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Warren Robinett's book about making ADVENTURE


Flojomojo

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I'm not sure why his teaser chapter has to be 100% liberal progressive political rhetoric... In a book targeted at aging hobbyists who love classic video games? Is the concept of appropriateness of venue foreign to him or does he realize that he just alienated 50% of his potential audience? I suppose that for people with his worldview, politics "trumps" everything else in importance (including profits) and it's pre-eminence in his everyday life precludes him from being civil to anybody with a differing viewpoint. Nice guy, and very open-minded. Count me out on the book release.

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Yeah...I count a number of the old Bay area pioneers as friends and acquaintances, and it's no surprise that they tend toward the liberal. No big deal...I don't base friendships on political inclinations and we have bonded over common interests.

 

While I'm interested in Warren's experience and insight from his early work, I have no interest in a manifesto.

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You didn't know that everybody who buys a book ostensibly about a nearly 40-year old video game is actually interested in reading a diatribe/screed about contemporary political controversies? I thought that we engage in hobbies to escape from that kind of junk, not immerse ourselves in it further. But what do you expect, politics is almost like a religion for these types, and they don't have an off switch for proselytizing.

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I like how talking about the severity and need to push politicians to address carbon pollution and mitigate the damage from climate change is apparently a "liberal progressive" issue. Like, he's right, y'all; the tech industry has not helped the discourse around this issue and many others. I imagine for someone who has worked in tech since the 70s it is incredibly frustrating.

 

I'm glad he's using his platform to talk about something clearly very important to him.

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I like how talking about the severity and need to push politicians to address carbon pollution and mitigate the damage from climate change is apparently a "liberal progressive" issue. Like, he's right, y'all; the tech industry has not helped the discourse around this issue and many others. I imagine for someone who has worked in tech since the 70s it is incredibly frustrating.

 

I'm glad he's using his platform to talk about something clearly very important to him.

I don't think anyone is arguing about politics, I think they are just upset that the book seemed off topic

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You're right, it is his platform, and he's free to utilize it for whatever he wants.

 

But when it prefaces a book trading on vintage gaming, it turns me off as much as a bunch of MAGA Trumpisms. I'm sure many won't take issue with it, but I'll continue to keep my politics and my hobbies far, far apart.

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First of all, let's please not get into any political discussions here. Any such posts will be immediately deleted.

I don't think anyone is arguing about politics, I think they are just upset that the book seemed off topic.

Yes. If someone who is interested in the history of video games picks up a book about how Adventure was developed, it should be possible for them to read it and learn about how Adventure was developed, without also being preached to about other issues—especially the kinds of issues that everybody else is probably already preaching at them about all day every day ad nauseum.

 

The argument can be made that "it's his platform and he can do with it what he wants," and that may be true as far as it goes. That doesn't change the fact that it's a totally disrespectful way to treat the people in your audience. I would say the same about certain teachers I've had, who took time away from the subject at hand to make big statements about their pet causes during class. Being a "captive audience" for these diatribes was always an unpleasant experience, which is just one of the reasons I would never do this in my own classrooms.

 

I don't know if that is what Robinett is doing in his book—for some reason I can't open the site from work—but if he is, I think he's making a mistake and that he needs to change it. I'd love to read his reflections on Adventure, but I'd like to see the other stuff moved to a more appropriate venue.

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I love the whole dichotomy of the:

 

"I don't want to hear about this person's non-gaming opinions, just dance for me, gaming writer puppet." reactions in this thread, from people who have posts all over the other sub forums here, casually sharing their own pointed views.

 

I think his story is interesting, and on point.

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Looking again, I think the political crap is just a blog post. I don't think that's in the book.

He says it's from the final chapter.

 

Now that I've seen it, I still think the political commentary is too much. He starts by making a broader statement about Silicon Valley, how it has changed from its glory years, and whether it is still beneficial to society or not. That's an important topic; I'd certainly love to see more skepticism toward today's Silicon Valley luminaries and their brand of technocratic utopianism. But he goes off the rails after that; in my opinion, the rest of the chapter seems oddly out of place and gets way too hot, way too fast.

 

He clearly means well, but I think he could have made his point without transitioning so abruptly and so pointedly into such highly topical issues. If I were reading the book, I would skip right over that material—which is a pity, because I think there are important topics there. This particular book just isn't the place for them.

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Hi, a local SJW here. I must say my reaction upon seeing this page was "wait, what?" - despite the fact that I actually agree in general with most of the sentiments and some of the solutions included in the, ahem, "manifesto" (it's all a bit rambling, disjointed and hippy-dippy too, unfortunately)

 

Problem is, it's just completely misplaced in the context of promoting a book entitled Making The Dragon: How I Built the First Action Adventure Game, Planted the First Easter Egg, and Helped Launch the Video-Game Revolution (contender for the most overwrought and conceited title of the year btw).

 

If the author really feels so strongly about promoting this message then I guess it'd be okay (-ish, since its connection to the Adventure itself is IMO a bit of a stretch anyway) to include below something more related to the meat n' bones of the story itself - say, a first chapter? Otherwise it's a bit dishonest bait 'n switch tactic and gives ammo to those who like to use the SJW-tag to shout down and obfuscate the manifesto's ideas and those promoting them.

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Someone should tell Warren Robinett that his easter egg in Adventure was not the first easter egg ever. Other people had the same idea before and apparently the first easter egg was in the Channel F Demo Cart (1977) or if you only count games the first one was in Video Whizzball (1978) for the Channel F.

 

See this thread for more info:

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/59087-the-very-first-easter-egg-was-not-adventure/

 

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What started out as a lament to the "idealism" at the beginnings of Silicon Valley being replaced by an all-encompassing predatory capitalism... sort of went off the rails pretty quick.

 

Agreed, it was almost like a bait-and-switch to rope the reader in. It seemed at first glance that he was espousing libertarian sentiments about privacy issues and the like which honestly I think that both conservatives and liberals could get behind, and then once you were hooked on his line and drawn in, he proceeded to clobber you mercilessly with his environmentalist "manifesto" as others have put it. I don't even think it was the content of his argument that was so off-putting (although like anyone who is attempting to persuade, he padded it with only favorable data), it was the condescending tone with which he delivered it, as if anyone who holds different views than his is automatically an intellectual dullard (or even worse, some kind of evil menace). The great thing about America is the ability to hold opposing views and be able to express them freely in a (relatively) fair system where what the majority decides is best usually wins out in the end. I think that sometimes we take it for granted that it is not like that in most places in the world.

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Agreed, it was almost like a bait-and-switch to rope the reader in. It seemed at first glance that he was espousing libertarian sentiments about privacy issues and the like which honestly I think that both conservatives and liberals could get behind, and then once you were hooked on his line and drawn in, he proceeded to clobber you mercilessly with his environmentalist "manifesto" as others have put it. I don't even think it was the content of his argument that was so off-putting (although like anyone who is attempting to persuade, he padded it with only favorable data), it was the condescending tone with which he delivered it, as if anyone who holds different views than his is automatically an intellectual dullard (or even worse, some kind of evil menace). The great thing about America is the ability to hold opposing views and be able to express them freely in a (relatively) fair system where what the majority decides is best usually wins out in the end. I think that sometimes we take it for granted that it is not like that in most places in the world.

 

It definitely felt like I was reading someone's primal scream. In this day & age of blogs, kickstarters, gofundmes, etc. it seems book editors have become extinct.

 

Speaking of bait & switch, at the risk of sounding like a certain sketch from Monty Python's Holy Grail...

 

The economic system of the modern world is all about constant growth and resource consumption.

 

Despite signs of this being unsustainable, those operating the system would like it to continue....

 

Fortunately, a vast majority of the world's population is trained to feel guilty about something on cue.

 

Therefore we will make *you* feel guilty about it... system mismanagement is renamed "global warming" then "climate change"...

 

And the flaws inherent in the system continue unabated.

Edited by firebottle
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That was as horribly unbalanced as any of the current media he rants against. I agree with him on several issues, but I think his thoughts on programming Adventure, would be a hundred times more interesting than an old biased guys take on politics. Send in the ducks.

Indeed. If I want to read about politics, I'll just... gouge my eyes out first.

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