wonder if the INTV people contacted Activision about any unreleased games, they did get Pac-man and Dig-Dug from Atari.

Edited May 8, 2017 by mr_me

[mr_me]

Here is a straight google translate english translation of the article. It translates Intellivisions into telescopes but otherwise is perfectly understandable. (From "Happy Computer" October 1985)

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With the flying carpet on success
The latest Activision games, one of the most successful software companies in the world, are captivating with their thrilling music. Russel Lieblich and Peter Kaminski, the creators of "Master of the Lamps," told us how they came to their not-so-everyday job.

 

Music is trumps with Activision's new hits »Web Dimension« and »Master of the Lamps«. With "Web Dimension" one can even say that the music brings the tension into play. In ordinary action games you fight through to the bitter end to see all the pictures, but with this program the charm lies mainly in the fantastically programmed and arranged melodies. »Web Dimension« has been programmed by Russel Lieblich alone, »Master of the Lamps« was developed in collaboration with Peter Kaminski.

 

Russel Lieblich, grown up in New York City, comes from the music industry and plays piano and saxophone. He has his German-speaking name from Austrian ancestors. In Brooklyn he attended college, later studied music and physics at the University of California in San Diego. He completed his studies in music with the "Masters Degree". Russel spent the following years in Los Angeles, where he lived directly on the beach promenade of Venice-Beach. "I wrote music for various people, sat at the beach and surfed."

 

One day, there was a big music show in Los Angeles and Russel stood without a job. "I knew a guy who worked for Mattel as a programmer. One day, his synthesizer broke, and I repaired the device. "On this occasion, Russel learned that Mattel was looking for game programmers for the Intellivision telescope. At first he did not really know what to think of this idea: "Mattel, that was for me the inventor of the Barbie doll, but not more." But finally, he started in this company without any previous computer experience: "I was only the fifth employee in the Intellivision department and the first ever dedicated to sound programming. Later Intellivision had almost 200 employees. So I was one of the first. "

 

At Mattel, Russel learned a lot about the programming of computers. He worked on the sounder effects for Intellivision programs such as "Nightstalker" and "Astrosmash," but after half a year he announced: "I could not stand the boss."

 

In the autumn of 1982, Activision introduced programmers with Intellivision experience as they began to produce software for this system. Russel got a job there promptly. He initially stayed in Los Angeles and later moved to San Francisco, North Beach, where he still lives today. Russel would never go to the Silicon Valley: "Oh, my God, no, I could not survive there!"

 

Peter Kaminski comes from Reno, a Nevada parade. In 1978 he gathered in the Highschool first experiences in basic programming on an Apple II computer. After completing his school-leaving exam, he went to college but broke off a bit later. Originally, he had planned to work for a year, to make a trip to Europe with earned money, and finally go back to college.

 

In the year, he worked for a company that developed software for the Intellivision system on behalf of Mattel. When Peter decided to stay in the industry instead of going back to college, he came across the Activision people, like Russel before him, with their passion for Intellivision programmers. "Fortunately, I had some experience in machine language on the Intellivision, and some of my programs were already on the market." So he started as a programmer and worked on his first work, the Intellivision version of River-Raid.

 

Programmers may be interested in the fact that Intellivision owned the 1610 as a CPU, one of the first 16-bit processors. The software for this telescope was written on a special development system. A little later, the "great turn" came from the telescope to the home computer. Russel and Peter were increasingly concerned with programming the C 64.

 

In April 1984, Russel began the "Web dimension," while Peter set to "Master of the Lamps." Russell had already devised the basic concept for this game and realized it in an Intellivision version, which was never published: the original "Master of the Lamps" was for Intellivision. I still have the cartridge, for 500,000 dollars you can have it, "Russel jokes. Russel later made the music for "Master of the Lamps".

 

Meanwhile Russel and Peter are back in Activision's development center and are working on new games, but this time »solo«. Russel's new work, which will have even better music as a "Web dimension", will be released in early 1986.

 

In the Activision development center, accessible only to programmers, everyone has their own office; But there is also the "Central Lab", where people meet for an exchange of experience: "It really helps very much when all the programmers are together and everyone contributes their ideas to the work of the other." Peter is firmly convinced that in the future Will change some of the way things work: "There will be more teamwork in the future."

Edited May 10, 2017 by mr_me