Dotting the i's - a thanks tribute to Dave Rolfe ( he's not dead! )

[fabulous_Muller]

Last month I was searching about the all mighty 16 positions capability of the intellivision disc controller when I found an interesting post where Stargunner did an interesting quote : "The exec is a one man show. Dave Rolfe wrote exec and baseball at the same time" Oh my god I just found a way to materialize a recent dream : Read one book about Intellivision published by Platform studies series from MIT press. And I tell you why it's so important to have this book and how Dave could help. I was aware about this series due to the excellent book Race the beam : The Atari computer System by Nick Montfort and Ian Bogost. I have already mentioned that before. I also mentioned that intellivision is quoted only 3 times in this book , one where all the VCS rivals are cited in one line and other two where VCS is praised to have a superior color palette against the humble 16 color palette from Intellivision.Yes , VCS produces a beautiful Sunset background image but they forget to mention that you have to imagine that a square block is a human being ( that's another history..), anyway I wrote a letter to Mr. Robison asking him to help, because I was very concerned about a book teaching MIT and Georgia tech students how good the VCS was, even when compared to so called superior systems. I wrote professor Bogost an email and he promptly said that would be very happy to have a book about intellivision but he didn't know the system so well to wrote a book about it. But, if I knew this person they could try to have a partnership to write the book. Well finally I got the right person to that : Dave Rolfe.

Stargunner post let me smell a rat and I went deeper and found that he was pretty right. And more , if somebody can be name father of the intellivision this man is Dave ! I always knew Dave for have writing baseball and beamrider (which I love) but man , the guy is a beast. I listening to his interview in Intellivisionaries podcast (ep.7) and there is nothing else to say : trust the man ! Curiously , Dave is always cited as one of the intellivision programmers and so but he didn't deserve to be one prog he is "THE programmer" . He wrote all the exec, he taught the others, the first programmers, how to use it and he still remembers everything quite well. I don't know what secrets he may have to hold or not due to legal and everything but , correct me if I failed, I never saw a detailed guide about how the exec works and so on ,written by Dave. What are the matter with this folks ? I know that Dave it's some kind of modest guy , because come on , I have seen people that didn't make that much and appears to have discovered "the perpetual motion machine" , but if you go to Dave site , it seems that " yes, I made something good at the past but you know, I was there and was hired to do so, etc.." and come on , the guy started all. Pls folks I think Dave deserves a proper recognition for his work from the game community and I haven't see this yet. Keith Robison seems to get more credit that anyone else when talking about intellivision and I don't have any doubt that he was and is an important person to the community but I think Dave deserves a little bit more for his ahead of time work at the exec. Well done Mr. Rolfe , congratulations ! You deserve to be at the World Video Game hall of fame and I'll vote on the exec for next year. It's a masterpiece !.

 

Thanks...

 

 

[freewheel]

I think Dave deserves a proper recognition for his work from the game community and I haven't see this yet. Keith Robison seems to get more credit that anyone else when talking about intellivision and I don't have any doubt that he was and is an important person to the community but I think Dave deserves a little bit more for his ahead of time work at the exec.

 

It's Steve Jobs vs Steve Wozniak all over again.

 

And I don't mean that in a negative way as some do. Jobs was just as important as Woz. Keith's efforts to keep the system alive and fresh in the public's mind is very important. But yeah, the original engineers do tend to fade into the background.

[mr_me]

I remember from a podcast interview, Dave Rolfe saying things like: he'd be happy if just one person used and benefited from his work; wanting just enough credit and recognition to keep gainful employment; and the benefits of anonymity. He sounds like an interesting guy, I wouldn't mind hearing more from him.

[+DZ-Jay]

Last month I was searching about the all mighty 16 positions capability of the intellivision disc controller when I found an interesting post where Stargunner did an interesting quote : "The exec is a one man show. Dave Rolfe wrote exec and baseball at the same time" Oh my god I just found a way to materialize a recent dream : Read one book about Intellivision published by Platform studies series from MIT press. And I tell you why it's so important to have this book and how Dave could help. I was aware about this series due to the excellent book Race the beam : The Atari computer System by Nick Montfort and Ian Bogost. I have already mentioned that before. I also mentioned that intellivision is quoted only 3 times in this book , one where all the VCS rivals are cited in one line and other two where VCS is praised to have a superior color palette against the humble 16 color palette from Intellivision.Yes , VCS produces a beautiful Sunset background image but they forget to mention that you have to imagine that a square block is a human being ( that's another history..), anyway I wrote a letter to Mr. Robison asking him to help, because I was very concerned about a book teaching MIT and Georgia tech students how good the VCS was, even when compared to so called superior systems. I wrote professor Bogost an email and he promptly said that would be very happy to have a book about intellivision but he didn't know the system so well to wrote a book about it. But, if I knew this person they could try to have a partnership to write the book. Well finally I got the right person to that : Dave Rolfe.

Stargunner post let me smell a rat and I went deeper and found that he was pretty right. And more , if somebody can be name father of the intellivision this man is Dave ! I always knew Dave for have writing baseball and beamrider (which I love) but man , the guy is a beast. I listening to his interview in Intellivisionaries podcast (ep.7) and there is nothing else to say : trust the man ! Curiously , Dave is always cited as one of the intellivision programmers and so but he didn't deserve to be one prog he is "THE programmer" . He wrote all the exec, he taught the others, the first programmers, how to use it and he still remembers everything quite well. I don't know what secrets he may have to hold or not due to legal and everything but , correct me if I failed, I never saw a detailed guide about how the exec works and so on ,written by Dave. What are the matter with this folks ? I know that Dave it's some kind of modest guy , because come on , I have seen people that didn't make that much and appears to have discovered "the perpetual motion machine" , but if you go to Dave site , it seems that " yes, I made something good at the past but you know, I was there and was hired to do so, etc.." and come on , the guy started all. Pls folks I think Dave deserves a proper recognition for his work from the game community and I haven't see this yet. Keith Robison seems to get more credit that anyone else when talking about intellivision and I don't have any doubt that he was and is an important person to the community but I think Dave deserves a little bit more for his ahead of time work at the exec. Well done Mr. Rolfe , congratulations ! You deserve to be at the World Video Game hall of fame and I'll vote on the exec for next year. It's a masterpiece !.

 

Thanks...

 

 

 

There is no single "Father of the Intellivision." In fact, you would have to cram in that title hardware component designers like David Chandler, tool makers and programmers like Tom Loughry (who also was a significant contributor to many games himself), graphics artists, sound effects engineers, music programmers, etc., etc., etc.

 

I also remember from one of the interviews that Dave Warhol essentially wrote his own version of the EXEC, assembler, and linker when INTV Corp. took over the torch.

 

You could argue that without any single one of them the project would have continued and become as successful is it was, but you cannot deny that the synergy of all their contributions combined helped shape the Intellivision into what we remember it today.

 

I admire all of them, and would bestow the credit among them equally.

 

-dZ.

[intvnut]

David Rolfe and I have crossed paths a few times. He's a very intelligent guy, a little quirky, and fairly private. I'm glad to have met him.

[+nurmix]

There's no denying Dave Rolfe played a key role in the development (and success) of the Intellivision. I don't think anyone would question that.

 

I've interviewed him twice on the podcast; episode 7 (Baseballs) and episode 13 (Poker & Blackjack). Even so, I could probably interview him another 10 times and still be interested in what he has to say.

 

He also developed a couple early arcade games; Star Fire and Fire One. Both are worth checking out - either via MAME or just a YouTube video.

 

And of course, there's Beamrider for the Intellivision, and Steamroller for the Colecovision.

 

I intend to have him on the show again. He's always been very generous and accommodating when asked.

[fabulous_Muller]

 

There is no single "Father of the Intellivision." In fact, you would have to cram in that title hardware component designers like David Chandler, tool makers and programmers like Tom Loughry (who also was a significant contributor to many games himself), graphics artists, sound effects engineers, music programmers, etc., etc., etc.

 

I also remember from one of the interviews that Dave Warhol essentially wrote his own version of the EXEC, assembler, and linker when INTV Corp. took over the torch.

 

You could argue that without any single one of them the project would have continued and become as successful is it was, but you cannot deny that the synergy of all their contributions combined helped shape the Intellivision into what we remember it today.

 

I admire all of them, and would bestow the credit among them equally.

 

-dZ.

Dz , I didn't mean to diminish anyone but the other systems we had very clear who did what and who started it all and talking about intellivision this is always something kind "obscure". I don't know who thought about have the exec , probably it was Dave's idea, but it was and still is a very cleaver solution. And if the other Dave (warhol) wrote his own version , he is also a very intelligent guy but the exec was already there you know. kind like Freedos or one modified version of a PC-at bios that I did somewhere, works made after are also good, help a lot, but we have at least something to look at as a reference. When starting it all, it's always more complicated. Obviously that if we gonna look at the success of a project there are many people involved, but when talking about hardware and software there are some specific people that are necessary to have a project and it was more in this sense that I raised the question about Dave. To me is very clear that he is one the respobsibles to the existance of the system as it was. Anyway good questions to raise to Dave in a near future.

[fabulous_Muller]

There's no denying Dave Rolfe played a key role in the development (and success) of the Intellivision. I don't think anyone would question that.

 

I've interviewed him twice on the podcast; episode 7 (Baseballs) and episode 13 (Poker & Blackjack). Even so, I could probably interview him another 10 times and still be interested in what he has to say.

 

He also developed a couple early arcade games; Star Fire and Fire One. Both are worth checking out - either via MAME or just a YouTube video.

 

And of course, there's Beamrider for the Intellivision, and Steamroller for the Colecovision.

 

I intend to have him on the show again. He's always been very generous and accommodating when asked.

Very good , probably you could have a sole program , there is so much that he can tell us about the exec and if he going to talk about beamrider and steamrider, things go far. Maybe you could do a hangout , it would be more light than a 3 or 4 hours of phone talking.

cheers...

[mr_me]

There's no denying Dave Rolfe played a key role in the development (and success) of the Intellivision. I don't think anyone would question that.

 

I've interviewed him twice on the podcast; episode 7 (Baseballs) and episode 13 (Poker & Blackjack). Even so, I could probably interview him another 10 times and still be interested in what he has to say.

 

He also developed a couple early arcade games; Star Fire and Fire One. Both are worth checking out - either via MAME or just a YouTube video.

 

And of course, there's Beamrider for the Intellivision, and Steamroller for the Colecovision.

 

I intend to have him on the show again. He's always been very generous and accommodating when asked.

 

Ask Dave if he knows anything about the Auto Racing running change, why was there a hidden steering option in the original release, who was involved with these changes?

[+nurmix]

 

Ask Dave if he knows anything about the Auto Racing running change, why was there a hidden steering option in the original release, who was involved with these changes?

I'm trying to go to the source for that question - programmer Larry Zwick. But I haven't been able to locate him yet, and Keith isn't in contact with him either.

 

And speaking of Keith... I asked him about the Auto Racing versions yesterday. He didn't know anything about the new finds in the source code. I doubt Dave Rolfe would know either, but I can certainly ask him.

Edited October 4, 2015 by nurmix

[mr_me]

I'm trying to go to the source for that question - programmer Larry Zwick. But I haven't been able to locate him yet, and Keith isn't in contact with him either.

 

And speaking of Keith... I asked him about the Auto Racing versions yesterday. He didn't know anything about the new finds in the source code. I doubt Dave Rolfe would know either, but I can certainly ask him.

 

Unfortunately, Larry Zwick had passed away. Keith started at Mattel in 1981 and Auto Racing would have been programmed in 1979 maybe 1978.

 

edit:

I think Tom Loughry may have started at APh around 1980. He was known for helping out or finishing other people's projects and was likely around for the Auto Racing running change.

Edited October 4, 2015 by mr_me

[+nurmix]

 

Unfortunately, Larry Zwick had passed away. Keith started at Mattel in 1981 and Auto Racing would have been programmed in 1979 maybe 1978.

 

edit:

I think Tom Loughry may have started at APh around 1980. He was known for helping out or finishing other people's projects and was likely around for the Auto Racing running change.

I didn't know that about Larry Zwick. That's too bad.

 

I can ask Tom and Dave and see if they have any recollections of Auto Racing.